Earth Day’s 31st Anniversary was last month. With some of the headlines we’ve read in The Herald with references aplenty to global warming, energy crises, infectious disease, population growth and famine – that Yogi Berra-ism, “It’s dj vu all over again”, seems to hold true.
Thirty one years after the first Earth Day, we are still grappling with the connections between people, resource use and human rights.
To be sure, we have made some positive changes in the last few decades, but with an additional 78 million more people to feed, clothe, house and educate each year, much more still needs to be done if we are to give our children a healthy planet.
Yet, the current administration seems to be living on another planet. A planet where global warming is a myth, and we don’t have to do anything about it. Where it’s OK to gag health professionals in the poorest countries from giving women complete reproductive health care counseling by cutting off much-needed family planning aid. Where endless growth and the consumption of forests, oil and open space doesn’t matter.
Here in Everett, on planet Earth, size does matter: The size of our families, the size of our classrooms, the size of our consumption, the size of our efforts to improve the quality of life for everyone around the planet. We need to rededicate ourselves, our communities and our country to making the planet safer, healthier and more livable for ourselves, our children and future generations.
Everett
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