This year I made a point of not being caught by surprise!
Every year on World Earth Day I continue with my dailies – which I love, you see, I am lucky to have a quite unpredictable schedule which keeps every day seemingly unique. Despite this, some things remain consistent every day though, no matter where I find myself doing what.
We recycle everything, bio-waste, paper, plastic and glass. We use water sparingly and conserve energy as far as possible. We use re-usable cups, bottles and cutlery, try our best to avoid plastic and will start our own vegetable produce this year in our garden, feeding the soil with home-made compost, we have planted 8 trees in the last 2 years and even try using environmentally friendly toothbrushes (I do have some doubts regarding these though).
Apart from this, I still feel surprised when World Earth Day suddenly appears and I haven’t done anything to “save the planet”. Some sort of guilt? Pity perhaps? Or powerlessness?
My German neighbor arrived back from a business trip to America. Totally shocked by his experience he told me about the “convenient life” Americans generally live? He was telling me about the amount of waste, unessasary plastic and unwillingness of people to re-use simple things like coffee-cups. Now, whether he was exaggerating or whether this was his true observation – I found myself being reminded of the amount of waste, unessasary plastic, water pollution, animal cruelty and erosion to name but a few issues in my home country, South Africa, as well.
With the Ukranian war a mere 900km from our home in Germany, I wonder about what this war will eventually contribute to the “green-movement”? Will the EU finally make a stronger move towards re-newable energy sources? Will this atleast be the only silver lining in a time as cruel as this one? Almost like the break nature had when we were all locked away for merely two years dodging Covid19? Despite the amount of plastic masks, syringes and test devices which are, Heaven forbid, not floating somewhere in the ocean currently.
4 days until 22 April 2022…World Earth Day and this year, unlike the others, I’m not caught off guard – this year I simply don’t know where to start.
What will you do this year on 22 April? Will it be something you’ll be able to maintain? Perhaps something small and simple – so simple that your neighborhood could easily join – and your small, simple effort would, in time, become a major leap in the right direction.
Imagine that!
#kontrasculture 
3 responses to “World Earth Day 2022 – where to start?”
Where to start with World Earth Day 2022? A good place would be the mainstream-news-media CEOs and editors who remain unfazed by manmade global warming and its resultant extreme weather events. …
An editorial a local newspaper (The Surrey Now-Leader) printed was titled “Earth Day in need of a facelift”. It opined that “some people would argue that [the day of environmental action] … is an anachronism,” that it should instead be a day of recognizing what we’ve societally accomplished. “And while it [has] served us well, in 2017, do we really need Earth Day anymore?”
Varied lengths of the same editorial, unfortunately, was also run by some sister newspapers, all owned by the same news-media mogul who also happens to be an aspiring oil refiner.
Up until reading this, I had never heard anyone, let alone a mainstream news outlet, suggest we’re doing so well as to render Earth Day an unnecessary “anachronism”. Considering the sorry state of the planet’s natural environment, I still find it one of the most absurd and irresponsible acts of editorial journalism I’ve witnessed in my 3.5 decades of news consumption.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for your reply – information like this boils my nerves. I actually can’t believe the audacity of irresponsible journalism which quite frankly is aimed at especially the ones who believe “we’ll be fine”, “all is well”, “this is somebody else’s problem” and will in that sense reinforce a lifestyle of “convenience” rather than being aware of your direct impact on your own environment and your role in the bigger picture.
Love your suggestion!! – thank you – it might become my next challenge…gosh, even though a South African trying to motivate a bunch of Germans could potentially have a few of its own bumps along the way 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mainstream electronic and print news-media, especially Canada’s, must genuinely address/challenge this nation’s immense role in global warming caused by fossil fuel extraction and consumption.
Canadian media conglomerate Postmedia is on record allying itself with Canada’s fossil fuel industry, including the mass extraction and export of bitumen, the dirtiest and most polluting crude oil. [“Mair on Media’s ‘Unholiest of Alliances’ With Energy Industry”, Nov.14 2017, TheTyee.ca].
A few years ago, Postmedia had also acquired a lobbying firm with close ties to Alberta Premier Jason Kenney in order to participate in his government’s $30 million PR “war room” in promoting the industry’s interests. Furthermore, last May, Postmedia refused to run paid ads by Leadnow, a social and environmental justice organization, that exposed the Royal Bank of Canada as the largest financer of the nation’s fossil fuel extraction. … Really, should this be a partisan position for any news-media giant to take, especially considering fossil fuel’s immense role in man-caused climate change?!
As individual consumers, however, too many of us still recklessly behave as though throwing non-biodegradable garbage down a dark chute, or pollutants flushed down toilet/sink drainage pipes or emitted out of elevated exhaust pipes or spewed from sky-high jet engines and very tall smoke stacks — even the largest toxic-contaminant spills in rarely visited wilderness — can somehow be safely absorbed into the air, water, and land (i.e. out of sight, out of mind).
It’s like we’re inconsequentially dispensing of that waste into a black-hole singularity, in which it’s compressed into nothing. Indeed, I, myself, notice every time I discard of trash, I receive a reactive Spring-cleaning-like sense of disposal satisfaction. Hell, I even feel it, albeit far more innocently, when deleting and especially double-deleting email.
LikeLike