Earth Day Musings Amid COVID Lockdown

“The Earth has music for those who listen,” said Shakespeare. These very words from our Bard of Avon resonated in my mind in the morning, as I sat thinking of this much-talked of and very important day to reflect on, in these trying times of corona, having been quarantined at home.

In the absence of the printed newspaper reaching home and not having heard from anyone on the otherwise busy social networking sites on this very important day (all attention being drawn by COVID-19) that celebrates its 50th anniversary today, I thought it would be prudent to speak about it, albeit remind the people.

Historically, the Earth Day has its genesis on Rachel Carson’s 1962 bestseller ‘Silent Spring’, which raised the spectre of the dangerous effects of pesticides on the American countryside. In 1969, US Senator Gaylord Nelson, who was inspired by and took advantage of the anti-Vietnam protests on the University campuses in the late 1960s, coalesced a like-minded and sizable number of students to draw their attention to the emanating spectre of environmental pollution.

Subsequently, he with the support of activists was able to bring-in a new forebearing concept and launched the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, wherein some 2,50,000 people flooded New York’s Fifth Avenue in celebration of making the world a Greener and Safer planet that needed the Care and Support of all its people. Since that day, we the people of the world, drawn from all the nations, have only looked forward to make the world a better place to live in, with the Earth Day celebrated every year on April 22.

The main aim of Earth Day is to raise awareness on the negative impact of our actions as mankind, and its impact on our environment and Earth as a whole. It is a day for political action and civic participation, across all societies, people and countries.

Every year’s Earth Day is celebrated with a theme. The theme for Earth Day 2020 is ‘Climate Action’,  wherein the enormous challenge, but also the vast opportunities, of action on climate change have distinguished the issue as the most pressing topic for the 50th anniversary.

That raises the question in my mind, as a Citizen of the World, as to what can I contribute to the broad cause, howsoever small it could be. Perhaps these five small but significant activities on Earth Day 2020 can go a long way in making the world a better place to live in:

1. Join a clean-up day, and work with grassroots organizations in India to organize the clean-up of green spaces, urban landscapes, and waterways.
2. Eat less meat, and reduce the greenhouse gases.
3. Take the pesticide pledge, not to use it and instead go green.
4. Plant a tree, and add to the green cover.
5. Support organizations that protect species and habitats.

Let us all come together today, especially when the world is ravaged by an invisible enemy called coronavirus, over which we are fighting to gain control on and we are in for a long haul; let us, at the least, pledge to protect what is within our control: the environment.

I started by quoting Shakespeare’s reference to music and erth; let me confess that as I write this, keeping corona at arm’s length, the background is filled with the refrains from Antonio Vivaldi’s Concerti Four Seasons consisting of spring, summer, autumn and winter; which is among the most popular pieces in the classical music repertoire. There could not be anything more wholesome to the discerning mind to end the 50th anniversary of the Earth Day with.

(The author is a retired naval aviator)