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Posts Tagged ‘Sierra Club’

Celebrate the 45th Earth Day on Saturday, April 25.

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The very first Earth Day was celebrated forty-five years ago in 1970. Since that time, our oceans, lands, and animal inhabitants have grown ever more damaged and fragile.

Joe and I recently watched the documentary Mission Blue which tells the story of Dr. Sylvia Earle, legendary oceanographer, marine biologist, environmentalist, and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, and her fight to save the ocean, which she calls the “blue heart of the planet.”

I can think of no better film than Mission Blue to download from Netflix to honor Earth Day.

In 1970 when Earth Day began, there was only one dead zone (a spot with no living beings due to low oxygen concentrations) in the oceans. Today, there are over 500 of these areas, brought about through pollution and the destructive habits of humans.

Instead of dead zones, Dr. Earle would like to create “Hope Spots” in the oceans. These “Hope Spots” would be marine protected areas free from commercial fishing and other human activities, allowing the wildlife and environment to recover. You can watch Dr. Earle’s TED talk on her wish to protect our ocean and create “Hope Spots” HERE.

Watch the trailer for Mission Blue HERE. You will be amazed by the tiny, energetic Dr. Sylvia Earle who is almost 80-years-old.

You can also find out about all the news concerning our oceans by following the Mission Blue Facebook site HERE and Dr. Sylvia Earle’s Facebook site HERE.

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Learn more about Earth Day and events you can participate in around Ohio by going HERE. Below are a few that are taking place in Columbus and surrounding counties.

The Ohio Chapter of the Sierra Club will be celebrating Earth Month. For information on all of their events in April, go HERE and HERE.

Green Columbus will celebrate their 9th Earth Day with Earth Week from April 18-25 and a celebration on Saturday, April 25 at Columbus Commons. Find out more about events and the celebration HERE and HERE.

For a list of volunteer activities in Columbus and central Ohio, go HERE.

Like Green Columbus on Facebook HERE.

Several of the area Metro Parks will also be honoring Earth Day with programs throughout the Central Ohio area. To find a program you would enjoy, go HERE.

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Celebrate Earth Day on Sunday, April 22.

Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names the streets after them.” Bill Vaughn, quoted in Jon Winokur, The Portable Curmudgeon, 1987

I had a professor in a geology class in college who said the very same thing, citing, as proof, housing developments named Maple Acres or Cherry Hill that lacked either of those types of trees.

We have similar areas in Plain City–Willow Creek (are there any willows there now?), Oak Ridge (off of Hickory Ridge–there may be a few oaks and hickories left), or even the old Fox Hollow trailer park on Jackson Street. Is that bit of land really a haven for foxes? I doubt it. Perhaps, at one time willows, oaks, and foxes did flourish in those areas, but progress has pushed them out. This Earth Day, we need to remind ourselves that without the trees and the animals, it will just be us, living in sterile environments of steel and glass, surrounded by miles and miles of asphalt–as Joni Mitchell lamented, “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.

The very first Earth Day was celebrated forty-two years ago in 1970. Since that time, our Earth has grown ever more damaged and fragile.

When I was little, one of my favorite pastimes was taking a walk, looking at the flowers and bugs and listening to the birds hailing each other above me. Everything was beautiful and exciting to me at that age. Even now, however, when I go out to fill the bird feeders on mornings awash in the pinks and silvers of daybreak, I am filled with awe and amazement at the beauty surrounding me in my own back yard. The maple tree feels like an old friend, sparrows and blue jays hanging from the branches. The pine trees form a living fence that smells delicious, the Christmasy scent intermixed with the moist fragrance of dew and grass. I cannot imagine these simple treasures disappearing.

We must protect our backyards, our villages, our countries, our Earth. We have never been so connected–the internet causing miles to disappear at the touch of a keyboard. We are all united in these connections. As Marshall McLuhan said in 1964, “There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew.”

Find out more about Earth Day and events you can participate in by going HERE. Below are a few that are taking place in Columbus and surrounding counties.

The Ohio Chapter of the Sierra Club will be celebrating Earth Day with an Earth Day River Clean Up at the Ohio State Wetlands Research Park on Saturday, April 21 from 10 am to noon. Volunteers will pick up trash and debris and plant native vegetation. Ohio State professor and wetland scientist, Dr. Bill Mitsch, will lead a bird tour at 9 am. For more information on this way to honor the Earth, go HERE.

Green Columbus will celebrate their 6th Earth Day at a Columbus citywide event on Saturday, April 21, as well. Find out more about the celebration HERE.

Several of the area Metro Parks will also be honoring Earth Day with programs throughout the Central Ohio area. To find a program you would enjoy, go HERE.