(Un)Earth Day

On the 53rd Anniversary of the Inaugural Earth Day: `When in Doubt, Do Something'

It’s Earth Day.

Does that make the rest of the year Un-Earth Day?

Fifty-three years after the first Earth Day, the United States is not exactly turning in a top-notch job of staving off the negative effects of melting down this third rock from the sun¹. For far too long, we’ve had far too many climate-change deniers, particularly among politicians and others in positions to influence policy.

Sure, an increasing number of folks are getting on board with the scientific consensus² that the planet is heating up too much – with far-reaching effects globally that are already showing up. But the sense that seems to prevail is that there’s little we can do to turn the tide, that we are nibbling on the edges with measures like shifting to electric vehicles or “reducing, re-using and recycling.”

I am no expert on all this, but I try to do my part. About two years ago, I upped my efforts by starting to compost. Hundreds of pounds of banana peels, eggshells and coffee grains later, I am able to declare (perhaps only half-jokingly): “If the world comes to an end, it won’t be my fault.”

Hokey as it sounds, we should treat every day like Earth Day. One simple step is to keep learning. The other day, I took a Climate Change quiz on the official Earth Day website. I correctly answered the first seven questions before whiffing on the final four…take it and see how you do.

When in Doubt…Do Something

Related thought: to drone out my meowing cat several mornings ago, I played ocean noises for a few hours. Now my Spotify DJ “X” – a cool-sounding AI dude who mispronounces Harry Chapin’s name as “Chap-inn” – thinks that I want to hear wave-crashing classics like “Rumbling Surf (Ocean)” and “Ocean Storm” and “Beach Calmness” in the middle of the day.

Which brings us full circle, sort of: Chapin (pronounced “chay-pin”), who died at 38 years of age in a 1981 car accident, was a major proponent of caring for others, from feeding the hungry to environmental stewardship. There is a documentary about his remarkable life, and its title bears repeating: When in Doubt, Do Something.

20,000 Days & (Of Course) Still Counting

There’s a day, it seems, for everything.

Earlier this week, according to National Day Calendar, was National Columnists’ Day (whoops—I guess I’m a few days late in mentioning that). Other noteworthy days from this week included National North Dakota Day and National Garlic Day.

How did those designations come to be? Why does North Dakota have a day? And garlic? What’s next – lint having its own day or, perhaps, just a few minutes to align with its scant size?

Although there is a rampant, almost satirical bent to many of these days, I’m not nearly as interested in designating days as numbering them³.

Earlier this week, I spent my 20,000^th day on Planet Earth. Anyone who has read my 2002 column about turning one billion seconds old a few years earlier would not be shocked to discover that I had Day 20K marked in my calendar.

An excerpt from that piece, published in The Christian Science Monitor and headlined “Numbers Figure Strongly in My Life”:

“One time, fairly early on in my SI For Kids stint, I hatched the brilliant idea of finding out which months are the most popular for birthdays among pro athletes. Not just an All-Star team, but every single player on the active roster of every team in the NFL, NBA, NHL, and Major League Baseball.

I know, I know. Who cares? Well, in that weak moment, I did.

So, after hours of poring over the rosters of 118 teams - totaling 3,929 players - I came to a startling realization: I was in way over my head. What did I do? I wish I could say I stood strong and told my editor that this was a crazy idea in the first place. I thought about doing that for maybe two seconds. Then I hollered to Bridgett, in my most needy voice: "Honey, can you help me?"

When we exchanged wedding vows, I don't think she envisioned this: As Bridgett dictated a sequence of numbers from 1 to 12, corresponding to months of the year, I scrawled lines in batches of five, like an inmate marking time on a prison wall.

Ever since then, I've suggested much simpler topics - just barely more complex than "How many quarters are in a football game?" or "How tall is Michael Jordan?" I don't want to press the whole "for better or for worse" bit.

Well ... time to bring this confession to a close. And speaking of time - that's another realm where numbers show up in a big way. Did you know that there are a million seconds in 11-1/2 days? Or that you turn a billion seconds old when you are about four months shy of 32?

Two years ago, hours before I hit the billion-second milestone, I blurted this bit of trivia to a supermarket cashier. She merely eyed me blankly and snapped her gum.”

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1. The memory device I created, around the age of 10, to keep straight the relative position of planets: “Mark van Eeghen made John sit up nearly perfectly.” (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto) At the time, van Eeghen was a running back for the Oakland Raiders and Pluto was considered a big-league planet – it has since been relegated, like a last-place European soccer team, to dwarf planet status. What sentence did you craft to keep the planets in order? Leave it in a comment.

2. From EarthDay.org:

“Studies show that 97 percent (or more) of climate scientists who are actively publishing agree that climate change is likely due to human activity. Most of the prominent scientific organizations across the globe have issued statements that publicly endorse this view.”

3. Psalm 90:12 (ESV) - “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”