Happy Earth Day!

[happystuff]

Have to admit that, if it wasn't for the reminder on the google page, I would have probably missed it.

[dado potato]

When I go walking by the river I have been trashing discarded beverage cans and all sorts of single-use plastic containers. By trashing I mean I put other people's litter in trash barrels along the walking path, which city employees will collect for the landfill.

Since the pandemic forced many restaurants to go to pick-up (curb service) there has been an increase in the polystyrene foam go-boxes on the ground.

Consumers may not think about the warm polystyrene in contact with food they are about to eat. I understand the heating polystyrene releases styrene, a likely carcinogen. (Do you want styrene with your fries?)

Polystyrene foam does not decompose, but slowly leaches styrene into the surface water.

[razz]

Didn't know that. Dado. Interesting.

Happy Earth Day! Regardless of all the 'stuff' going on right now, I am still grateful to be able to enjoy our beautiful world.

[Rogar]

Weather here was a little beyond my comfort level to celebrate outdoors, but I did watch the three hour PBS feature on Greta Thunberg. She is certainly an impassioned young woman. And probably speaks the facts better than most politicians. PBS is pretty generous about streaming recent programs if anyone might be interested.

[catherine]

I posted this on Facebook in honor of Earth Day. I'm a huge Wendell Berry fan, and this is so appropriate.

The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.


Then I watched the documentary that was based on the Derrick Jensen book I've been talking about, Bright Green Lies.

It was great, and unsettling. One of the biggest takeaways for me is this: we take as a 100% ironclad belief that we NEED all the goodies that industry has provided us with over the past 150 years, whereas before that, we had NONE of it and we did fine for millions of years.

And now the assumption that we need to have this stuff--stuff that we think are necessities but are really luxuries--is going to kill the planet. As they say in the movie, in terms of environmentalism, we are asking the wrong questions.

[happystuff]

Thanks, catherine. What a great piece to read, not just for Earth Day.

[Rogar]

Then I watched the documentary that was based on the Derrick Jensen book I've been talking about, Bright Green Lies.

It was great, and unsettling. One of the biggest takeaways for me is this: we take as a 100% ironclad belief that we NEED all the goodies that industry has provided us with over the past 150 years, whereas before that, we had NONE of it and we did fine for millions of years.

And now the assumption that we need to have this stuff--stuff that we think are necessities but are really luxuries--is going to kill the planet. As they say in the movie, in terms of environmentalism, we are asking the wrong questions.

Generally speaking, I think Thunberg has the same message. Science and technology might help us but we need to make changes to the way we live, and the luxuries we think are necessities often do not enhance our quality of living. She has a different approach to her presentations.

[catherine]

Generally speaking, I think Thunberg has the same message. Science and technology might help us but we need to make changes to the way we live, and the luxuries we think are necessities often do not enhance our quality of living. She has a different approach to her presentations.

Yeah, I'd like to watch the Greta movie.

[iris lilies]

Dont forget to compost in Ira’s memory. He died a year ago and was the
founder of earth Day. The man took composting seriously!
32A1E851-FEF9-445E-A511-227E410C4321.jpg


https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/u...horn-dead.html

[iris lilies]

I posted this on Facebook in honor of Earth Day. I'm a huge Wendell Berry fan, and this is so appropriate.

The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.


Then I watched the documentary that was based on the Derrick Jensen book I've been talking about, Bright Green Lies.

It was great, and unsettling. One of the biggest takeaways for me is this: we take as a 100% ironclad belief that we NEED all the goodies that industry has provided us with over the past 150 years, whereas before that, we had NONE of it and we did fine for millions of years.

And now the assumption that we need to have this stuff--stuff that we think are necessities but are really luxuries--is going to kill the planet. As they say in the movie, in terms of environmentalism, we are asking the wrong questions.

“We” do not.