Earth Day 2009

Today, as the world continues to slide towards an ecological 'tipping point', nearly a billion people will openly celebrate the 39th incarnation of Earth Day. First launched as an environmental awareness event in the United States in 1970, Earth Day (April 22) is often celebrated as the birth of the environmental movement.

The first Earth Day, spearheaded by Wisconsin Governor Gaylord Nelson and Harvard University student Denis Hayes, involved 20 million participants in teach-ins that addressed then decades of environmental pollution. The event inspired the US Congress to pass clean air and water acts, and establish the Environmental Protection Agency to research and monitor environmental issues and enforce environmental laws.

Mobilizing 200 million people in 141 countries and lifting the status of environmental issues onto the world stage, Earth Day in 1990 gave a huge boost to recycling efforts worldwide and helped pave the way for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

Today, Earth Day has grown into a global tradition, with annual celebrations by more than a billion people in 180 nations around the world.

But celebrations are never enough. Without real change - to attitude, to infrastructure and culture - there is little doubt that we will soon be at the point of no return where ecosystems fail, human societies collapse, a new dark age of humanity will replace the current deeply pathological civilization.

What can i do to help change? What can you do? Seek out change at all costs.

Yet today, i will take time to celebrate Earth Day by opening my whole being and embrace the ever-present and unfolding adventure that is Life on this planet. The Earth is more than our home; it is a part of us as we are a part of it. And our greatest gift will always be the opportunity each day brings to finally 'come home' to our own deepest nature - Nature as such.

So, yes, i will celebrate being alive on this exquisite planet, on this day, and reaffirm my responsibility to Love this planet, and to continue to transform myself by deepening and widening my awareness of the power and fragility of this world. This much at the very least...

Learn More About Earth Day and What You Can Do To Help: Here