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Today we are celebrating Earth Day, a time when children all over the world are learning valuable lessons about the wonders of the planet. Editorialists who spend the rest of the year without worrying about ignoring or misrepresenting environmental issues and climate change feel obliged to say so. something sentimental about this big rock in the space on which we all live.
Earth Day was inspired by a single photo, known as "Earthrise", taken by the Apollo 8 crew on Christmas Eve 1968. It shows the earth, shaded by the moon , floating in the depths of space. It was the first time that Earth was viewed from a different angle. Sixteen months later, on April 22, 1970, Earth Day was born. Twenty million people have descended on the streets of America, an event that remains to this day the largest civic event in the history of humanity.
"Earthrise" is a powerful photo, and I am for everything that helps people to appreciate the wonders of our planet (the same goes for another photo of the Earth seen from space, widely seen, known under the name "The Blue Marble", taken by the Apollo 17 astronauts in 1972). But as a symbol of Earth Day and the challenges we face today on the planet, the image sends bad signals.
First of all, there is no human presence on the photo. Yes, it's inspiring and awesome to see the planet naked, and you could argue that humans are not the issue. But in fact, when we think of the Earth in 2019, humans are really the goal. What we do, how we impact. How small changes in our behavior have big impacts. With regard to Earth Day around 2019, it should not be so much the wonders of the Earth as those seen from space, but our human relationship with the Earth and its management.
Secondly, "Earthrise" gives the impression that the Earth is a fragile place. The land is not a fragile place. During its 4.5 billion years of existence, the Earth has experienced extreme extremes of heat and cold, fire and ice (for all the bloody details, I highly recommend the book by Peter Brannen The extremes of the world: volcanic apocalypses, deadly oceans and our quest to understand Earth's mass extinctions). An example: during the final mass extinction of the Permian 250 million years ago, hyper-hurricanes of over 500 km / h filled with toxic gas swamps blew on the oceans and the climate so hot that he killed everything except insects.
What is fragile is not the earth itself, but life on earth. Human civilization in particular, appeared during a remarkably mild and temperate interval of the Earth's climate. And now, thanks in large part to the burning of fossil fuels, we are changing that. By rejecting 37 billion tons of carbon in the atmosphere each year, we push the climate system harder than Mother Nature herself ever did with all her volcanic eruptions and megastorms. And it is not only the general warming of the climate that is so risky, it is the unknown surprises that could be reserved to us, from the collapse of the Antarctic glaciers to the new viruses released by the melting of the permafrost. Wally Broecker, the legendary geochemist at Columbia University, coined the phrase "global warming," saying, "The climate system is an angry beast, and we prick it with sticks."
And the Earth, to tell the truth, is not a reliable source of hugs and forgiveness for us human beings. Nature itself does not hold us in high esteem just because we have found a way to instantly send pictures of puppies across the planet. As Brannen writes: "Life on Earth is an enamel of remarkable finesse, interesting chemistry, on a stone ball, otherwise tasteless and refreshing, hovering like a grain of sand in an infinite ocean of empty spaces. "
The biggest problem with "Earthrise" is perhaps that the image is obviously and overtly apolitical. You could argue that it is precisely the goal and that it is valuable, precisely because it communicates the beauty and wonders of our planet without forcing the debate about whether the big polluters like the brothers Koch should be treated as war criminals for what they did. knowingly trash the planet. And I agree that there is virtue to that: you have to love something to fight.
But it is also a radically out of sync idea. The days of wonder are over now. We do not need beautiful pictures, we need action. At this moment on earth, we are fighting for our lives and those of future generations. The way "Earthrise" is seen today is too close to these slippery advertisements of Matthew McConaughey Lincoln in which he drives a big V8 in spectacular mountains. Yes, it's pretty, but man, your ride kills us. We are fighting an urgent battle to preserve a habitable planet. The science is clear. We have the technology we need. What we do not have is political leadership. And a nice picture of the floating earth in space does not help that much.
So what would be a more appropriate and inspiring image for Earth Day? If it were all up to me, I would vote for something a little more human. Perhaps the face of Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, aged 15, whose frankness in describing the risks of the stakes is perfectly adapted to our time. Or maybe an image of activists of Extinction Rebellion, parading in the streets of the whole world. In one way or another, it is time for Earth Day to return to its roots as a day of anger and activism, not fear and celebration. Earth is a beautiful place, but unless humans mobilize quickly, we may be less likely to appreciate it.
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