Earth Day

Earth Day is a great time to think about our responsibility as citizens of the world.

Our world can be as small as our backyard or even the balcony of our apartment.

In 1970, Earth Day was begun by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson (Wisconsin) as an environmental teach-in to let people know what we were doing to our planet.

The idea of caring for the earth is a moving measuring stick, because, while we have come a long way since 1970 in terms of improving the environment - there is more we can do and many more things about which we need to be conscious.

In 1970, we didn't think twice about burning garbage in our backyard or putting things we now know to be hazardous into our landfills.

We used leaded gas.  Smokestacks belched harmful fumes and chemicals into the air and chemicals ran down drains in our homes and from our factories.

In the first book of the Bible, we are given responsibility for the earth and all its inhabitants:
 
Genesis 1: 26 - 28   (The Message translation)

God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image, make them
        reflecting our nature
    So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea,
        the birds in the air, the cattle,
    And, yes, Earth itself,
        and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.”
 
    God created human beings;
        he created them godlike,
    Reflecting God’s nature.
        He created them male and female.
    God blessed them:
        “Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!
    Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air,
        for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth.”

That charge of responsibility seems to me to charge us with doing all we can to use the resources we have wisely and be good stewards of them as well.

Fuel efficient vehicles - renewable sources of energy - taking care to reduce the amount of pollution flowing into our atmosphere make sense.  If global warming is an unproven theory to you, that's fine.  It just seems to me that either way, the suggested actions make sense as good stewards in either case.

 Earth Day is a good time to mark progress and potential - a great day to take a walk or ride around our world to see where we might make a change for the better.