How dare we celebrate Earth Day?

Tomorrow, April 20th, is the 10th anniversary of the methane explosion at the oil drilling platform called the Deepwater Horizon. Wednesday, April 22nd, is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. 

At this time the Trump administration is promoting the largest expansion of oil drilling lease permits in American history along with rolling back oil platform safety regulations, according to the Washington Post. 

And our attention is nearly fully engaged in the COVID-19 pandemic and attempts to conduct our curtailed lives.

As you know, the Deepwater Horizon explosion and fire and the resultant five month roar of poisonous fluids from under the fractured sea bed into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and onto the beautiful shores of Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida was the worst environmental disaster in American history.

Sound trite, doesn’t it? The worst environmental disaster in American history.

*11 people dead!

*4,600,000 pounds of oiled material removed from the Louisiana Coast

*92,000 square miles of Gulf Waters contaminated

*Generations of deformed baby porpoises and dolphins

*Tuna with heart disorders

*10s of thousand of poisoned birds 

*Unbearable air pollution from burning oil for Gulf Coast residents

Let me scream it at you: THE WORST ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER IN AMERICAN HISTORY!

Turns out it was worse than you thought it was. In February researchers at the University of Miami found that invisible oil below the reach of nets, booms, and the eyes of satellites had a reach 30% larger than earlier estimates. The oil, which they said was toxic enough to destroy 50% of the marine life that it encountered, actually spread around the southern tip of Florida into the Atlantic Ocean. It spread further west as well “exterminating a vast amount of planktonic marine organisms across the domain”.

What is it about us that allows us to exterminate a vast amount of planktonic marine organisms across the domain? Where did god go wrong in her creation? As I write I am deeply shaken by this thought. How dare we celebrate Earth Day? If we must, we should get down on our knees and beg forgiveness.

Perhaps while we are on our knees we might ask: Are we not meant for something better? I pray that we are.

David Attenborough believes that we can be better then our present selves. Sir David has spent his life pointing out the beauty and fragility of existence to us. Now he's got a new film out. It will air on PBS on Earth Day. Chuck Prentice, of MN350 sent me the details in the following email:

Have you heard of the BBC film "Climate Change - The Facts" by David Attenborough?

It's going to be shown nationally on public TV with the "premier" on most PBS affiliates being on 4/22 at 7pm central time.

I think it's a very impactful film, and I'm hoping that we can spread the word of its broadcast time far and wide and get lots of people all across the country to see it.  Would you consider telling your contact list about it, and asking them to spread the word about it?

It hasn't generally been available to see in the U.S. up to this point, but here's a link where you can see it if you'd like to "pre-screen" it before you (I hope) urge others to tune in to see it on PBS on 4/22.  But please don't share that link with others.