The sun and warm weather
blessed Richmond’s Earth Day Festival[1] on Saturday as hundreds of attendees
came to celebrate Mother Earth.
The vendors at the Earth
Day Festival comprised an impressive variety of environmental nonprofits, solar
companies, geothermal companies, state mandated energy efficiency agencies, and
much more outside and in-between.
Live music and local
beer also added an air of festivity to the occasion.
But the presence of the
numerous “issue” vendors (e.g. Virginia Conservation Network, the Chesapeake
Climate Action Network, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, etc) also served as a
reminder of how far we as a country and as a species have left to go to save
our planet from ecological collapse.
Moreover, it’s unclear
whether the human species has moved closer or further away from a set of
solutions to our planet’s woes 42 years after the first celebration of Earth
Day. When one problem is solved, we seem to create 2 more in its shadow.
We remain optimistic
because the alternative is no more appealing. But the window of time to
decisively act to stem the rising tide of climate change is closing quickly, if
it hasn’t closed already. Virginians in particular can no longer put off till
tomorrow what must be done today: saving our planet through individual,
communal, and political means.
Change is hardly ever
easy, but never has it been more necessary than it is today.
No comments:
Post a Comment