Earth Day Musings: In the Year 2062

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Where will we be 50 years from today, what will we be doing? Will we be celebrating and savoring the brave souls of our immediate ancestors – and those still among us – the “Paul Reveres” who rang the alarm bells in 2012 when our Planet began showing us in clear and painful ways the destructive and deadly precipice we had set her careening towards. Will we have taken the necessary yet challenging steps to drastically reduce our greenhouse gas emissions? Will we have adopted an international climate accord, where ALL countries agreed to do “whatever it takes” to put our planet back in a balanced state, where carbon dioxide will be reset to the magic number of 350 parts per million and a healing path is the road now traveled.

Will we be living in cities that thrive and grow through the use of “renewable energy” – including the sun, wind and waves? Will we have all figured out how to consume sustainably using only what we need, replacing and renewing all our resources, and ensuring that amble natural resources like water and clean air will remain abundant and pure for future generations and all creatures who inhabit the earth….

Will we have internalized and codified the challenge posed to us by Jean Rostand, the French writer and biologist, and Rachel Carson when they told us: “The obligation to endure gives us the right to know.” Will we have taken the “blinders” off, demanded the truth, and faced full on the lethal dangers we had created for the human species, accepting and recognizing our moral and ethical responsibilities to ensure the endurance of our species. Will we have stood up to those who told us we needed to “back down” on environmental regulations for the sake of the economy…when in fact the economy and the environment are inseparably linked?

In 2062 will we be living in homes that generate their own energy, feeding back any unused energy into the grid? Will we be commuting on high speed rails and using public transportation that reach all “outlying communities” allowing us to reduce our dependence and need for individuals cars. And as for automobiles, will they all be “electric” vehicles that we can charge everywhere, which get their energy from power stations and power plants that harness renewable energy, in a sustainable way…

Or, will we NOT have headed the warnings and harbingers of impending doom? In 2052 will we be living in a land of extreme weather events, with walls that “protect us” from climate refugees who clamor to get in and partake of their “fair share” of our scarce resources. Will the “Hunger Games” scenario, come true?

Will we have sucked our planet dry of all fossil fuels, as the unconventional energy extraction methods of fracking, tar sands mining and deep sea drilling will have left our earth ‘empty.” Will our oceans, already showing stress in 2012, have become so alkaline that all coral has died, and algae and jellyfish have become the dominate “living” organisms roaming our seas? Will sea level rise has invaded our coasts, rolling over Florida, burying the Jersey Shore, and wiping out the rolling dunes of Long Island, the mansions that dotted Amagansett and South Hampton, the outer banks of the Caroline coast, and the white sands of Oregon, Washington State and California? Will we have ignored the warning signs our planet was giving us way back on Earth Day 2012? In April of that year, North America was just beginning to deal with the water shortages caused by the “winter that never came” and the brush fires that were creeping and spreading up and down the east coast, touching every state from Florida to the Canadian border.

What future scenario do you want for you children? Join us as we contemplate this question and the beauty of our planet earth this Earth Day. Participate in a public demonstration, fair or event. Come together with thousands in Washington DC at the iMatter March on April 22nd, or the Interfaith Moral Action on Climate on April 24th. Make a family Earth Day resolution..and help us figure out how we will get to the positive Earth Day celebrations, 50 years from now in 2062.