‽istis reclaims Earth
Day (weekending April 24th 2021)
This
week ‽istis imagined and wondered:
·
Taking off (with or without a vaccine passport) and
rising gently above the earth
·
Over the ‘zero’ places on the ground
o
the named, the well-known: 9/11 (for there it is
indeed named); Auschwitz; Hiroshima… and ‽istis realises that perhaps names and
dates tell us perhaps more about ourselves, our perception, our preoccupations,
our priorities and biases, our position, our place…
o
the many, many less well-known stretching back in
time and no doubt you can name and list your own - past and present…
o
those without specific place other than the ‘zero’
void in hearts, minds and the souls of individuals, families, groups,
communities, people…
And
as ‽istis rises higher and higher: the sounds perhaps fade; the crying and the
laughter, both – can no longer be heard; the actions of hate and love, both –
can possibly no longer be seen; the scars across and deep within the earth – may
fade; the comings and goings of all that lives and moves and has being (flowing
with motivation, purpose, agency and destination; or just random; or just
following some yet-to-be-found guiding principles…) – perhaps become more and
more indistinguishable; and class and status and race and nationality and sex
and gender and age and ability and achievement and morality – the identified characteristics
that seem to drive the differentiating of the differentiated and the
differentiators – possibly or impossibly seem to vanish…
And
the Earth was, still.
And,
meanwhile, ‘Earth Day 2021’ began and ‽istis powered up the laptop (and paused
to wonder at the source, the means of production, and the uses and abuses of
power) and clicked on the Earth Day website: https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-2021/
Several
‘quizzes’ later (https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-quizzes/
) ,
‽istis had learnt, among other things, that research suggests:
·
100 elephants a day are killed for their tusks to
fuel the illegal ivory trade (‘Protect Our Species Quiz’)
·
The ice sheets are declining, glaciers are in retreat
globally, and our oceans are more acidic than ever; Surface temperatures are
setting new heat records about each year; More extreme weather like droughts,
heat waves, and hurricanes; Global sea levels are rising at an alarmingly fast
rate — 17 centimeters (6.7 inches) in the last century alone and going higher….and
the majority of scientists agree that all associated with climate change (‘Climate
Change Quiz’)
·
Deforestation is the second leading cause of global
warming in the world. (‘Deforestation and Biodiversity Quiz’)
·
Only 2.5% of the Earth’s water is freshwater, but
over half of that freshwater is locked away in glaciers and ice caps. The water
that supports most life on Earth makes up only 1.2% of Earth’s freshwater or
about 0.03% of the Earth’s total water! (‘Oceans and Plastic Pollution Quiz’)
·
On Earth Day 2016, 174 countries and the European
Union signed the Paris Agreement at the opening ceremony at United Nations
Headquarters in New York. The Conference of Parties (COP) is an international
political response to climate change which began in 1992. COP21, also known as
the Paris Climate Conference, brought parties together to achieve a universal
goal on climate: keeping global warming below 2° C. (‘Environmental Literacy
Quiz’)
And
‽istis was encouraged to ‘support EARTHDAY.ORG for a better April 22 each year’…
Heading
back to earth and perhaps down and down to that which seems to connect[i] ‽istis
wondered whether (perhaps, possibly, maybe) a greater realisation of that which
we share and that which unites us more than divides us - above and around and
deep within - might just make a difference on each April 22nd and all the other
days‽
©
Pistis
NB: further reflections and comments linked to
this week’s theme and past blog
entries to be found on Twitter: replies, retweets (which don’t necessarily
indicate approval, sometimes the very opposite!) and ‘likes’:
@Pistis_wonders
[i] ‘Cosmic
Zoom’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgfwCrKe_Fk
and ‘Cosmic Eye’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Are9dDbW24)
