"The Earth is our environment to protect and the garden to tend to."
– Pope Francis, Earth Day 2015
Yes, Earth Day 2020 is still happening. Despite COVID-19. Despite tornadoes. Despite grief and poisonous politics.
Despite all that, we still have hope and love and compassion for ourselves, our neighbors and our planet.
And those are the ingredients of any Earth Day, no matter our politics or our vicissitudes.
Last Sunday, we talked about sunrises and one of the silver-lining surprises of the novel coronavirus pandemic: the decrease in pollution as people stay home, highway traffic drops and nonessential manufacturing slows or shuts down. Would that we could also do this in a strong economy.
At mid-week last week, we talked about the hope and compassion of neighbors and strangers - even with social distancing needs still in place - after tornadoes tore apart portions of our community.
It's only fitting now that we try to tie it all together this week for Wednesday's upcoming 50th anniversary of Earth Day - a day intended to help us remember the blessing of this beautiful blue marble hanging in space, the planet we all call home.
With the Trump administration's slaughter of science, climate and environmental programs, it's all to easy to feel doomed to the possibility that our children and grandchildren will see the most frightening projections for climate change. Already we see some of those projections in the extreme weather playing out all around us.
Chattanooga has been hit by major, damaging tornadoes several times in the past decade - a fairly new phenomenon for us as scientists continue to document Tornado Alley's not-so-slow creep eastward, making the Heart of Dixie more vulnerable.
And even as our latest tornadoes moved through on Easter night, nearly a entire month's worth of rain fell on the Tennessee Valley. After 2020's wettest first three months of any year in 131 years of record keeping, another 3 to 5 inches drenched us Sunday and Monday. To date we're at nearly 28 inches of rain for the year - 12 inches over normal, and this follows two previous years of record rain in our region.
Globally, half of the world's tropical and temperate forests are gone, and 18 of the last 19 years have been the warmest on record. Concentrations of carbon dioxide - a potent greenhouse gas - are the highest they've been in millions of years and are still rising.
Our government may do little, other than make matters worse. We, however, have a choice - one driveway, one shopping trip, one home, one yard at a time.
We can choose hybrid cars or buses, bicycles or our own feet. We can weatherize, layer or unlayer. We can reject pesticides and herbicides and instead choose native plants that don't need chemical controls or constant mowing. We can shop more carefully, rewarding environmentally friendly businesses with our dollars and punishing bad actors with our avoidance.
Right now, we can use this time of rebuilding in Chattanooga to look for more sustainable home and business models.
And right now we can avail ourselves of our new-found isolation - and in some cases, time - to learn.
Most importantly and always, we can treat every day like it's Earth Day.
As this year's long-planned Earth Day fun runs, park rallies, or concerts get cancelled - one after another in the shadows of COVID-19 and severe weather - don't despair. Grab a book - or tune in to an audio book. Classics are our personal favorites: "The Lorax," "A Sand County Almanac," "Silent Spring," "Walden," and a newcomer, "The Age of Consequences: A Chronicle of Concern and Hope."
There also are virtual events cropping up, some local, some universal.
This one sounds interesting: "Earth Day 2020." It promises to bring together an unprecedented collection of voices, according to prnewswire.com.
Those voices - in talks, teach-ins, performances and messages - will be part of Earth Day Network's robust 15-hour (9 a.m. to 11 p.m. ET) live digital event on the homepage for the planet, earthday.org.
These will include people we think of as "the usual suspects" for environmental messages: former vice president and global environmental advocate Al Gore, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa, world-renowned marine biologist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Sylvia Earle, 350.org founder Bill McKibben and former Secretary of State John Kerry, who founded World War Zero.
But it also will include some surprises: Boston Bruins captain Zdeno Chara, free climber (think Oscar-winning documentary "Free Solo") Alex Honnold, Prince Albert II of Monaco, Hip Hop Caucus President Lennox Yearwood Jr., Tennessee lawmaker-turned-news commentator Van Jones, along with actors and musicians Ed Begley Jr., Zac Efron, Anil Kapor, Ricky Kej and Kyra Sedgwick.
There also will be a social media partnership with Twitter (#EarthDay2020).
And you can download a phone application that invites you to participate in Earth Challenge 2020, a global citizen science initiative designed to build an open source database on air quality and plastic pollution - all from your smartphone and the safety of your home.
Who says technology isn't wonderful?
So grab some headphones or tell Siri or Alexa to fire up the speakers.
First up: "The Lorax."