Quote of the Day: We live in a world much different than the one in which the first Earth Day took place 50 years ago. My friend Kathy Dean Moore reminds us what theologian Thomas Berry said, “My generation has done what no previous generation could do, because they lacked the technological power, and what no future generation will be able to do, because the planet will never again be so beautiful or abundant.” Moore and Berry agree that, “the Cenozoic, the era we are leaving behind, was when the earth was at its ‘most lyrical,’ when songbirds, flowering plants, and the great families of mammals flourished. At this peak of beauty and richness came humankind. We’re now estimated to be responsible for the extinction of one out of every ten species that we know of and likely uncounted others that we haven’t even identified yet. And we’re about to change even the climate that sustains these lives and ours.”
Commentary: Scientists claim that since 1970, humanity has wiped out 60% of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles, leaving creation far more impoverished that when our Earth Mother/Creative Spirit set evolution in motion to allow our planet to flourish. Can we face up to the fact, that in less than a half century, we have driven into extinction hundreds of thousands of species that were still here on the first Earth Day?
Suggested Action #44: As you walk today, recognize that loss of the richness of creation all around you. Say a Prayer to the Missing Species and call on their gifts to us to help us prevent any further extinctions that can in any way be avoided. If we don’t accept the agency to better care for creation, who will?
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Gary Paul Nabhan aka Brother Coyote is a professed member of the Ecumenical Order of Franciscans, a graduate of the Living School, a conservation biologist, orchard-keeper and story-teller.
