A Love Letter to Mother Earth

Dear Mother Earth, 

Happy Mother's Day. 

Last month was Earth Month and the 50-year anniversary of the very first Earth Day celebration, which is now observed all over the world and celebrated by more than a billion people every year. Thank you for the joy, sustenance, protection, beauty and abundance that you continually give to us.

For once, Mother Earth, you finally received something more than just a day, or a month, or a marked holiday on everyone’s calendar – you actually received something tangible in return (sorry it took so long).

Our collective retreat to confinement is allowing you to grow, flourish, regenerate, detox, and breathe. To see the way you've thrived without the normal everyday human activity is proof that science is accurate, that your demise is from human interference, and that we all have to work together (as we are doing now), no matter where we live, because we all breathe the same air, drink the same water, and swim in the same oceans.

It's unfortunate that a global pandemic whose wrath continues to cause indescribable peril is the thing that caused humanity to cease our daily polluting, but the silver lining continues to amaze me. I marvel at the NASA satellite images that show before and after shots of the earth from space, only a month apart, all the red (hot) zones literally absent because of the shelter in place restrictions.

Never before has any single pandemic, war or economic downturn caused such a (projected) reduction in CO2 globally.

According to Carbon Brief we are expected to reduce global carbon emission by 2 million tonnes, and have already seen a 39 percent decrease in CO2 from Europe’s electricity system and a 25 percent reduction during China’s temporary lockdown.

Again, although this situation is temporary, and our efforts to save humanity have been the catalyst that has allowed you to regenerate and decompress, there are a few more wonderful things that people are trying to do to continue the trend and continue thinking of you for Earth Day, Earth Month, Mother’s Day and far beyond.

Nations are using their stimulus dollars to invest in new renewable energy sources. For example, as seen on Climate Change News, Ireland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Malta, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden, have made a commitment to “the Green Deal” which keeps their goal of net zero greenhouse emission by 2050 central to post-COVID-19 recovery initiatives.

This has many benefits from a worldwide perspective:

1. By investing in clean energy, we can continue to make gifts to you in the form of clean air, water, less greenhouse gases, and so much more.
2. In many countries the clean energy infrastructure and jobs do not already exist, so it’s a great way to stimulate our individual economies because we can hire more of our unemployed workforce to create a new, green industry.
3. Investing in green energy will decrease our dependence on environment-destroying fossil fuels.

This policy shift into a “Green Recovery” is not the only place we see progress. Another unforeseen consequence of our planet’s population being struck with a pandemic is a meat shortage, because sadly, livestock factory workers are one of the hardest hit groups of COVID-19 patients and victims. Worldwide, livestock accounts for between 14.5 percent and 18 percent of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions.