Earth Day really about our planet’s inhabitants

This weekend we celebrate Earth Day - but why? We all know it's not really about the Earth. It's about us. The Earth will go on spinning through space for eons, with or without us. The real issue is how long we will be around for the ride and what kind of ride it will be. We have become so powerful that we're dangerous, to ourselves and many other species on the planet.

I've been writing these Green Living columns for about six years. I've shared ideas that can save money and save our future, trying to provide options that work for everyone. The focus is usually on things we can do at home to make a difference, but the bottom line is the collective result our individual actions add up to. It's a fine line to balance optimism and green living with the reality of the issues we face.

To put it bluntly, we are in a planetary crisis. We are in the midst of a sixth Great Extinction event. The first five were caused by natural circumstances. This one is all ours. There are many issues: loss of habitat, climate change and environmental degradation to name a few, but the bottom line is that species are disappearing far faster than normal. This loss of biodiversity hardens our world and resilience fades.

The world is like a fine tapestry of rich, interwoven relationships that have taken billions of years to develop in delicate equilibrium. These relationships form the fabric of life, our biosphere, upon which we are totally dependent. Species are like the threads of the fabric. If we lose a thread here or there the tapestry remains intact and over time new species evolve to maintain the balance. At the rate we're going, we'll have nothing left but a pile of rags.

Imagine we're in a car speeding down a straight, flat, deserted highway and we see a wall blocking the road ahead. Rather than slowing down to avoid a crash, it's like we're still accelerating. A few folks are concerned but their collective actions amount to little more than clambering into the back seat. At this point, hitting the wall is inevitable since we've waited too long to take action. We have two choices. We can hit the brakes, slow down and just bump the wall, then work our way around the obstacle; or we can smash into it at full speed. The second option results from business as usual.

For the most part, we are not doing this on purpose. Americans are simply living the lives we were born into. In our experience, it has been normal to have massive amounts of cheap energy, food from around the world, large televisions and tiny cellphones. We have never known any other way of life. But there is a better way, a more responsible path.

The challenge is to rapidly transform our society in the right direction. We need a future with a future. For too many years we have failed to collectively live as an integral part of the natural world. It's time to wake up, roll up our sleeves and hit the ground sprinting.

If you can, check out my lecture tonight on renewable energy at the West Charleston Library. Then spend some time on Saturday at Green Fest. Get some inspiration and share it with everyone you know. Join some groups and get involved. The groundswell is growing and our community will benefit from your ideas and energy. It might be called Earth Day, but it is really all about you.

Steve Rypka is a green living consultant and president of GreenDream Enterprises, a company committed to helping people live lighter on the planet. For more information and links to additional resources relating to this column, or to reach Steve, please visit www.greendream.biz.