Earth Day, 2017

    I have no religion, but I have an immense reverence for Earth and all the lifeforms that depend on it.  That being said, one might think that Earth Day would be a great day of celebration for me, but I find it more and more depressing as the years go by, as I see the additional degradation that each year brings to those things that gives us life.

    I find this year’s Earth Day is worse by a huge gradient because of what happened last year in the US election.  A man-baby billionaire was put in charge of the country that uses the most resources per capita than the rest of the world.  He has never shown any concern for anything beyond his own avarice, and has filled his government with people with the same values who will work to destroy science and the information it provides.  They will advance the power of those whose only goal is more wealth no matter what the cost to the Earth that sustains every living thing, including human beings.

    I once heard that the Earth’s ecosystems are like the thousands of rivets that hold an airplane together.  As you fly, you can start pulling rivets out of the aircraft’s body without any noticeable effect, but eventually you will pull out one too many rivets and the whole thing will come crashing down.  The rate at which the rivets are being pulled will begin to rapidly increase as environmental laws and science are diminished.  It does not bode well for life on this planet.  To quote the man-baby, “Sad”, “Very, Very Sad.”