24 Apr 2005 @ 09:44, by Heiner Benking
The original Earthday was on March 21, 1970. The first Proclamation of Earth Day was by San Francisco, the City of Saint Francis, patron saint of ecology. Players at that time were [link] {link:http://www.earthsite.org/john.htm U. N. Secretary General U Thant, Margaret Mead, John Gardner, Robert Muller, ... more.
As the times with the first astronauts was right later many Earth Days were created, but only the original is on Equninox and so in line with the traditions of many other cultures.
This note is written on the US - California Earth Day 2005 to help us see the various approaches to celebrate, honour, and safe Mother Earth - and see how they combined could be stronger, or seperately serve different "clients"??
Any more Questions - Actions needed ??
How would you treat Earth, if you could see, touch, feel and smell it directly?
We have reached Earth Day April 22nd and some might be asking: didn’t we just celebrate this Earth Day with the ringing of the Peace Bell at Spring Equinox on March 20? – and isn’t the World Environment Day of the United Nations Environment Day the right day to celebrate a day for Earth and the Environment? And wasn’t there also THE WORLD DAY OF PLANETARY CONSCIOUSNESS?
Is the suspicion justified that preservation of Earth is just a marketing gag and every special interest group (SIG) is cultivating its own Earth Day? But how many should we have then? Should they all compete with events and money raising for our attention? Or should we see Earth as an example for something special and unique, something from which we can learn to expand awareness and consciousness, sharing and caring?
Shouldn’t we create - just for the fun or exercise - one or more global interest groups (GIG’s) to focus on the bigger picture and provide us with some idea of lumping and generalisation instead of all the splittering and specialisation we are confronted with? Maybe see more in the link below which is very dear to me: the Wholeness Seminar of the ISSS International Society of Systems Sciences.
Shouldn’t we ask people from other places – like Oceania or South Africa, if they would also like an Earth Day for themselves? One for example when they have the beginning of spring, which is when we have autumn and think about thanksgiving. Wouldn’t that teach us differences and wholes and teach us to celebrate commons, alternative viewpoints, and the need to not always fighting for "agreement"?
Well – maybe we can enjoy learning from these exercises that we are different and still belong to bigger schemes of things.
Some years ago, I saw a picture with our Planet as great marble somewhere in the woods, asking whether we would not care more for our EARTH if we could walk around it – feel and touch it, and perceive its beauty and fragility.
We realise that pictures from outer space or orbit are everywhere, and only few care as much as we did a some thirty years ago when we received the first astronaut views of the whole Planet.
Is it that these pictures are fading, Earth becoming just one more Icon, and nobody cares and realises anymore its precious, fragile, and dynamic spheres, like biosphere and atmosphere, their beauty, depth, and dynamic interactions!?
Have we got used to Earth as naked? Without the clouds? - as this gives a better (clear) picture? Do we need Earth as another icon or picture on our desktop? - or a deep "symbolic" icon like we find in many religions?
We behave as if we have more than one Earth! There is not only duplication but lots of confusion about the origins and purpose! Please visit below various "Earth Days" and form your own opinion, before reading the recent letter by Prof. Munday from Virginia.
Our pondering in response to Munday's proposal should be public, so let's raise some questions and get involved. Are more Earth Days better, as there is synergy between the different approaches? Are they all celebrated everywhere on the planet? Aren’t there other traditional EarthDays, like Spring and Autumn celebrations in nearly all cultures? And are these omnicultural days not closer to the people and Earth than all our modern creations and celebrations?
Our objective is to enhance awareness of all these different "players" and intentions, and how great the effort would be enhanced if every Earth Day would unite and empower also the other EarthDay objectives, given the urgently needed care for our "sik" planet "Earth". There is some suspicion that more awareness and communication give "Mother" Earth or GAIA its proper role of something UNIQUE, something without a spare on hold somewhere. There is a nice story we shared in German and English at the UN Climate summit, maybe visit below: Poetic story – EARTH = PLACE of BEAUTY.
Shouldn’t the UN or UNESCO/UNEP care and mobilize the potentials in-between the Earthdays? - or should we ourselves get going by inviting all the EARTH DAY organisers for an online videoconference? With you joining in from the floor and learning if the Earth-Players and Organizers know about their "fellow" Earthday and how to share commons, optimize and harmonize efforts? - and cultivate (in the words of the last reference below) "an ecology of spiritual insights"?
Shall we?
HeBe
Related links:
PNYV entry on Earth Day 2005 [link]
PROF. MUNDAY; Virginia [link]
EARTH DAY on the Spring Equinox; typically March 20 or 21 [link] - [link]
EARTHDAY April 22 – former Environmental Teach-In [link] - [link]
World Environment Day 2005 - United Nations Environment Programme [link]
THE WORLD DAY OF PLANETARY CONSCIOUSNESS, a day endorsed also by his Holiness the Dalai Lama [link] Poetic story – EARTH = PLACE of BEAUTY (sorry, we will add the german
translation thanks to Graham Horton (original source will be added a.s.a.p.)
[link]
WHOLENESS SEMINAR
[link]
AND FOR FURTHER STUDY, finally some 'nuggets' about the need to cope, the beauty of not needing to agree, the comprehension of other perspectives, and a 'Language of Spiritual Concord': [link] - [link] - [link] - [link]
THIS PEACE WAS JUST POSTED AS EDITORIAL in the [link] POSITIVE NEWS YOUTH VIEWS E-Zine, maybe enjoy: [link]
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