And what better time to celebrate Earth Day than in a time when the earth needs our attention more than ever. Maybe every day should be Earth Day. It sounds like "green" rhetoric but it's true. And it is so easy to forget about it sometimes. As technology advances the Earth is thrown by the wayside. People who care about the environment are branded as "tree huggers", a derogatory term that was first used to describe followers of Gandhi who
opposed commercial logging in India. And while most people would probably say that they care about the environment or oppose pollution nobody would like to be branded as a tree hugger. In the meanwhile
it is a fact that man's actions at least contribute to the unusual warming we see across the globe, and
billion dollar corporations spread misinformation and lies branded as science. And while we're at it,
bees are dying out worldwide. As Bill Maher quotes Einstein in his recent blog post:
"'...if the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.' Well, guess what? The bees are disappearing. In massive numbers. All around the world."
The Earth is delicate and humankind no longer belongs to it. It belongs to us and sometimes it seems we have forgotten it. Some of us even mock those who care about it and others put money before it. It can't go on. And it won't be easy to change. But maybe if the next time you hear someone use "tree hugger" to describe an environmentalist you call them out for their ignorance, we can start to change the perception of those who care about the place we share.