Today is Earth Day, an annual moment to pause and reflect on the value of the natural resources Mother Nature provides. It’s especially important this year, as many of those gifts are under assault with regulatory roll-backs and disregard for the fragile nature of the ecosystem. (Two examples: 1) executive orders seek to remove safeguards for a marine sanctuary and allow commercial fishing in the area, threatening the surrounding sea life, and 2) rollback of federal protections for endangered species strips “habitat destruction” from the list of prohibited actions.)
Certain decisions can be made, and if they don’t work out, you can reverse them. However, other choices are permanent and should be made with much more caution and forethought. Once you cut down a magnolia tree that Andrew Jackson planted at the White House in 1829, you can’t change your mind and put it back, or once you bulldoze over wetlands for a mining road, there is no undoing it.
Commemorate Earth Day today by taking steps to protect this fragile home of ours and asking your legislators to do the same.
