Earth Day: Stand For What You Stand On

Today, Sunday April 22, 2018, is Earth Day. 

As I wrote about earlier this week, today’s the perfect day to go for a walk in your neighborhood.

On Wine Predator, I wrote that Earth Day was “first designated in 1970 following a number of ecological crisis related to industrial development and pollution.” That first Earth Day nearly forty years ago “called attention to the plight of the planet and led to changes in laws and practices including the development of the Environmental Protection Agency, the passage of the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act, and more important legislation in the United States.”

Over a billion people in 192 countries are participating in Earth Day this year, with many drawing attention to this year’s theme: reducing plastic consumption. Why? Because there is no Planet B.

Earth Day Network states that, “From poisoning and injuring marine life to the ubiquitous presence of plastics in our food to disrupting human hormones and causing major life-threatening diseases and early puberty, the exponential growth of plastics is threatening our planet’s survival.

EDN points out that, “According to international experts, it is estimated that approximately a trillion plastic bags are used around the world every year. If current pollution rates continue, there will be more plastic in the sea than fish by 2050, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The average plastic bag is used for 20 minutes and takes more than 400 years to break down. To give these numbers a local context, in 2015, the world produced 322 million tonnes of plastic. That equals 900 Empire State Buildings!”

We can make a difference:

While “we are each of us complicit to some degree every time we fire up the car’s engine or jet off to a faraway place… there’s the complication of scope,” writes Jason Mark in “Climate Change Reaches the Courts” in today’s LA Times Opinion section. “It’s a myth that all of us are equally liable for the ongoing disasters wrought by climate change.” Mark points out that oil and energy companies “have knowingly fueled the destruction of Earth’s essential life system for decades.”  They had the research that showed the impacts of climate change but instead sought to convince the public that climate change was non-existent.

So today I propose a toast to those working to protect our planet and who stand for what we stand on! Cheers!

Roederer Estate is organic and biodynamic — the perfect wine for your Earth Day toasts. Read more about this wine and another biodynamic sparkler from Johan over on Wine Predator.