A Misguided Earth Day Reorganized

""How did Earth Day come to be about us rather than about Earth? Actually, Earth Day was never about Earth—it was a celebration of environment and peace.

Earth Day, first declared on Mar. 21, 1969, was the brainchild of John McConnell, a celebrated peace activist, who recognized that peace, progress, and prosperity depended on balanced ecological processes. He convinced the UN secretary, U Thant, and other leading figures, to declare the northern vernal equinox Earth Day.

Linking Earth Day to the equinox was a bad idea, however, because the equinox isn’t a day, it’s a specific time. It’s an infinitesimal moment when the Earth, spinning at 1,656 kilometers (about 1029 miles) per hour at the equator, lines up perpendicularly with the sun flying around it at 108,000 kilometers (about 67,108 miles) per second. For that microsecond, the north and south are equally illuminated, and day will be roughly as long as night. The equinox also occurs twice a year, and to choose the northern vernal equinox seems to only further the notion of Northern hemisphere hegemony.

Earth Day was never actually about Earth. It has always been about us.

McConnell’s Earth Day Proclamation came later, itself dated June 21, in 1970, which missed the equinox by three months. Thus far, the Proclamation has been signed by 36 people over the years, including John Denver (the famous singer), Margaret Meade (the famous anthropologist), Mikhail Gorbachev (the famous Russian), Yasir Arafat (the famous Palestinian), Isaac Asimov (the famous sci-fi writer), Buzz Aldrin (the famous astronaut), and, of course, U Thant and McConnell.

The Proclamation, however, in spite of its title, isn’t about Earth. In fact, it begins, “By the people of Earth for the People of Earth.”

So it was never about Earth. It has always been about us.
Time for action

The choice of Apr. 22 for Earth Day came shortly after McConnell’s proclamation in 1970, the national event founded by the Wisconsin Democratic senator Gaylord Nelson and co-chaired by California Republican congressman Paul McCloskey.

It started as an environmental teach-in and was christened “Earth Day” by its organizing committee, even though senator Nelson admitted he didn’t think that was the best name for it.

For almost 40 years, Earth Day was celebrated both on the northern vernal equinox and on Apr. 22, each vying for public subscription until the UN threw in the towel in 2009, declared Apr. 22 to be International Mother Earth Day.

And what is it we’re supposed to do? According to the resolution, countries are “to observe and raise awareness of International Mother Earth Day, as appropriate.” So if we deem that dressing up as pandas, doing yoga, and composting in the name of Earth is appropriate—go for it!

Environmental activism is critical in a world undergoing so much change, but Earth Day should celebrate Earth, not be an international day of declarations of environmental promise keeping.
We all know the grim numbers: The World Wildlife Fund’s Living Planet Report estimates that there has been a decline by 40% in wildlife populations around the world since 1970; almost a third of global fisheries have collapsed since the 1960s; The Keeling Curve, which tracks atmospheric CO2 since 1958, shows we are heading towards catastrophic climate change; and a group of experts say that out of nine safe operating boundaries for Earth, four of them are in the red zone.

It’s true, we’re better off today than we were before the Industrial Revolution in the sense that many of us have enough to eat (keeping in mind that over 800 million people still go hungry), but the environmental costs have been staggering.

Given the relentlessly depressing message of environmentalism, finding ways to make environmental action fun is important, so a globally coordinated network of environmental action is terrific, and Apr. 22 is as good a day as any to do that.""

http://qz.com/388846/earth-day-has-become-one-of-the-most-misguided-celebratory-days-of-the-year/

Equinox Phenomenon of the Solar Eclipse Through Time and Space

""A solar eclipse is set to darken the sky over Europe, as well as parts of Asia, North West Africa, and North America in the biggest eclipse since 1999. Expected to plunge some countries into 98 percent darkness, the event, which corresponds with the March equinox, will “skirt the south of Iceland, pass over the Faroe Islands and the Norwegian territory of Svalbard, and finish over the North Pole” this Friday, according to NASA.

This rare and spectacular astronomical alignment, when the Moon passes directly between the sun and the Earth and shadows the surface of the planet, has always given humanity pause. The event of midday twilight is said to even quiet birds. They stop singing, thinking night has somehow come. This significant occurrence was seen as so traumatic or ‘unnatural’ to humanity that since prehistoric times myths and legends have sprung up throughout cultures in attempts to explain the event, or protect against it. 

Solar eclipses were seen by the ancients as symbols or messages. The ancient Greeks believed they were portents, and warnings of disaster. Certainly a disruption of the established order was seen as frightening and a sign of doom, especially as so much depended on the movement of the sun, guiding beacon for many cultures. The sun or moon being devoured by supernatural entities was a common theme in myths and legends, and a way to explain their sudden and temporary disappearances. 

The Examiner writes it was believed in Vietnam that a solar eclipse was evidence the sun was being eaten by a giant frog. In Korea it was thought the sun disappeared due to attacks by gigantic hounds. Mythical fire dogs called Bulgae were bid by the lord of a dark realm to chase down and bite the sun and moon. The sun was too hot and the moon too cold to bite for long, and the injured dogs would return without their prize. According to the Serrano natives of California, “an eclipse is the spirits of the dead trying to eat the Sun or Moon. So during an eclipse, the shamans and ceremonial assistants sing and dance to appease the dead spirits while everyone else shouts to try and scare the spirits away,” writes StarrySkies.com. The Vikings explained that eclipses were the doing of sky wolves, or warg, which would chase and eat both the sun and moon.

National Geographic writes about a legend wherein Hindu demon Rahu attempted to sneak a taste of an elixir of immortality. The sun and moon told the god Vishnu about Rahu’s crime. Vishnu sliced off Rahu’s head as the demon was drinking, so Rahu’s head became immortal, but his body died. In rage and frustration, Rahu’s head continues to chase the sun and moon, occasionally swallowing them. Because he has no body, however, the moon and sun disappear only momentarily, and fall out the bottom of his head.""

http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-general/ancient-myths-and-legends-served-explain-startling-phenomenon-solar-eclipse-002788

Measuring Billions of Elusive Neutrinos Flowing Through the Earth, UMass Amherst Physicists Learn More about the Sun

 ""AMHERST, Mass. - Using one of the most sensitive neutrino detectors on the planet, an international team including physicists Laura Cadonati and Andrea Pocar at the University of Massachusetts Amherst are now measuring the flow of solar neutrinos reaching earth more precisely than ever before. The detector probes matter at the most fundamental level and provides a powerful tool for directly observing the sun’s composition.

Pocar, Cadonati and colleagues report in the current issue of Physical Review Letters that the Borexino instrument has now measured with high precision the flux of the beryllium seven (7Be) solar neutrino, abundant, low-energy particles once below the observable threshold. With this advance, they can now precisely study the behavior of solar neutrinos with kinetic energy below 1 megaelectron volt (MeV). Borexino scientists also recently reported the first observation of neutrinos produced in a little-studied solar nuclear process known as proton-electron-proton, or pep, and set of stringent limit on reactions involving carbon, nitrogen and oxygen (the CNO cycle) in the sun.

Cadonati says, "Borexino is the only detector capable of observing the entire spectrum of solar neutrinos at once. Our results, the culmination of 20 years of research, greatly narrow the observation precision. The data confirm the neutrino oscillations, flavor changes and flow predicted by models of the sun and particle physics."""

http://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/newsreleases/articles/138249.php