This year marks the 54th anniversary of the first Earth Day, and what do we have to show for it? There is little to prove that we in North America love Mom very much. The facts are dire, and time is running out. Not for Earth, she’s tenacious as hell. But for us, her children; willful, arrogant, self-centered children.
A report in Nature (628, 551-557, 4/2024) found that “by 2049, global annual damages due to climate impacts will reach an estimated $38 trillion – six times more than mitigation costs to keep global temperatures to 2C (above the pre-industrial benchmark).” When the world negotiated the Paris Agreements in 2015, the goal was to limit warming to 1.5C.* So, what does .5C matter? A lot!
In a +1.5C world, we lose 8% of plant and 6% of insect habitats. In a +2C world, that jumps to 16% of plant and 18% of insect habitats. In a +1.5C world, coral reefs will decline 70-90%. In a +2C world, we all but lose coral reefs, with an estimated decline of 99%! (IPCC, 2023). We are reaching, and starting to cross, planetary boundaries which have dire implications for everyone and everything in the world.
First Nations have a different way on living on earth than western consumerism. The Iroquois approach sustainability this way: “The earth is our mother, the sky is our father, and everything in between are our brothers and sisters. Anytime we do something that will affect nature, we should ask ourselves, how will this affect seven generations?” In the West, a growing movement is called the Seven Rs: Redesign, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Renew, Recover, and Recycle which offers us practical ways to minimize our footprint.
The crone, the crone. Women’s voices have often risen above din to warn us and to offer alternative ways of policy and action. In 1962, Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring, a warning about the widespread use of toxic petrochemicals. Wangari Maathi in Kenya became the first African woman to win the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize for her work in environmental action and the defense of women’s and democratic rights. Rebecca Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass, educates her community and her students in Potawatomi Nation traditions to raise environmental consciousness and action. In the Bronx, Tanya Fields, Executive Director of the Black Feminist Project and founder of the Libertad Urban Farm, closes the gap in access to healthy, fresh food in one of numerous food deserts in the US and beyond. She engages her community to build awareness and action for nutrition, environment and rights.
Just as elder women bridge the wisdom of generations, so too will Mother Earth endure. The question is if her Homo Sapien children will wake up and find both small and great ways to live more lovingly and more sustainably while we’re here. Join me at wondercrone.com to explore this and other dimensions of croning.
*1.5C equals 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit; 2C equals 3.8 degrees Fahrenheit.
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