Tread Lightly -or- Make Every Day "Earth Day"

by Capt. Jim Hinckley

Aqua Shack owner/instructor/philosopher/eco-warrior reflects on his first Earth Day and what's changed since then.

A brief hIs-story  

April 22, 1970 is a date I remember pretty well for lots of reasons. Big things were happening in my life. America was just coming off one of the most eventful years in it’s history... 1969.  Man successfully landed on, walked on, took off from and returned from the Moon. The first Test-tube fertilizations of human eggs occurred. Boeing came out with and had the maiden flights of the “747 Jumbo Jet” and “Supersonic Concorde”.  And of course we had “Woodstock… 1” (back then you didn’t need a “1” because it was the only one!). Kids today seem to grow up faster and more "street wise", but back then we seemed to grow up wiser… more socially aware and active, and more mature.

 

At 15,  I was already boarding busses on my own and traveling all over New York, Staten Island, Pennsylvania, Virginia & Ohio (not to mention New England) visiting places and people I knew who had moved away with their families after grade school. At 16 & 17 I was involved in several political rallies & movements whose goals were get America out of Cambodia & Vietnam. By 18 we (collective youth) had petitioned the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and won the legal right to drink (rescinded 3 years later because of irresponsible kids).  

 

Also at 18 (in 1972), after having worked ourselves up from campers, to Councilors, to Chief Councilors and eventually to Co-Directors, myself, my brother Frank and several dedicated friends, were running the Marlboro Fish & Game Conservation Camp. We spent months fighting City Hall to get permits for a 3 day music festival (ala: mini-Woodstock) to raise money for the week long camp which accommodated as many as 250 youths, many from "disadvantaged" / "inner city" situations who never got to play in the forest or hike up a mountain or canoe a lake. I also at this time "discovered" Bob Marley & Rastafari.

 

In 1969, we also had then President Nixon beginning the secret bombing of Cambodia. In an effort to destroy Communist supply routes (to Vietnam) and base camps in Cambodia, President Nixon gave the go-ahead for "Operation Breakfast." The covert bombing of Cambodia, conducted without the knowledge of Congress or the American public. November 15, 1969 (less than 2 weeks before my birthday) saw the largest anti-war protest up to that time when 250,000 people marched on Washington DC.  Soon afterward, on December 31, 1969 Pres. Nixon began withdrawal of some troops from Vietnam. 

 

By the end of the year, US troops are "reduced" to 479,000!  Still, in 1969 alone, nine thousand four hundred and fourteen (9,414) Americans are killed in Vietnam. On April 30, 1970, President Nixon announced on national television that a massive American-South Vietnamese troop offensive into Cambodia was in progress. "We take these actions," Nixon said, "not for the purpose of expanding the war into Cambodia, but for the purpose of ending the war in Vietnam, and winning the just peace we all desire."  It continued for fourteen months!

 

Promises of peace were familiar words to the war-weary public. Some felt that this decision was essential for attaining a "just peace" and sustaining America's credibility (power?) in the world. Yet others, particularly students, believed that this action represented an escalation of the war and a return to ex-President Johnson's earlier hopes for a military victory. As the fires from the artillery began to burn in Cambodia, a raging fire of protest spread across the United States. At Kent State University, the reaction to Nixon's announcement was similar to that of other campuses across the nation.

After 4 days of antiwar protests at Kent State University, on May 4, 1970 National Guardsmen opened fire on a crowd of student antiwar protesters at Ohio's Kent State University, resulting in the death of four students and the wounding of eight others. President Nixon publicly deplored the actions of the Guardsmen, but cautioned: "...when dissent turns to violence it invites tragedy." Several of the protesters had been hurling rocks at the Guardsmen. This shook the already frazzled national psyche… the American government killing Americans! (This was unheard of ! … how naive we were at that time.)

This was followed by a Policy of "Vietnamization" where there was finally a plan for diminishing the role of the US military in Vietnam and the military presence dropped to almost half it’s 1969 levels to only (?) 280,000 troops! The objective of the policy was to shift the burden of defeating the Communists onto the South Vietnamese Army and away from the United States. Besides all this really important stuff, we had on September 18, 1970 the death of Jimi Hendrix at the age of 27 & Paul McCartney leaving the Beatles! My God man we thought… the world is surely going to end now!

But in the middle of all this bedlam there were some positive things also coming out of that era. As I mentioned, there was “Woodstock…1” There was the “flower power” generation.  John Lennon, Bob Marley and a whole young generation wanting change… wanting Peace & Love a better, cleaner world to live in. Also in April 1970, there was April school vacation from my alma mata, Marlboro High. It was only about six weeks until the  Summer off … and I was gonna do great things that Spring vacation! There was also another thing that made this April school vacation so memorable for the me… it was the FIRST EARTH DAY EVER!

Me & my friends were very much into the outdoors because of our great experiences at the Marlboro F&G Conservation Camp. People (and believe it or not, some government officials) thought that if they could tap into the environmental concerns of the general public and infuse the student anti-war energy into the environmental cause, they could generate a demonstration that would force this issue onto the political agenda. (Of course they were also probably thinking it would divert some of the attention from the war). The idea was to  use the political activism and grassroots power of 1969 & 1970 for a new purpose, fighting for the ecological health of the planet Earth. Now 32 years later it is an institution… but how has Earth Day, Mother Earth herself and the people occupying her really changed… or have we?

The First Earth Day

In 1970, when Earth Day was born, entire schools of dead fish were washing up all along the Great Lakes. I remember hearing on the news that Ohio’s Cuyahoga River was so saturated with chemical waste that it spontaneously caught on fire (surely bad Karma I thought; Hell’s fire sent to Ohio as punishment for their National Guard killing those students at Kent Sate). Boston Harbor was declared one of the dirtiest harbors in the world. Half as many cars traveled the roads, but lead levels were nearly 1,000 % higher in major cities that they are today. And the majestic bald eagle was nearly extinct, it’s reproductive chain weakened by widespread use of the “miracle pesticide” DDT. These things were not so long ago… I remember them like they were yesterday, but still, this was all before the terms “biosphere”,  “ecosystem” and “Spaceship Earth” were common lexicon.

Although environmental concerns had not yet registered as much more than a blip on the political radar, ordinary citizens turned out to be anything but oblivious. When a full page ad ran in major newspapers across the country, exhorting concerned Americans to mobilize on April 22 for coast to coast demonstrations for a cleaner environment, the response was huge. One by one, community by community, 20 million impassioned Americans began the process of reversing the ecological tide. Today the Great Lakes, the  Cuyahoga and the bald eagle are in better shape. The seals and porpoise have even returned to Boston Harbor and it’s outer islands. I dive these waters all the time and have seen the difference we can make… first hand.

However the ecological stress and strain we are placing on Mother Earth is no less dire now than it was then. For Earth Day 2002 researchers came up with a measurement that demonstrates just how dismal and allows us a way to see how we can help - the “Ecological Footprint”. The whole idea is quite simple. The idea is to leave as little a “footprint” on Mother Earth as possible or as my brethren & sistren Rastas say, “Tread lightly”.

The concept works as follows: every one of the 6.1 Billion people now living on the planet requires a certain amount of productive land and water to provide the resources they consume and accommodate the waste they make. How much productive land and water we use from birth to death is called our “Ecological Footprint” (herein referred to as Eco Print for brevity sake). It is the measure of each individual’s total impact on the planet!

Nature provides an average of 5.3 acres of biologically productive space for every person in the world. By 2050 that available space will be reduced to 3.5 acres per person if predictions of global population are accurate. Also, some of this area must be set aside for the estimated 10 million other species on the planet.  On average, people use 6.9 acres, but there is a wide range. In some countries, the average is as low as 1.2 acres, while others use as much as 32 acres per person. Even within any given country, individuals' footprints vary widely.  (Take the Ecological Footprint Quiz  linked on this and our Main page, it’s fun and informative.)

In the United States, the average Eco Footprint is a whopping 32 acres for every man, woman and child. But all our planet has for us available to use – in sheer life supporting landmass – averages just over 5 acres per person. By over extracting and over-polluting we are undermining vital assets like arable land and fresh water supplies. Quite simply, it’s a burden the " natural" world can not sustain. Not only do we demand more than the planet can provide, but we are also stressing it so severely that it can no longer regenerate itself !

Troubled Waters

No doubt about it, the world on environmentalism is contentious. Take global warming for example: Most of America’s environmental groups insist that global warming is a direct result of carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels. They consider it the single greatest environmental danger our planet faces. Other esteemed groups – like the 17,000 scientists who endorsed a petition by the not for profit Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine – say that there is not enough evidence to support the claim that greenhouse gasses are the cause of global warming. (I would like to check out from where these scientists get their funding, who the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine is, and what their mission statement is. That’s what I call reading between the lines and not taking the 30 second nightly news sound bite at face value.)

Or take DDT. The EPA touts its 1972 ban on the cancer-causing pesticide and the subsequent recovery of the bald eagle population as a huge success. But the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) notes that the ban on DDT did not extend to other nasty chemicals and pesticides – tens of thousands of which are “under review” and still widely used – nor to Aamerica's EXPORTATION of DDT and other substances to “Developing Countries”. (My take on this is they figured they couldn’t sell it to the US market, so what the Hell, sell it to the "developing countries" and "Third world"!)

Even Earth Day itself is a bit bipolar. On the surface it seem as simple as planting a tree in the park. The 500 million people in more than 150 countries who now participate in Earth Day activities offer proof that the celebration is making a powerful difference… doesn’t it? Critics say, however, that large urban Earth Day festivities often leave more trash in their wake than the initiatives pick up. Also, one day of participation often glosses over the need for consistent reform in YEAR ROUND DAILY LIVING. It causes some people to "see the tree and miss the forest”. By that I mean they focus on something small on "earth Day", like a cleanup event where they may pick up a little trash; then drive away at the end of the day in their huge gas guzzling SUV or their Japanese car with the  “Right Whale” license plate (a Massachusetts thing) and stop at MacDonald’s on the way home for a burger and fries. All the while they never make the connection between their actions and the environmental effects or Re-Actions. Some never " see" (re: understand)  the effects their actions have on the Symbiosis of all life. 

This much is indisputable: We have over 6 billion people and One Planet Earth. The Earth itself is not expanding… just the number of people living on it. Our CHALLENGE IS TO LIVE IN SUCH A WAY THAT WE DON’T OVERTAX OUR PLANET TO THE POINT THAT IT BECOMES UNINHABITABLE. In the world of environmentalism, the buzzword for this concept is “Sustainability”. In my mind, it involves living within the philosophy of “Symbiosis”. If there is one point of agreement concerning the environment it is that developing “sustainable” practices, one by one, community by community, business by business and all over the world (living in Symbiosis with Mother Earth & Nature) – would be the most beneficial Earth Day step of all. 

Mathis Wackernagel Ph.D., who co-developed the “Ecological Footprint” concept and directs the “Sustainability Program for Redefining Progress”, a California based non-profit research and public policy institute puts it this way: “We have to discuss how big the cake is, and then we have to find out how the cake is being used so we don’t use it all up. We want to live comfortably on this planet, and we want the planet to be strong enough to support us”. (and future generations I might add).

Your Ecological Shoesize

Every one of us has an impact on the planet. It’s inevitable – and usually not a problem as long as we don’t demand more from the Mother Earth than she has to offer. But the 32 acre footprint the average American leaves on the planet over the course of his/her lifetime is hardly undemanding! Every man, wombman & child in the United States generates about 4 pounds of garbage per day. Each of us consumes an equivalent 2,500gallons of non-renewal fossil fuels per year and for every gallon of that gas used over 20 pounds of carbon dioxide goes up into the atmosphere.

The American footprint is excessive (32 acres) even by the standards of other where the quality of life is as equally “high”. In much of Western Europe the average person leaves a footprint half as large. By comparison… a Rasta family of 3 living off the land in Ethiopia, eating “some” meat, only steps on about 1.2 acres per person. ( Your average Albanian  only 3 acres per person). Ideally we should strive to keep our average UNDER the 5.3 acres Mother Earth has to offer each one of us. It can be done… but would be difficult and would definitely cut into the profits of the big businesses of the world… so it gets put off. The big mega corps don't want us to consume less... to them the definition of progress is a nation that has more and consumes more (re: is developed).  If everyone consumed resources and produced waste at the rate America does, even if the planetary population didn’t grow at all, we would still need SIX Earths to meet everybody’s demand.

Think Small

Vegetarians already have a much smaller footprint than the average American because animal based foods take SO many resources to produce. One hamburger patty, for example, requires more than Seven Hundred Gallons of water to generate from start to finish. Every time you choose a vegetarian alternative to one pound of beef, you reduce your Ecological Footprint by .02 acres PER YEAR!

But even vegetarians, who otherwise live like average Americans, will have an Ecological Footprint of about 24 acres – far less than the US average, but still more than four (4) times what the Earth can provide and continue to sustain herself.

The smallest footprint comes from a low calorie, vegetarian diet composed of locally grown, unprocessed foods. The average food item in the US travels 1,300 miles before it reaches our dinner table. The amount of packaging a product requires can be key too. Start “PREcycling” – that is basing our purchasing decisions on how the products packaging will be disposed of later. If the local “Recycling” center accepts paper but not Styrofoam, then choose to buy products packaged in paper or in paper containers.

Another key to reducing our footprint is to buy only what you will consume and consume all that we do buy. Americans toss the equivalent of more than 21 million grocery bags of perfectly good food & stuffs into land fills every year.

Personal transportation is where the standard American footprint really begins to swell. From 1960 to 1998, the average annual number of miles traveled by car per capita increased by 43% - and – there are a lot more of us today. Walking, cycling, taking public transportation, ride sharing, choosing fuel efficient automobiles (rather than giant SUV’s & trucks) and taking fewer airline trips shrink InI footprint to a more manageable size. Every 100 miles of  SOLO driving you replace with walking, biking or public transportation will reduce your Ecological Footprint .02 acres per year. Every 125 miles of air travel you take by bus or train saves you another .02 acres per year!

Is Your House Green?

Housing, particularly in terms of how energy intensive it is, represents another reason the American footprint is so large. Western Europeans footprint is about half our size, in great part because high energy costs forced Europeans to adopt energy efficient practices decades ago. Someone living in a well insulated homes, with energy efficient appliances (and heaven forbid – doing without a few appliances that have easily used hand operated alternatives – like a knife or hand operated chopper rather than a power food processor), double pane windows, small refrigerators, air dried clothes and eating a diet consisting of " occasional" local meat & dairy with lots of locally grown vegetables & fruit would have a footprint of about about 6.2 acres. If you ate meat and dairy a little more often, say a few times a week and used a slightly less conservative car it would be about 11 acres (which is Switzerland’s norm), better than the US with a 32 acre footprint (24 for vegetarians), but still not what InI need to get down to the world average allotment of 5.3 acres.

Making similar changes at home can reduce your footprint and save you money! The US alone wastes as much energy every year as two thirds of the world’s population consumes! Think about that… what we waste here in the US every year, could satisfy the needs of 65% of the rest of the world! According to the NRDC, much of this waste comes from poor insulation and inefficient appliances (also, much more energy and water is used to produce meat & dairy than vegetarian food).

Your refrigerator is the home’s single largest energy consumer (with air conditioner and clothes dryer right up there, they’re just not used as often much) The ideal refrigerator setting should be between 30 – 42 degrees F. Your freezer between 0 – 5 degrees F. If the settings are just 10 degrees cooler, your energy costs are a whopping 25% higher. The clothes dryer is the second highest consumer. Dryers that are kept in an already warm area (rather than a cold drafty cellar) and are operated with a clean lint free filter are the most energy efficient. A low flow showerhead not only reduces your hot water costs 27 cents a day, but also reduces your Ecological Footprint by almost one full acre per year. A compact fluorescent bulb used in place of a standard 60 – 100 watt incandescent will cast just as much light for three quarters less energy costs! Same light… just 25% of the energy costs.

This footprint concept is not something we can look at as just applying to one country… it has to be a world wide effort to balance out the areas that have a lot of land and few inhabitants with those areas with lots of inhabitants with relatively little land. For example: the US has a footprint of about 24 - 32 acres (depending) and we have about 14 acres per person of useable land. Switzerland has a footprint of only 11 acres, but only about 4.5 acres per person available. Countries with a negative ratio of footprint to land available, like US, Japan, Belgium and  Korea either take way more than our “share” of the cake because either we are consuming too much and producing way too much waste or the country is small area wise, with lots of people. 

Some countries that use less than the 5.3 acres allotment, like China with a  footprint less than 3.5 acres per person (but only 1.5 acres per person available), and India with a footprint only 2.5 acres (but only 1.25 acres per person available) still have a negative ratio because they are using twice the amount they have available simply because they have so many people! Some countries have a relatively small footprint and also have less population with much more land available such as Argentina (7.41 acre footprint, with 10.9 available), Brazil (8.9 acre footprint, with 22.5 acres available!) and Peru (3.5 acre footprint, with over 18.5 acres available). These are, ecologically speaking, the positive countries. The average Australian has a footprint much like an American  vegetarian at about 24 acres (rather large), but the population is so sparse they have almost 32 acres per person available. It is obvious to see then that the burden of balancing things out rests with the highest users of the resources.

Simplify Your Life –

Per capita income and product consumption in the US has more than doubled since my dad & mom raised us in the 50’s yet, opinion polls say the percentage of Americans who say they are “very happy” has remained the same since then. In other words more stuff does not mean that life is more wonderful. Meanwhile the percentage of Americans who say our lives are “Overstressed” has grown each year! The average employed American now works more than 47 hours per week and takes a scant two weeks of vacation per year. And even given all that work, more than 1.4 Million households declared personal bankruptcy in 1998, a figure that is sure to rise in 2001.

In my experience, many of the things that make life more wonderful require fewer resources. In the end, every dollar you spend, corresponds to the life energy you spend getting that dollar. We bust our humps for weeks and weeks so we can buy a ticket to fly to a faraway island to relax. (again: we must Redefine Progress , topic for another article).

We get trapped trying to fill our needs in ways that become expensive to our budget, health and the planet! In other words re-thinking your ecological foot print, might cause you to rethink how you spend your time, your energy and your very life itself!

The most revolutionary Earth Day idea of all is Zero Population Growth. Zero growth is achieved when each adult of reproductive age has only one child (two per couple). When Americans rationalize their choice to have more than two children by saying they can afford it, we're missing the point… the Planet Can’t Afford It!

Humanity is now adding fully over One Billion people to the planet every 14 years. At this rate the world population will nearly double in 70 years ( the average American lifetime). But when each child has only one child, then the population does not swell, and the struggle to live within our planets means is not exponentially exacerbated.

What to do…

Well, that’s also the subject of another rant session (see: “Post 9/11 - What Can I Do?” on discussion board), but generally speaking… perhaps the best thing we can do is talk about Symbiosis, sustainability and what it would take, what would be involved, the wonderful changes it would make in the “Quality” of our lives and how we might be able to get there.  

Says Wackernagel, “The most important thing people can do is to start to bring their concerns for the future into their conversations today. It doesn’t mean preaching to others, it means listening to others. Bring these issues up in conversations, not to tell people what to do but to engage them in an exploration of what kind of world we want for ourselves and future generations to live in”.

Bottom line is, if there is one thing we have been shown again and again, it’s that we can get a lot done when each and every one of us individually &  collectively wields our FREE WILL! 

One Love, One Destiny.

One Earth, One Chance!

Symbiosis.

Capt. Jim

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