It’s Time We Appreciate the Miracle That Is Planet Earth

On this Earth Day, it’s time we take a moment to appreciate the wonders of our planet and understand our inherent responsibility to preserve the only place in the cosmos we call home.

Earth is a closed ecological system, an ecosphere directly impacted by our many actions within it. All of us reside on the same planet, drink the same water, and breathe the same air. No one should be apathetic about the very world that nourishes and sustains us; we should revere it, cherish it, and take care of it as if an extension of ourselves.

So why is it that many of us don’t understand the importance of our planet and take Earth for granted? Maybe it’s because we are so entrenched by the daily struggles of our immediate lives that we don’t stop to think about the bigger picture of what it means to be an Earthling.

Just take a moment to appreciate how impossibly rare Earth’s magnificence is amongst the stars. Not too close to the sun and not too far from it, Earth resides in a proverbial sweet spot in our solar system. This has allowed our one-of-a-kind planet to develop the perfect conditions to propagate, harbor, and sustain life over the course of billions of years.

Are we alone in the universe? That’s a rhetorical question that has yet to be answered. Earth-like planets have been discovered several hundred light-years away. Whether those planets harbor intelligent life or are anything like Earth’s ecosphere is still something scientists have yet to determine from afar. And unless if we develop faster than lightspeed travel, we Earthlings will never set foot on any of these worlds to determine their viability firsthand.

Let’s face it – we’re stuck on Earth. It’s the only home we have amongst the cosmos. And on this Earth Day, it’s time we appreciate Earth for the miracle that it is. By acknowledging and coming to terms with this inherent truth of our wonderfully magnificent planet, only then can we commit ourselves to understand Earth’s uniqueness and how to save it from ruin.

A little over a year ago, the emergence of COVID-19 reached pandemic status and put the world into an immediate stasis. Unprecedented lockdowns were implemented all over the world. Our planet took advantage of the sudden suspension of human activity and replenished itself in ways that were eye-opening and altogether stunning.

The now tourist-free waters of Venice’s famed canals became crystal clear. With travel restricted, major cities were no longer blanketed in a thick layer of murky smog and were blessed with unusually clear skies, fresh air, and in the case of Los Angeles, the best air quality in decades. Wildlife wandered into streets as deer, mountain goats, buffalos, wild boars, monkeys, and even dolphins off the coast of Istanbul took advantage of deserted cities, locales, and waterways. For an all too brief moment, the Earth provided an explicit repudiation of humanity’s excess, giving a glimpse of the pristine oasis it would become if not for our intemperance.

As the world’s patchwork response to the pandemic loosened as the year went on, humanity reverted to its pre-pandemic ways. As a result, our planet reverted to its imperiled ways. This was exemplified in the latter half of 2020 when the Amazon rainforest was once again at risk from worsening perennial fires.

As slash-and-burn methods are increasingly applied to clear forest grounds for agricultural demands and the primary sector, deforestation is unavoidable if not an altogether inescapable fate egged on by our own indifference. Coupled with climate change leading to warmer and drier seasons punctuated by longer dry spells, the fires that have plagued the Amazon in recent years will only increase in their intensity and frequency.

Like a cigarette smoker who intentionally inhales copious amounts of toxic particulates into their lungs without any care about the long-term effects to their unforgiving respiratory system, those in power scoffed at the willful mutilation of our planet’s lungs as the Amazon was once again set asunder. In a year that saw the planet benefit briefly from human inactivity, it was brazen human activity that once again added fresh scar tissue to a planet on the verge of an environmental tipping point.

Although the causes of the many environmental challenges we face have been identified, we do nothing appreciable to resolve them. Quite the opposite, we only exacerbate the causes. The 24/7 news cycle that dominates our lives allows stories like the burning of the Amazon to trend only for so long before they are abruptly swallowed up by another calamity or something more intimately affecting.

And despite our best individual efforts for environmental change, the road to making the planet sustainable and undoing decades of damage is not something that we can achieve overnight. But the sooner we act, the better. As 2020 has shown, there isn’t anything we cannot accomplish if we set our sights on a common goal.

In a record time of less than a year, we saw a worldwide coalition of scientists, governments, and private industry band together to develop several viable vaccines to combat a novel coronavirus that put our world at a standstill. We unlocked our true potential through these unprecedented and Herculean efforts by using human ingenuity to get the world back on track to pre-pandemic levels. The job is not finished. There is still much to do. But the battle against COVID-19 has shifted in our favor. It is absolutely stunning what we Earthlings can do when we set our sights on a singular goal and set forth to achieve it.

We must make realistic and long-term investments to preserve our planet’s viability. With pioneers like Elon Musk emphasizing renewables and leading the way with technological innovation, local governments advancing goals for renewable-energy initiatives, and society wanting to transition to a more sustainable future, the urgency to preserve and protect our planet has seemingly reached a populist tipping point.

With these initiatives in place and even more conservation efforts being proposed, the long-term goals for weaning our society off habits and industries that produce corrosive damage to our planet have begun. Time will tell if we will follow through with these lofty goals, but the simple fact that these goals now exist is a victory in and of itself.

Many look to spirituality to find a deeper purpose in life. Yet we need only look at the world around us to satisfy our existential yearnings. Earth was here long before we were born, and Earth will continue to be here long after we are gone. Knowing that we are finite beings who have inadequate time on Earth should not prevent us from thinking beyond the scope of our singular existence. We must not be selfish but selfless in our awareness of our planet’s sustainability.

Just like how there is only one of us in the entirety of the cosmos, so too can be said of our planet. The planet Earth is in and of itself a miracle. This is not a statement born out of hyperbole but rather a statement about the inimitability of our planet. This is why all of us must do our part to protect and preserve this oasis amongst the stars we find ourselves privileged to reside on. In the vastness of an indifferent universe, Earth is the only home we have. Our planet is our legacy to future generations. Make every day Earth Day.