Earthling

Attention, alien invaders: Come back tomorrow...

[ posted by One Who Webs Weirdly ]

...because today is Earth Day! Woo hoo! Let's hear it for the Blue Planet! All together now: We're Number Three! We're Number Three!

Okay, you're confused. Isn't April 22 Earth Day? The answer is: Yes. But today was Earth Day first.

Iowa-born peace activist John McConnell first came up with the idea of a day to honor our whole planet in 1969. The concept was simple: to institute the first global holiday, when everyone on earth could strive for "harmony with nature and neighbors." McConnell chose the spring equinox -- a practical choice, for the first day of spring has long symbolized the bloom of fresh life and new beginnings. What's more, the equinox is an objective, nonsectarian date that's based on a regular astronomical occurrence: the annual transition from night being longer than day, to day being longer than night, as the tilted Earth reaches the halfway point of its orbit.

McConnell won fans for the idea. On March 21, 1970, the mayor of San Francisco proclaimed Earth Day in the city -- and, one year later, U.N. Secretary-General U Thant officially declared the same for all the United Nations. Which, you'd think, would do the trick.

But meanwhile, U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, an ardent environmentalist, was organizing a national environmental teach-in on April 22, 1970. The event, also dubbed Earth Day, proved to be such a popular success in schools and universities across America that Nelson announced it would be repeated annually.

So, there you have it. The vernal equinox is the globally sanctioned Earth Day because of science and logic, and April 22 is the American-observed Earth Day because of the arbitrary happenstance of a marketing campaign -- albeit a very worthwhile one.

Here at Earthling, our attitude is, the more Earth Days the better! So as of today, our CafePress store is offering T-shirts and mousepads emblazoned with the unofficial flag of Earth, designed in 1970 by Illinois farmer James Cadle. (Wow -- Earth Day was invented by an Iowan, the Earth flag by an Illinoisan... so much for the dumb idea that rural Midwesterners are all stereotypical "red-staters," eh?) Cadle passed away in 2004, but not before officially bequeathing his beautifully simple design to the public domain. So we want to spread it as far and wide as possible -- a bold graphical representation that we're all earthlings together on this spinning blue ball, and we should take the time to remember that before we fight with each other.

Better to get used to that idea now, before the alien invaders do come.

20 March 2006 at 1:40 PM | permalink | 3 comments

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