Celebrate Earth Day!

Pat Hoertdoerfer
Children, Family, and Intergenerational Programs Director, UUA
Boston, MA

Earth teach me stillness
As the grasses are stilled with light.
Earth teach me suffering
As old stones suffer with memory.
–From the Ute Indians of North America
Singing the Living Tradition

Earth Day is celebrated on April 22, but this is obviously a good topic for any time.

The first Earth Day was celebrated on April 22, 1970, and from that beginning Earth Day has spread all over the planet. People all over the world know that there are problems we need to work on and this is our special day to look at the planet and see what needs changing.

There are numerous websites with a wealth of information for Earth Day observations and celebrations. Here’s a sampling of what’s Available for Earth Day and children:

Downloadable cards, crafts, music, stories – Kaboose.com .

Celebrate Earth Day with the Lorax – www.seussville.com .

Lesson plans, videos, books – www.educationplanet.com .

Teacher and parent tips, teaching tools, educational programs, ideas for celebrating the day – www.teacherszone.com .

Educational materials, lesson plans, websites – www.teacherplanet.com/resource/earthday.php .

Games, stories, downloadable bookmarks, postcards, and stationery – www.primarygames.com/holidays/earth_day/earthday.htm .

Lesson plans, work sheets, a story, resources – www.education-world.com .

How to Celebrate Earth Day – www.earthsite.org

Suggestions for individuals, organizations, and small groups

Every local observance of Earth Day will help its global purpose, to foster Earth Trustee attitudes and actions throughout the year that will benefit people and the planet. On Earth Day we get attention for solutions and bring to our task the joy of celebration.

The centerpiece of Earth Day is the March Equinox, nature’s moment of equipoise. This is the moment when spring begins in the Northern Hemisphere and fall in the Southern Hemisphere. At that moment (Saturday, March 20, 2005, at 7:34 a.m. EST in New York City) the Peace Bell at the United Nations will ring – signaling a minute for global silent prayer or reflection; a time for awareness that we are one human family, for heartfelt commitment to think and act as trustees of Earth.

As the Peace Bell rings at UN headquarters in New York City, it will be joined by the simultaneous ringing of peace bells around the world. It is hoped that every group observing Earth Day will ring a bell, or bells, at that time.

Suggested Format for Earth Day Observance

The day should be devoted to projects that will help the Earth Trustee agenda – Peace, Justice, and the care of the Earth.

Care of the Earth

Spring clean-up of the local block, streets, empty lots, yards and play areas. Planting trees, shrubs, gardens. Cleaning shorelines of coastal areas.

Discussion of the environmental impact of current policies and plans.

Discussion of Earth Trustee solutions for environmental preservation and care.

Earth Trustee exhibits about composting, clean energy, health alternatives, and reduction of pesticide usage through integrated pest management.

Education about how to shop, invest, save, and travel the Earth Trustee way.

Note: At the first Earth day in San Francisco, March 21, 1970, Golden Gate Park provided schools with shrubs and tree saplings for children to plant. The Red Cross delivered them.

Justice

Recognition or awards for political or economic actions that eliminate poverty and homelessness.

Discussion of Earth Trustee solutions for and the impact of impaired environments on neighborhoods.

Peace

Where possible, let people of different creeds, races, or cultures come together on Earth Day.
Celebrate, with words or possible awards, examples of peaceful resolution of conflict.

Earth Day is a time to look at pollution and poverty problems and point to attitudes and actions that will achieve Earth Trustee goals. Planners for Earth Day should print out and study the Earth Magna Charta and creatively look for ways to implement its objectives. For other ideas, see Earthsite.org.

The original Earth Day has always been on the March Equinox – an occasion when night and day are equal in both Northern and Southern Hemispheres. This event is simultaneous worldwide, which means the local time will be different in each time zone. And in some cases, in relation to the other side of the Earth, it will be the next day.

Prayers

Blessing Prayer for Seeds

God, Source of all life,
Who did hide your seeds in all that lives,
be present here
as we greet these tiny seeds
with their gifts of life.

Seeds of Life, so small,
and yet, in the mystery of death and burial,
you will produce life tenfold and more.

We sprinkle you with water,
sacred sign of life,
asking that you may be
embraced by our mother the earth,
fed by rain
and kissed gently by the sun.

In caring for you
we shall experience
the most ancient profession of the human family.
the primal vocation
of being workers in the garden.

Soon you will be our pride and joy.
Soon you will be our food
as we give up your life
that we may live.

Seeds,
Pregnant with life,
Teach us the Easter Secret of Life,
as we ask God to bless you.

Amen.
www.webofcreation.org

Earth Teach Me

Earth teach me stillness
as the grasses are stilled with light.

Earth teach me suffering
As old stones suffer with memory.

Earth teach me caring
As parents who secure their young.

Earth teach me courage
As the tree which stands all
alone.

Earth teach me limitation
As the ant which crawls on the
ground.

Earth teach me freedom
As the eagle which soars in the
sky.

Earth teach me resignation
as the leaves which die in the fall.

Earth teach me regeneration
as the seed which rises in the
spring.

Earth teach me to forget myself
as melted snow forgets its life.

Earth teach me to remember
kindness as dry fields weep
with rain.

–From the Ute Indians of North America
Singing the Living Tradition

Margaret Mead Statement

Earth Day Ceremony
United Nations
www.earthsite.org

It makes me feel very humble to be here today and to realize what this day means, because I have lived long enough to see us come to know that we have only one Earth and to come to know that all the people on this planet are one species.

This was a matter of hope and of faith before. Not until World War II, when we explored the whole Earth, its deepest valleys and its highest mountains and looked everywhere for the people that were there, did we know for certain that all of us on this planet were one species, human beings. And then as we began to go into space for the first time, we came to know that not only were we the only people on this Earth, and all one people, but also that Earth was the only inhabited planet in the solar system – that we were here, all alone to be the custodians of life on this Earth.

We used to call it, you now, “the Earth.” Now, We call it “Earth.” And we didn’t speak of a “planet” when I was a child. Sometimes we talked of the “globe.” But then we referred to an artificial globe which human beings had made to represent this Earth for them.

So that only, in the last quarter of my life, have I, like all those here, come to know what it means to be custodians of the future of Earth: To know that unless we take care, unless we check the rapacious exploitation of Earth, unless we protect our rivers and our lakes, our oceans and our skies, we are endangering the future of our children and our children’s children.

We didn’t know this, except in little pieces. People knew they had to take care of their own meadows, of their own forests or their own rivers. But it was not until we saw the picture of Earth from the moon that we realized how small and helpless this planet is, something that we must hold in our arms and care for.

Earth Day is to be the first completely international and universal holiday that the world has ever known. Every other holiday was tied to one place, or some political or special event. This day is tied to Earth itself, and to the place of earth in the whole solar system.

At this moment, when I climb the steps and ring the Peace Bell, it will be the Equinox in every part of the world, and we can all celebrate it at once on behalf of every part of the world.

Earth Magna Charta
www.earthsite.org

Prelude
The people of planet Earth have the raw materials, natural resources, and the technology for all to enjoy a life of quality. But they are still restricted by the evil that has dominated history. They lack the vision of the great future now possible and w to attain it. As a result, the world is filled with confusion and conflict.

This Earth Magna Charta provides the needed vision and the way. Individuals and institutions can now be trustees of Earth, seeking in ecology, economics and ethics policies and decisions that will benefit people and planet. In the present state of the world, this Space Age trustee concept has a chance of tapping the best in human hopes and aspirations and providing a healthy, innovative and fulfilling future for our planet and its people. In this new future, deeds will demonstrate what is best in creeds. Young Earth Trustees will lead the way.

Our Miracle Planet

In this Magna Charta we will consider what we have, as a human family, on this miracle planet we call Earth. To understand the possibilities and how we can each participate in realizing them we need to think about basics. Actions good or bad begin in the mind.

To plan and achieve the best future we must look at our assets and liabilities. Experts will confirm the abundance of raw materials and natural resources on our planet. (They have a value of hundreds of trillions of dollars.) There is more than enough to provide and maintain a healthy life-style for everyone, with more for those with greater ability and initiative.

This is possible now because of our advanced technology. A major problem is how to restructure the social institutions of money, credit and property rights so that there will be a level playing field where rights and responsibilities will be recognized and realized. The Earth Magna Charta provides guidelines to achieve these goals – – recognizing that people with different cultures and creeds will apply them in different ways. But all can warmly support goals presented here. Aided by the sense of connectedness and the spirit of cooperation engendered by thinking of themselves as Trustees of Earth – – all benefit.

Harmony with Neighbor and Nature

The people of Earth can have a great future by working together for a global goal can approve. Here is a basic goal that most enlightened people of every religion, clime and culture will support. Here is a principled purpose that will quickly reduce the terrible chaos and conflict that troubles civilization. Here is an idea that will bring ever- increasing harmony with neighbor and nature and bring peaceful progress in the human adventure.

The Earth Magna Charta describes the most important points of general agreement about the physical world – – and the common view of human rights and responsibilities that naturally follow.

Rights and Responsibilities

We are all members of one human family that has inherited a planet rich in resources. We each have an equal claim to its land, minerals and raw materials. None of us produced them. We all need them or what they provide. We all have need for their sustainable development and use. To assure equitable benefits every individual and institution should seek to balance rights and responsibilities.

The long-term goal must be to restructure social institutions so that there is equitable return for services, efficient balance of supply and demand, and fair benefits from our mutual claims to Earth’s natural bounty.

One possible way to equitable benefits is for those who own land, oil, gold, or other minerals to pay a 2% royalty each year on their income from these resources to a fund that will then provide the homeless their inheritance or stake in their planet. All will then join in responsible care of Earth.

The digital economy will make it possible to eventually replace money and credit, as we know it with new, fair methods of trade and exchange.

Global Goal:

Every person a trustee of Earth
Ethics and moral values
Metaphysical mysteries
How to be an Earth trustee
Young Earth trustees
Organization
Communications
Earth Campaign
Earth Day