The power of seasonal transitions

There’s something about seasonal transitions which reminds us that we inhabit a living world, even if we often feel insulated from it by concrete, glass and traffic. The northern Spring of 1970 saw a peak of environmental awareness which left behind several permanent markers, like sea-weed on the beach after a storm. Prominent among them was Earth Day on 22 April.

The magnetic influence of 22 April

Earth Day has ever since been a way to drum up public awareness of growing threats to the global environment. Thus the UN chose 22 April 2009 to declare International Mother Earth Day, and 22 April 2016 to open the Paris Agreement on Climate Change for signature by the world’s governments. Since then, climate change has been a major theme as public concern has grown along with scientific understanding of its causes and consequences.

Where are we now?

And so we have reached Earth Day 2023. It would be good to be able to say that we are well on the way to solve our major environmental problems, but we cannot yet do so. Millions have taken to the streets, whether inspired by Greta Thunberg, the Extinction Rebellion, or Earth Day committees. But we are still emitting many billions of tonnes of greenhouse gases each year, a thousand times more than we save. As a result of these and past emissions, heat continues to build in the biosphere, and major Earth systems are wobbling towards their tipping points.

Tipping points in Earth and human systems

We don’t yet know how this will turn out, but just as tipping points in Earth systems can creep up on us unnoticed, so too can those in our societies. Countries can have anti-environmental governments for years, while their peoples become more and more frustrated and fearful, organising themselves in little groups and talking with one another. Then, out of what seems like a blue sky, change comes suddenly and positive energies are released.

In the transition, on the cusp, or just stuck?

But such breakthroughs are occasional events in a broad and diverse trajectory of change. Some places are in mid-transition, with stable majorities that expect their governments to ensure high environmental standards and reduced net carbon emissions. Others are on the cusp, with widepread public support for green policies that are still resisted by those with political power. And yet others are stuck, rejecting climate science as a plot, or lacking awareness of global conditions, or worrying about what seem to be more immediate issues.

The transition that matters

Where does your own place fit on this spectrum? In answering, remember that the transition that matters is not a one-day event. Rather it is a process that involves overlapping lifetimes and myriad conversations, elections, lawsuits and actions that add up to a direction of travel. Particularly in countries with indigenous populations, the respect with which indigenous insights on ecological sustainability are treated can shape the journey.

Changing the Zeitgeist

It is this gathering of energy from all sources within a society that eventually changes the Zeitgeist. If there is no direction of travel, it can be started. If it has started, it can be accelerated and made more inclusive. And if it is triumphant, it can be consolidated and joined up with others. It is to celebrate this whole process that Earth Day was set up in 1970, and it can still inspire today.

© Julian Caldecott