Your Days are Now Getting Shorter, My Friend

Blackwater Falls State Park, Tucker County, WV

From an Internet Post by Michael M. Barrick, Appalachian Chronicle, June 21, 2019

Just before noon today (EDT), summer begins. For many people, regardless of their spiritual beliefs, the Summer Solstice is to be celebrated.

I agree! Because I love to be outdoors, I try to absorb every minute of the daylight. I welcome the long, yawning dawns of this day and time of year. I am awed by the transition of dusk from Civil Twilight to Nautical Twilight to Astronomical Twilight. I am amazed by the atmospheric phenomena that twilight brings — what our dad called “sky-blue pink.”

Yet, there is a lesson for us from the Summer Solstice. Just as today reminds us that from here on out the daylight hours get shorter, I am reminded that we are running out of time to reverse the causes of climate change.

Suqwamish and Duwamish Chief Seattle spoke with great wisdom when he said, “We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children.”

Perhaps each of us could spend at least one hour outdoors today meditating upon this old man’s insight. Let us consider how we can live sustainably — both personally and in our communities — for those from whom we borrow this planet for what is really a quite short time.

SOURCE: https://appalachianchronicle.com/2019/06/21/a-lesson-from-the-summer-solstice/

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See Also: Living on Earth: This Week’s Show, June 21, 2019

The United Nations is preparing for the Climate Summit this September, where many countries are expected to boost their Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs, under the Paris Climate Agreement. Luis Alfonso de Alba is the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Climate Change, and he joins Host Steve Curwood to talk about concerns and hopes of keeping planetary warming from increasing more than 1.5 degrees centigrade. (06:02)