By: Juan Fernando Patiño Díez

Leader of Conexión Jaguar Program

ISA

The commemoration of Earth Day is more relevant than ever. Since its origins in 1970, when one of the first civic mobilizations took place worldwide, to demand from governments and society the protection of nature and its natural resources, requesting the creation of agencies and laws to control and stop the progressive increase of pollution that was already evident at that time. Among the motivations at that time were the contamination of soils and water sources, air quality problems, which were already affecting human health, as well as the destruction of ecosystems and the threat of extinction of hundreds of species, among others. Today, these problems persist and are becoming increasingly greater and unsustainable in the face of the accelerated development and growth of the population and economies. Therefore, a permanent call for the protection of planetary boundaries is increasingly necessary at all levels of society, and no opportunity should be missed to remind us of this.

This is how we must understand Earth Day as a commemoration of every day because it is not enough to take action on just one day of the year to protect the planet on which we live, which is ultimately what fosters life, both for the human species and for the other species with which we coexist, and on which we depend. For this reason, Earth Day could also be considered as the day of life, the day of all forms of life and this occurs everywhere and at every moment.

So much so, that a couple of years ago the United Nations organization itself elevated the care of nature and its natural resources to the status of a human right. Seeking to make increasingly visible the seriousness of threatening the human need and dependence on a healthy environment for the development of individual lives and in society, which will require an even greater level of care and vigilance on a planetary scale.

But all this could make much more sense if we begin to understand and become aware of what science and nature itself has been demonstrating for a long time, and that is that, as a human species, we are also part of an infinite and complex network of interactions of mutual dependence with the other elements of the Earth; that we are an integral part of the planetary system; and that it is the only one we have. There is nothing wrong with the message that a science activist recently went viral in the media with the phrase “we are nature defending itself”. And perhaps, when we as a society manage to understand the profound implications of understanding ourselves as part of this planet, surely defending it will no longer be a necessary effort, because it will become a permanent voluntary act of self-care in all spheres of life as individuals and as a society.

So happy and conscious day of that little piece of earth that we all are, may its protection be ours, that of our mother, who permanently gives and sustains life on this beautiful and unique planet Earth that we inhabit.