Earth Day

In 1889, Gerald Busselman was lined up with hundreds of others on his prairie schooner waiting the signal to rush westward into the unclaimed lands of Oklahoma to stake out a place for himself.  Somewhere in the process he got turned and ended up at Rosalie, NE, to farm, fellowship, rear a family, and do church.

Every April 22 since 1970 is nationally designated as Earth Day.  I have wondered if the date was based on the actions of the many on that day in 1889 or on the action of Gerald, getting off course, and claiming land that was not supposed to be claimed on that day or in that area.  Just wondering if Gerald is the reason for this national day.  (OK, only some of the previous is true.)

[Wiki – The Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889 was the first land run into the unassigned lands.  The land run started at high noon on April 22, 1889, with an estimated 50,000 people lined up for their piece of the available two million acres.]

“Who Started Earth Day?” (History.com):  …Senator Gaylord Nelson, a Democrat from Wisconsin, was determined to convince the federal government that the planet was at risk.  In 1969, he developed the idea for Earth Day after being inspired by the anti-Vietnam War “teach-ins” that were taking place on college campuses around the United States. According to Nelson, he envisioned a large-scale, grassroots environmental demonstration “to shake up the political establishment and force this issue onto the national agenda.
https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/earth-day

The Omaha World Herald (04/18/2021) noted that Earth Day has helped or pushed the formation of the EPA, OSHA, and the Clean Air Act.  In 1990 the observance and cause went global which in part brought forth the Paris Climate Agreement in 2016 (President Trump took us out of this agreement claiming it was a stranglehold on the US while allowing China to pollute unchecked).  While I think these agencies and accords have some merit, they can also become dictatorial and given to overreach and have often done so.

Some thoughts about our earth, climate change, and this annual observance:

Our earth is God’s glorious creation that is now groaning under the curse brought on it by man’s rebellion in the Garden (Romans 8:22).  To mankind God gave a charge to subdue, exercise  dominion, and fill both the Garden and the rest of the planet (Genesis 1:26).  Thus, it is only right that we are both interested in our planet and responsible for its care.

Part of what brought on Earth Day back then was the massive amounts of pollution and abuse that caused contaminated water, unfarmable land, and smog.  I have previously talked about a large corporation buying up Sandhill land in order to plow and plant corn.  Well, it did not work so they are now attempting to get it back to native grass – good!  The land around Nevada, MT, was strip mined leaving large rows of rock with no viable future.  It is a blessing to observe the strip mining around Gillette, WY, that returns the land to a state very similar to its condition prior to the mining.  In the past, I have observed a brown cloud of smog over Denver.  There is no question we have not done well with nature and there is no question we are doing better.  Is there more to do – surely!

My concern is that with Earth Day there is a deeper or different agenda than just cleaning up our messes.  For most evolutionists, we exist thanks to the parenting of “mother earth” and “father time”.  Thus, for some this is about their religion and their god so they are driven to “save the earth”.  Then there are those who use earth issues to protest progress, pass restrictive laws and regulations, and fuss with too much population.

It should be our desire and effort to daily pick up and fix up both our own corner of the planet and also support clean-up projects and encourage better stewardship of God’s creation.  We should also not blindly follow all the Earth Day agenda and socialist bents that tag along with the movement.