Opinion: Earth Day, 55 years later

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Long ago when we were young — the dark ages! — we had no environmental protections. Factories and power plants spewed toxic smoke. Our rivers were treated like big, handy sewers. Fish kills were common and some rivers even famously caught fire! Oh, for the great old days!

The first Earth Day in 1970 signaled the citizen push for stewarding instead of damaging our earth. We were among the ordinary people who insisted on changes — and both political parties responded, forming the Environmental Protection Agency and giving it power. Due to massive political effort, we can still drink the water and breathe the air — mostly. We agree that the protections never went far enough. We were, after all, holding bake sales to finance battles against the deep-pocketed greed of fossil fuel corporations.

More recently we have made good progress on the transition to clean energy. That’s true in Minnesota, nationally and worldwide. But now President Donald Trump and unelected billionaires, who champion greed and a short-term perspective, are gleefully slashing these protections for the water and air and working to reverse the progress we’ve made.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s administrator, Lee Zeldin, noted in a press statement on March 12 that “Today is the greatest day of deregulation our nation has seen. We are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion.” He went on to lay out plans to, among other things, reconsider regulations of power plants and the oil and gas industry; reconsider the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards that regulate coal-powered plants; reconsider the mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program and reconsider the wastewater regulations for oil and gas development. These are only a few of many pollution controls he plans to weaken or destroy.

We seniors, in the third act of our lives, are addressing climate change by calling out the catastrophic consequences of removing climate protections. Unlike in 1970, we now have potent alternatives to burning up our planet with fossil fuels. Solar and wind power are both cheaper to build and won’t destroy the planet. And we really need these clean energies right away! Our headlines scream of climate emergencies: uncontrollable fires, unfathomable floods, tornadoes and windstorms — all so expensive that insurance companies charge exorbitant rates and even refuse to provide coverage.

Surely you too have noticed the changes. We at Third Act Minnesota are channeling that inner anxious discomfort — not into lashing out at vulnerable scapegoats, but instead mobilizing to stop the plunderers. We know the original intent of Earth Day — citizens insisting that the life-sustaining capacity of our planet be protected.

Corporations won’t save us. They’ll look for ways to push the costs onto others, unless they are made to follow rules uniformly. Outrageously, per a recent federal offer to apply for exemptions, the most climate-damaging coal plant in our country, located in Colstrip, Mont., has applied for exemptions from the rules that others are following. What a perverse incentive!

We at Third Act Minnesota are reclaiming the original intent of Earth Day and working to stop the federal retreat from climate and environmental protection in every way possible. When we were young, we had elders beside us. Now it is our turn to stand as elders with young people. That is why we helped organize the People’s Earth Day march and rally this past Saturday where thousands, of all ages, stood together at the State Capitol on behalf of the planet.

Every day needs to be an “earth day” and we will continue to, in the words of John Lewis, raise ”good trouble” as long as our bodies and minds permit us.

Join us, in whatever way you can, as we reject the harmful policies of the current federal administration and work to build a future powered by clean energy. We want our grandchildren and all future generations to experience an abundant Earth.