- Earth Day to be celebrated
By PHOENIX PSALTERY
Staff writer
Earth Day was first celebrated in 1970 in response to the growing awareness that the industry of humankind was having an adverse effect on the environment.
Now observed in 175 countries, and coordinated by the non-profit Earth Day Network (www.earthday.org), Earth Day is the largest secular holiday in the world, falling this year on Sunday, April 22. This year, Earth Day is being celebrated in Second Life as well.
The Environmental Council of Second Life and Bliss Garden Center have been planning this year’s events. SL Earth Day activities include presentations and information displays on topics such as conserving water resources and energy, global warming, the benefits of tree planting and environment-related art, as well as the ubiquitous parties (SL residents never miss an occasion to party).
PlanetThoughts Raymaker, known in RL as David Alexander of planetthoughts.org, is heading up the Earth Day events in SL. “A group of about 15 organizations decided to get together to observe Earth Day here in Second Life,” he said. “We started only two months ago.”
Raymaker indicated that some interesting new technology will be used for the SL Earth Day celebrations. Developed by HippyJim Starbrook, a member of the Environmental Council as well as a Greenpeace activist, this provides scripted green wristbands to be worn by attendees, which will help visitors to find the various events going on during Earth Day, including reminders and TP points.
The wristband will notify its owner five minutes before an Earth Day event is due to start, in chat that only he or she can “hear.” After that a message will pop up offering a teleport. If event times change the wristband will update with the new details automatically. They can also provide a link to the web page showing the daily schedule of events, a notecard with information and landmarks to events and interesting locations for Earth Day, and a notecard with information about Earth Day, including its history and meaning.
Asked how he became involved with conservation, Raymaker said, “Early in 2006 I started to hear and read disturbing information, not only about global warming… but also regarding other phenomena,” citing issues such as “peak oil,” a concept first proposed by oil engineer Marion King Hubbert in 1956, that says that oil production of any region follows a bell curve. Hubbert predicted that US oil production would peak in 1970. His theory was ridiculed for many years, until he was proven correct.
The effect that the drop in oil production could have on the world economy is huge. Plastics, fertilizers, transportation and heating are all dependent on petroleum. The entire industrialized world is dependent on oil in one form or another. Raymaker posed the question, “What will happen if and when oil and gas are so hard to extract that the price must rise to US$10 per gallon, or US$20 per gallon... who knows the price?”
Just the rise to US$3 to $4 a gallon in the US has had adverse effects. Imagine what would happen to the price of food if the cost to truck it in were to quadruple, or worse.
Therefore, Raymaker said, it is important to choose the best path to avoid a collapse of society as we know it. There is far more to the idea of Earth Day than protecting the planet by reducing CO2 emissions and such.
“These things need to be considered together to find the best solutions,” said Raymaker. “One of the best pieces of news I have been hearing is that some governments are now talking about a 60 or 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050. This represents a major change in thought patterns — it is a significant economic investment, so they would not do it unless they were beginning to see the severity of the situation.”
“Jared Diamond's book, Collapse… outlines the dramatic effects that specific societies brought on themselves through resource depletion — in some cases, total extinction,” Raymaker said. “While it is not likely that would happen… there could be a dramatic collapse of population worldwide, and in a very painful manner, if we do not address global warming, overuse of specific natural resources, and other aspects. And part of this is simply population control and controlled reduction of population by intention rather than by war, disease, and starvation… To me, this is the number one issue of our times, by far, but we are all, including myself, sleepwalking to some degree.”
In early February Raymaker began looking into Second Life, and it occurred to him that SL would make a good platform for sharing information in an engaging manner.
Luna Bliss of Bliss Garden Center will be providing the location for the Earth Day hub, located at a four corner sim junction, to help maximize the number of people able to attend.
Bliss’s projects in SL tend to be all about gardening, and creating beautiful, peaceful places. “That's my passion,” she said, “creating those types of environments.”
Asked how she initially became involved in planning Earth Day in SL, Bliss said, “I've had contact with quite a few of those involved with nature concerns here in SL, but this started out by PlanetThoughts Raymaker contacting me to see if one of my nature areas could be the hub for Earth Day.”
She said that she has never been involved in any RL Earth Day activities, but added, “I've always loved nature and been concerned about how humans can destroy it if we don't take some measures to prevent that. I'm so glad that people are involved in specific activities to remedy the [environmental] situation... however, my job is to create the nature environments here for people to see the beauty. Once they appreciate it more, they are more likely to participate in one of the environmental groups here.”
It's interesting to consider the concept of people meeting in an environment that only exists virtually to discuss saving the real life one.
“When you observe a piece of art, like a landscape painting — and especially when you try to create one — you come to love the beauty of nature all the more,” said Bliss. “I like to create what I call 'landscape paintings,' inspired from nature,” she added.
Bliss said she intends to continue being active in SL Earth Day celebrations in future years. “I appreciate how those who love nature have discovered my work and want to use it to benefit their worthy goals in RL… We see nature all around us in the real world, and unfortunately, that kind of familiarity can prevent us from really seeing it, if you know what I mean.”
Raymaker added that plans are going well. “Next year may be a bit more comfortable in the build up toward Earth Day, because we now have a good foundation, and good members. Fortunately, in a virtual world, some things move quickly… By next year we will have a head start. The Science Center was notified about all this rather late, since I did not know about them, but for next year I am sure they will have a lot to offer on Earth Day.We would love them to join with us, and share the effort, the resources, since what we have is free to all.”
The PlanetThoughts Earth Day website, which gives more information on the participants in Earth Day and a link to the detailed calendar, is located at http://ED.PlanetThoughts.org.