Yesterday was Earth Day, long live Mother Earth! Well, in order for that to happen is for us humans to stop polluting the planet and doing amends with our mother Earth.

What is Earth Day?

Earth Day — April 22 — each year marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970.

Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, proposed the first nationwide environmental protest “to shake up the political establishment and force this issue onto the national agenda. ” “It was a gamble,” he recalls, “but it worked.”

Earth Day 1970 turned that all around.

On April 22, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment. Denis Hayes, the national coordinator, and his youthful staff organized massive coast-to-coast rallies. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values. Earth Day 1970 achieved a rare political alignment, enlisting support from Republicans and Democrats, rich and poor, city slickers and farmers, tycoons and labor leaders. The first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species acts.

Earth Day 1990

As 1990 approached, a group of environmental leaders asked Denis Hayes to organize another big campaign. This time, Earth Day went global, mobilizing 200 million people in 141 countries and lifting the status of environmental issues on to the world stage.Earth Day 1990 gave a huge boost to recycling efforts worldwide and helped pave the way for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

Earth Day 2000

As the millennium approached, Hayes agreed to spearhead another campaign, this time focused on global warming and a push for clean energy. Earth Day 2000 combined the big-picture feistiness of the first Earth Day with the international grassroots activism of Earth Day 1990. For 2000, Earth Day had the Internet to help link activists around the world. By the time April 22 rolled around, 5,000 environmental groups around the world were on board, reaching out to hundreds of millions of people in a record 184 countries.

Sonnie’s Porch has a good selection of links to blogs and sites celebrating or giving their share in reminding us that Earth Day has just went by and what have we done in relation to it?

His observation struck me, very few Pinoy bloggers have blogged about celebrating Earth Day. Tsk tsk tsk, we may be up to date with what our friends are doing on Twitter or what they’ve blogged about tru our feed readers but when it comes to being friendly to mother Earth, where are we?

I envy the great Mike Abundo for his blog is hosted on a host that is not only reliable and delivers great service, it is also now carbon-neutral.

For those who still ignore or take the environmental issue, particularly climate change and global warming, think twice, wake up and act now. Why? Well our country is now in danger of loosing much of its coastlines to the seas and oceans if we don’t do anything to take care of our environment. Yes, Metro Manila, well parts of it may soon be underwater in the next few decades. Believe it or not, but you better, read it all here.

More on this in the coming days for now I’ll share a song that has been one of my personal favorites since highschool during the time I turned towards the Left-of-center, with a particular shade of green. I always wanted to physically join Greenpeace but school and other more important things have always taken priority.

This song is quite old, it was composed by Noel Cabangon, the same artist who composed “Kanlungan.’ Of all the songs made by Buklod, this particular one strikes two birds with one stone. At first hearing it is obviously dedicated to Mother Earth, playing it again and paying it more attention, you’d soon realize it’s not just for Mother Earth, it is for everyone who has been tired of being oppressed, taken advantage, has been in struggle for so long, or simply made to suffer. In it’s simple yet profoundly powerful lyrics and soul-touching music, this song will take away all those suffering and heavy burden, at least for the moment.

This song is entitled, “Oyayi sa Mundo” which means a lullaby to Mother Earth.

Oyayi Sa Mundo

Aking mundo, ihimlay ang pagal mong katawan
Sa duyan ng kalawakan
Hayaang maghilom ang mga sugat sa iyong dibdib
Na likha ng mga tao
At itigil ng isang saglit ang iyong paggalaw
Pagkat sa muli mong pag-inog ay may bago nang buhay

At itigil ng isang saglit ang iyong paggalaw
Pagkat sa muli mong pag-inog ay may bago nang buhay
Aking mundo, ihimlay ang pagal mong katawan
Sa duyan ng kalawakan

Listen and I hope the song would inspire us all to do something to save our planet.

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