SPANISH VERSION

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That’s right. Another year has passed and, just like last year, here I am to celebrate a new Earth Day. Cause I just couldn’t let go of this chance that makes people, at least once a year, to start thinking about the planet we live in and the way we treat it, about the effects that each of our activities have and about what kind of future awaits this planets that hosts us and that, as far as we know, is the only inhabited planet of the Solar System.

So, let’s see… What could I give you as present this year? As much as I like Te.K.’s song, it wouldn’t be the point to repeat the same thing as last year. So, I searched for another song that I love and that’s also very representative. Here it is, for you all, “WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD” by Louis Armstrong:

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And, of course, the lyrics of this song:

WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD
Louis Armstrong

I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world

I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world

The colours of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shakin’ hands, sayin’ “How do you do?”
They’re really saying “I love you”

I hear babies cryin’, I watch them grow
They’ll learn much more than I’ll ever know
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world
Yes, I think to myself, what a wonderful world

Oh yeah

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During these events, a lot is said about how mean human beings are. About how little we take care of our planet, about how little we do to improve the things that damage it, about how much we abuse the goodness of mother nature. But if we read the lyrics of this song, we’ll realize that, at least to some extent, the world is wornderful thanks to human beings. To some extent, because we exist and we’ve developed it is that we can appreciate the goodness of mother nature.

But, in spite of the optimist view of the song, the truth is that we do more bad than good to this planet. Cause it is true that there are some ecologists organizations that try to protect the environment, to create conscience and all but, in comparison, their power is insignificant. And the sad truth is that all human activity created pollution, all new technologic advancement has an effect on Earth and, sometimes, we can’t even measure it right away but only some years later.

The other day, for example, I got very surprised cause I was watching a doumentary on National Geographic and, in those little quizzes they make between commercials, they asked “How long do you think it takes for one soda can to degrade?”. The options were something like 1000, 100 or 10 years… And I thought it would be 100 years. But it turned out that it was 1000. 1000 years!! ONE miserable soda can takes ONE THOUSAND YEARS to degrade…. If you think of how many soda cans EACH ONE OF US has drank in our short life span – compared to Earth’s -, can you imagine how many garbage we’ve generated only in soda cans? @_@ It’s astronomical.

This year has been quite complicated for my country in particular and for the world, in general. Now it’s not only about global warming that people are worried, which is usually seen as an abstract subject and that’s usually disorted in politics all the time. It is true that it is there but this year there has been a much more concrete problem that has made everyone be on alerrt. And it’s cause the energy crisis that has affected Chile during all this year has been truly dreadful. There’s no natural gas, there’s no enough electricity cause of the drought and still it hasn’t rained enough to make the situation improve a bit. There has been energy rationings and an energy saving campaing in general that has made everyone, including enterprises and government buildings, to cooperate. And that’s not an invention. The fact that doesn’t rain enough for hydroelectric plants to work, it is not an invention. The fact that last year’s winter was the coldest in a century is not an invention. The fact that has snowed in places where it never used to snow and that in the southern part of the country, where it’s supposedly old, people were dying due to the hot temperatures of over 34°C or more, during the summer, it is not an invention either. All of those are facts that all the people of this land have seen and that we cannot deny.

That’s why I get angry when people says global warming is only an invention to manipulate public opinion, that’s only a politics tool. Cause, of course, it is probably only that for many stupid politicians. But it is also a real threat, a concrete problem we’re living and that, day by day, we can see how it is affecting us. The changes are in front of our eyes!

That’s why today’s Earth’s Day isn’t just another day. It is the time for us to become aware and to try to do whatever we can so our existance becomes less harmful to the planet. Why? Cause it’s as simple as we don’t have any other planet to go to. Even though I love Jordi Sierra I Fabra’s “Earth’s Trilogy”, if something happens to this planet it is very unlikely that we’ll be able to find that savior twin star from the book. We can’t count on that. And, although it is true that the Solar System and Earth will find their end someday, as everything in this universe, the truth we MUST do what we can so that end comes by natural means and not helped by our hand. Since we’re the dominant race and that we take pride in that, since we rule over all other living things and we feel we have the right to do whatever we want with them, we could as well try to be a bit more responsible and not be as Agent Smith describes us in The Matrix. Do you remember? That scene where he has Morpheus caught and he starts saying that human beings are like a plague: they arrive to a place, settle down, multiply and multiply until they use up all the resources. Then, instead of trying to regenerate what they’ve spent, they simply move to the next available zone to repeat the same history. Smith says that, for him, that behavior is more proper of viruses or locusts and not for a supposedly intelligent race and that’s why he despises and hates human beings. And I think he’s right. For centuries, our behavior as a race has been that: to grow by destroying, to grow by destroying, until there’s nothing left and then we move on a bit and keep going to the next stage. As in Age of Empires: you send your villagers to collect stone until the pit is empty. Then you look for another and send them to the next and the next and so on and forth until you collect all the stone in the map and you’re forced to make fit your building intentions into whatever stone you have cause there is no more stone. Do we really wanna get to that point in real life? To that certain point when there will be NO MORE pure air, no more ozone layer, no more glaciers, no more pure water, no more anything? I think that all of us, at least, are afraid of what can happen if there’s a world-scale collapse and if the planet can’t keep up with our existance and our lifestyle. So, even if it’s only because of that, we should do our best to cooperate, don’t you think?

So, well, here are some interesting links so we start getting busy:

- Día de la Tierra @ Wikipedia (Spanish)

- Earth Day @ Wikipedia (English)

- アースデイ @ Wikipedia (Japanese)

- Artículo: Frente al cambio climático, menos CO2 (Spanish)

- Article: Climate change solutions: what to do right now (English)

- CambioClimático.org (Spanish)

- What is global warming? (English)

- アースデイジャパン (Japanese)

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And some interestng videos (none of them made by me):

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1XTcFokKOk

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iz8KI33ITnw

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwbkTQsV7vw

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Finally, I leave you this beautiful poem by Pablo Neruda, called “La Tierra”.

LA TIERRA
Pablo Neruda

La tierra verde se ha entregado
a todo lo amarillo, oro, cosechas,
terrones, hojas, grano,
pero cuando el otoño se levanta
con su estandarte extenso
eres tú la que veo,
es para mi tu cabellera
la que reparte las espigas.

Veo los monumentos
de antigua piedra rota,
pero si toco
la cicatriz de piedra
tu cuerpo me responde,
mis dedos reconocen
de pronto, estremecidos,
tu caliente dulzura.

Entre los héroes paso
recién condecorados
por la tierra y la pólvora
y detrás de ellos, muda,
con tus pequenos pasos,
eres o no eres?

Ayer, cuando sacaron
de raíz, para verlo,
el viejo árbol enano,
te vi salir mirándorne
desde las torturadas
y sedientas raíces.

Y cuando viene el sueño
a extenderme y llevarme
a mi propio silencio
hay un gran viento blanco
que derriba mi sueño
y caen de él las hojas,
caen como cuchillos
sobre mí desangrándome.

Y cada herida tiene
la forma de tu boca.

And, of course, my sloppy translation:

EARTH
Pablo Neruda

The green land has given itself up
to all the yellow, gold, crops,
clods, leaves, grain,
but when autumn rises up
with its big banner
it is you I see,
it is for me your hair
the one that is giving away ears.

I see the monuments
of old broken stone,
but if I touch
the scar in the rock
your body answers,
my fingers recognize
suddenly, shaken,
your warm sweetness.

Among the heroes I walk by,
they were just honored
by land and powder
and behind them, mute,
with your small steps,
are you or are you not?

Yesterday, when they rooted up
just to see it,
the old dwarf tree,
I saw you get out staring at me
from your tortured
and thirsty roots.

And when the dream comes
to cover me and take me
to my own silence
there’s a huge white wind
that knocks down my dream
and makes fall from it leaves,
they fall like knives
over me, making me bleed to dead.

And each injury has
the shape of your mouth.

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I hope you enjoy this Earth Day and that, from now on, each day turns into an Earth Day for you.

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HAPPY EARTH DAY 2008!

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