EVERY 22nd day of April since 1970, countries of the world have commemorate Earth Day—a tribute to the planet we live in. Numerous activities across hundreds of countries are organized to emphasize the need to care for it, and arrest its deterioration.
There are global movements with different focuses: protecting forests, advocating green cities, preserving species, and, these days, climate change.
In an encyclical released two years ago, Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church, said the earth was our common home and as dwellers in this home we have relationships and accountabilities between and among each other.
This notion of the earth not just being our home, but our common home, one we share with billions of other humans, is a good way to honor the earth this year and every year.
After all, when we think of home, we think of comfort. We come to it after a long day at work or school. We rest at home, think, recharge, nurture our personal spaces and also connect with loved ones.
And when we share our home with others we show our respect and consideration both to the people we live with and the home itself that shelters us.
We don’t clean out our room and dump the trash on our housemate’s space. We clear the table after we eat and make sure the dishes are in a location and condition where the next user will likely find them.
If inhabitants of the home live lazy, don’t pick up after themselves, the home will be in disarray, will be infested with insects, will be an eyesore, will depreciate faster than it is supposed to. It will need frequent repairs and might just cause problems when the housemates least expect it.
All these, seen in a much grander scale, can be said of how we make use of and should nurture the planet that houses us. These days, the main concern is whether countries of the world can do enough soon enough to reverse a runaway heating of the planet that will breed stronger, more frequent and more erratic weather patterns—not that we are not seeing and feeling them already.
Celebrating Earth Day does not require us to be scientists who explain complex weather patterns or activists who take to the streets and denounce practices that harm the world. Everyone can simply be a consistently conscientious, considerate inhabitant of this home we all share.