Earth Day: Time for Science (Maybe Someday Common Sense)

According to The Google, today we honor the rich, vast Earth that’s sustained generations before us and continues to nurture life and inspire wonder. At an estimated 4.543 billion years of age, the Earth is still the only known object in the Universe known to harbor life. It’s also the densest planet in the Solar System and the largest of the four terrestrial planets. That’s quite an awe-inspiring roster of qualities, if you ask us.

Furthermore today’s Earth Day has also rallied an additional movement The March for Science whose website indicates that the March for Science is the first step of a global movement to defend the vital role science plays in our health, safety, economies, and governments.

Who can argue with any of the above? Here at CASE a full service accounts receivable firm, we can’t argue with many of us being avid enjoyers of the simpler pleasures that only nature can provide; hiking, canoeing, cycling, organic gardening, fishing, hunting…the list goes on and on. Not only are such activities righteous, but also prove to be economically low impact on one’s pocket book, and good for ones long term physical, mental and spiritual health…important attributes for us in order to peak perform for our clients.

Today’s Earth Day, now bringing to our attention, the noble focus of science as it relates to all things Earth allowed us to recall some wonderful scientific numbers that were originally brought to our attention by Mark Bonokoski (Sun Media) back in the summer of 2016 to wit:

Canada has 990-million acres of forests, 370-million acres of wetlands and 167-million acres of crop yielding farmland. These are known as “carbon sinks”.  Biologists tell us that trees absorb about 2.6 tons of carbon per acre. So if you do the math 990-million acres x 2.6 tonnes per acre = 2.574 billion tons of carbon being absorbed every year. Now if you do more math: 36-trillion tones {the amount of world emission}x 0.0167 (1.67%) = 601.2-million tones. —  This is the amount of carbon that Canada contributes to the world emissions.– In the forests alone, Canada absorbs almost four times the amount of carbon that it emits. This means that the other three quarters of our forests are being sustained by carbon being emitted by the rest of the world. This calculation does not take into account the wetland or farmland that also absorb carbon.

We’re excited to see the new focus brought to us by March of Science. Many these days seem hell bent and focused on the idea that its money that solves all problems, including the challenges faced by our natural environment by way of carbon taxes (or carbon levies if that sounds less expensive to the economy).  Perhaps bringing science and mathematics (fully appreciating we get it, math is hard) more will come to recognize that money isn’t the cure to what ails us.

Perhaps the next step in the evolution to the ‘earth debate’ will soon include A March for Common Sense; frugalness, simplicity, contentment and avoidance of conspicuous consumption.  And the beauty of it all is not only will common sense not cost us money, it’ll save us money!  Shouldn’t conservation entail conservation of everything, including our wallets? Unless of course if there is ulterior motives to those promoting money (taxation, levies et al.) as the solution to earths challenges.

Furthermore as any theologian, irrespective of denomination, that is worth his (or her) weight will tell you;

When earth becomes our obsession, anxiety becomes our lord.