Happy 'Half-Earth Day!' Whatever That Is

Nick Kangadis | October 23, 2017
DONATE
Font Size

For those who think that one Earth Day just isn’t enough, here comes “Half-Earth Day!”

This is not a joke.

Get your “low flow” toilets ready, because Monday marks the first-ever Half-Earth Day. I would explain this to all of you, but I just had lunch and I’d like to keep it.

According to the nature/environmental website Mongabay:

The E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation and National Geographic timed the event to occur exactly half a year after Earth Day (April 22). But Half-Earth Day also gets its name from the biodiversity conservation initiative spearheaded by renowned biologist and conservationist Edward O. Wilson, discussed in his 2016 book, Half-Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life.

Wilson’s idea, which he says is backed up by research, is that we can protect 85 percent of Earth’s biodiversity by conserving half of the world’s land and seas.

You have to love how all of these climate change fanatics think that they can play God with the planet and control the weather. It's no wonder that the Earth Day Network calls the "full" Earth Day "the largest secular holiday in the world."

The problem with Wilson’s claim that we can save the planet if we simply conserve half of the land and seas is that 47 percent of the U.S. alone is already uninhabited, according to the Daily Mail.

Over the last few decades, the U.S. has made many advances in terms of pollution, waste and renewable energy. So while the uninhabited total area of the U.S. might have decreased, the methods put in place — recycling, renewable energy and yes, low flow toilets — have compensated for said decrease.

But no matter how many conservation methods we ascribe to, it never seems to be enough for guys like Wilson.

“The Half-Earth approach is not only science-based, but it will also expand fundamental science into new directions,” Wilson said in a statement. “The goal of discovering and mapping all biodiversity, and especially at the level of species, will lead to immense new knowledge in basic and applied biology.”

Science is all well and good in terms of discovering facts about different things that live all around us. But when the narrative dictates the science, that’s when people begin questioning the validity of the claim.

Since it’s called “Half-Earth Day,” do we only have to observe it for half a day? Which half? In some places, you’re only allowed to water your plants and grass at night.

Maybe it’s that half.

donate