Earth Day 2020: Let's Stabilize the Climate

Happy Earth Day! I remember the first Earth Day, 50 years ago – a time of great excitement, with people talking about how we must stop pollution, make the air and water cleaner, and keep our planet beautiful and livable. 

 

Now, the battle for the climate is sometimes a bit less visible. Back then, we could see that ugly pollution hanging over the Boston area where I grew up. We got a lot of that pollution cleaned up since then, and now we can’t see the invisible  >400ppm CO2 in our atmosphere – but CO2, the invisible climate changer is driving so many destructive consequences, including the disappearance of Arctic ice. 

The disappearing ice is a visible and destructive consequence, and a driver of further climate destruction - accelerated temperature rise - a destabilized jet stream, and rising oceans. I started Ice911 as a volunteer over a decade ago, calling it my “inconvenient hobby”, and my mission was simple – to make the planet more habitable for my two, then-very-young children.

Here in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the usual way of the world has stopped – or gone on a pause, a reset. And yet, there is much vital work that needs to continue. Doctors are still at work healing, grocery stores and pharmacies are still providing our food and medicines – and those of us working on healing the other pandemic – that of climate change devastation – are continuing to make progress, despite the ever-changing landscape of very sensible rules and precautions of sheltering in place to save lives. 

In this new environment, we’re working in increased collaboration through others who already live in key locations, like the Arctic, the place where our ice restoration fieldwork must be done. So we’re “Zooming” around, and working harder than ever while sheltering in place. Because once the pandemic is over, the larger, longer-term crisis of climate change will still be ongoing, and will still need to be addressed.

On this Earth Day, I am overjoyed that we keep making progress, despite all obstacles, in helping to preserve a habitat for humanity and for all living beings on Earth. I’d like to ask you to join us in making a difference for climate, a lasting and long-term difference for this precious home that we celebrate today. Do it for yourself, for all our children, and for all the living creatures who share this beautiful Earth with us. 

- Dr. Leslie Field, Founder and CTO