The employee owners of Sun Light & Power encourage you to support Earth Day; the “World’s Largest Environmental Movement”, by doing something that has a crucial long-term benefit. The humble honey bees that pollinate the crops upon which we depend are slowly being destroyed by patented neonicotinoid pesticides, especially in areas where herbicides and fungicides are also used. You can help save the bees by supporting the Pollinator Recovery Act and the Endangered Species Act. If you prefer a more hands on approach, you can follow the example of many of our team members who have planted flowers/gardens, become beekeepers, refrained from using bee toxins, or volunteered to help clean-up the environment in general, particularly with the removal of plastics.
Two centuries of intense industrialization and fossil fuel use has transformed our biosphere by destroying natural habitats on land and in the seas. This prejudicial genesis has raised global surface temperatures, symbiotically fostered greater than exponential human population growth, and normalized a waste-centric culture that has culminated in a man-made global extinction event. Thankfully, education, technology, and necessity are generating hope and providing pathways to sustainable lifestyles as earth’s human population approaches 8 billion. We can live with – rather than at the expense of – all other life on earth.
After two decades of activism, and in the wake of the Santa Barbara oil spill of 1969, the name and movement now known as “Earth Day” finally took root on April 22, 1970. The movement blossomed when Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson (D) called for a college “teach-in” that inspired peaceful protests from 20 million Americans and led President Richard Nixon (R) to sign the executive order that ironically created the Environmental Protection Agency. Awareness of Earth Day has grown dramatically, and will be observed in at least 192 countries this year. As the movement approaches its 50th anniversary in 2020 it already has more than 1 billion supporters. This year the focus of Earth Day is to “Protect Our Species”, which as the title suggests encompasses all life on earth, from the industrious self-sacrificing honey bee to the magnificent blue whale, and of course us.
We encourage you to support Earth Day not just today but all year long. At Sun Light & Power, our team will continue to do our part by working with our customers to design and install efficient solar panel systems on underutilized residential and commercial roofs. Rooftop solar systems can generate safe, clean, and renewable electricity and hot water for our communities from the greatest free power source ever – the sun!
Seamas Brennan is a Blog Contributor, Researcher, and Engineering Admin. Assistant at Sun Light & Power.