Daniel Salzler No. 1098 EnviroInsight.org Three Items April 9, 2021
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Enhance your viewing by downloading the attached pdf file to view photos, etc.
The attached is all about improving life in the watershed.
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1. Celebrating Earth Day. In the decades leading up to the first Earth Day, Americans were consuming vast amounts of leaded gas through massive and inefficient automobiles. Industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of the consequences from either the law or bad press. Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity. Until this point, mainstream America remained largely oblivious to environmental concerns and how a polluted environment threatens human health.
However, the stage was set for change with the publication of Rachel Carson’s New York Times bestseller Silent Spring in 1962. The book represented a watershed moment, selling more than 500,000 copies in 24 countries as it raised public awareness and concern for living organisms, the environment and the inextricable links between pollution and public health.
Senator Gaylord Nelson, a junior senator from Wisconsin, had long been concerned about the deteriorating environment in the United States. Then in January 1969, he and many others witnessed the ravages of a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. Inspired by the student anti-war movement, Senator Nelson wanted to infuse the energy of student anti-war protests with an emerging public consciousness about air and water pollution. Senator Nelson announced the idea for a teach-in on college campuses to the national media, and persuaded Pete McCloskey, a conservation-minded Republican Congressman, to serve as his co-chair. They recruited Denis Hayes, a young activist, to organize the campus teach-ins and they choose April 22, a weekday falling between Spring Break and Final Exams, to maximize the greatest student participation.
Recognizing its potential to inspire all Americans, Hayes built a national staff of 85 to promote events across the land and the effort soon broadened to include a wide range of organizations, faith groups, and others. They changed the name to Earth Day, which immediately sparked national media attention, and caught on across the country. Earth Day inspired 20 million Americans — at the time, 10% of the total population of the United States — to take to the streets, parks and auditoriums to demonstrate against the impacts of 150 years of industrial development which had left a growing legacy of serious human health impacts. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment and there were massive coast-to-coast rallies in cities, towns, and communities.
Groups that had been fighting individually against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness and the extinction of wildlife united on Earth Day around these shared common values. Earth Day 1970 achieved a rare political alignment, enlisting support from Republicans and Democrats, rich and poor, urban dwellers and farmers, business and labor leaders. By the end of 1970, the first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of other first of their kind environmental laws, including the National Environmental Education Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, and the Clean Air Act. Two years later Congress passed the Clean Water Act. A year after that, Congress passed the Endangered Species Act and soon after the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act. These laws have protected millions of men, women and children from disease and death and have protected hundreds of species from extinction.
As 1990 approached, a group of environmental leaders approached Denis Hayes to once again organize another major campaign for the planet. This time, Earth Day went global, mobilizing 200 million people in 141 countries and lifting environmental issues onto the world stage. Earth Day 1990 gave a huge boost to recycling efforts worldwide and helped pave the way for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. It also prompted President Bill Clinton to award Senator Nelson the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the highest honor given to civilians in the United States — for his role as Earth Day founder.
As the millennium approached, Hayes agreed to spearhead another campaign, this time focused on global warming and a push for clean energy. With 5,000 environmental groups in a record 184 countries reaching out to hundreds of millions of people, Earth Day 2000 built both global and local conversations, leveraging the power of the Internet to organize activists around the world, while also featuring a drum chain that traveled from village to village in Gabon, Africa. Hundreds of thousands of people also gathered on the National Mall in Washington, DC for a First Amendment Rally.
30 years on, Earth Day 2000 sent world leaders a loud and clear message: Citizens around the world wanted quick and decisive action on global warming and clean energy.Today, Earth Day is widely recognized as the largest secular observance in the world, marked by more than a billion people every year as a day of action to change human behavior and create global, national and local policy changes.
Now, the fight for a clean environment continues with increasing urgency, as the ravages of climate change become more and more apparent every day.
As the awareness of our climate crisis grows, so does civil society mobilization, which is reaching a fever pitch across the globe today. Disillusioned by the low level of ambition following the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015 and frustrated with international environmental lethargy, citizens of the world are rising up to demand far greater action for our planet and its people.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cwnkw5pnG38
The social and cultural environments we saw in 1970 are rising up again today — a fresh and frustrated generation of young people are refusing to settle for platitudes, instead taking to the streets by the millions to demand a new way forward. Digital and social media are bringing these conversations, protests, strikes and mobilizations to a global audience, uniting a concerned citizenry as never before and catalyzing generations to join together to take on the greatest challenge that humankind has faced.
By tapping into some of the learnings, outcomes, and legacy of the first Earth Day, EARTHDAY.ORG is building a cohesive, coordinated, diverse movement, one that goes to the very heart of what EARTHDAY.ORG and Earth Day are all about — empowering individuals with the information, the tools, the messaging and the communities needed to make an impact and drive change.|
We invite you to be a part of Earth Day and help write many more chapters—struggles and victories—into the Earth Day book.
EARTHDAY.ORG is honored that the Biden Administration has decided to convene a global climate summit on Earth Day 2021. Many important environmental events have happened on Earth Day since 1970, including the recent signing of the Paris Agreement, as Earth Day continues to be a momentous and unifying day each and every year.
2. How to Stay Safe During Rattlesnake Season in Arizona. As the 13 species of rattlesnakes found in Arizona start to slither out of their winter hibernation dens to enjoy the hot season in metro Phoenix, be aware that you could encounter a rattler on the trail or even in your backyard.
However, there’s no need to panic. With a little bit of knowledge and a few common sense precautions, you can head outside with confidence and facts that might just save your life.
Here’s what to know about rattlesnake season in Arizona:
The president of the Phoenix Herpetological Society, which promotes conservation of native and nonnative reptiles, says rattlesnakes’ activity is entirely temperature driven.
“Snakes don’t have a calendar,” Russ Johnson said. “Once it gets warm out, they are coming out.”
Rattlesnakes in Arizona are most active from March through October and typically can be seen during the day. In the winter and early spring, they hibernate underground, under rock piles or in mammal-made burrows to avoid freezing temperatures.
According to the Arizona Game and Fish Department, rattlesnakes live only in the Americas. There are 36 rattlesnake species, 13 of which are present in Arizona. That’s the most species in any state. The rattlesnakes most commonly seen in Arizona are the Mojave, black-tailed and Western diamondback species.
How do you identify a rattlesnake?
Rattlesnakes have triangular-shaped heads and their distinguishing feature is the “rattle” found at the tips of their tails. It is used to alert potential predators and distract prey.
The rattle looks like multiple layers of scales stacked on top of one another. When the rattle moves or contracts, the scales of the rattle hit each other and make the distinctive sound. Rattlesnakes also hiss as a warning sign.
Are rattlesnakes poisonous?
Rattlesnakes are venomous and their venom is composed mainly of hemotoxic elements. According to Infoplease.com, hemotoxins puncture the blood vessels, causing hemorrhaging and tissue damage and destroying red blood cells. However, rattlesnake bites are rarely fatal unless they are left untreated.
What to do if you encounter a rattlesnake on the trail
Rattlesnakes don’t want to bite you, Johnson said, but they will defend themselves if they feel threatened.
“If you’re on the trail, you don’t need to be worried at all as long as you keep your eyes open and don’t put your hands and your feet where you can’t see them. If you see a snake, don’t go near it. Just go around it. if you do that, it’s impossible to be bitten,” he said.
“Most bites occur when people go into the brush. Snakes have no ears; they can’t hear you coming. People are usually touching rocks or putting their hands and feet on the other side of the trail, which is where bites happen.”
Here’s how many people have been bitten by rattlesnakes in Maricopa County in the past three years, according to the Banner Poison & Drug Information Center in Phoenix:
2018: 88. 2019: 95. 2020: 90.
Rattlesnake safety tips for hikers
- Stay on the trail.
- If you see a snake, do not panic or throw rocks at it. Distance yourself from it.
- Warn others on the trail about where you saw the snake.
- If bitten, stay calm and call 911 or the Poison Control Centers hotline at 800-222-1222.
- Do not make any incision on the affected area.
- Remove tight clothing to help prevent the affected area from swelling.
- Keep the bitten area below the level of your heart to avert the venom from going to your heart.
- Stay still to decrease the chance of the venom circulating around your body.
For more tips on how to handle a rattlesnake bite, visit: https://www.azgfd.com.
How to keep snakes out of your yard and house
Snakes seek warm places to hide. Likely spots in your yard include tall grass, rock piles, firewood piles and other debris. They also can sneak through tiny openings to get into your garage, shed or house.
If you find a rattlesnake in your yard or garage, do not attack it. Call a professional to remove it, and secure your pets until it’s gone. Call your local fire department, a professional removal service or a nonprofit such as the Phoenix Herpetological Society at 602-550-1090. Be aware that there can be a removal fee.
Russ Johnson offers these suggestions for keeping rattlesnakes out of your home and yard:
- Do not leave food scraps outdoors because they attract rodents, which are the primary food of rattlesnakes.
- Do not leave bird feeders out, as birds may spill their seeds on the ground, which also attracts rodents.
- Make sure to build all gates to below the surface of the ground. This will help keep rattlesnakes out.
- Keep your yard free of clutter and brush that could be attractive for a rattlesnake to hibernate in.
- Inspect your home and fence or block wall for possible entry points that a snake could use and seal any openings.
- NATIONAL MAYORS’ CHALLENGE FOR WATER CONSERVATION – Throughout the rest of April, residents in cities across the nation are pledging to save water and other natural resources in a friendly competition to win eco-friendly prizes. Winning cities are those with the highest percentage of residents participating in the challenge. Prizes include a grand prize of $3,000 in utility payments, “Green Your Home” cleaning kits, water-saving fixtures, and more. In addition, a community charity can win a Toyota Highlander Hybrid. As of today, Tucson is in first place in its population category (300,000-599,999 people). Make your water-saving pledge at the link below. Wyland National Mayors’ Challenge for Water Conservation
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