April 22, 2025- We are at a point where it is felt, by the government, that it is time to halt “coercion”, in matters of the environment and caring for Mother Earth. The case is being made for individuals and entities to tend to matters, without “government interference”.

The last time this was official policy, in the late 19th Century, there was a moral laxity afoot and the emphasis was on maximum profit, with the attitude that Nature would take care of itself. The legacy of that ethos led to such things as the fire that broke out on the Cuyahoga River and the Santa Barbara oil spill, in 1969, which in turn led President Richard Nixon to establish the Environmental Protection Agency, a year later. Earth Day, on April 22, 1970, was the national public response to the catastrophic events.

It has been celebrated every year since, with some Administrations supporting a measure of environmental safeguards and others leaning more on the judgment of business and industry. The current Administration seems to be taking the latter course.

To be fair, business and industry of today are not as blinkered, or myopic, as their forebears. “Green” technology is viewed, rightly, as profitable, when pursued in a cost-effective manner and incrementally. Sustainability is recognized as being good for business, in the long-term. There are ham-handed industrialists and financiers, as yet, but their likelihood of staying in the drivers’ seats of publicly-held corporations is not a given. Many business people with whom I have talked are quite concerned about leaving a viable enterprise and a livable world for their children and grandchildren.

So, the long-term prognosis for our planet is not as bleak as it may seem, in the wake of climate change and the increase in catastrophic natural events. We have part to play in mitigating the severity of these events, and that means working together on solutions, which will neither bankrupt our economies nor add to the suffering of those already in the crosshairs of the storms, fires and quakes that are striking us with seemingly unpredictable regularity.

Fifty-four years after the first Earth Day, it falls to the citizenry to show Mother Earth our love and concern.