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In 1970, 20 million people celebrated Earth Day. Since then, Earth Day has become many things evoking many emotions. Many groups gather to point fingers at the wrongs that we, as a society, have done to our Mother Earth.
Some gather to educate the message of conservation. Some misguided souls use it to gather in protest and to foster misinformation against progress in creating healthful green space.
Yes, Earth Day is a political forum more so than worship for this 3rd rock from the sun.
Our urban/suburban environment can and will never be pristine ever again. However, people in our green industry help to create oasis after oasis where nature adds to man’s creations, with visits of thrush and fawn. Think of award-winning landscapes, horticultural estates, places such as Longwood Gardens, Winterthur New York Botanical Gardens to name a few.
Think of those grand neighborhoods that many landscapes add to the local flavor. Think of your grandfather’s garden. Imagine any verdant manors in your region that show man’s influence over mother’s great land.
Can you not see that these users of fertilizers and pesticides love our Mother Earth and wish to nurture and protect it from destruction and decay? Do you not realize that these spaces are created by hunters and fishers? These people work in the outdoors because they love the outdoors.
I will celebrate Earth Day by first contemplating the blessings of our good Earth, and by thanking the Lord for placing me on this not so fragile orb; for creating me in the manifestation of a being that can alter my local environment to my liking. I will thank her (Mother Earth) for allowing me the opportunities of education and mankind’s progress in developing technologies so beneficial that we ignored the risks until the risks overwhelmed us all.
I will awake to the sobering thought that about 50 years ago our urban environment was far more poisoned than it is now, to the point that our rivers caught fire and species dwindled. I may even thank the almighty enlightener for all of this environmental awareness that helped clean our rivers and clarified our air.
I will thank Mother Earth for science that gave us unimaginable benefits, and later showed risks that needed correction. I will thank the good mother for allowing us to make corrections to our environmental wrongs. I will thank her for allowing us to discover stewardship. I will thank her for benefit and risk.
But once my prayer is done, I will promote the benefits of what we do. And I will practice and promote stewardship.
Our green industry creates jobs, creates green spaces that slow erosion, that traps particulate pollution, shades and cools the environment, replenishes oxygen, builds healthy soils, digests pollutants, adds to relaxation and mental health, inspires creativity and protects our urban surroundings from further decay.
Yes, we use pesticides. And the list now is safer than it was years ago. Many of our products that we now use have less risk associated with their use than many household products. We can thank environmental awareness. We can thank science.
We now practice integrated pest management (IPM) and evaluate the need for a properly targeted pesticide application. However, some misguided souls like to redefine what IPM means to eliminate pesticides entirely. Do they think we want to purchase and want only to misuse costly resources? How do they think the whole concept of IPM got started?
IPM is not to eliminate pesticides. IPM began to evaluate the best economic method of controlling the pest to below damaging thresholds. IPM is to control pests to nonthreatening levels by scouting, monitoring, addressing cultural methods and using biological and chemical tools to protect the host from the pest.
So this Earth Day (and everyday), I will stand for the proper definition of IPM and the right to judiciously apply pesticide products. I will promote the benefits of our great green industry. And I will help our industry create and maintain urban and suburban green space.
That’s how I’ll celebrate Earth Day!
The author is vice-president of the New Jersey Green Industry Council. He’s also the northern territory manager for United Phosphorus.
