EARTH DAY 2022

        From Worldometer (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):

          DAY  USA  WORLD    Brazil    India    South Africa

June     9     1093     4732         1185        246       82

July    22      1205     7128         1293      1120     572

Aug    12      1504     6556         1242        835     130

Sept     9      1208      6222       1136       1168       82

Oct     21      1225      6849         571        703       85

Nov    25       2304    12025        620        518      118

Dec    30       3880    14748       1224       299      465

Jan     14       4142    15512       1151      189       712

Feb      3       4005    14265       1209       107      398

Mar     2        1989     9490        1726       110      194

April   6         906     11787         4211       631       37

May    4         853    13667        3025       3786      59 

June   1         287    10637         2346      3205      95

 July   7          251      8440        1595        817     411

Aug    4          656    10120        1118         532     423 

Sept  22       2228      9326          839        279     124

Oct    6         2102      8255          543        315       59

Nov   3         1436      7830         186         458       23

Dec    1        1633      8475          266        477       28

Jan    7         2025      6729         148        285      140

       28          2732   10,516         779        862      133

Feb  2           2990   12,012         946        991      175

        24         1823     9,809         996        304        40

Mar    2        1778      7,756         335        173        28

         11        1022      6002         465           88       28

         16         982      5579          354           59       40

         18         721       5214         380           69       39

         23         771       4695         294           67         6 

         24         649      5008          300           82       33

         31          676      4287         276           28       44

Apr     1          439     4056          290           52       12 

           7          409      3554         253           44         5 

          14         331      3383         158           21       16

          20         408      3278         204           56       16

          21         299      3347           86           54       65

Summary:

• Yes, new deaths are declining in the U.S.  With 299 deaths yesterday, the deaths/million figure has dropped below one, down to 0.9 new deaths/million.  Our flu death rate is 0.3 deaths/million/day, so we still have a ways to go to reach that level.
• Outbreaks, though, keep popping up throughout the world.  Yesterday Finland had 50,889 new cases, or 9087 new cases/million.  The U.S. had 45,204 new cases, or 135 new cases/million.
• While China only had 2841 new cases, they reported 8 new deaths, a high for a very long time.  Mind you, new cases/million = 2....and new deaths/million = 0.006.

From the New York Times his morning:

As Michael Osterholm, a University of Minnesota epidemiologist, puts it,  a mask mandate with as many exceptions as the airline mandate is like  a submarine that closes three of its five doors. On the other hand,  research shows that masks help control spread.

The transportation mandate had so many exceptions that many Americans understandably questioned its worth. Travelers took off their masks to eat and drink. Some flight attendants removed their masks to make announcements. Some passengers wore their masks on their chins. The mandate also did not require N95 and KN95 masks, which are more effective against the virus than cloth masks or standard medical masks. About half of Americans have recently had the Omicron variant of Covid. They currently have little reason to wear a mask, for anybody’s sake.

Together, vaccines and treatments mean that the risks of severe Covid for boosted people — including the vulnerable — seem to be similar to the risks of severe influenza.

So what should the White House and CDC do?  

• You've already caused too much unneeded confusion.  Re-begin by forgetting all mandates.  Americans don't want to be told what to do.  
• Just let the public know that these Omicron variants are super-contagious, so for your own good, wear an N-95 mask.  
• For the elderly, get your second booster.  
• For the unvaccinated, you are truly vulnerable, and while current pandemic symptoms are mild to many, around 98% of all COVID-19 deaths these days are the unvaccinated.  Save your own life:  get vaccinated and boosted!

The truth is coming out.  Republicans are in big trouble:

• Utah Senator Mike Lee has been caught lying.  Just released texts show that while he denied being involved, he was in fact an instigator and planner of the Big Fraud and January 6 insurrection.

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  Similarly, leaked audio indicated that Representative Kevin McCarthy, immediately after January 6 called Trump feckless, spineless and a liar for all that happened that day.  Then, he got the heat from Trump and spent the next 15 months defending him in public.  He, and many other Republicans to come, might not survive all this lying.  Speaker Mitch McConnell is also implicated in all that.  What did McCarthy say?  Watch this.

The very first Earth Day was held on 22 April 1970.  The official theme this year is INVEST IN OUR PLANET.  

The catalyst was a proposal by peace activist John McConnell at the 1969 UNESCO Conference in San Francisco to honor our Earth, to be observed on 21 March 1970, the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere.  A month after this original suggestion, U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson thought a nationwide environmental teach-in should occur on 22 April 1970.  He hired Denis Hayes (who went on to become director of the National Solar Energy Center in Colorado), to coordinate the program, and they called the event Earth Day.  Twenty million Americans actually participated at this first celebration, said to be the largest single-day protest in human history.

Twenty years later Hayes went international and organized events in 141 countries.  On Earth Day 2016, the Paris Agreement was signed by 123 nations.  On their 50th anniversary, Earth Day 2020 involved 100 million people as the largest online mass mobilization in history.  The Pandemic had already started.

What sparked this monumental activity was the 1969 Santa Barbara Oil Spill.  Three million gallons of oil entered the sea, klling more than 10,000 birds, dolphins, seals and sea lions.  Nelson was spurred by seeing the 800 square-mile slick from an airplane.

That disaster also spurred enactment of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1970.  So far 100 nations have passed similar legislation modeled after NEPA.  Around this time the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland burned, sparking public interest in the environment.  Of course, most of the work on this legislation began in the 1960's, resulting from Rachel Carson's 1962 book Silent Spring.  

I was in graduate school during this formative period, and when I began teaching at the University of Hawaii, Environmental Engineering became my primary subject area.  Then came the First Energy Crisis in 1973, leading to formation of the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, which I directed from 1985-2000.

So what is happening and what can you do on Earth Day 2020?

• Click on the above and and find 52 ways to invest in  your planet and fight for the future.
• Become an Earth Day partner.
• Watch the Virtual Stage emanating from New York City's Union Square.  Here is the program, which begins at 1PM EDT, which goes on through the evening, showing you how to link.

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