The Promise of Earth Day

Tom Pearson, Meteorologist and Director of The Louisiana Purchase Gardens and Zoo giving his presentation on weather and climate to the public, Louisiana Master Naturalists Northeast and Friends of Black Bayou, Saturday May 7th. K. Paxton photo.

Earth Day means different things to different people. How did you celebrate it this year? What does Earth Day mean to you?

​Click here for some uplifting writing Earth Day’s Promise – Louisiana Master Naturalists – Northeast (louisianamasternaturalistsnortheast.com)

Yesterday Saturday May 7th, at a public Weather and Climate event in Monroe, Louisiana where Meteorologist Tom Pearson taught me much more about weather and climate than I thought I knew (Thanks, Tom), Dr. Anne Fazer, LMNA member, told me "Earth Day is every day now for me."

I had to agree, it really has to be, for us all, don't you think?

​My thanks to Anne for the following material and Kimmie Paxton for the photos.

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Anne Frazer conducting an experiment by adding Bicarbonate of Soda and vinegar to an air-tight bag with a cup of water to which she had added an acid reagent.

 What do you think happened in her experiment?

First the baking soda degassed CO2, and the bag bulged with the extra gas, then the water absorbed some of the gas, the bag deflated and the water turned purple and acidic.

This replicates the acidification of our lakes, rivers and seas. Acid conditions don't suit many marine organisms from corals to diatoms and thus the current marine food web is threatened.

​Regarding the distribution of CO2 released from the burning of fossil fuels, according to "The Thinking Person's Guide to Climate Change, 2nd edition" by Robert Henson. Over the period 2007-2016, land-based ecosystems took up about 30%, Oceans absorbed about 24%, leaving about 46% remaining in the atmosphere. [This book was published by the American Meteorological Society (AMS) in 2019.

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​Some links for follow-up! 

1. www.earthday.org ,

2. https://clcouncil.org/economists-statement/ . This links to the "Economists' Statement on Carbon Dividends"

3. www.congress.gov : Enter "h.r.2307" into the search box at the top of the page (it's possible you need to specify the 117th Congress), then click the link for the bill "H.R..2307 - 117th Congress (2021-2022)." This takes you to the 'Summary'. Summaries are authored by the CRS (Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress).