But here’s the good news: we can change that. And many of the best changes save money, reduce stress, and improve our quality of life. This isn’t about guilt. It’s about growing up as a species. We’ve learned, innovated, and adapted before—we can do it again. Together.
Start with what matters: energy efficiency, working smarter (hello telework), rethinking food systems, or just remembering your reusable bag more often. You don’t have to be perfect. You just have to start somewhere better.
April 22, 2025 marks the 55th Earth Day. That’s 55
years since millions first took to the streets in 1970 to demand a cleaner,
more just, and more sustainable future.
But this year, we don’t just mark the day—we recommit to the journey.
From Sustainability to Regeneration
Sustainability was the starting point. But sustaining broken systems is no longer enough. We need to regenerate—our ecosystems, our communities, and our approach to progress.
That’s the heart of my new book: Perpetual Sustainability™: Leveraging Regenerative Dynamic AI (rdAI)
There is a pesty parasite that is killing the monarchs in all stages of their life cycle. The parasite is called OE for short. It appears that with a warming climate, the monarchs don't migrate and the non-native milkweed doesn't die back in the winter, especially in Florida. This seems to perpetuate the life cycle of OE and negatively impact the monarchs.
Here are the recommendations from FNPS based on the best available science as to what to do. Mainly, rip out all of the non-native (Tropical) Milkweed, and only propagate native varietals.
https://fnpsblog.blogspot.com/2024/05/florida-native-plant-society-position.html
Florida Native Plant Society (FNPS)
Global Weirding for a Hot n Heating Planet
Gemini Advanced (2024, July)
Earth's Fever Spike: Redefining 'Normal' in a Warming World
In a stark reminder of the accelerating climate crisis, Earth has recently experienced a series of alarming temperature records.
The hottest day in recorded history has been surpassed multiple times within a matter of weeks. Months once considered exceptionally hot are now commonplace, raising questions about what constitutes "normal" in a rapidly changing climate.
What does GenAI have to say about the scientific-based
solutions promoted by Project Drawdown? ProjectDrawdown.org (Another take on Earth Day using GAI.)
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We employed our fav GenAIs to chat about Project Drawdown. This is the overview with the prompts. Please feel free to run GenAI chat with your own queries.
Q: Project Drawdown looks at the biggest places to make the greatest impact toward reducing human impact on the planet. What are the most impactful of these?
Q: What are the ways that someone of average income in the USA could make the most impact based on these top 10 solutions?
We employed our fav GenAIs to chat about it... and to generate some graphics. This is the overview with the prompts: there are two blog posts with GenAI chats: Part 1 and Part 2. Please feel free to run GenAI chats of your own.
Earth Day, April 22. See the OVERVIEW. This is Part 1 of 2 of the discussions with GenAI ChatBots.
GenAI on Earth Day 2024: Part 1
Q: What is the theme of Earth Day 2024? … And, generate a graphic that depicts this year’s Earth Day theme.
Q: Create an Earth Day article that incorporates this year's theme and include ways that GenAI might help?
Q: If GenAI were a world leader, what would it say about
Earth Day?
#EarthDay #Sustainability #RE100 #ReduceReuseRecycle #RegenerativeDynamicArticle #RefractiveThinker #SustainZine #ScenarioPlans.com #DelphiPlan.com
You: Create an Earth Day article that incorporates this year's theme and include ways that GenAI might help?
Earth Day, April 22. See the OVERVIEW. This is Part 2 of 2 of the discussions with GenAI ChatBots.
Q: What is the consensus on how
soon we have to phase off of fossil fuels and move to carbon neutrality?
Q: What are the key factors that agreements like the Paris agreement promote in order for the world to become carbon neutral?
#EarthDay #Sustainability #RE100 #ReduceReuseRecycle
#RegenerativeDynamicArticle #RefractiveThinker #SustainZine
#ScenarioPlans.com #DelphiPlan.com
YOU Q: Please generate an outline improved from the one attached that includes hyperlinks to each topic. Where appropriate include links to quality Wikipedia articles. Also, please utilize the WikiBook outline with Wikipedia hyper links by Hall from: https://www.sustainzine.com/p/sust-wikibook-links.html
I got my new best buddy Bard (AI from Google)
to help with two blogs: World
Water Day 2023: Accelerating Change on March 22 and Earth
Day 2023: Invest in our Planet on April 22.
But, William Shakespeare would be 459 years olde today (~23 April 1564 -- 23 April 1616), so I wondered what "The Bard" would have to say? On the comings and goings of Earth Day? The question asked:
I got my new best buddy Bard (AI from Google)
to help with two blogs: World
Water Day 2023: Accelerating Change in March and Earth
Day 2023: Invest in our Planet in April (this blog post).The world's population is growing rapidly -- blasting through the 8 billion humans on the planet last year -- and the demands on the resources of Earth are likewise increasing. So, I got together (via the Internet) with my buddy Bard to see what he/she/it had to say related to a few questions I had related to Earth Day 2023.
Earth Day is an annual event celebrated on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First held on April 22, 1970, it now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally by EARTHDAY.ORG (formerly Earth Day Network) including 1 billion people in more than 193 countries. The official theme for 2023 is Invest In Our Planet.
It is giving season, with Giving Tuesday coming up after the long Thanksgiving weekend. Now is the best time of the year to reach out to your Donors and make sure that they are thinking of you as they give thanks for the year and give donations into the end of the tax year. GivingTuesday.org #GivingTuesday
Black Friday is named such as a target date for companies to move from losing money for the year into profits: out of the red and into the black. Basically, if you paid all your expenses at the beginning of the year, all future sales after the break-even point would be pure profits. Thanksgiving Day, at the end of November is a wonderful target, that leaves one month of pure profits. Plus, if the last month of the year is disproportionate – like Christmas sales – that is pure gravy!
Read The EV Hurricane Disaster: a 1-sided scenario on our sister blog ScenarioPlans.com (also DelphiPlan.com). The EV disaster article analyzes a viral email that talks about how horrible it will be when a hurricane is storming into a population center and the electric vehicles are all stuck on the road with no possibility for charging.
The unauthored and undated email makes the implied conclusion that we shouldn’t go to EVs because they could be problematic in a disaster, stuck in a mass exodus from a hurricane with dying batteries and no place to charge.
 |
| Compost Week 2021 |
This question is appropriate because this is International Composting Week, May 2-8, 2021, with a theme: Grow, Eat…COMPOST…Repeat.
Some foods don’t make it out of the fields. Potatoes, corn, and tomatoes that are too small, or too ugly, may be left behind in the fields. In some cased, the farmers announce that the edible, but ugly, food is available for gleaning – all you have to do is drive over and gather it.
Earth Day 2021 Quiz (April 22, 2021)
Answers will be forthcoming today or tomorrow.
1. Plastics. Approximately what % of the US’s
plastic gets recycled?
a. 8-10%
b. 14-15%
c. 25-30%
d. 45-50%
2. Plastics. Approximately what % of the US’s
plastic makes its way into lakes, rivers, oceans?
a. 0.5%
b. 1%
c. 3%
d. 5%
3. Plastic in the environment (on land or in
ocean). About how many years does it take to decompose a plastic bottle in the
ocean?
a. Plastic decomposes in about 20 years.
b. Plastic decomposes in about 50 years.
c. Plastic decomposes in about 150 years.
d. Plastic doesn’t really decompose, but let’s go with 450 years.
4. Plastic in the oceans. Approximately how many
years before the plastic in the oceans will exceed the fish? (by weight).
a. Too last, plastic already exceeds fish in oceans (by weight).
b. 2030. In 10 years, plastic should exceed fish (by weight).
c. 2050. In 30 years, plastic should exceed fish (by weight).
d. 2100. In 80 years, plastic should exceed fish (by weight).
5. Manatees in Florida are dying at an unusually
high rate recently. What is the primary cause of deaths in 2021?
a. Boats
b. Cold
c. Disease
d. Starvation
6. The artic is melting enough that ships can
now travel through the Arctic to the North during the summer and avoid the
Panama Canal or longer routes? Approximately how long during the summer can
ships now navigate through the Arctic?
a) About 4 weeks of thaw sufficient to navigate in the summer.
b) About 8 weeks of thaw sufficient to navigate in the summer.
c) About 3 months of thaw sufficient to navigate in the summer.
d) About 365 days a year.
7. About, what percentage of the US lakes,
rivers and streams are polluted (according to US EPA)? (Polluted, as in no swimming and you should
not eat the fish, if there are any.)
a. 4%-5%
b. 10%-15%
c. 25%-30%
d. 40%-45%
8. Soil. The current “industrial” farming
methods deplete the topsoil. No topsoil, little or no farm crops. At the
current rate of topsoil depletion, how many years do we have before we “run
out” of topsoil? [Ooops.... Things changed... problems with this question... Well, with the answers...]
a. About 20 years until the world’s topsoil will be effectively depleted.
b. About 30 years until the world’s topsoil will be effectively depleted.
c. About 60 years until the world’s topsoil will be effectively depleted.
d. About 100 years until the world’s topsoil will be effectively depleted.
9. Extinction. Out of about 8 million plant and
animal species on earth, approximately how many are in threat of extinction?
a. 100K, 1.2%
b. 300K, 3.7%
c. 500K, 6.2%
d. 1M, 12.5%
10. Earths. Current estimates are that we
significantly overuse the earth’s resources (overshoot the earth’s carrying
capacity). We currently need part of another earth to be “sustainable”. But, if
the rest of the world consumed at the same rate per person as we do in the US,
how many earths do we need?
a. 2 earths (+1)
b. 3 earths (+2)
c. 4 earths (+3)
d. 5 earths (+4)
11. What is the depth of the oceans? (Plus, water
expands when warmed about 0.000214 per +1C for seawater, so how much would sea
levels rise based on a +1 degree Centigrade increase in global temperature that
transferred throughout the oceans.)
a. Average ocean depth is 1,000ft (+1C temp increase = +2.6in increase in avg ocean level.)
b. Average ocean depth is 2,500ft (+1C temp increase = +6.4in increase in avg ocean level.)
c. Average ocean depth is 1.2 mile (+1C temp increase = +16.3in in increase avg ocean level.)
d. Average ocean depth is 2.3 miles (+1C temp increase = +31.2in increase in avg ocean level.)
World Water Day
2021 (in the rear-view mirror): Valuing Water.
World Water Day (March 22, 2021) is past (www.WorldWaterDay.org)... By now you should have taken the Water Day Quiz at SustainZine. It’s been about 10 years since I developed such a quiz. I had to work to improve and update the original quiz… It is still tricky to get good answers to some of these water-critical issues. Often the water usage is available to the homeowner, but gets confusing as the data is aggregated for the state and for the nation. The more abstract uses of water, like virtual water, are erratic and imprecise. Important concepts, but the answers are fuzzy.
Later in 2010 Hall (2010) published an article on Lessons of recessions: Sustainability education and jobs may be the answer. (SustainZine Blog post here.) This article discusses the Great Recession of 2007-2008. Make no doubt about the pandemic of 2020, it too was a recession so destructive innovation has been (and will continue to be) the result.
IntellZine just wrote an article on how to Invest in the Future of Self-Driving Cars and EVs (https://www.intellzine.com/2020/12/invest-in-future-of-self-driving-cars.html).
VERGE 20 is on this week (starting October 26 2020). GreenBiz sponsor and coordinate this massive event. Anybody and any company that's got anything to do with sustainability is here. Well, not exactly here since it is virtual this year... But you get the idea.
