When I was growing up, I didn’t believe that humans could have a significant impact on our planet. On this 50th anniversary of #EarthDay , let’s look at what’s happened just during my lifetime: (thread)

Populations of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians have, on average, declined in size by 60 percent in just over 40 years.

Increasing ocean temperatures have caused massive coral reef death. Since 2016 alone, half of all coral in the Great Barrier Reef has died.

Global temperatures have risen .3°F per decade since the 70s, and the current warming trend is estimated to be at least 10 times that of typical ice-age recovery warming.

Arctic sea ice has been in steady decline, and the earth’s great ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland are now losing mass 6 times faster than in the 90s.

There are more than 51 trillion microplastic particles in the sea. That’s 500 times the stars in the Milky Way. Those microplastics have ended up in fish, sea salt, beer, honey, and bottled water.

I worry about what kind of environment we’re leaving for my boys, but I’m hopeful because, unlike me at their age, they seem to understand what’s at stake. Happy #EarthDay