The first #EarthDay was in 1970, and I'm old, so I remember it. Environmental awareness has grown every year since then, but of course so have environmental problems. It's easy to despair when we see the size & complexity of so many self-inflicted ecological wounds. But despair--

--isn't necessarily a natural reaction. Much of the despair we feel has been intentionally inflicted upon us, weaponized against us, because despair leads to inaction, giving up, and there are people - and more importantly, industries and governments, that profit from inaction--

--on climate change, species loss, or habitat destruction. So as sad as I get sometimes, I refuse to let despair color my life. I follow so many wonderful scientists here on Twitter that talk about what can be done to, at least, slow down the ongoing damage. Complex problems--

--require complex solutions, but complex is not synonymous with impossible. Doing something is always better than doing nothing. So don't believe people who say it's too late, it's too hard, it's too expensive, it can't be done. The truth is, the reason so many industries and--

--politicians sell you hopelessness is that the big solutions to all these big issues must come from them - and they don't want to do the work or give up a penny in profits and power. In fact, one of the sneakiest things they've done over the decades is to make you and me feel--

--that we - as individuals - are responsible for fixing everything. Of course, yes, we should all do our part. But while you personally cutting down on single-use plastics is great, that's not where the solution lies. It's manufacturing. It's the supply chain. It's the--

--political will to enact regulations. It's international cooperation. It's funding science.

We live on a beautiful planet. And while we are the only species with the ability to wreck the whole thing, we are also the only species that can fix it. There's no magic wand. We--

--won't be able to save every acre of imperiled forest, save every endangered species. But we can save a lot of them. It's all possible. It's not too late. We just have to have governments that will do the big things that only they can do, while we, as individuals, do all the--

--little things we can to help. And the single most important thing you and I can do, more impactful even than our solo efforts at reducing, reusing, and recycling?

Vote.

Happy Earth Day 2021.