Introduction
When I think Earth Day, what comes to mind is people spending the day enjoying the world. I envision people spending time in the forests, swimming in the oceans, climbing in the mountains and simple enjoying what nature has to offer.
We can’t do that now. We can’t do any of that because this happens to be the second year that we spend Earth Day under a pandemic. It taints Earth Day quite horribly. What could have been a wonderful day of experiencing the world, is now a day to reflect of how we’ve damaged the planet and what we need to do to correct this sorry state of affairs.
Awareness
Earth Day gives us the opportunity to understand all the harm we do to the planet and what we can do to fix things. I am indeed very pleased to see that climate change, deforestation, animal exploitation, renewable energy and a whole range of other issues have become more prominent in recent years.
This makes me quite hopeful that we’ll resolve all the planetary harm we’ve caused. In fact I’m quite optimistic that not only will we fix things, but that we will chart a new course forward for humanity that will be infinitely better.
Since awareness is such a major part of Earth Day, here are a few documentaries that will certainly enlighten anyone as to the extent we harm the planet.
Documentaries
Seapiracy
Recently the incredible documentary Seapiracy came out highlighting how we have been ravaging the seas. I was pleasantly surprised to see it in hit the Top Ten in many countries around the world. The awareness and impact it will bring will be immense.
Cowspiracy
This documentary played a huge part in turning me Vegan. The solid logic and science put forth in it will convince even the most ardent denialist of the harm we cause. Going vegetarian would have been a sensible choice for me, but after watching this went Vegan overnight. Even though it’s a good couple of years old, it’s still incredibly potent.
Earthlings
Personally I haven’t seen one – I was already part of the choir by then. But if awareness has got anything to do with Earth Day then this should be one to watch. It highlights how broad ranged our exploitation of animals are. We exploit animals in sports, for clothing, for cosmetics, for food and for everything in between. The sheer scale and range of that exploitation is staggering, not only locally but globally. This documentary will open your eyes.
Other Documentaries to Watch
Veganism as the Solution
There is a narrative that exists that we should cajole governments, corporations and institutions to mend their ways and to pretty please protect the environment. I personally believe this approach is weak. We should never have to beg these entities for such an obvious consideration of not harming our environment.
What I instead believe is that every single man, woman and child, indeed every person has more power than they know. Everything we want we can have. But it requires us to make personal choices to affect the outcome we want.
With respect to Earth Day and protecting the world, the choice is simple. If all of us go Vegan, then we reduce green house gases emissions significantly, we can change our food system, we can stop deforestation, we can prevent any further oceanic dead zones, and quite importantly we can stop global warming. And all this will come about by simply going Vegan.
A Blue Green Planet
Earth Day beckons us to be aware of the challenges that our planet faces and to recognize the damage we’ve inflicted. But to truly be cognizant of Earth Day we also need to act.
If we accept that our existence on this Blue Green planet is at risk, then we should do all what we can to mitigate that risk. And going Vegan is one of the best things we can do.
Photo by The New York Public Library on Unsplash
Jae Subramoney 
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