Today is Earth Day (or one of them, the other being UN Earth Day, observed at the spring equinox in March -- saving the Earth is such a big job that we seem to need two days a year to do it). So I'm going to return to trees again.
One thing we see at this time of year in the northern hemisphere is all the flora starting to bud and bloom. The flowering of the Japanese cherry trees around the Tidal Basin and the Jefferson Memorial in Washington DC is among the first manifestations of spring, and it attracts thousands of spectators. This annual spectacle, however, also provides clear evidence of how much work needs to be done to sensitize people to the preservation of their natural environment.
One article on April 5 used a photo of a boy climbing one of the famous cherry trees. On the link, you can't see the photo (by Kevin Lamarque of Reuters) so here's a copy:
This is a constant problem at this time of year. Because of the huge crowds, and the potential damage to the trees, climbing the trees is forbidden, as are pulling blossoms or twigs off them, or getting off the paths (which compacts the earth). Not only are many, many people every year so oblivious as to commit these offenses, but now we have a major newspaper showing them doing it, as if it's a cute and fun thing to do. At least one citizen wrote in to complain about this ignorance.
Another item recently pointed to the same kind of behavior by visitors destroying the historic olive trees at the Mount of Olives in Israel. When an arborist tells people not to snatch branches off the trees, they ask "Why not?" So the problem is worldwide.
Maybe we DO need two Earth Days. Meanwhile, as I suggested earlier, wouldn't it be nice to have this date as an official holiday every year?
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