Info About the Earth You Never Knew

"Speaking of Yellowstone National Park, I remember a time before sex, when TV was innocent and when prime time TV was filled with nightly cartoons with the Flintstones, the Jetsons, Top Cat, and Yogi Bear and Boo Boo."

Just in the course of one year, decimated through the erosion of croplands, 200 million tons of topsoil will be lost. Mainly from forest fires caused by the carelessness of people 50,000 acres of forest will die. Due to solar heating, 40,000 acres of land, about the size of Boise, Idaho, will become desert.

"Speaking of forest fires, maybe if our government treated us all as adults, instead of kids, we'd have less forest fires. It's time to get rid of Smokey the Bear in favor of Pamela Anderson or Jenna Jameson or Pamela Anderson and Jenna Jameson dressed in sexy firefighting outfits to deliver us the message to be careful when out in the woods."

When the Earth was created nearly 5 billion years ago, we had everything we needed to survive and thrive on this planet called Earth. All of it is in the air we breathe, in the water we drink, and on the land we inhabit. Unfortunately, we still know so little about all the creatures, insects, and plants, many of which haven't even been catalogued and identified and some of them have already gone extinct.

We know so little about the life on the planet that we cannot even understand and even possibly conceive the damage we are doing and have already done to our planet, to the flora, and to the fauna. Each year between 20 and 500 species of life will disappear from the Earth forever. So? The strong survive and the weak perish. Unfortunately, we have too much to do with that equation. With our interference in the formula of the life of the strong and the death of the weak, we now know that animal, plant, and insect extinctions are happening 100 to 1,000 times faster than the normal rate.

Think about it. All that life whether plant, animal, or insect that went extinct, what was their purpose? We don't know? Yet, every one of them, was an important link in our life chain. Few of us, other than researchers and scientist, will care enough to do something about it.

"Sorry, but I can't help but think of Moe, Larry, and Curly, the Three Stoogies, being the missing link."

Miners and mining will strip the Earth of 3 million tons of iron ore, 575 tons of tin, 330 thousand tons of bauxite, used for aluminum, and 34 thousand tons of copper. After that recent mine explosion in Montcoal, West Virginia where 25 miners were lost due to negligence and flagrant mining violations by the CEO and owner of the mine, Don Blankenship. Not just an Earth Day fact is the reality of our need for fossil fuels, such as coal, that puts the lives of miners in jeopardy every day. Our prayers are with the families of the lost miners.

"It's another disgrace of our great country, as to how miners and other necessary workers were mistreated with little consideration given to their safety."

According to the CIA, in 2009, the world spent 3,000 billion dollars on military expenditures, half of that amount, 1,500 billion is spent by one country, the United States, up from 964 billion in 2008. I don't understand why we must spend so much in military expenditures in comparison to other countries.

"Yeah, well, every time some country has an outbreak in the world we get involved. To be honest, I'm tired of seeing some retired general, younger than me, making big bucks being a war consultant on CNN." Publishers will publish 550 thousand books this year. Actually, the publication of all those books may explain why illiteracy in the United States has gone way down. Presently out of 300 million people in the U.S., only 30,000, one hundredth of one percent, are illiterate, not bad. Pre-primary, primary, and secondary schools will educate 1.3 billion children. More than 100 billion e-mail messages will be sent with spam accounting for 40% of that amount.

"Actually, I double check that book publishing number, as being too low. Maybe this explains why I can't get a book deal. I swear, if I killed a station wagon full on Nuns, before raping them, they'd give me a book and a movie deal. Just as I'm sick of seeing retired generals all over the place, I'm sick to death of seeing illiterate people, such as the Kardashian sisters writing books and getting a book deal. Give me a break. Who buys their book?"

Earth Day, observed in 175 countries, is the third largest celebrated holiday and the largest secular modern day holiday in the world. A relatively new holiday, it was first celebrated on April 22, 1970 with more than 20 million Americans participating in the first holiday. Credited with creating the environmentalism movement, the founding of Earth Day was attributed to Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin.

So, why was April 22nd chosen as Earth Day? Some say that April 22nd was chosen because it was the day of a famous person's birthday, namely 1970 was Lenin's 100 year birthday or Francis of Assisi or Queen Isabella birthdays. Then there are those who say it was chosen to keep it within the relatively same proximity of Arbor Day, the last Friday in April, this year falling on April 29th, even though, officially, this year, Earth Day is April 22nd. Saint Francis is the patron Saint of ecologists. Mayor Joseph Alioto of San Francisco made the first proclamation of Earth Day in 1970.

"I don't know I just think they picked this day to celebrate Earth Day because it's nice out."

Happy Earth Day

Please don't forget to vote, make a comment, and/or add me and this story to your favorite lists. Thank you for reading my story.