The first Earth Day was organized 50 years ago on April 22, 1970, giving birth to the modern environmental movement and engaging more than 190 countries and a billion people worldwide in environmental advocacy. On the occasion of this important anniversary, Earth Stanzas has been launched, eight poems that engage the beauty, depth, and interconnectedness of the Earth and invite readers to respond with their own poetic voice. We also invite readers to use the Wick Poetry Center’s Emerge™ application to create digital erasure poetry from a pool of unusual primary source texts related to the environmental issues. This project was launched by the Wick Poetry Center, in Kent State University’s College of Arts and Sciences, and the Center for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary. Please click here to add your voice!

A Dangerous New World: Maine Voices on the Climate Crisis is an anthology of work by 65 writers and 27 artists who responded to a call for essays, poetry and art work on the effects of climate change – on their lives, their communities, their families, and their futures. The resulting collection is a many-layered and complex mosaic of voices and visions, of thoughtful appraisals, careful observations, emotional responses, and scientific analyses. We see changes along the coast through the eyes of lobstermen and clammers, changes in the woods through the eyes of forest walkers and birders, images of natural beauty and its devastation through the work of poets, painters, photographers, installation artists, and sculptors.

Whether hunkered down at home or hospital, or working on the front lines, we are all doing our part to face a common enemy together. When COVID-19 is finally behind us, instead of returning to normal life, we must hold on to these lessons in the fight against climate change.

This article by Margaret Bullitt-Jonas and Leah D. Schade posted by Earth Day describes 6 lessons the coronavirus pandemic can teach us about our response to climate change.