(Mother) Earth Day
(Mother) Earth Day is about Skid Row/Downtown Los Angeles, but here is the history of Earth Day from Wikipedia:
Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First held on April 22, 1970, it now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally by EARTHDAY.ORG (formerly Earth Day Network) including 1 billion people in more than 193 countries.
In 1969 at a UNESCO Conference in San Francisco, peace activist John McConnell proposed a day to honor the Earth and the concept of peace, to first be observed on March 21, 1970, the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere. This day of nature’s equipoise was later sanctioned in a proclamation written by McConnell and signed by Secretary General U Thant at the United Nations. A month later a United States Senator Gaylord Nelson proposed the idea to hold a nationwide environmental teach-in on April 22, 1970. He hired a young activist, Denis Hayes, to be the National Coordinator. Nelson and Hayes renamed the event “Earth Day”. Denis and his staff grew the event beyond the original idea for a teach-in to include the entire United States. More than 20 million people poured out on the streets, and the first Earth Day remains the largest single day protest in human history. Key non-environmentally focused partners played major roles. Under the leadership of labor leader Walter Reuther, for example, the United Auto Workers was the most instrumental outside financial and operational supporter of the first Earth Day. According to Hayes, “Without the UAW, the first Earth Day would have likely flopped!” Nelson was later awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom award in recognition of his work.
The first Earth Day was focused on the United States. In 1990, Denis Hayes, the original national coordinator in 1970, took it international and organized events in 141 nations.
On Earth Day 2016, the landmark Paris Agreement was signed by the United States, China, and some 120 other countries. This signing satisfied a key requirement for the entry into force of the historic draft climate protection treaty adopted by consensus of the 195 nations present at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris.
Numerous communities engaged in Earth Day Week actions, an entire week of activities focused on the environmental issues that the world faces.
On Earth Day 2020, over 100 million people around the world observed the 50th anniversary in what is being referred to as the largest online mass mobilization in history.
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From their website: “WE RISE events are calls to action, asking you to join a movement to break through barriers and defy old assumptions about mental health and the many related social conditions that compound problems and hurt our communities. Together we can fix a broken system. In 2021, WE RISE will focus on community health and healing in response to the unprecedented national experience of a pandemic and long- standing social injustice. In partnership with leading LA County Institutions and community organizations, WE RISE 2021 will be a month-long experience centered on collective wellbeing, hope and recovery — -WE RISE is made possible by the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health with support from the Mental Health Services Act.”
One of the many community focused We Rise pop ups during May throughout the County is Azusa/Healing. Azusa is a Tongva (Native indigenous people of Los Angeles) word that translates as Healing.
If you stand at the intersection of Third Street and San Pedro Street and look north into Little Tokyo, you can see the street sign Azusa, the site of the Azusa Street Revival of 1906. The Azusa Street Revival was listed as number 68 in the Time-Life book The One Hundred Most Important Events In The Past One Thousand Years 1000–2000AD.
Third and San Pedro is the border line of Skid Row and Little Tokyo.
Skid Row is a fifty block section of Downtown, about 20% of the land mass. Skid Row is a mini-Heat Island within the larger Urban Heat Island of Downtown. The built environment of an Urban Heat Island absorbs the sun and releases the heat over the course of the night. An Urban Heat Island is up to seven degrees hotter than it’s surrounding area.
The negative effect on people of an Urban Heat Island is related to the degree of Tree Canopy (number of mature trees providing shade) and Skid Row has very little Tree Canopy. One reason is the Los Angeles Police Department cut down existing trees to create better lines of sight.
From the brutal heat waves and smoky City air due to record breaking fires of last September, a grassroots process emerged called Skid Row Cooling Resources (SRCR) to make sure the summer of 2021 is much improved in Skid Row compared to the summer of 2020. One aspect of SRCR is to invite Mother Earth into this collaborative effort as a Partner.
A Land Acknowledgment for Skid Row Cooling Resources:
Skid Row is a unique Urban Heat Island in the midst of Downtown Los Angeles as an Urban Heat Island. As year after year the summer temperatures continue to rise more and more in the day, what man has made captures the heat and releases it during the night.
We Acknowledge the Land beneath what man has made.
We Acknowledge the Tongva, Native indigenous people of Los Angeles, and their ancient village Yaangna, what we call Downtown Los Angeles.
We Acknowledge Biddy Mason as the “patron saint” of Downtown Los Angeles, a former slave who became a Matriarch of early Los Angeles. Biddy Mason was a wealthy landowner and philanthropist to the poor and those in need.
We Acknowledge the Native indigenous people of Los Angeles, their special relationship with Mother Earth, and their hospitality, inviting us into that special relationship.
We Acknowledge the patience, kindness, and compassion of Mother Earth.