Today, 22 April 2012, is International Mother Earth Day.  The UN says:

The proclamation of 22 April as International Mother Earth Day is an acknowledgement that the Earth and its ecosystems provide its inhabitants with life and sustenance.  It also recognizes a collective responsibility, as called for in the 1992 Rio Declaration, to promote harmony with nature and the Earth to achieve a just balance among the economic, social and environmental needs of present and future generations of humanity.  International Mother Earth Day provides an opportunity to raise public awareness around the world to the challenges regarding the well-being of the planet and all the life it supports.

Just so, and I wondered why doesn’t this seem to be important in the UK?  But, maybe I’m wrong.  Here’s Dorset Cereals:

Today is International Mother Earth Day, proclaimed by the UN to promote harmony with the natural world.  You can celebrate by heading out into the countryside to get back to nature, or by caring for the planet with something as simple as recycling or finally getting around to insulating the loft.

But there must be more to harmony than this, so maybe the Daily Mail can shed some light on it:

She was celebrating International Mother Earth Day this weekend, so it was no surprise that Jessica Alba was spotted shopping for nature’s finest produce.  The pregnant mother-of-one went grocery shopping in Beverly Hills and was snapped in the vegetable section, selecting a range of salad ingredients.  The actress then posted on her Twitter page: ‘Happy Earth Day tweeples!  I’d love to know what you all are doing in honor of Earth Day today.’

Umm; if only I knew who Jessica Alba was … .  Time, I think, to find a vernal wood.

Earth Hour was on 31 March 2012, 2030, and was something of a global phenomenon with, we’re told, hundreds of millions of people turning off their lights for one hour across the planet – something we were urged to watch from our computers.  I fear I did neither.

But it wasn’t just to save an hour’s electricity, of course.  Earth Hour was about people’s coming together to put the focus on this world we all share – and how we should protect it: not just for an hour, but every hour – every day.  It was a celebration, it seems – as someone who emailed me noted:

It’s a special candlelit evening at home with friends or family, a night out on the town, or watching the spectacular global switch-offs live online from landmarks like the Eiffel Tower, Times Square, or Sydney Opera House.

Apparently even the Italian rugby team and Totti (I initially read this as “Totty”) were enthused – though it wasn’t clear what they’d be doing until I read this:

Under the WWF banner for the very first time, the Italian Rugby Team scrummed down for the planet, playing at the Olympic Stadium in Rome at the recent Six Nations Tournament.  The Italian team and Federugby support the fight against climate change, and a few days before their official debut, the official Italian Earth Hour video was shot at the Olympic Stadium.  The video shows rugby stars Andrea Lo Cicero, Simone Favaro and Cornelius Van Zyl, ‘passing the panda’, and inviting their fans and the general public to change their bad habits and ‘team up’ for a more sustainable world.

Whilst ‘passing the panda’ may well catch on in Italy – though not in England where blood sports are banned –  I’m very doubtful about all this iconography of candles with its celebration of the dark and doing without.  I do wonder what the point is.  And, isn’t there something very odd about watching darkness descend on a computer screen?   I trust that the Olympics won’t be adopting this strategy for its opening ceremony.