There’s nothing like a good rant to celebrate Earth Day. I don’t know why that is so … maybe because I think of rants as a type of verbal compost of sorts.

But here’s the thing … I hate it when people tell me to save the Earth. Or to treat the Earth like I’d want to be treated. Or to basically view the Earth as a person.

The Earth is not a person. It’s an amazing thing, but it’s not a sentient being of any sorts. It’s a Planet – one of billions – that has an atmosphere lots of water, and well, us. The fact is, if the Earth were a person, then it’s currently taking a nap and that’s a good thing because if we look into the Earth’s past, it wasn’t always pretty.

At points in our planet’s history, the place was down right toxic and while life has managed to get a toe hold on this planet, there have been at least three extinction level events and by all accounts, we’re due for another one.  And well, things change and we can’t always expect our planet to have a hospitable climate when it’s been downright lethal in the past.

Mind you, I’m not even talking about our impact as well. We’re an incredibly messy species and that mess is taking its toll in our environment. In short, we’re terraforming ourselves off the planet.

Save the earth? The earth doesn’t need saving. It will be here until the sun eats it. Rather, we need to save ourselves.

And look, if you are one of those people who doesn’t believe in climate change or think it’s all grand standing  — you must admit, investing in green technologies that produce Energy without making the surrounding area toxic is a good thing. It saves money in the long term.

Speaking of energy usage, here’s the US energy consumption in 2016:

I grabbed it from the Wikipedia page on the Electricity sector of the United States.

I’d love to see solar eventually represented on this chart and well, here’s where I’m going to lose some of you … I’d love to see coal replaced with nuclear.

Besides the waste, nuclear only releases steam. A nuclear plant does not pump tons of C02 into the atmosphere. The waste is a concern, and well, safety is a concern too as Fukushima showed us. I know these are all problems that we can solve until we reach that age when we no longer need such energy sources.

So this Earth Day, please don’t think of the Earth. It’s beautiful ball of rock that couldn’t care less about our species. Think about us – as a people – and how we can have our lifestyles without wreaking havoc on the environment that sustains us.

Just a thought. Back to nachos.