However frenetically we get and spend, an attachment to the natural life of the planet remains fixed in our system. One cannot think of a single composer, painter or writer who has not tracked at least one major inspiration to a bird, a tree, a rose. People automatically lose themselves in wordless reverence at the sight of a curlew or a silver cloud of anchovies or at the mournful wail of howler monkeys. Or they stare dumbly out at oceans, as if longing for their microbial past. In the rain forest, the understory palm trees use branches growing out of their trunks to make baskets that become compost machines for falling leaves, which keep the trees alive.
Tide pools connect with unfathomable seas, which connect with our chromosomes.
For the world on Earth Day, the matter is less esoteric and more urgent. Americans are about to be swept up in a presidential election campaign in which candidates will rant about such issues, all of which are dwarfed by the need to protect and enhance our habitat. We are not even aware of the full dimensions of the problem. Fewer than 2 million species of animals, plants and microorganisms have been identified. The Industrial Revolution exploited the Earth's resources.