Environmental Education Media Project

Viewed through the lens of a still camera – clicking off one shot after another – there are a host of discrete events worthy of attention in the week just past and the weeks ahead. Earth Day in the United States is around the corner on April 22. And World Water Day was on March 22. The cornerstones of World Environment Day on June 5 are Rwanda -- and Pittsburgh. Rwanda, of course, is home to the famed and rare mountain gorilla, while Pittsburgh is a mere 135 mile from Cleveland, where the Cayuhoga River was once so polluted that it actually caught fire in June 22, 1969, igniting the American environmental movement.

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Over the course of the inquiry that began in 1995 when I was assigned to document the rehabilitation of China’s Loess Plateau, I have learned many things.

Specifically, I have observed that there are powerful long-term evolutionary trends that have provided and continuously renewed the atmosphere, the hydrological cycle and the fertility and productivity of the soils. These trends are principles and they are understandable, measurable and predictable.

The three trends that I have observed and study are:

• The trend toward total colonization of the Earth by biological life.
• The trend toward differentiation and speciation leading to massive biodiversity.
• The trend toward the accumulation of organic matter as each generation of life lays down its body to nurture the next.

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