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Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Rainbows and Earth Day

Around sunset on Sunday, I had my curtains closed for the night and a thunder storm was winding down. I could still hear the thunder in the distance and the rain was still falling. I walked into my kitchen and the curtains had a bright gold glow showing through from outside. It was very eerie. I was afraid that the lightening had hit a tree and started a fire. It was that bright.I cautiously open the curtains and couldn't believe it when I saw the rainbow and the golden glow outside. I had to take the photographs from my kitchen doorway because it was still raining and there was too much risk to my camera if I went outside. It was so wild. Almost like the pot of gold from the end of the rainbow had been tossed to the sky and colored the world.
Today is Earth Day and I was pleased to notice in my local paper that the art museum as well as other community sites and organization had learning programs this weekend for children, related to the environment. The Nature Conservancy has some good programs and suggestions related to Earth Day which I liked. So do a lot of other organizations but I liked some of those in particular.
As it turns out there is more than one Earth Day. One Earth Day is celebrated each year on the March equinox. That Earth Day was introduced in 1969 by John McConnel at an UNESCO conference on the environment. Starting in 1972 the UN Earth Day celebration started on the March Equinox and has continued each year. The other Global Earth Day was started on April 22, 1970 by Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach in and has been celebrated each year on that date since then as Earth Day. I didn't realize until I started researching this that there were two different dates called Earth Day.
In a way the more observances for the earth the better. I heard something on a radio program about Earth Hour at the end of March that made sense to me. They were talking about how in order for big changes to be made, politicians will need to see that people are concerned about the environment and will consider the environment when voting. The point was that the more people who become involved in these events, the more political leaders will realize that the voting public does factor in the environmental record of politicians when they vote. I am not expressing this well but it made sense.Earthday Network had an interesting suggestion on their site. According to their site they were founded by the organizers of the First Earth Day. They suggest calling your political leaders to let them know you want climate change legislation. They have a number to call in the U.S. for your Representatives and Senators and they also have a numbers for people in other parts of the world to call the leaders from their country. I can't vouch for the numbers or the organization except to say that the number they give for the U.S. is for the U.S. Capitol Switchboard and hopefully that line will be buzzing with calls for climate change legislation.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Carver,

Wow what great pictures.

Gia

Dee said...

Wow, Carver! What a beautiful golden glow - I liked your spin on the whole phenomena - that the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow was thrown into the sky. I like that! Especially today, when it's gray and sprinkly here in the NW.

Carver said...

Thanks Gia, I was pleased that I didn't totally miss it behind drawn curtains. I'm going to be closing my curtains and lowering my blinds later now to make sure I don't miss anything else.

Thanks Dee, I hope you didn't get too much snow. It's been a freaky winter so many places but I guess since you said sprinkly the snow you mentioned yesterday changed to rain. I hope so.

Michele said...

That is an amazing rainbow... utterly beautiful!

Carver said...

Thanks Michele, I appreciate that. I've been enjoying your snow shots but I can imagine that you are about ready for it to end.

jmb said...

What wonderful photos Carver, I've never shot a decent rainbow yet.
Good post too.

escape said...

rainbow on earth day! that makes it more special.

MaR said...

What wonderful pictures, rainbow and golden glow, perfect catch!

Carver said...

Thanks JMB, I'm pretty sure that this is the first time I've gotten a decent photograph of a rainbow.

Thanks "the dong", I thought the rainbow went with earth day too. Glad you liked it.

Thanks Mar, I appreciate that.

Anonymous said...

Carver,

hey, i was just passing by when i saw this post..very nice..

Jave

Carver said...

Hi Jave, Thanks for stopping by and commenting.

maryt/theteach said...

A great opportunity to phtograph some gorgeous, warm, yellow shots! With a rainbos no less! Very nice, Carver! :D

SabineM said...

fabulous rainbow photos and wow for Earth day, what a gift!

Carver said...

Thanks Sabine. I did feel like the earth was giving me a gift.

Carver said...

Thanks Mary (The Teach), I appreciate that.

Anonymous said...

Carver, actually I've been looking around this blog for quite a while now because my mom (wifespeak)and her sister-in-law (A Simple Life) told me that you have a lot of animal pictures, so I checked.

Jave

Mimi Lenox said...

Carver,

Those shots are truly amazing! It does look like a pot of gold rainbow. The warmth in this shot almost palpable. I'll bet you were holding your breath while you took these. What a wonderful thing to happen. It probably did give you a weird feeling just before the rain. I love the drops on the window.

And we still have to talk about your music.....I haven't forgotten...

Anonymous said...

Carver,

This was especially pleasing to see these special rainbow photos today. One of my favorite things is sunshine behind me while looking at grey clouds leaving. The contrast and that special glow that shines on everything is wonderful. This must have been spectactular in person. What a nice good morning greeting from Mother Nature!

CarolA

Carver said...

Hi Jave, I enjoy "A simple Life" which I've been visiting for some time now, and I'll have to look for "Wifespeak", not sure if I've seen that blog yet. I appreciate your visit.

Thanks Mimi, I was holding my breath a bit. It's was pretty overpowering and I felt like I had to shoot fast. I ended up taking about 30 pictures. I couldn't believe how the rainbow posed for me.

Thanks Carol, I appreciate that and I'm the same way about the sun behind clouds. It is so weird. That's when it looks like a planet to me.

Anonymous said...

I love rainbow shots - these are great, I have yet to see a real rainbow in person, maybe someday

Carver said...

Thanks Lissa, I hope you do get to see a rainbow some day. I've seen a number of them but this is the first time I've managed to photograph one.