This year, 1990, the year I leave my teenage years behind, I realize nothing else matters but this: We must heal our planet if we’re to survive. (…) There’s a lot packed into our teenage years, (and) with so much going on, it was quite a relief to think that our elected officials would take care of all of those major planetary concerns while we were just to concentrate on growing up. It’s obvious now that not only was no one taking care of our home as we trusted, but that people were, and still are, perpetuating this planetary destruction. Now as I look ahead to my future, I’m amazed at how the earth itself is letting us know in so many ways that there has been a gross injustice done by humankind. The many recent devastating floods, landslides, and weather changes show the earth’s pain and how out of the balance our ecosystem has become. At this point, not only have we polluted the earth we live on, the waters we drink and swim in, and the air we breath, but we have even altered the atmosphere itself.
(…) The solutions to these problems will take time, but they will be accomplished. I’ve learned that if you can’t get it all together to accomplish this thing called peace, you do at least your part in your own life, because that’s where you can truly make an immediate difference. (…) Peace begins with you. Now. We must light the lamp of our consciousness so that we never react without thinking and questioning the means to get to the end that we are seeking. Because if the path along the way is covered with thorns, selfishness, cruelty, and greed, you can be pretty sure that the result will lead us to just about where we are today… near the end, if we don’t do something quickly
- River Phoenix, “Earth Day Essay” Seventeen, April 1990
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