Earth Days | Inside Yankee
My son Josh was born on Earth Day 1988, and he grew up with a love of natural places seemingly imbued by fate. I mention him here because it is his generation and the ones that follow that will judge how we have treated this planet. This year Earth Day will be observed on Sunday, April […]
My son Josh was born on Earth Day 1988, and he grew up with a love of natural places seemingly imbued by fate. I mention him here because it is his generation and the ones that follow that will judge how we have treated this planet. This year Earth Day will be observed on Sunday, April 22, in nearly 200 countries, and we will watch on our TVs and on our computer screens the scenes from rallies warning of a carbon-heavy climate future that seems to become more real by the day.
I write this a week after a “bomb cyclone” in early January battered coastal Massachusetts with frigid waves. We saw gripping photos of firefighters nearly waist-deep in water on Boston’s Long Wharf; we saw images of cars at Gloucester High School encased in floodwaters and ice. Last fall we watched hurricanes lash Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico and felt relieved we lived here, untouched—and now we were confronted with our own vulnerability. Nobody should be surprised. The climate scientists have warned that over the coming decades, stretching into the next century, New England is poised to suffer some of the biggest temperature increases, the most precipitation, the fiercest storms. So what do we make of it, when it feels as if we just had an unwelcome preview?
I know our readers look to Yankee for beauty, for love of the land, for this region’s traditions and history, and also to meet people from all walks of life who enrich the six states we call home. Yet sometimes the stories that may shake us a bit demand their due—and these are the kinds of stories you’ll find in our special report “Our Land, Our Sea, Our Future.” They show how New England has earned a historic place in the conservation movement [“Two Voices, One Message,” and “Green Milestones,” caring about the planet is in our DNA. But they also lay out a cautionary tale in which we all play a part. “Rising Seas” will give you pause. It is meant to. New England was shaped by the sea, and it now must find a way to adapt to what a changing sea may bring.
I believe New England is a place where the world will look for answers to what can seem like unsolvable problems, because many of the greatest minds and innovators live here. They are already designing ways to make a livable future. But we all own a stake in what happens today, tomorrow, 20 years hence. We need to get astride our horses and, like Paul Revere, ride hard and fast, fearless in our warning, driven to spread the truth. Earth days depend on us.
Mel Allen editor@yankeemagazine.com
Mel Allen
Mel Allen is the fifth editor of Yankee Magazine since its beginning in 1935. His first byline in Yankee appeared in 1977 and he joined the staff in 1979 as a senior editor. Eventually he became executive editor and in the summer of 2006 became editor. During his career he has edited and written for every section of the magazine, including home, food, and travel, while his pursuit of long form story telling has always been vital to his mission as well. He has raced a sled dog team, crawled into the dens of black bears, fished with the legendary Ted Williams, profiled astronaut Alan Shephard, and stood beneath a battleship before it was launched. He also once helped author Stephen King round up his pigs for market, but that story is for another day. Mel taught fourth grade in Maine for three years and believes that his education as a writer began when he had to hold the attention of 29 children through months of Maine winters. He learned you had to grab their attention and hold it. After 12 years teaching magazine writing at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, he now teaches in the MFA creative nonfiction program at Bay Path University in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. Like all editors, his greatest joy is finding new talent and bringing their work to light.
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