Andy Richardson: We’ve only got one Earth – be kind to it

People of the world – alright, the West Midlands and Mid Wales – today is Earth Day. It’s the day when we say Thank You, Mother Earth, for giving us porpoises, sequoia trees and orangutans. It’s the day when we leave the car at home (for an hour) plant more sunflowers and make sure we don’t drop our out-of-date Duracell in the normal bin when we could take them to the supermarket to be recycled. It’s the 24-hour window in which we walk to the supermarket, cycle to the park and go for a jog, rather than play on the X Box.

Founded in 1970 and now celebrated in 193 countries around the world by the Earth Day Network, the event was created by John McConnell and sanctioned by the United Nations. John was an interesting fella who lived until he was 97. The son of a travelling doctor, he worked in plastics and believed that love was more powerful than bombs – which is a nice idea unless Donald Trump is firing a 550mph, 1,300kg Tomahawk in your direction.

The purpose of John’s creation is simple: to shine a light on the environmental issues facing the planet and, in the words of John Lennon, to give peace a chance. And if that all sounds a bit happy clappy, Earth Day is as far removed from a yoghurt-knitting, lentil-baking, cardigan-weaving, daisy-chain-making hippie fest as it’s possible to get.

These days, Earth Day is all about planting trees at schools so kids don’t grow up surrounded by concrete. Any objections? No. Cool. Then let’s dig a hole and fill it with saplings. Our kids can climb them when they’re older.

It’s all about replacing some of the 56 billion trees that are lost around the world each year as forests are chopped down to make way for palm oil so that we can eat more crisps. Any objections? No. Cool. Then let’s keep our rain forests for another day. We might need them some time.

And it’s all about making sure elephants and tigers and lions aren’t wiped out as we continue the sixth global mass extinction phase, which has been brought about by human activity. Anyone fancy going the same way as the dinosaurs? No. Didn’t think so. The plastic-and-metal collection at West Midlands Safari Park might look great but they’re probably not as happy as the real life animals with beating hearts on the other side of the fence.

Anyone want to become the new dodo? No. Didn’t think so. Then let’s hang on to our Amur leopards, Javan rhinoceros, northern sportive lemur, leatherback sea turtle and tigers before they bid an unedifying adios.

The celebrity physicist, charming TV presenter, one-time member of a half-decent band (Dare) and owner of a brilliant hairstyle, Brian Cox, is one man who’ll probably be supporting craft breweries, eating more vegetables or offering to carry his grandma’s shopping bags across the road on Earth Day.

The committed environmentalist and all round debonair chap has done much to raise awareness about science since curtailing a music career that included playing keyboards on D:Ream’s number one hit Things Can Only Get Better – which, if you think about it, might be a perfectly apt slogan for Earth Day.

Brian has been described as a natural successor by both David Attenborough and Patrick Moore and is calmly assertive. In a television exchange in Australia, he torpedoed the climate change denier Malcolm Roberts on ABC’s Q&A after the latter had told him that climate change didn’t exist. Brian, a man who learned the importance of doing his homework after getting a D in his maths A-Level, was unperturbed. He held up a sheet of A4 paper with a temperature chart that showed a steep ascent. Then he looked Malcolm in the eye and said, with irrefutable logic: “I brought the graph.” It was a moment of brilliant clarity, of pointing at the elephant in the room and saying: “Look, that massive grey thing with two tusks, big flappy ears and a really long trunk is a goddamn elephant. What’s that doing in here?”

Malcolm huffed and puffed but failed to blow Brian’s house down. “The data has been corrupted,” he fudged. Brian played the pantomime good guy. “Oh no it hasn’t.” Malcolm clutched at straws: “It’s been manipulated by NASA.” Brian laughed: “Then do you believe we landed men on the moon?”

Malcolm mumbled, gurgled and said little of consequence while the audience laughed at his idiocy and marvelled at the big, grey thing with two tusks and a long trunk that was crouched behind him.

Today is Earth Day. We’ve only got one. Be nice to it.