Earth Day.

The earth is amazing. Trying to write a blog post about the amazingness of this planet is incredibly hard. Where do you start? The fact that the earth is here at all is amazing. The history of the planet as a rock flying through space for millions of years at thousands of miles an hour alone is incredible. Then there are all the features on the earth now, like mountains and hills, seas and oceans, deserts, lakes, rivers, streams, ponds, cliffs, valleys, plains, plateaus, caves, caverns, potholes, forests, woods, rainforests, savannas, coral reefs, trenches, ridges, grasslands, beaches, coves, waterfalls, volcanoes, geysers and countless other natural features. Then there is how they are all changing as the tectonic plates of the earth move around due to convection currents, causing more mountains and trenches and earthquakes and volcanoes. And all of this has been going on for millions of years across millions of square miles of earth.

Then there is life. From the tiniest bacteria to a T-Rex, from a seed to a Giant Redwood, the miracle of life has exploded across this planet in such wonder that our minds can not possibly comprehend the complexity, beauty, diversity and immensity of it all. There are millions of species crowded onto this splendid rock of ours and that is just the tip of the iceberg. It is thought that 99.9% of all the species that have ever lived are extinct. That means that right now, the amazing spectacle of life that we can witness in all of its glory every single day is just 0.1% of what the earth has seen. How can I possibly sum up the sheer brilliance of life on earth in mere words? You have to go out and explore this planet.

Then there is us. There are billions of us, all doing things, all the time. We are shaping the earth and have been for thousands of years. We have created our own wonders of the world. But again, there are simply too many to list. There is the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids, Machu Picchu, Stonehenge, the Colosseum, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Taj Mahal to name just a few. And that really is just a few. They are classic wonders. You could include the Channel Tunnel, the Burj Khalifa (the tallest man-made structure in the world) or the Panama Canal. The more you think about it the more you realise that the wonders are almost never ending. Just stop and think of all the everyday wonders that there are. The fact that you are reading this is amazing. Again, you need to go out and see and experience the man-made wonders of the world, because no matter how hard I try I can't even get across to you even one tiny iota of how amazing this planet is.

People say that the planet is shrinking because of air travel and almost instant satellite communication, but it isn't getting any smaller, not physically or metaphorically. It is just that we have got too used to so many everyday miracles that we simply take them for granted. We don't go and see these amazing natural or man-made wonders like we should. The earth is still there to be explored. Just because a lot of this planet isn't new to humanity doesn't mean it isn't new to you, or to anybody else lucky enough to have been born on a planet so full of amazement and wonder that you can spend a lifetime filling your mind, heart and soul with something that you adore. What we have to do now, every single one of us, is realise and constantly remind ourselves and each other just how utterly fantastic this planet is, because we don't have another one. Go out and look at and experience these wonders, these mind-grabbingly, jaw-droppingly, heart-warming, majestic things that the earth has to offer you. How can you not want to love and take care of this splendid, magnificent planet. Our planet. Earth.