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EQ’s planet vacation guide: Pluto (3 of 6)
equinoxes
® invites you to see the equinoxes as universally and uniquely suited to be Earth Action Days¹:
1) Equinoxes are true planet events
Fixed events every spring and autumn in Earth’s orbit around the sun
2) We are equal under the sun at equinox²
Equal day and night – 12 hours – wherever you are on the planet
3) Two equinoxes double up our annual commitments to act
Pledge twice a year to spring into action and turn over a new leaf at equinox
So many of our problems cross boundaries, continents and oceans – above all, the climate-biosphere crisis. Yet at a planetary level, so much more unites us than divides. Equinoxes are ideal moments to rebalance and reconnect, to energise our instincts to both innovate and preserve.
Whether through a pledge, an audit, a link, or just small actions multiplied a thousand-thousandfold, twinned equinoxes can help us accelerate towards a sustainable post-carbon future.
These EQ blogs offer perspectives on what equinoxes offer.
¹a 2023 4k hi-res promo video for EQ is here
²a 2013 demo website protecting EQ’s domain is here
© Martin Nelson 24th September 2023
® registered to W M O Nelson 2024
® registered to Equinoctial Days Ltd. 2015
Exponentials: the climate and pandemic crises, graphically
Our climate and biosphere are now universally recognised to be in crisis, as this chart* of 1000 years of ice core and 50 years of atmospheric data starkly shows, and as we all experience the exponential realities of pandemic infection. Humanity’s influence is causal in both instances – again, beyond reasonable doubt.
Truth, lies and delusion: a prompt from the past
EQ doubles up Earth Day by coupling spring and autumn equinoxes and making twinned Earth Days each year. But equinoxes, being actual Earth Days rather than arbitrary calendar events, are also excellent prompts for clear, rational and logical thinking. Hence a post about Straight and Crooked Thinking, published in 1930. Continue reading
EQuinoctial logic and daylight saving. Spock muses
26-10-19, 09.17 UTC (Earthtime). Many humanoids will “fall back”* to a logically correct time tonight, when they set their clocks to approximate to the solar noon of their slice of planet Earth’s surface. This is wise, for they have been getting up increasingly in the dark, especially if they inhabit the western regions of those slices. Continue reading
The first (forgotten) Earth Day: Spring Equinox 1969
‘Earth Day is devoted to the harmony of nature … offends no historical calendar, yet transcends them all.’ These words of the famous anthropologist Margaret Mead apply precisely to the equinox. She, with others, chose this fixed event in the calendar to be the first Earth Day in 1969, fifty three years ago. The spring equinox is a natural Earth Day, with a host of advantages built in. Not only that, it has a twin on the other side of the year: the autumnal equinox.
Shūbun no Hi! The 2019 autumn equinox in Japan
Autumn equinox 2019 coincided with my last day with the Royal Opera on tour in Japan. We had just performed the thrilling opening sequence of Verdi’s Otello in Tokyo at the moment of equinox – in the UK it was breakfast time (08.50 BST).
Time and Space: Earthrise, Blue Marble, Pale Blue Dot; a triptych.
Equinoxes are the ideal time to exercise the habit of zooming out into space and back in our imaginations. It’s a way of sensing our interdependence, of our equality-under-the-sun that is both humbling and empowering. This is a reading given at St Clement Danes Church, London, for the 2018 Christmas Concert of the young choir Coro.
Apollo 8 was the first manned spacecraft to leave Earth’s orbit and head out into deeper space. The astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders orbited the moon ten times during December 24, 1968.
Space and Time: Stephen Hawking and Parsifal – Raum und Zeit
This is a memoir from 2017; an excursion into time, space and music…
Stephen Hawking is 75! Indomitable doesn’t come close to describing his life. He became a research fellow at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge shortly before I joined as an undergraduate in 1967.
A March for Science on Earth Day 2017
April 22nd is Earth Day – and you would be forgiven for not knowing or noticing here in the UK as it is a largely US-based event. More on this below, but it’s worth your attention: this year there was a March for Science on the National Mall, Washington DC, with as expected some pungent anti-post-truth banners.
There was a London March for Science too. I joined and was welcomed as an unreconstituted ‘artiste’, in moral support.
Twin slogans: Turn over a new leaf
This mugshot¹ displays one of many slogans that attach naturally and convincingly to EQ. On the other side: Spring into action. The autumn equinox is a time for renewal even while leaf-fall reminds us of the natural cycle of decay:
Twin slogans: Spring into action
So we spring forward this weekend into British Summer Time. Lose an hour’s sleep, but gain lighter evenings. Great! But if equinoctial logic had been applied, it should have happened a month ago and significant energy (and Vitamin D) would not have been wasted.
Summer Solstice Sweden 2018. A celebratory seaboard
Happy Summer Solstice! The Swedes get the equinoxes and the solstices – as do all high latitude peoples – and today these ancient rocks will be hosting al fresco parties, for they are at the end of the island of Smögen, a popular and picturesque shrimping port, and party venue.