Earthrise - Amanda Gorman

[Larry Robinson]

Earthrise

	 Dedicated to Al Gore and The Climate Reality Project

On Christmas Eve, 1964, astronaut Bill Anders
Snapped a photo of the earth
As Apollo 8 orbited the moon
Those three guys were surprised
To see from their eyes
Our planet looked like an earth-rise
A blue orb hovering over the moon’s gray horizon
with deep oceans and silver skies
It was our world’s first glance at itself
Our first chance to see a shared reality
A declared stance and a commonality
A glimpse into our planet’s mirror
And as threats drew nearer
Our own urgency became clearer
As we realize that we hold nothing dearer
than this floating body we all call home
We’ve known That we’re caught in the throes
Of climactic changes some say
Will just go away, While some simply pray
To survive another day
For it is the obscure, the oppressed, the poor
Who when the disaster is declared done
still suffer more than anyone
Climate change is the single greatest challenge of our time
Of this, you’re certainly aware
It’s saddening, but I cannot spare you
From knowing an inconvenient fact, because
It’s getting the facts straight that gets us to act and not to wait
 So I tell you this not to scare you
 But to prepare you, to dare you
 To dream a different reality
 Where despite disparities
 We all care to protect this world
 This riddled blue marble, this little true marvel
 To muster the verve and the nerve
 To see how we can serve
 Our planet. You don’t need to be a politician
 To make it your mission to conserve, to protect
 To preserve that one and only home
 That is ours, To use your unique power
 To give next generations the planet they deserve
 We are demonstrating, creating, advocating
 We heed this inconvenient truth, because we need to be anything
 but lenient With the future of our youth
 And while this is a training
 in sustaining the future of our planet
 There is no rehearsal. The time is
 Now Now Now
 Because the reversal of harm
 And protection of a future so universal
 Should be anything but controversial
 So, earth, pale blue dot
 We will fail you not
 Just as we chose to go to the moon
 We know it’s never too soon
 To choose hope. We choose to do more than cope
 With climate change We choose to end it—
 We refuse to lose
 Together we do this and more
 Not because it’s very easy or nice
 But because it is necessary
 Because with every dawn we carry
 the weight of the fate of this celestial body orbiting a star
 
And as heavy as that weight sounded, it doesn’t hold us down
But it keeps us grounded, steady, ready
Because an environmental movement of this size
Is simply another form of an earth-rise
To see it, close your eyes
Visualize that all of us leaders in this room
and outside of these walls or in the halls, all
of us change-makers are in a spacecraft
Floating like a silver raft
in space, and we see the face of our planet anew
We relish the view
We witness its round green and brilliant blue
Which inspires us to ask deeply, wholly:
What can we do?
Open your eyes.
Know that the future of this wise planet
Lies right in sight:
Right in all of us. Trust this earth uprising.
All of us bring light to exciting solutions never tried before
For it is our hope that implores us, at our uncompromising core
To keep rising up for an earth more than worth fighting for.

	- Amanda Gorman
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