What is Earth Day?

Today, April 22, 2023, is Earth Day. Widely recognized as the largest secular observance in the world. Marked by more than a billion people every year as a day of action to change human behavior and create global, national, and local policy changes.

In the decades leading up to the first #EarthDay in 1970, Americans consumed vast amounts of leaded gasoline through large, inefficient automobiles. Industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of the consequences from either the law or bad press. Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity.  Until this point, mainstream America remained largely oblivious to environmental concerns and how a polluted environment threatens human health.

However, the winds of change blew in with the publication of Rachel Caron’s New York Times bestseller Silent Spring in 1962. The book represented a watershed moment, selling more than 500,00 copies in 24 countries raising public awareness and concern for living organisms, the environment, and the inextricable links between pollution and public health.

Spurred by witnessing the ravages of a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California, American politician and conservationist Gaylord Anton Nelson—helped spark the environmental movement that quickly grew into an international event. Earth Day 1970 would provide a voice to this emerging environmental consciousness, putting environmental concerns front and center.

Now, the fight for a clean environment continues with increasing urgency, as the ravages of climate change become more and more apparent every day.

One has to wonder if the wild, never before experienced, weather patterns we have experienced this winter are a result of climate change or just Mother Nature’s temper tantrum. What do you think?

Now how about a little Security Force of Two.

Now let’s see what my new release,  Security Force of Two is all about.

Miacoh Zane, a Special Forces veteran, returns to Aspen Ridge.  A small town nestled in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, to settle his beloved grandmother’s estate. But the town holds painful memories and family secrets he wants to leave behind for good.

 Candle Bearclaw, a gifted computer analyst/programmer with talents she’s buried when recruited out of college by the CIA. After fifteen years, she abruptly resigns her position with the agency. She returns to her sleepy hometown only to discover her childhood crush has also returned and a violent crime has been committed.

 Due to their covert operations experience, Candle and Miacoh are thrown together to assist Homeland Security, FBI, and her father, former chief of police, with a murder investigation. As they search for the perpetrators, will their secrets be revealed as the investigation takes an unusual twist that could blow the case wide open.

How about a sneak peek between the pages of SECURITY FORCE OF TWO?

Candle Bearclaw stood in front of Carl's large mahogany desk, laid the unsealed white envelope face up on the polished desktop, and slid it toward her boss.

“What's this?” Carl eyed the offending envelope.

“It's what we talked about last week, my resignation.” Candle swung her briefcase onto the leather chair beside her. Pulling out a laptop computer, a manila file folder, and a memory stick, she sat them on the corner of her boss's desk. “It's all here, including the passwords necessary to access the sensitive files, my work thus far on the assignment, including my contacts, and it's a good stopping point for me. Someone else should be able to pick up exactly where I left off, seamlessly. I am requesting a no contact status by you and the agency.” She pulled out a .380 semi-automatic tucked into the waistband of her slacks, ejected the magazine, and racked the slide open. Gingerly setting the gun on the desk beside the other items, she sighed.

He looked across the desk at her, observing her actions. “I understand your position, but that may not be possible. How deep were you?”

Hands flat on the desktop, she leaned over and glared at him. “Deep enough to understand the assignment went against every fiber of my being. You knew that when you assigned it to me, and yet, you did it anyway, knowing it would be my final act as a CIA operative.”

She stood and raised her arms in a surrender motion. “For God's sakes, Carl, I'm a computer analyst turned hacker under your fine tutelage. I can't do it anymore.”

Carl leaned back in his chair. “A replacement will be difficult to find, if not impossible,” he said flatly. “You're the best.”

“You should have thought about that before you forced me to take this assignment,” she insisted, pacing around the room.

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See you next month. Did you know that May is Get Caught Reading Month?  That’s about every day in my house.  <grin> Do you know why May’s full moon, occurring on May 5th, is called the Flower Moon?