I first posted this image and this quote from scientist and environmentalist David Suzuki three years ago, with a call to each of us to balance the elements within us.

“We are capable of even greater things, to rediscover our home, to find ways to live in balance with the sacred elements.”

But in a year where glaciers have died and been memorialized in Iceland, when ice caps are melting, with widespread fires in the Arctic and — now, horribly — the Amazon basin, when tropical fish are being caught off the coast of Nova Scotia, and plastic microspheres are found in the melting ice, Suzuki’s quote is an urgent call to action to us all.

We are in a global environmental crisis.

We are stewards of this Earth and must leave it in a better state … through individual choices, through lobbying our governments for stronger more effective legislation to reduce our carbon footprint, to release less waste and less toxins into the environment, to protect wildlife and to preserve our forests. Safe potable water must be available to all, and our food chain — from farm to table — can be managed more efficiently and more organically.

There are so many ways in which we can each reduce our own environmental footprint:

• create / leave less waste
• buy local (organic) food and products
• reduce-recycle-reuse
• plant trees for oxygen and flowers for the pollinators
• make your own household and personal care products or purchase eco-friendly products
• rely less on cars and more on walking and biking (if able) and public transit
• share resources and equipment, especially those used infrequently
• choose minimalism over consumerism or acquisition
• support environmental charities with your time and donations
• advocate and lobby at every level of government (municipal, provincial/state and federal)

What is your current focus and commitment as a steward for Mama Earth?