53 years ago, off California's coast, an ecological catastrophe gained worldwide attention.

The worst of Santa Barbara's fears were realized on January 28, 1969, when a blowout occurred at Platform A,

shattering the fragile caprock on the ocean floor and allowing massive amounts of oil to begin bubbling into the water and drifting ashore.

The state's largest oil disaster shocked the nation into action, the creation of the Federal Environmental Protection Agency,

the passing of California's Environmental Quality Act,

the Federal Environmental Protection Act,

and a day to reflect and learn about environmentalism,

also known as Earth Day.

But in a world where climate change is ravaging the Earth,

what good is just a day anymore?

I'm Gustavariano. I'm Gustavaryano.

You're listening to The Times, Daily News from the LA Times.

It's Tuesday, April 12, 2022.

We stand now where two roads diverge.

But unlike the roads in Robert Frost's familiar poem, they are not equally fair.

The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy.

A smooth, super highway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster.

The other fork of the road, the one less traveled by, offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of our earth.

That's my colleague Rosanna Shaw, reading a passage from Rachel Carson's landmark book, Silent Spring.

As Earth Day approaches, we wanted to reflect on the history and importance of this annual event and talk about where we go from here.

So what better time to bring back our profits of peril, our Emerson's of emergencies, our decarts of doomsday.

They think, therefore, they are our.

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