Each year when Earth Day comes around, it brings to mind the image of our blue planet viewed from space. It is a wonder and tremendous human achievement that such photos even exist, and this only since the late 20th century. I was thinking about the cultural significance of these pictures recently when my mind wandered to something I’d heard about the writings of Homer and the ancient Greeks, how few words for color they used, with none for the color blue. I wondered how they would perceive or describe our planet seen from space.

 

In a contrasting example, the Inuit and Yupik languages have many words for snow ‒ different names for snow on the ground, snow as it falls, and such. Knowing those names is surely important in the Arctic, for effective communication and for understanding one’s surroundings. I believe it also enriches one’s experience of the natural world. This Earth month, I would challenge you to learn more names for nature around you – the names for the trees, flowers, plants, animals, the living creatures around us – names for Earth, for what makes our home so much more than a large partly-molten rock sphere orbiting the Sun.

 

Technology can help! The free app iNaturalist (www.inaturalist.org) harnesses a combination of artificial intelligence and crowdsourcing to assist in identifying living things from pictures you take with your phone. As you upload and save your pictures with the corresponding species names, you add to a research database used to understand global biodiversity, distribution and migration of species, and more. iNaturalist is easy to learn, and fun to use, well worth having at hand whenever you wonder, “what is that flower?” ‒ or bug, tree, mushroom, etc.

 

This month presents great opportunities to learn and practice using iNaturalist, before and during the City Nature Challenge (www.citynaturechallengeDC.org), an adventure in metropolitan areas worldwide to discover and identify wildlife. You can participate in a webinar to learn tips and tricks for using iNaturalist, join a group field trip to make observations, or just walk a local park or your back yard with your phone at hand to record observations anytime from April 25-28. Whatever you choose, you’ll be able to find more words for “Earth.”

 

Find out more about the Four Mile Run Conservatory Foundation’s City Nature Challenge events, volunteer opportunities, and kayak launch construction updates at www.fourmilerun.org.