Now tell the truth: did you know that 22nd April 1970 was first in the line of Earth Days? No, nor did I. Antennae seem more discerning today. Another question: how sensitive is your Listening radar?

‘Ear’ is at the heart – irony intended – of an inordinate number of emotion-laden words. Etymology points towards Nordo/Germanic origins of ear and hear, a fact which has always seemed intriguing given Viking fondness for slaughter before laughter. But it’s nuts: after 4.5 billion years of spinning through foreseeable, existential fluctuations, it’s taken 150 years (since the Industrial Revolution) to bring the planet to the brink and us to blink back tears?

I digress. Listening (lyssna) to what we intuitively know about the Earth’s infinitely fragile balance should inform more graceful treatment of her splendours; splendours which yield with unstinting generosity. And as with the Naturally Giving, rather than say More, oughtn’t we start to say Thank you, dear?