When’s the last time you had a cup of orange juice?

When you think of orange juice, you probably think of Florida — although, of course, they are hardly the only place that produces oranges.

Here’s the thing: Florida oranges are doomed.

There is an outstanding piece published by Slate which just came out on the subject, and we’d recommend tracking it down and giving it a read — it’s fascinating.

It’s also damning.

This isn’t an editorial about oranges, though, or at least, not precisely.

According to figures in the Slate story, Florida’s orange groves produced 242 million boxes in 2003, at a weight of 90 pounds per box.

For 2026, USDA is forecasting Florida orange production to reach 12 million boxes — with the growers in the Slate story expressing skepticism that even that was possible.

Sit with that for a moment.

Even for our younger readers, that is a decline which has happened during your lifetime.

The Florida orange’s decline, which is in part a product of an apparently incurable disease transmitted by an invasive pest, is hardly the only one.

We run stories from time to time about the American chestnut and the intrepid biologists who are trying to save the last few remaining examples of that species.

The chestnut’s decline took about 50 years, with the introduction of blight in the late 1800s all but eradicating the species by 1950.

Similarly, ash trees have come under attack from emerald ash borers since the 1990s. For one data point, the National Park System monitored ash tree populations in the National Capital Region, which have dropped from 300,000 in 2014 to fewer than 56,000 survivors as of 2022.

And on and on it goes — and that’s just trees. We don’t have the room to touch on the decline of animal species as a whole, especially terrestrial insects, which preliminary studies are showing are declining at around 9% per decade.

We don’t presume your beliefs, dear reader. Some of you likely trust scientists who say that climate change is happening, accelerating and human-caused. Some of you likely disagree with that viewpoint, either because the data seems spurious or out of fears of being misled.

Ultimately, the cause is less important than the effect.

As we have said in previous editorials, we, as a whole species, are called to be shepherds and stewards of the Earth.

If you let your friend house-sit for you while on vacation and you come home to find your house a mess, you’re not likely to accept their protests that, well, it was the neighbor kid who broke in on their watch.

This planet — and the multitude of lifeforms that we coinhabit it with — are our responsibility, and it is far, far past time that we accepted that and leveraged whatever means of influence we have at our disposal to try to bring the system to heel.

Earth Day is a rallying point, a flag waving in the spring air calling us all to action.

Too busy to be able to help out for Earth Day? Arbor Day is just around the corner.

While the old adage says that society is healthy when old men plant trees they will never live to sit beneath, there are few things are as gratifying as planting a young tree while still young yourself and being able to watch it grow until one day when you can, in fact, sit beneath it.

Unconvinced? Consider taking the time to read the piece from The Conversation next to this editorial about how effective our environmental protection laws have actually been, especially when considering just how dirty the United States used to be.

Look through some of the photos on the Documerica project, and be equally parts amazed and horrified.

It’s hard to get involved, especially if you are a parent or work full-time. But when you see the photos, you see the numbers…somehow, someway, we have to do better.

The wonders of Artemis II and our ongoing space exploration projects notwithstanding, there is no Planet B.

We get one shot at this, and it is clear that we are blowing it not just to anyone who looks at the data and numerical observations scientists the world over collect — but also to anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear.

A crucial detail that frequently gets glossed over is that climate is not weather.

We remember, in the 1990s and 2000s, when initial concerns about where we were going as a planet were labeled as “global warming.”

Well, the problem with that is that what do you say to people when there is a below average winter? “Yea man, global warming is hitting us hard, it’s a balmy….25 degrees out.” And, indeed, this is what a lot of people said, both seriously and jokingly.

The key is to look at trends, not just individual years. Individual years will do whatever they want — they can have deluges or droughts, warm spells, cold spells and anything in between, hurricanes, endless sunny days…

Patterns, though, arise between years. A stray year with a week in the 80s in April isn’t really that unusual. However, it’s been since 2022 since Lock Haven has had an April where the high didn’t reach 80.

But then, in 1976, it hit 92 on April 18. 1977 was also warm, but then it would be nearly a decade before Lock Haven saw 80 in April.

Want to explore the data yourself? This website (https://www.wunderground.com/history/monthly/us/pa/lock-haven/KLHV/date/2026-4) shows weather station data at Piper Memorial Airport going back to 1949.

Regardless of whether its the data that gets you worried; the accelerating rate of endangerments and extinctions in the wilds; your personal observations that nature isn’t acting how it should based on your history and your parents’ stories; or the fact that we have objectively not done a good job as caretakers of the planet we call home — whatever the reason, get involved.

Use Earth Day as an excuse to get started and find like-minded folks. And then keep with it to make a world your grandkids will be proud to live in.