This past Monday was Earth Day, a holiday to remind people of just how important the environment is.

Unfortunately, less and less people seem to actually think that it matters. A new survey done by the Huffington Post revealed that only 39% of Americans think that it is “very important” to work to restore and enhance the national environment. When Earth Day was founded in 1971, that number was 63%, and Earth is not happy about it.

In a grim reminder of the earth’s devastating power this past week has been witness to a series of deadly earthquakes.

Last Tuesday a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit south-eastern Iran, causing 40 causalities there and killing 35 in Pakistan; it was the second earthquake inside of a week to strike Iran. The weekend brought no relief as an approximately 7.0 magnitude quake struck the south-eastern Chinese province of Sichuan, killing 186 and sending 8,200 to hospitals. Enormous amounts of resources have already been allocated to the relief efforts. And today brought two quakes, a 5.6 magnitude event in Afghanistan and a 6.4 in Papua New Guinea.

Clearly Mother Earth is none too pleased with the changing public opinion but it’s pretty understandable. Americans are much more concerned with an onslaught of shootings and attacks, a terrible economy, and Kim Jong-un. Still, maybe this Earth Day provides a good opportunity to remember that we only need to mess up the environment once, and how much damage it can do.