Pope Francis delivers a blessing to an empty St. Peter's Square on April 13. Vatican Pool / Vatican Media / Vatican Pool via Getty Images
"We have sinned against the earth," Pope Francis said in a forceful Earth Day message Wednesday that reinforced the religious leader's commitment to environmental action.
<p>Francis delivered the remarks during his general audience, which he broadcast from his library because of lockdown measures put in place to stop the spread of the new <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coronavirus" target="_self">coronavirus</a>, as <a href="https://news.trust.org/item/20200422104126-w4mdr" target="_blank">Reuters reported</a>. The speech in honor of Earth Day's 50th anniversary comes around two weeks after the pope <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/pope-francis-coronavirus-climate-crisis-2645677364.html" target="_self">suggested in an interview</a> that the pandemic might be part of nature's response to the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a>.</p><p>In his remarks Wednesday, Francis warned that harming the earth put human life at risk.</p><p>"There is a Spanish saying that is very clear about this," he said. "It goes: 'God always forgives; we humans sometimes forgive, and sometimes not; the earth never forgives.' The earth does not forgive: if we have despoiled the earth, its response will be very ugly."</p>
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<p>First, he praised local and international environmental movements and highlighted youth-led climate strikes. But the pope's message was not only a warning. He also proposed solutions.</p><p>"[S]till it will be necessary for our children to take to the streets to teach us the obvious: we have no future if we destroy the very environment that sustains us," he said.</p><p>He also held up the knowledge of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/indigenous" target="_self">indigenous</a> communities as an example of an alternative way of interacting with the planet.</p><p>"They teach us that we cannot heal the earth unless we love and respect it," he said. "They have the wisdom of 'living well,' not in the sense of having a good time, no, but of living in harmony with the earth. They call this harmony 'living well.'"</p><p>He concluded with a call to action both for world leaders and ordinary citizens. He urged leaders to prepare for two major upcoming international conferences: COP15 on <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/biodiversity" target="_self">Biodiversity</a> in Kunming, China and COP26 on Climate Change in Glasgow, United Kingdom, which <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/cop26-postponed-coronavirus-2645616746.html" target="_self">has been delayed</a> because of the coronavirus.</p><p>For everyone else, he encouraged joining the environmental movement.</p><p>"It will help if people at all levels of society come together to create a popular movement 'from below,'" he said. "The Earth Day we are celebrating today was itself born in precisely this way. We can each contribute in our own small way."</p><p>Francis' Earth Day remarks build on his efforts to use his office to promote a theology that honors the earth. They come five years after he <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/pope-francis-encyclical-urges-swift-action-on-climate-change-ahead-of--1882051686.html" target="_self">published a landmark encyclical</a> on climate change called "<a href="http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html" target="_blank">Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home</a>," which gave the official Catholic Church seal of approval to the pope's environmental concerns.</p>
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<p>Since then, he <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/pope-francis-big-oil-2577109671.html" target="_self">has urged oil executives to lead the clean energy transition</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/pope-francis-synod-of-amazon-2641015876.html" target="_self">spoken out</a> for indigenous people threatened by the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. He also has suggested he would add a definition of "ecological sins" to the Roman Catholic Catechism, Reuters reported.</p><p>In his Earth Day message, the pope revisited key themes from his encyclical of caring for the earth and the most vulnerable.</p><p>"Today we celebrate the fiftieth Earth Day," he began. "This is an occasion for renewing our commitment to love and care for our common home and for the weaker members of our human family. As the tragic coronavirus pandemic has taught us, we can overcome global challenges only by showing solidarity with one another and embracing the most vulnerable in our midst."</p><p>Francis wasn't the only climate leader to offer an Earth Day call to action in the time of coronavirus.</p><p>Swedish climate activist <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/greta-thunberg" target="_self">Greta Thunberg</a> said the response to the virus that causes COVID-19 showed what could happen when world leaders listened to scientists.</p><p>"Whether we like it or not, the world has changed," she said in a digital conversation Wednesday with Potsdam Institute Director Johan Rockström, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/22/earth-day-greta-thunberg-calls-for-new-path-after-pandemic" target="_blank">The Guardian reported</a>. "It looks completely different now from how it did a few months ago. It may never look the same again. We have to choose a new way forward."</p>
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<p>UN Secretary-General <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/antonio-guterres" target="_self">António Guterres</a>, meanwhile, used the occasion to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/un-earth-day-coronavirus-climate-crisis-2645802263.html" target="_self">endorse</a> a green recovery from the economic toll exacted by the pandemic.</p><p>"On this Earth Day, please join me in demanding a healthy and resilient future for people and planet alike," he said.</p>
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People observing Earth Day on April 20, 1970 in New York, New York. Santi Visalli / Getty Images
By Amanda Paulson
When Denis Hayes decided to join an environmental teach-in, he had no idea he was about to help launch a movement that would endure for half a century.
The year was 1969 and "there were things that were ripping America apart," Mr. Hayes recalls. He was a student at Harvard University and headed to Washington to offer help to Sen. Gaylord Nelson, who was planning the first Earth Day, scheduled for April 22, 1970.
<p><br/></p>
<p class=""><em>This story originally appeared in</em> <em><a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/" target="_blank">The Christian Science Monitor </a></em><em>and is republished here as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.</em></p>
<p>Before long, Mr. Hayes had dropped out of Harvard and moved to Washington to be the organizer of the event. He found a surge of people eager "to find some things that hold us together," he says. </p><p>And it worked. Some 20 million people participated in the first Earth Day events, held in nearly every town and city in the United States. At the marquee event in New York, Fifth Avenue closed from Union Square to Central Park.</p><p>"I had never imagined addressing a crowd that would be so large I could not see the far edge of it," recalls Mr. Hayes. "It was like looking out at the ocean. The crowd extended over the horizon."</p>
<p>That moment was just the beginning. What started as a single day grew into a sustained movement that drew both Democrats and Republicans and launched a slew of legislation, from the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency to the adoption of the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act, and the Superfund program.</p><p>The 50th Earth Day celebration this spring is global and – due to the emergence of COVID-19 – virtual. The focus of the event has shifted, from pollution to climate change. But the spirit remains the same.</p><p>Mr. Hayes recently looked back on that first Earth Day, its legacy, and lessons for today's activists. Here are some excerpts, edited for clarity and length, from that interview. </p>
What Did the First Earth Day Change?
<p>If you had gone around the United States in 1969 asking people what they thought about the environment, people mostly wouldn't have known what you were talking about. By the middle of 1970, something like 75% of all Americans called themselves environmentalists. There was a set of values – that had sort of been there and implicit, but not wrapped up together in any kind of definable boundary – that came to reshape the culture.</p><p>I grew up in a community that was dominated by a paper mill. It cranked out uncontrolled sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide that became acid rain. And that was thought of as the smell of prosperity. We changed that. </p><p>There are now people who have chosen to live in a particular kind of location for environmental reasons. Who chose their automobile or bus commute for environmental reasons. There are people like me who chose to have one child for environmental reasons. Politicians got elected and defeated for environmental reasons. All of that happened in a relatively clear chain in the aftermath of Earth Day. </p>What Parallels Do You See With Today’s Environmental Activism?
<p>In 1970, if you looked at a smokestack, you saw really ugly clouds of smoke coming out. With climate, of course, with CO2 – you can't see it, you can't smell it, you can't taste it. But what you can see are the effects of it. All of that makes it tangible and visible to people in a way that allows you to have a fair amount of momentum. And then, of course, you have the kids.</p><p>Social movements are almost always driven by youth. Historically, young has meant 20 or 22 or 25. Today, it's often 15 or 16. They have this intuitive sense that the world is getting bad at an accelerating pace and they want to do what they can to stop it. Part of what we're doing with Earth Day is answering the question Greta [Thunberg] always asks: Where are the adults?</p><p>We're going to be throwing some adults into the mix, who have filed some lawsuits, who know how to prepare legislation, who have worked with the technologies and know what you can do and what would be defying scientific principles. It has to be a broad societal effort, but to get the whole thing launched, as it has been, by the very young has really been a godsend.</p>What Role Can Environmental Activists of the 1970s Play Today?
<p>I don't want to overstate this, but there was an idealism that was pretty widespread in the '60s and '70s. And those of us who were there then have now moved into positions of some power, some influence. Some have retired and now have some leisure. I'm seeing a fair amount of evidence that that idealism is starting to resurface.</p><p>That idealism came from the young and is beginning to spread to the old, to the seniors who have this fair amount of remaining authority over the economy. It's been less effective with the politicians. But where in 1970 it was environmentalists working hand in glove with politicians to try to put some constraints on the irresponsible behavior of the corporations, there's a trace now of environmentalists working with the most enlightened corporate leaders to put some constraints around the politicians.</p>How Do You Find Optimism?
<p>My biggest worry about the kids is that most of what they're facing are these gloom-and-doom stories, which are all very real. But they have to also recognize that there are well-founded reasons for hope. </p><p>You will never be able to generate a movement if you don't have hope. You can't have a civil rights movement unless you think you can prevail. You won't have an anti-war movement unless you think you can end the war.</p><p>And you won't have a climate movement unless you can build a safe, healthy, resilient, beautiful society that isn't dependent on fossil fuels.</p><p><span></span>A number of things have changed faster than anybody thought was possible: the rapidly declining costs of solar technologies, of offshore wind technologies, of battery technologies, of electric vehicles.</p><p>Hope is often an act of will. I have a daughter, and my daughter has a daughter, so now I have a granddaughter. I can't dodder off into my twilight years hopeless. There has to be an ability to have society make the necessary choices. </p>From Your Site Articles
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An environmental protester stands on top of the Wall Street Bull on October 17, 2019 in NYC. Erik McGregor / LightRocket / Getty Images
By Bill McKibben
Nineteen-seventy was a simpler time. (February was a simpler time too, but for a moment let's think outside the pandemic bubble.)
Simpler because our environmental troubles could be easily seen. The air above our cities was filthy, and the water in our lakes and streams was gross. There was nothing subtle about it. In New York City, the environmental lawyer Albert Butzel described a permanently yellow horizon: "I not only saw the pollution, I wiped it off my windowsills."
<p><br/></p>
<p>Or consider the testimony of a city medical examiner: "The person who spent his life in the Adirondacks has nice pink lungs. The city dweller's are black as coal." You've likely heard of Cleveland's Cuyahoga River <a href="https://clevelandhistorical.org/items/show/63" target="_blank">catching fire</a>, but here's how New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/28/nyregion/new-york-city-smog.html" target="_blank">described</a> the Hudson south of Albany: "one great septic tank that has been rendered nearly useless for water supply, for swimming, or to support the rich fish life that once abounded there." Everything that people say about the air and water in China and India right now was said of America's cities then.</p><p>It's no wonder that people mobilized: 20 million Americans took to the streets for the <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-first-earth-day" target="_blank">first Earth Day</a> in 1970—10 percent of America's population at the time, perhaps the single greatest day of political protest in the country's history. And it worked. Worked politically because Congress quickly passed the <a href="https://archive.epa.gov/epa/aboutepa/epa-history-clean-air-act-1970.html" target="_blank">Clean Air Act</a> and the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/summary-clean-water-act" target="_blank">Clean Water Act</a> and scientifically because those laws had the desired effect. In essence, they stuck enough filters on smokestacks, car exhausts, and factory effluent pipes that, before long, the air and water were unmistakably cleaner. The nascent Environmental Protection Agency commissioned a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-us-cities-looked-like-before-epa-regulated-pollution-2019-8#barges-filled-with-new-yorks-waste-are-pulled-down-the-east-river-to-staten-island-landfill-in-the-1970s-new-york-produced-26000-tons-of-solid-waste-every-day-22" target="_blank">series of photos</a> that showed just how filthy things were. Even for those of us who were alive then, it's hard to imagine that we tolerated this.</p><p>But we should believe it, because now we face even greater challenges that we're doing next to nothing about. And one reason is you can't see them.</p>
<p>The carbon dioxide molecule is invisible; at today's levels you can't see it or smell it, and it doesn't do anything to you. Carbon with one oxygen molecule? That's what kills you in a closed garage if you leave the car running. But two oxygen molecules? All that does is trap heat in the atmosphere. Melt ice caps. Raise seas. Change weather patterns. But slowly enough that most of the time, we don't quite see it.</p><p>And it's a more complex moment for another reason. You can filter carbon monoxide easily. It's a trace gas, a tiny percentage of what comes from a power plant. But carbon dioxide is the exact opposite. It's most of what comes pouring out when you burn coal or gas or oil. There's no catalytic converter for CO2, which means you have to take down the fossil fuel industry.</p><p>That in turn means you have to take on not just the oil companies but also the banks, asset managers, and insurance companies that invest in them (and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-banks-energy-assets-exclusive/exclusive-us-banks-prepare-to-seize-energy-assets-as-shale-boom-goes-bust-idUSKCN21R3JI" target="_blank">may even own them</a>, in the wake of the current economic crash). You have to take on, that is, the heart of global capital.</p>
<p>And so we are. <a href="https://stopthemoneypipeline.com/" target="_blank">Stop the Money Pipeline</a>, a coalition of environmental and climate justice groups running from the small and specialized to the Sierra Club and Greenpeace, formed last fall to try to tackle the biggest money on earth. Banks like Chase—the planet's largest by market capitalization—which has funneled a <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2020/03/new-report-reveals-global-banks-funneled-27-trillion-fossil-fuels-paris" target="_blank">quarter-trillion dollars</a> to the fossil fuel industry since the Paris Agreement of 2015. Insurers like <a href="https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/us/news/environmental/liberty-mutual-facing-mounting-pressure-to-exit-fossil-fuels-219312.aspx" target="_blank">Liberty Mutual</a>, still insuring tar sands projects even as pipeline builders endanger Native communities by trying to build the Keystone XL <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/keystone-xl-pipeline-construction-2645607020.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1" target="_self">during a pandemic</a>.</p><p>This campaign sounds quixotic, but it seemed to be getting traction until the coronavirus pandemic hit. In January, BlackRock <a href="https://www.blackrock.com/corporate/investor-relations/larry-fink-ceo-letter" target="_blank">announced</a> that it was going to put climate at the heart of its investment analyses. Liberty Mutual, under similar pressure from activists, began to <a href="https://www.ran.org/press-releases/liberty-mutual-adopts-coal-policy-in-response-to-public-pressure/" target="_blank">edge away</a> from coal. And Chase—well, Earth Day would have seen activists engaging in civil disobedience in several thousand bank lobbies across America, sort of like the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3MKcYUUHxw" target="_blank">protest in January</a> that helped launch the campaign (and sent me, among others, off in handcuffs). But we called that off; there's no way we were going to risk carrying the microbe into jails, where the people already locked inside have little chance of social distancing.</p><p>Still, the pandemic may be causing as much trouble for the fossil fuel industry as our campaign hoped to. With the demand for oil cratering, it's clear that these companies have no future. The divestment campaign that, over a decade, has enlisted $14 trillion in endowments and portfolios in the climate fight has a new head of steam.</p>
<p>Our job—a more complex one than faced our Earth Day predecessors 50 years ago—is to force the spring. We need to speed the transition to the solar panels and wind turbines that engineers have worked so mightily to improve and are now the cheapest way to generate power. The only thing standing in the way is the political power of the fossil fuel companies, on clear display as <a href="https://psmag.com/news/trump-seeks-to-speed-up-oil-and-gas-projects" target="_blank">President Trump</a> does everything in his power to preserve their dominance. That's hard to overcome. Hard but simple. Just as in 1970, it demands unrelenting pressure from citizens. That pressure is coming. Indigenous nations, frontline communities, faith groups, climate scientists, and savvy investors are joining together, and their voices are getting louder. Seven million of us were in the streets <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/global-climate-strikes-week-2640790405.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1" target="_self">last September</a>. That's not 20 million, but it's on the way.</p><p>We can't be on the streets right now. So we'll do what we can on the boulevards of the Internet. Join us for <a href="https://www.earthdaylive2020.org/" target="_blank">Earth Day Live</a>, three days of digital activism beginning April 22. We're in a race, and we're gaining fast.</p>
<p><em>Bill McKibben is the founder of climate change campaign <a href="https://350.org/" target="_blank">350.org</a>, a scholar in residence at Middlebury College, and the author of the new book <em>Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?.</em></em></p><p><em>This story originally appeared in</em><em> <a href="https://www.thenation.com/" target="_blank">The Nation</a></em><em>,</em> <em>and is republished here as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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In a special message for the 50th anniversary of Earth Day Wednesday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on the world to respond to the immediate crisis caused by the new coronavirus in a way that also solves the climate crisis.
<p>Guterres first acknowledged the pandemic that has <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/earth-day-2020-2645626315.html" target="_self">prompted Earth Day to go digital</a> this year, calling it "the biggest test the world has faced since the Second World War."</p><p>"The impact of the coronavirus is both immediate and dreadful," he said. "But there is another, deep emergency — the planet's unfolding environmental crisis."</p>
<div id="b79e8" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="36897e275b8bbcfb79c1c1588e7c53ef"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1252703655695810561" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The #COVID19 crisis is an unprecedented wake-up call.
We need to turn the recovery into a real opportunity to buil… https://t.co/yDxkhBMsP2</div> — António Guterres (@António Guterres)<a href="https://twitter.com/antonioguterres/statuses/1252703655695810561">1587502800.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Guterres then called on countries to make sure their coronavirus recovery plans also paved the way for a more sustainable way of life.</p><p>"The current crisis is an unprecedented wake-up call," he said. "We need to turn the recovery into a real opportunity to do things right for the future."</p><p>To that end, he proposed six steps for a green recovery:</p><ol><li>Create new jobs and businesses by transitioning to a clean energy economy.</li><li>Make sure taxpayer funds used to bail out businesses go to green jobs and sustainable projects.</li><li>Make sure finance is directed towards creating a greener economy and more resilient communities.</li><li>Use public funds to invest in environmentally-friendly sectors and projects while ending <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuel</a> subsidies and making polluters pay for the damage they cause.</li><li>Shape financial and public policy decisions around climate risks.</li><li>Work together as an international community.</li></ol>
<p>"On this Earth Day, please join me in demanding a healthy and resilient future for people and planet alike," Guterres concluded.</p><p>The remarks are in keeping with Guterres' commitment to climate action, which has been his No. 1 priority since assuming UN leadership in January 2017, as <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-earth-day-guterres/for-earth-day-u-n-chief-urges-green-recovery-in-response-to-coronavirus-idUSKCN2232S7?il=0" target="_blank">Reuters reported</a>. However, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/21/an-even-deeper-emergency-united-nations-chief-warns-climate-change-a-bigger-threat-than-coronavirus-199646" target="_blank">POLITICO interpreted</a> his remarks as a direct challenge to President <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/donald-trump" target="_self">Donald Trump</a> and said they showed a new willingness on the UN leader's part to confront the U.S. president who <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-who-funding-coronavirus-2645722550.html" target="_self">last week suspended funding</a> to the World Health Organization.</p><p>In particular, Guterres' call for an end to fossil fuel subsidies goes against Trump's promise Tuesday to bail out the oil industry after oil prices <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/oil-prices-fall-below-zero-2645784342.html" target="_self">fell below zero for the first time</a> Monday. The U.S. also gives out the second-most subsidies to the fossil fuel industry, after China, according to the <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2019/05/02/Global-Fossil-Fuel-Subsidies-Remain-Large-An-Update-Based-on-Country-Level-Estimates-46509" target="_blank">International Monetary Fund</a>.</p>
<p>Further, Guterres' call for a green recovery echoes the demands of some Democratic lawmakers, who had pushed unsuccessfully to condition an airline bailout on reduced emissions, as <a href="https://grist.org/politics/at-least-the-coronavirus-stimulus-package-isnt-bailing-out-the-oil-industry/" target="_blank">Grist reported</a>.</p><p>But Guterres' statement also intervenes in a global fight over what the recovery from the coronavirus will look like. So far, major stimulus plans in the U.S., China and Europe have focused on mitigating immediate economic damage, Reuters pointed out. But there are signs that some countries at least could incorporate green measures into future efforts. Austrian environment minister Leonore Gewessler said last week that an airline bailout should be conditional on climate policies such as fewer short-haul flights and the use of cleaner jet fuel.</p><p>In the U.S., a group of activists and experts has put forward a call for a <a href="https://medium.com/@green_stimulus_now/a-green-stimulus-to-rebuild-our-economy-1e7030a1d9ee" target="_blank">Green Stimulus</a> that urges investments in green jobs and projects alongside efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions so as to limit global warming to around 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.</p>
<p>Emissions have declined as people stay home in response to lockdown orders, but experts say they will only stay down if environmental concerns are incorporated into recovery plans. Further, they point out that protecting the environment reduces the risk of future pandemics.</p><p>"While the pandemic will lead to a temporary dip in global greenhouse gas emissions, this must not distract from the urgent need for rapid fundamental changes in infrastructure, energy, land use and industrial systems to set us on a path to net zero emissions globally by 2050 at the latest," International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) Director Andrew Norton told <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-52370221" target="_blank">BBC News</a>. "Land use change and deforestation are primary global drivers of biodiversity destruction. They heighten the risk of further pandemics by bringing humans into contact with new threats such as the coronavirus. Every species lost is an irreversible event that decreases the resilience of natural and human systems on a permanent basis."</p>
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April 22 is Earth Day, but this year's celebration will be a little different from Earth Days past. Colin Anderson / Photographer's Choice RF / Getty Images
Tomorrow is Earth Day, but this year's celebration will be a little different from Earth Days past as coronavirus social distancing measures make outdoor gatherings impossible.
<p>Luckily, several networks are premiering documentaries in the U.S. Wednesday that you can watch from the safety of your couch.</p><p>Here are three new films to watch on Earth Day's 50th anniversary to keep yourself entertained and informed about the planet, the challenges it faces and how you can help.</p>
Film: The Story of Plastic
<p>Network: Discovery<br></p><p>Time: 2 p.m. EST/ PST</p><div class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6b861cebf6324cbe46542595b9f701a3"><div class="fb-video" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/Discovery/videos/246348926543248/?v=246348926543248" data-allowfullscreen="true"></div></div>
<p>The Story of Plastic looks at plastic over the entire course of its life cycle, from production to disposal, focusing on its impacts on the environment and human health. It also interviews people who are working to solve the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/plastic-pollution" target="_self">plastic pollution</a> crisis, like Capt. Charlie Moore, discoverer of the North Pacific Garbage Patch, and Yvette Arellano, who advocates for frontline communities impacted by petrochemical plants on the U.S. Gulf Coast.</p><p>The film was an official selection of Mill Valley Film Festival and 2019 DOC NYC. It is presented by <a href="https://www.storyofstuff.org/" target="_blank">The Story of Stuff Project</a> and directed by Deia Schlosberg. Wednesday's screening on Discovery marks its television premiere.</p><p>"The issues highlighted in THE STORY OF PLASTIC illuminate how the decisions made locally can affect us globally," discovery and factual chief brand officer Nancy Daniels said in a press release emailed to EcoWatch. "We are eager to highlight the solutions laid out in the film that will help make our world a cleaner and healthier place to live."</p>
Film: Climate Change - The Facts
<p>Network: PBS<br></p><p>Time: 8 p.m. EST/ 7 p.m. Central; also streaming from Wednesday on PBS.org and the PBS Video App</p><span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="636c82f9bc291fa033c6070377840cb6"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Cf4d6t_zIDk?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
<p>Climate Change - The Facts is an hour-long documentary special hosted by renowned nature broadcaster <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/David-Attenborough" target="_self">David Attenborough</a>. It looks at what will happen if the earth warms by 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and what can be done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions this decade.</p><p>A BBC Studios and IWC Media production for PBS, it features interviews with scientists like former director of NASA Goddard Institute for Science Studies James Hansen and activists like <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/greta-thunberg" target="_self">Greta Thunberg</a>. It examines the consequences of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a> from <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-level-rise" target="_self">sea level rise</a> to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildfires" target="_self">wildfires</a> like the one that devastated Paradise, California.</p><p>"In the 20 years since I first started talking about the impact of climate change on our world, conditions have changed far faster than I ever imagined," Attenborough says in the film, according to a press release emailed to EcoWatch. "It may sound frightening, but the scientific evidence is that if we have not taken dramatic action within the next decade, we could face irreversible damage to the natural world and the collapse of our societies. We're running out of time, but there is still hope."</p>
Film: She Walks With Apes
<p>Network: BBC America<br></p><p>Time: 9 p.m.EST / 8 p.m. Central</p><span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0f91612d0048e95f5452b203276fb9c7"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9zMoPlmMKm0?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
<p>BBC America has a <a href="https://www.amcnetworks.com/press-releases/bbc-america-celebrates-50th-anniversary-of-earth-day-from-april-20th-to-23rd/" target="_blank">whole four days</a> of programming planned to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. At the heart of that programing is the premiere of She Walks With Apes, a look at the lives of pioneering female ape scientists and advocates Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Biruté Galdikas.</p><p>Each woman taught the world more about our closest animal ancestors. The British Goodall lived with chimpanzees in Africa, while the American Fossey was murdered while protecting mountain gorillas in Rwanda, and Canadian Galdikas spent time with orangutans in Borneo. The documentary is narrated by Killing Eve's Sandra Oh and filmed by father-daughter team Caitlin and Mark Starowicz.</p><p>"Now, more than ever, many of us have come to appreciate the extraordinary beauty and deep benefits of the natural world," Executive Director of BBC AMERICA Courtney Thomasma said in a press release emailed to EcoWatch announcing the Earth Day programming. "So at a time when we're all staying at home, we wanted to give viewers a chance to escape into the wonders of nature as we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, with landmark favorites from BBC Studios and brand new documentary specials."</p>
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Environmental activists holding cilantro attend a protest in Zucotti Park on Earth Day on April 22, 2014 in New York City. John Moore / Getty Images
The devastating reality of the coronavirus pandemic has increased people's hunger for good news, as The New York Times reported April 14, leading to significant increases in Google searches and follower counts for good news accounts. Just in time, Covering Climate Now (CCNow) is here to meet that need with a week of coverage devoted to climate solutions.
<p><br/></p><p><br/></p>
<p>The week of coverage, timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/earth-day" target="_self">Earth Day</a>, will run from April 19 to 26. It will amass stories from CCNow's more than 400 partner news organizations—with a total audience of nearly two billion people—to shine a light on how we can collectively address the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a>, from technological innovations like solar panels to policy moves like carbon pricing to activism and local and corporate initiatives.</p><p>"Whatever stories your newsroom decides to tell, our collective effort will constitute a solution in its own right," <a href="https://www.coveringclimatenow.org/climate-beat/announcing-our-april-week-of-coverage" target="_blank">the organization wrote</a>. "As the Canadian climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe says, the most important thing to do about climate change is to talk about it."</p>
<div id="d982b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="95ab909bbce0c99db59b8b735b4b4ee6"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1235535143114137603" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">#Journalists & @CoveringClimate partners! Join
our next joint coverage week (April 19-26) focused on Climate Solut… https://t.co/kONfvP8f6s</div> — Covering Climate Now (@Covering Climate Now)<a href="https://twitter.com/CoveringClimate/statuses/1235535143114137603">1583409507.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>CCNow <a href="https://www.coveringclimatenow.org/about" target="_blank">was founded</a> in April 2019 by the <a href="https://www.cjr.org/" target="_blank">Columbia Journalism Review</a> and <a href="https://www.thenation.com/" target="_blank">The Nation</a>, in association with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>, in an effort to improve the quantity and quality of climate coverage. It helps its partner news organizations do this by providing best practices and story ideas, hosting conferences, sharing climate stories that partners can republish for free, publicizing its partners' best climate content and organizing coverage weeks like this one.</p><p>Its first coverage week was held during the lead-up to the UN Climate Action Summit in September 2019 and generated at least 3,640 stories, according to the <a href="https://www.cjr.org/covering_climate_now/climate-journalism-collaboration.php" target="_blank">Columbia Journalism Review</a>. News outlets said the week succeeded in encouraging them to run more climate stories than they otherwise would have.</p><p>"We ended up doing more than two dozen stories that wouldn't have run except for this initiative," a senior editor at Bloomberg told the Columbia Journalism Review.</p>
<p>CCNow's <a href="https://www.coveringclimatenow.org/partners" target="_blank">partners</a> range from major wire services like Bloomberg and Reuters to local newspapers and magazines, plus websites like BirdWatching and Literary Hub. EcoWatch is also a partner.</p><p>There are <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e3c75266def8a6d2dd23159/t/5e98806ae098a07bd78e5f38/1587052652029/CCNow+April+WoC+Preview_FINAL+%28Apr+16%29.pdf" target="_blank">lots of solutions stories</a> planned for the coming coverage week. Some examples include:</p><ul><li>A Guardian story about Microsoft's plan to go "carbon negative" by 2030.</li><li>A Nation interview with Michael Pollan about whether psychedelics can treat climate grief.</li><li>A Reuters profile of a Hong Kong restaurant that runs without food waste.</li><li>A Times of India piece about how the coronavirus lockdown is leading to cleaner air.</li></ul>
<p>"In the coming days, the Covering Climate Now partners will collectively publish hundreds of stories on climate solutions to create a groundswell of hope at a moment when the world feels bleak," <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/19/the-guardian-joins-forces-with-hundreds-of-newsrooms-to-promote-climate-solutions" target="_blank">The Guardian wrote in its coverage announcement</a>.<br></p><p>But the coverage will still be rigorous.</p><p>"To be clear, highlighting solutions does not mean cheerleading or drifting into activism," CCNow wrote. "Our role as journalists is to report, to explain, to analyze, and to hold the powerful to account. But it is high time the media framing of the climate story shifts from a paralyzing gloom and doom to a clear-headed focus on how to get out of this mess."</p>
<p class=""><em>This story is published as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story</em>.</p>From Your Site Articles
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A display commemorates the 25th Earth Day in Washington, DC on April 22, 1995. Jeffrey Markowitz / Sygma via Getty Images
This April 22, Earth Day turns 50.
The world's largest secular holiday approaches its golden anniversary in the shadow of two global crises. This year's day is dedicated to climate action, and the celebration has moved online in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
But Earth Day has a history of uniting people around the world to solve the major problems facing our planet. Here's a look back on some of the most important Earth Days in the celebration's 50-year history and what they helped accomplish.
<h3>1970: The First Earth Day Sprouts a Movement</h3>
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<p>By 1970, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/environmental-victories-2561818321.html" target="_self">decades of rampant pollution</a> had dirtied America's air, set rivers on fire and led to major disasters like the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/01/28/688219307/how-californias-worst-oil-spill-turned-beaches-black-and-the-nation-green" target="_blank">Santa Barbara oil spill of 1969</a>. So on April 22 of that year, <a href="https://www.earthday.org/history/" target="_blank">20 million Americans</a>, or 10 percent of the U.S. population, came out to demand a clean, healthy environment. The day had many organizers, but the idea came from Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson, a staunch environmentalist.</p><p>"The objective was to get a nationwide demonstration of concern for the environment so large that it would shake the political establishment out of its lethargy," Nelson said, <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-first-earth-day" target="_blank">according to History</a>, "and, finally, force this issue permanently onto the national political agenda."</p><p>He succeeded. The day is widely credited with encouraging the formation of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/epa">U.S. Environmental Protection Agency</a> and the passage of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/clean-air-act" target="_self">Clean Air</a>, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/clean-water-act" target="_self">Clean Water</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species-act" target="_self">Endangered Species Acts</a>.</p>
<h3>1990: Earth Day Spreads Earth-Wide</h3>
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<p>One of the original Earth Day organizers and <a href="https://www.earthday.org/" target="_blank">Earth Day Network</a> founder Denis Hayes was asked by a coalition of environmental leaders to organize a big event for the day's 20th anniversary. Hayes told <a href="https://time.com/5570269/earth-day-origins/" target="_blank">TIME in 2019</a> that the 1990 Earth Day was "probably the second most important Earth Day."<br></p><p>In some ways, Hayes conceded, the day was not a success. It tried to raise awareness about <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate change</a> and the need for <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/renewable-energy/" target="_self">renewable energy</a>, but without a groundswell of popular concern around those issues.</p><p>"We were trying to create a wave from basically nothing but intellectual discourse," Hayes told TIME. "Did we succeed? The answer to that nearly 30 years later is pretty obvious, though I'm not sure there was a way it <em>could </em>succeed."</p><p>However, the day did "[give] birth to what is known as the modern Earth Day movement," as <a href="https://theyearsproject.com/learn/news/the-evolution-of-earth-day/" target="_blank">The Years Project put it</a>. The day was celebrated by 200 million people in 141 countries, according to the Earth Day Network. It raised global awareness about <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/recycling" target="_self">recycling</a> and helped lead to the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.</p>
<h3>2010: Earth Day Launches a Billion Acts of Green</h3>
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<p>Earth Day continued to grow through the new millennium and continued to push for climate action and clean energy. On its 40th anniversary, it gathered more than 250,000 people in Washington, DC for a <a href="https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-network-announces-the-climate-rally-in-washington-dc-on-april-25/" target="_blank">climate rally</a>, according to the Earth Day Network. Internationally, the day was celebrated in 192 countries. It coincided with the <a href="https://pwccc.wordpress.com/support/" target="_blank">World People's Conference on Climate Change</a> held in Cochabamba, Bolivia and saw the first community trash pick-up in Kolkata, India, as <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/4/100422-earth-day-40-40th-anniversary/" target="_blank">National Geographic reported at the time</a>.<br></p><p>The Earth Day Network channeled that energy into launching <a href="https://www.earthday.org/billion/" target="_blank">A Billion Acts of Green®</a>, which it says is the "<a href="https://www.earthday.org/worlds-largest-environmental-service-campaign-reaches-halfway-point/" target="_blank">world's largest environmental service campaign</a>." The organizers asked participants to do "just one thing that will help our planet," from making their homes more energy efficient to biking to work. The initiative is still going strong, with now more than two billion acts registered.</p><p>"The idea that we can all belong to something is what's exciting people and what's making them want to join," Earth Day Network President Kathleen Rogers told National Geographic when the campaign was first launched.</p>
<h3>2016: The Paris Agreement Is Signed</h3>
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<p>In a testament to the symbolic power of Earth Day, then-United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/on-earth-day-150-world-leaders-to-sign-paris-climate-agreement-1891117805.html" target="_self"> chose it</a> as the day when world leaders would sign the landmark <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/paris-agreement" target="_self">Paris climate agreement</a> at a ceremony in New York City.<br></p><p>The Paris agreement was the first international agreement pledging all countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35084374" target="_blank">BBC News reported when it was first announced in December 2015</a>. Countries committed to limiting global warming to "well below" two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, with an ideal aim of stopping warming at 1.5 degrees. The Earth Day ceremony saw 175 leaders sign the landmark agreement — the most to ever sign an international agreement in one day.</p><p>"The participation by so many countries today, and the attendance by so many world leaders, leaves no doubt that the world is determined to take climate action," Ban <a href="https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/press-encounter/2016-04-22/secretary-generals-remarks-joint-press-conference-his" target="_blank">said at the time</a>.</p><p>While the agreement has been undercut somewhat by President Donald Trump's <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-begins-withdrawal-paris-agreement-2641223963.html" target="_self">decision to withdraw the U.S</a>. and the fact that, if countries stick to their current pledges, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/greenhouse-gases-climate-change-un-2641459291.html" target="_self">we will still see</a> 3.2 degrees Celsius of warming, its record-setting Earth Day signing is still an important reminder that world leaders can choose to come together for the sake of our common home.</p>
<h3>2020: Earth Day Fights for Climate Action on Lockdown</h3>
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<p>As Earth Day's 50th anniversary approached, organizers found themselves in a situation not unlike the one that led to the first Earth Day.<br></p><p>"The social and cultural environments we saw in 1970 are rising up again today — a fresh and frustrated generation of young people are refusing to settle for platitudes, instead taking to the streets by the millions to demand a new way forward. Digital and social media are bringing these conversations, protests, strikes and mobilizations to a global audience, uniting a concerned citizenry as never before and catalyzing generations to join together to take on the greatest challenge that humankind has faced," the Earth Day Network <a href="https://www.earthday.org/history/" target="_blank">reflected</a>.</p><p>Hayes <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/earth-day-will-fight-for-climate-action-on-its-50th-anniversary-2635345330.html?rebelltitem=4#rebelltitem4" target="_self">said</a> he wanted Earth Day 2020 to do for climate change what Earth Day 1970 had done for other environmental issues. But then organizers were faced with something they did not have to deal with 50 years ago — the coronavirus pandemic.</p><p>With <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/countries-on-lockdown-coronavirus-italy-2020-3?r=US&IR=T" target="_blank">more than a third of the planet</a> under some form of lockdown order, Earth Day is going digital for the first time in its history, with <a href="https://www.earthday.org/campaign/digital-earth-day/" target="_blank">24 hours</a> of virtual talks, action calls, teach-ins and performances. Find an event <a href="https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-live/" target="_blank">here</a> or register your own to be part of Earth Day's ongoing history.</p>
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By Ken Kimmell
The COVID-19 crisis has upended the world, threatening the health and lives of millions, shattering the global economy, and imposing an unprecedented physical isolation upon us. It has changed so much almost overnight, including how we advocate for action on an even bigger long-term threat — climate change.
<p>For this upcoming 50th anniversary of Earth Day, youth and other climate activists had planned on holding a massive worldwide strike and thousands of public demonstrations to demand that leaders in the public and private spheres take action on climate change. Of course, in-person gatherings are not possible right now. But in a remarkable showing of agility and creativity, the US Youth Climate Strike Coalition has transformed the event into the largest online mass mobilization in history — Earth Day Live, which will take place April 22–24.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/author/ken-kimmell#.Xpxv0JNKiu4" target="_blank">Ken Kimmell</a> is president of the Union of Concerned Scientists and has more than 30 years of experience in government, environmental policy, and advocacy.</em></p>
Get Ready
<p><a href="https://www.earthdaylive2020.org/" target="_blank">Earth Day Live</a> is a three-day event focused on climate action and participation in our democracy. Its centerpiece is a non-stop 72-hour livestream that will include performances, training sessions, and a wide range of events designed to engage, inform, and inspire millions of people nationwide.</p><p>Thousands have already RSVP'd, hundreds of local livestreams across the country have registered, and the event will feature many high-profile celebrities and other public figures. If you haven't yet RSVP'd, <a href="https://www.earthdaylive2020.org/?source=union-of-concerned-scientists-2&referrer=group-union-of-concerned-scientists-2&emci=8906248a-8d73-ea11-a94c-00155d03b1e8&emdi=ea000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001&ceid=" target="_blank">definitely do so today</a>!</p><p>For more information on the event, you can watch and share a short promo video on your social media channel of choice, whether it's <a href="https://www.facebook.com/thefuturecoalition/videos/397330511150137/" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B_A0eFtHuaB/" target="_blank">Instagram</a>, or<a href="https://twitter.com/FutureCoalition/status/1250510801720532993" target="_blank"> Twitter</a>. Or you can <a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=1AYWMGAmIuvQsl5YELjMVz1VDxgEu25k6" target="_blank">download the video</a> to make your own posts. Also check out the work of the <a href="https://stopthemoneypipeline.com/" target="_blank">Stop the Money Pipeline Coalition</a>; their work will be central to activities on Day 2 of Earth Day Live and they have produced <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1D4zIJeRYBXVEaI95-HK1Qqn_8VqkGs9I_CH27B4Fw5c/edit" target="_blank">#PeopleNotPolluters art</a> that you can use and share.</p><p>What else can you do to support Earth Day Live? <a href="https://www.earthdaylive2020.org/?source=union-of-concerned-scientists-2&referrer=group-union-of-concerned-scientists-2&emci=8906248a-8d73-ea11-a94c-00155d03b1e8&emdi=ea000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001&ceid=" target="_blank">Sign up</a> and tell your friends to sign up. Add a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/profilepicframes/?selected_overlay_id=2544581619124458" target="_blank">Facebook frame</a> or <a href="https://twibbon.com/Support/earth-day-live-april-22-24" target="_blank">Twibbon frame</a>. Use and follow these hashtags on social media:<strong> #EarthDayLive, #EarthDay, #StrikeWithUs, </strong>and <strong>#ClimateStrike. </strong>Or simply follow and amplify the <a href="https://twitter.com/FutureCoalition/lists/youth-climate-strike-co" target="_blank">Youth Climate Strike Coalition on Twitter</a>.</p>United for Action
<p>At UCS, we stand united with the youth-led movement that is organizing Earth Day Live and the next generation of science and climate advocates who are participating in it. We aim to support them as they help boost and elevate the need for climate action, and are active members of the youth climate strike's adult coalition.</p><p>We are also members of the Stop the Money Pipeline coalition and calling for the financial institutions that fuel climate change by funding and insuring fossil fuel companies to end their support of climate destruction. And we are working on increasing voter registration and turnout of pro-science voters in the 2020 election by building the <a href="http://www.sciencerising.org/" target="_blank">Science Rising movement</a> to help empower students, scientists, and science supporters with opportunities to participate in civic engagement and democratic activities in their communities.</p><p>The past weeks have taught us all some hard lessons: having the best available science is not just important — it is a matter of life and death. And there is no substitute for effective action by governments at the national and international level to address crises at the scale that is needed.</p><p>We are also learning — yet again — that when disaster strikes, it exerts the highest costs on the most vulnerable. These lessons from the COVID-19 crisis apply forcefully to climate change as well — and I am heartened by the powerful way that the youth-led movement will remind us of these vital truths over the next several days, and inspire all of us to act upon them.</p>From Your Site Articles
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Trending
The "Earthrise" photograph that inspired the first Earth Day. NASA / Bill Anders
For EcoWatchers, April usually means one thing: Earth Day. But how do you celebrate the environment while staying home to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus?
<p>Luckily, the <a href="https://www.earthday.org/" target="_blank">Earth Day Network</a> has you covered. The organization <a href="https://www.earthday.org/press-release/coronavirus-announcement-digital-earth-day/" target="_blank">announced in March</a> that it would celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day with its first ever Digital Earth Day April 22.</p>
<p>"At Earth Day Network, the health and safety of volunteers and participants in Earth Day events is our top concern. Amid the recent outbreak, we encourage people to rise up but to do so safely and responsibly — in many cases, that means using our voices to drive action online rather than in person," Earth Day Network President Kathleen Rogers said.</p><p>Here are three things you can do from the safety of your home to celebrate the Earth throughout April.</p>
1. Join EARTHRISE
<p>On Earth Day itself, the Earth Day Network is organizing 24 hours of "global digital mobilization" called <a href="https://www.earthday.org/coronavirus-drives-digital-striking-movement/" target="_blank">EARTHRISE</a> after the famous picture of our planet from space that inspired millions to agitate for the first Earth Day in 1970.</p><p>"The coronavirus pandemic does not shut us down," the organizers wrote. "Instead, it reminds us of what's at stake in our fight for the planet. If we don't demand change, our current state will become the new normal — a world where pandemics and extreme weather events span the globe, leaving already marginalized and vulnerable communities even more at risk."</p><p>You can participate using the hashtags #EarthDay2020 and #EARTHRISE.</p><p>The Earth Day Network is asking participants to speak up for the planet, vote for leaders who promote environmental policies or contact their representatives and educate others about the importance of taking care of the Earth. It is also organizing 24 actions that you can take from your home, one for each hour of the day.</p><div id="4dd5a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ac14aa56ede490310290063150cea127"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1244671199717871618" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">When life gives you lemons, make lemonade! To amid the COVID-19 outbreak, we are switching to a digital #EarthDay.… https://t.co/mVF7vx1j1J</div> — Earth Day Network (@Earth Day Network)<a href="https://twitter.com/EarthDayNetwork/statuses/1244671199717871618">1585587713.0</a></blockquote></div>2. Take the Earth Day Daily Challenge
<p>You don't have to wait for April 22 to start making a difference. The Earth Day Network is also organizing <a href="https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-challenge/" target="_blank">22 daily challenges</a> you can take to fight the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a> from lockdown.</p><p>The challenge began <a href="https://twitter.com/EarthDayNetwork/status/1245413619636019200" target="_blank">April 1</a> with a "plastic audit". Simply look for ways you can reduce your plastic usage and share your techniques.</p><p>Yesterday's challenge was to <a href="https://twitter.com/EarthDayNetwork/status/1245780953622069249" target="_blank">"compost creatively"</a> if you can't use all the food you brought home in your latest grocery store haul.</p><p>You can follow @earthdaynetwork's social media channels for each day's challenge.</p><div id="42c0f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="fc070ae37babee43660310efcdc00d48"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1245413619636019200" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">#Challenge Day 1 - Do a plastic audit We know avoiding plastic completely is almost impossible, but you can still… https://t.co/PC7MnjnldA</div> — Earth Day Network (@Earth Day Network)<a href="https://twitter.com/EarthDayNetwork/statuses/1245413619636019200">1585764720.0</a></blockquote></div>3. Be a Citizen Scientist
<p>You don't need a fancy laboratory or a white coat to be a scientist. All you need is a mobile device.</p><p>As of April 1, the Earth Challenge 2020 mobile app has been made available at the <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.earthday.ec2020app" target="_blank">Android</a> or <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/earth-challenge-2020/id1494183525" target="_blank">Apple</a> app stores. You can download it now and begin collecting data on plastic pollution and air quality.</p><p>That data will be part of <a href="https://earthchallenge2020.earthday.org/" target="_blank">Earth Challenge 2020</a>, a joint initiative from the Earth Day Network, the U.S Department of State's Eco-Capitals Forum and The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars to create what they say will be the "world's most accessible and transparent citizen science database portal ever created."</p><p>The database <a href="https://earthchallenge2020.earthday.org/pages/research-community" target="_blank">will include</a> more than one billion data points combining existing citizen scientist projects with the information submitted via the app. The priorities for the challenge were globally crowdsourced in 2017 in a call for the "most important questions in human and environmental health."</p><p>The call turned up six focus areas:</p><ul><li>Plastics</li><li>Air Quality</li><li>Insects</li><li>Climate</li><li>Food Security</li><li>Water Quality</li></ul><p>The challenge will begin with plastics and air quality data, and move on to all six areas over the course of 2020.</p><div id="f6aee" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="05e869bb3d47daeff4014787bb37a3fb"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1245456176206266368" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Are you excited to be a part of our #EarthChallenge2020 Research Community? Together we'll record over 1 billion d… https://t.co/t5iHrkPBhj</div> — Earth Day Network (@Earth Day Network)<a href="https://twitter.com/EarthDayNetwork/statuses/1245456176206266368">1585774866.0</a></blockquote></div><p>Citizen science is a fitting way to celebrate Earth Day because the original Earth Day was all about mobilizing around science, one of its key organizers Denis Hayes pointed out.</p><p>"When 20 million Americans participated in the first Earth Day, they believed the warnings of scientists, as did the U.S. Congress," Hayes said. "In a decade of bipartisan support for science, Congress passed a set of forward-thinking laws that protected human health, species and the planet."</p><p>Now, governments and people have a chance to follow that example in response both to the climate crisis and COVID-19.</p><p>"Our current pandemic demonstrates that governments must embrace science early. As we see now, many governments were slow to respond or even indifferent about the science of the coronavirus pandemic," Rogers said. "But the last few weeks have also demonstrated that our society, even at the international level, is capable of mass shifts across all sectors to meet a crisis head-on. We must apply the same scale and urgency of our response to climate change."</p>
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A child playing with a ball from planet earth during Extinction Rebellion rally on April 18 in London, England. Brais G. Rouco / Barcroft Media / Getty Images
Earth Day 2019 just passed, but planning has already begun for Earth Day 2020, and it's going to be a big deal.
<p>The <a href="https://www.earthday.org/" target="_blank">Earth Day Network</a> announced on this year's Earth Day that the next year's celebration, which coincides with the day's 50th anniversary, will focus on <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-action" target="_self">climate action</a>.</p>
<p>"<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change" target="_self">Climate change</a> represents the biggest challenge to humanity's future and the systems that make our world habitable," Earth Day Network President Kathleen Rogers said in a <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/demand-for-climate-action-announced-as-earth-day-2020-theme-for-50th-anniversary-year-300835449.html" target="_blank">press release</a>. "2020 has to be the year of transformative change that seizes the positive action underway and makes it bigger and bolder worldwide."</p>
<div id="6eb7d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="47AV4S1576661739"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1120326987632058368" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Warming since the first #EarthDay
(March, since April 2019 isn’t finished yet. https://t.co/uK6ykO78y7) https://t.co/rgKNrDqK96</div> — Gavin Schmidt (@Gavin Schmidt)<a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateOfGavin/statuses/1120326987632058368">1555941743.0</a></blockquote></div><p>A major report from the <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/" target="_blank">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</a> (IPCC) <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change-ipcc-report-2610866229.html" target="_self">released last year</a> found that greenhouse gas emissions needed to fall to 45 percent of 2010 levels in order for the world to meet the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/paris-agreement" target="_self">Paris agreement</a> goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. That means world leaders now have 11 years to make changes that the IPCC said had "no documented historic precedent."</p><p>Ahead of its 50th anniversary, the Earth Day Network seeks to encourage change through a series of initiatives.</p><p>1. <a href="https://www.earthday.org/campaigns/voteearth/" target="_blank">Vote Earth</a>: In 2019 and 2020, there will be more than 60 major national elections around the world. This initiative encourages voters to engage with candidates on climate and vote for the would-be leaders with the best environmental policies. It also seeks to register one million voters around Earth Day 2020.</p>
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="392e36c8404d2112059b87fa2f16cda3"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UqWyselcO88?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p>2. <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2442065-1&h=2525807860&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.earthday.org%2Fearthchallenge2020getinvolvedii%2F&a=Earth+Challenge+2020" target="_blank">Earth Challenge 2020</a>: This initiative seeks to organize the largest ever citizen scientist initiative to report on environmental health. An Earth Challenge 2020 app will be launched at the start of the year.<br></p><p>3.<a href="https://www.earthday.org/take-action/" target="_blank"> Billion Acts of Green</a>: The network will update its landmark Billion Acts of Green program with a goal of 3.5 billion environmentally-friendly acts completed and logged in 2020.</p><p>4. <a href="https://www.earthday.org/campaigns/greatglobalcleanup/" target="_blank">Great Global Cleanup</a>: The Earth Day Network plans to learn from cleanups in U.S. cities this year to scale up towards what it hopes will be the largest environmental volunteer event ever, coordinating people around the world to pick up billions of pieces of trash.</p><p>Denis Hayes, the lead organizer of the original Earth Day, told reporters at the National Press Club Monday that he was optimistic about Earth Day 2020, and the planet's overall future.</p><p>"2020 will be for climate what 1970 was for other environmental issues," Hayes said, as <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/earth-day-youth-activists-ocasio-cortez-aff7e685b985/" target="_blank">ThinkProgress reported</a>.</p><p>Heyes said he was especially encouraged by the youth activism around climate, such as the school strikes inspired by Swedish teenager <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/greta-thunberg" target="_self">Greta Thunberg</a> and the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sunrise-movement" target="_self">Sunrise Movement</a>'s push for a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/green-new-deal" target="_self">Green New Deal</a> in the U.S. Hayes acknowledged that President <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/donald-trump" target="_self">Donald Trump</a> had "appointed the two worst EPA administrators in history," but thought the tide would turn against his pro-<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil-fuel</a> policies.</p><p>"I'm confident that the end is in sight. When conditions are right, people are ready to demand change, and America can turn on a dime," Hayes said, as <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/earth-day-founder-optimistic-about-future/4886862.html" target="_blank">Voice of America reported</a>.</p><p>This was partly born out by Hayes own experience with the original Earth Day, which he helped organize when he was just 25 years old, ThinkProgress reported.</p>
<div id="33b04" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3QU6C61576661739"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1120350080320581637" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Denis Allen Hayes, an advocate of solar power, left Harvard after being selected by Senator Gaylord Nelson to organ… https://t.co/WHfYrQUb6c</div> — NBC News Archives (@NBC News Archives)<a href="https://twitter.com/NBCNewsArchives/statuses/1120350080320581637">1555947248.0</a></blockquote></div><p>After 20 million Americans participated in the first Earth Day, "powerful laws that had been unthinkable in 1969 became unstoppable by the end of 1970," he said.<br></p><p>Those laws included the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act.</p>
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'Morning In The Mighty Redwoods.' David Ruddock
Today is Earth Day, which means it is also the moment you have all been waiting for: The moment when EcoWatch announces the winner of our second-ever photo contest!
<p>The theme for this year's Earth Day is "<a href="https://www.earthday.org/campaigns/endangered-species/earthday2019/" target="_blank">Protect Our Species</a>," so EcoWatch asked readers to submit their best photos of the creatures that inhabit this Earth. We then assembled a crack team of activists, writers and photographers to judge the entries we received: <a href="https://www.bluespherefoundation.org/" target="_blank">Blue Sphere Foundation</a> Campaign Manager Candace Crespi, <a href="http://theexplorersjournal.org" target="_blank">The Explorers Journal</a> editor Angela Schuster and photographer and new media artist Diane Boswell.</p>
<p>And the winner is ... David Ruddock, for his captivating photo <em>Morning In The Mighty Redwoods</em>.</p><p>Ruddock is a retired photographer and graphic designer who lives with his wife Susie in Mckinleyville, California. Their town is centrally located to several Old Growth coastal Redwood groves, and the couple take advantage of that fact at least once a month.</p><p>"We stood beside our first Redwood on a camping trip about fifteen years ago and decided then and there that when we retired, we would do so in an area where we could walk among them often," Ruddock wrote in an email. "John Steinbeck once wrote, 'The redwoods, once seen, leave a mark or create a vision that stays with you always.'"</p><p>Asked about the inspiration for this particular photo, Ruddock answered he "felt the scene portrayed the silence and sense of awe you receive from the Redwoods."</p><p>The judges agreed.</p><p>"There are of course many photos that were close but that one seemed to evoke an emotion in the photograph about the awareness of a unique species," Boswell said in an email explaining the judges' choice.</p><p>She said the judges based their decision both on technical elements like composition, lighting, clarity and image quality, as well as on how well the image conveyed "an emotional connection to nature and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation" target="_self">conservation</a>."</p><p>"We noticed that in the Redwoods photo the rays of light on the subject created dimension and the small figure of the hiker gave it a feeling of scale," Boswell said.</p><p>Ruddock will receive a $250 Patagonia eGift Card as his prize.</p><p>The second runner-up was the photo <em>Yellow Warbler on Frozen Dogwood Tree</em> by John Strange.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTQwOTE0Mi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMzk0MjMzMn0.-JtMKnWKfRzozr8HVhWVAmo_gtxQdjWVUiI4YW1SYGw/img.jpg?width=980" id="f431a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="93da3ebdeeeb143c81aaa9df584d1530" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
'Yellow Warbler on Frozen Dogwood Tree.'
John Strange
<p>Strange is a 17-year-old student from North Carolina. He snapped the photograph in a lucky moment.</p><p>"I was out right then because I love to photograph the local <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife" target="_self">wildlife</a> to the point were I spend most of my free time out with my camera. The wildlife I photograph is my passion and my inspiration," Strange said in an email.</p><p>That passion meant he was ready to capture a unique situation.</p><p>"This bird is rare in my area, as is the snow that we had had during the time I took this photograph. When taken I immediately loved this photograph because of the beautiful yellow bird juxtaposed against the uniform purplish background of the dogwood tree encased in ice," Strange wrote.</p><p>Boswell also praised to the contrast between the yellow bird and the gray background. She said the photo captured the vulnerability of nature.</p><p>"It brings awareness to the importance of how all our decisions in protecting the environment are important for the most delicate to survive," she said.</p>This is EcoWatch's second photo contest. The winner of our first contest, held in honor of Thanksgiving 2018, was <a href="https://www.instagram.com/dakotaltman/" target="_blank">Dakota Altman</a> of Lincoln, Nebraska for his <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/ecowatch-photo-contest-winner-2620896084.html" target="_self">mesmerizing image</a> of a morning sunlight caught in a spider's web.
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