Every year on April 22 since 1970, the United Nations observes International Mother Earth Day, or simply, “Earth Day”. The UN partners with the Earth Day Network to raise awareness around the globe and bring our attention to the needs of the planet, rather than our own individual needs, through events and publications.
“International Mother Earth Day is celebrated to remind each of us that the Earth and its ecosystems provide us with life and sustenance.
It also recognizes a collective responsibility, as called for in the 1992 Rio Declaration, to promote harmony with nature and the Earth to achieve a just balance among the economic, social and environmental needs of present and future generations of humanity.
International Mother Earth Day provides an opportunity to raise public awareness around the world to the challenges regarding the well-being of the planet and all the life it supports.” – United Nations
This year, the theme of Earth Day is environmental and climate literacy. This theme is especially fitting, as political turmoil in many developed states with the largest capacity to fight climate change has either halted or even regressed the progress that has been made. It is incredibly important that all global citizens understand the realities of climate change, and what can be done to mitigate it. Earth Day Network is using tomorrow as a launching pad for their Environmental and Climate Literacy Campaign, which they aim to complete by 2020. The goal of the campaign is to, “ensure that every student around the world graduates high school as an environmental and climate literate citizen, ready to take action and be a voice for change” (Earth Day Network, 2017). This will be achieved through a collaborative effort, and the Network will partner with nonprofits, governmental organizations, and businesses to provide grade schools and secondary schools with accurate, informative literature on the state of the climate and how to preserve it.
Wondering what you can do this year? There are so many things that an individual can commit to in order to combat climate change! Remember our friends over at 2020 or Bust? I’m sure you downloaded their app when we first mentioned it on our blog months ago…if not, it’s not too late! The app creates a game out of reducing emissions, and makes it easy to do your part on reducing the overall global carbon footprint.
How will you be celebrating Earth Day? Tag us on Facebook and Twitter, and share this post along with your plans! And remember, Earth Day is about so much more than just ditching disposable plastic water bottles. We can, and we will, continue to do better!