Earth Day’s 50th Anniversary goes Digital

Today marks the 50^th anniversary of Earth Day and the theme this year is Climate Action.

The world’s first Earth Day took place in 1970 and it had a huge impact on environmental politics around the world. The Clean Air, Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts were all created in response to the first ever Earth Day. The Earth Day network is the world’s largest recruiter towards the environmental movement. The goal is to drive transformative change for people and planet.

This year, Earth Day will be slightly different. The movement have planned 72 hours of digital events to bring Earth Day online! You can join in with these digital events celebrating the theme of climate action

Climate Action

Human activity is causing our planet to warm at an increasing and alarming rate. Climate action means stepping up our collective efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Everyone has the potential to get involved and the ability to contribute to limiting the impact we have on our environment.

Earth Day have outlined a number of ways in which you can help towards addressing our climate challenge, we have outlined these below.

1. Get Informed – Build your knowledge on the science behind climate change and the responsibility that we all have in different sectors on addressing the issue. Knowledge is power!

2. Hold yourself accountable – Have a think about your own personal impact on the planet. You can calculate your carbon footprint.

3. Unplug – Could you use energy more efficiently in your home? Unplug items that aren’t in use, buy products with high energy-efficient standards and try making a switch to more renewable energy resources.

4. Travel Smarter – Try taking public transport or walk wherever it possible. Transportation is one of the largest contributors to carbon emissions.

5. Reduce your ‘Foodprint’ – The greenhouse gas emissions produced by growing, harvesting, processing, transporting, cooking and disposing of the food we eat is known as your ‘foodprint’. Try and reduce consumption of foods with the biggest foodprint – including meat, dairy and eggs. Food waste is also a hidden contributor to climate change. Try to eat more plant based meals and to reduce your food waste.

6. Shop Smarter – Support sustainable companies and those that are committed to transparency through the supply chain.

7. Vote Earth – Consider climate issues on local, national and global levels.

8. Organise – Think about the communities that you are part of, how can you work together to combat climate change?

Read more about Climate Change.