Earth Day 2023

 

The first Earth Day was celebrated on April 22, 1970, and marked the beginning of the organized environmental movement.  Much of what flowed from that era -- the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act -- has made us safer and healthier.  We've had setbacks along the way, including the Malignant Loser's 4-year anti- environment administration, but we're getting back on track through investment and advocacy.  In fact, "Invest In Our Planet" is this year's theme.

Here's Umair Irfan and Rebecca Leber writing about recent progress:

Certainly, individual decisions about housing, appliances, transportation, and diet play a key role in reducing our harmful impacts on the planet. However, the biggest way you or I can have an impact is to pressure decision-makers at every level — city councils, statehouses, national governments, corporate boards — to cut greenhouse gas emissions, to protect wildlife beneath the sea, and to invest in cleaner energy. That means the most powerful tool to fix our environmental problems is ink on paper (or rather, pixels on screens).

Over the past year, this advocacy strategy blossomed. We now have the largest international land and ocean conservation target ever, a treaty to protect the high seas, and a commitment to phase out the most potent greenhouse gases completely.

In the US, the world’s largest historical emitter and second-largest current emitter of carbon dioxide, the government is putting more money than ever into solving climate change. It’s proposing tough new goalposts to draw down emissions from vehicles ranging from tiny hatchbacks to heavy-duty trucks, in an effort to step on the accelerator for EVs.

They go on to note seven major improvements since the last Earth Day.  Please check it out.

If you want to get involved today and beyond, you could start by going to the official Earth Day website to find events and toolkits, see the work being done and victories achieved, how to organize and take action, and more.

Have a productive and positive Earth Day 2023!