Earth Day 2020 Happenings

Wednesday April 22 marks a half-century since we began *officially* celebrating the beautiful planet we call home (indigenous communities have been doing it for millennia, and far more regularly than one tokenized day/year—just sayin’). And though in-person events have been made remote, or cancelled altogether due to COVID-19, this may be the 50-year anniversary of Earth Day our planet needed.

Yay!

Perhaps you’ve heard of the fish, swan and dolphin-filled waters of Venice, or New Delhi and Los Angeles‘ clear skies. It’s true: in mobilizing as a global community to keep the corona virus at bay, we’ve caused global carbon emissions to drop an unprecedented, projected 5.5% this year!

Wait, dang…

Of course, looking at the carbon emissions reduction alone means we’re missing the bigger picture: our economic, education, health, governmental and legal systems are collapsing around us, and the wealth and equality gaps continue to widen at a critically alarming pace. In fact, let’s please take a moment and acknowledge the millions of people who have been negatively impacted by this global crisis. Thank you to the essential workers who are ensuring our systems don’t further unravel, and solidarity to folks fighting for their lives. And yes, dang it, even the carbon emission drop isn’t all it’s cracked up to be: if we were adhering to the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement (limiting our global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius over the coming decades), it’d require an annual 7.6% drop in emissions (*cough cough* we’re 2.1 degrees short).

Let’s do this.

Whether we want it to be or not, this is a time of immense transformation and the risk of returning to “business as usual” is one we cannot take. Taking action to ensure our collective future is why Boulder.Earth is here—is why the hundreds of other local organizations are here. The veils have been lifted and a more collaborative, resilient future awaits us: universal health care and basic income, a reimagined work world embedded with flexibility to be remote and spend time closer to the people who matter most, supporting our local food systems and mom and pop shops, deeper sense of connection to all beings on this planet…

We have seen what it means to mobilize on a global scale to protect the health, wealth and well-being of generations to come—let us use COVID-19 as a springboard into action, ensuring a more equitable, livable planet for all.

Earth Day Week Actions for Impact

Staying at home won’t keep us from connecting for our collective future! Please check out these virtual events that you can participate in from your kitchen table.