Earth Day 2021 and all you need to know!
Earth Day occurs every April when millions of people worldwide show their support for the environment.
Caring for our climate is more important now than ever before, despite all the “natural healing” that occurred during the pandemic while many countries were in lockdown, figures show that global CO2 emissions are now back at above pre-pandemic levels. To keep our planet from global warming to 1.5°C, emissions need to be drastically cut by an estimated 45% by 2030.
Earth Day allows millions of people to come together from around the world in support of the environment, highlighting and educating on the urgent action we need to take to save our planet.
“This Earth Day, we have an important opportunity to challenge our leaders to commit to climate action on a global scale. We are at the edge of a cliff — if we don’t act now to reduce carbon emissions, there will be no way back.” - Kathleen Rogers, president of EarthDay.org via Vogue.
Here’s everything you need to know about Earth Day.
What is Earth Day?
Earth Day is a worldwide movement that demonstrates support for environmental protection. Drawing attention to the serious environmental problems we are facing such as the climate crisis, deforestation, and air pollution. The event falls on 22 April every year, this year organisers are planning for three days of climate action, from 20 – 22 April, but we can except the week running up to Earth Day to be highlighting environmental issues.
This year Earth Day celebrates people speaking up for nature and making positive changes for our environment, it begins with a global youth summit led by Earth Uprising. The summit consists of panels, speeches, discussions, and special messages from today’s young climate activists including Greta Thunberg, Alexandria Villaseñor, and Licypriya Kangujam. You can follow the event virtually on Earth Day event - “Change Starts Here”, or via social media with #SpeakUpForNature.
How did Earth Day start?
Founded by US senator and environmentalist Gaylord Nelson in 1970 to educate and highlight the importance of clean air and clean water. He hired a young activist, Denis Hayes, to be the National Coordinator. Nelson and Hayes renamed the event "Earth Day". Amazingly that first event saw 20 million people take to the streets to demonstrate.
In 1990 one of the original organisers Denis Hayes was asked to help create another event to spotlight the ecological challenges facing our planet, this led to Earth Day becoming an international campaign.
How can you take part in Earth Day?
Across the globe, thousands of events are taking place both online and in-person (please check your local Covid-19 restrictions) – find out what events are taking place near you with this map. The organisers have also created a handy toolkit that allows you to get involved by helping educate others or organising clean-ups.
You are also able to tune in to Earth Day Live 2021, a live-streamed event that will include workshops, panel discussions, and a series of guest appearances.
What else can you do to help the environment?
Earth Day comes once a year but here at Contemporary Fashion, we believe we should help better the environment every day. Here are a few ways you can live more sustainably:
- Reduce the food waste in your home by shopping with a list, quit buying in bulk, and give composting a try.
- STOP using plastic water bottles.
- Collect rainwater to water your plants.
- Ditch plastic straws.
- Leave the car at home, try cycling, walking or public transport.
- Avoid buying products in plastic packaging.
- Carry a reusable coffee cup for that much-needed caffeine fix.
- Switch to renewable energy.
- Go paperless.
- Eat less meat.
