On April 22, Earth Day Goes Digital
Published on March, 31 2020
By Nancy Price
Co-chair, Earth Democracy
April 2020
Because of the coronavirus, organizers for this 50th Earth Day Anniversary will use the power of the internet to connect and mobilize millions worldwide in a call for transformative climate emergency actions to save our planet.
If we are now demanding a WWII-scale COVID-19 Mobilization, only a WWII-scale Mobilization can protect humanity and the natural world.
In order for all of us to survive, we all must shift into emergency mode. The goal of the Climate Emergency Campaign is to compel governments to adopt an emergency response to climate change and the broader ecological crisis.
Earth Day and Climate Emergency
Fifty years ago, 20 million Americans marched in the streets, rallied in parks, and sat in college and university teach-ins. On this first Earth Day, environmental activists, who had been focused on separate local and states issues, came together with anti-Vietnam War activists in a new national environmental movement (read more about the history of Earth Day). In response, President Nixon quickly created the Environmental Protection Agency and Congress passed the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts.
Twenty years later, on April 22, 1990, Denis Hayes, one of the original organizers of the first Earth Day, spoke at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, to launch Earth Day, the new global organization to now mobilize 200 million people in 141 countries.
Almost a year ago on April 22, 2019, Hayes again spoke at the National Press Club to announce an ambitious plan for the 50th Anniversary – including “Vote for the Earth,” “Earth Challenge 2020,” and the 2020 theme for Earth Day – a global demand for transformative climate action.
This year as environmental activists join with the diverse, multigenerational global climate movement, I believe it is as urgent as on the first Earth Day that anti-war/peace groups also rise up to support the demand for transformative “system change” toward a just transition from fossil fuels to green, renewable, sustainable energy, and from a war to a peace economy.
We must redirect the multi-billion dollar military budget to job retraining, new technologies, and infrastructure to move swiftly to a zero-carbon future by 2030. And, don’t forget, not only is the U.S. military the single largest user of oil and gas, it is presently exempt from the Paris Climate Agreement (read more about the military’s carbon “bootprint” here). The next president must rejoin this agreement that came into force on Earth Day 2016.
Plans for the First Digital Earth Day
Earth Day Network, the global organizer of Earth Day, is focused on new ways to mobilize using the hashtags #EarthDay2020 and #EARTHRISE to coordinate and track the global conversations, calls to action, performances, video teach-ins and more.
A major global event coordinated across digital platforms will be announced soon - expect an eAlert by mid-April. Already, Earth Day 2020 has a map of global events posted. Go to www.earthday.org/earth-day-2020/ and scroll down to map.
350.org has posted a new community activist organizing guide called "How to care for your community in a crisis". Meanwhile, many hundreds of local events worldwide already announced on Facebook have had to be cancelled. Check on status of local 350.org events near you.
#FridaysFutureStrike and GretaThunberg write about the coronavirus and climate activism saying: Listen to the science and local rules and guidelines; don’t put your health and safety at risk; choose other kinds of climate activism, be creative, have fun and join social media campaigns, such as:
- email politicians
- post on social media using the hashtags: #DigitalStrike, #Silentstrike, #ClimateHowl
- put a strike sign in your window and post a photo of it on social media at #climatestrike and #fridaysforfuture
- strike with others online with zoom
- prepare future activities, thinking about what may be effective approaches
The Youth Climate Strike Coalition of the US Climate Strike Coalition is going online for an innovative three-day interactive live-streaming series of events from April 22- 24: Earth Day Live - A Digital Mobilization to Demand Climate Action with a focus on “Strike, Divest and Voter Registration.” The events will be accessible on computers and mobile devices in the hopes that it will encourage engagement and action among people who are secluded at home.
What You Can Do?
• Watch for a mid-April Earth Democracy eAlert for different organizations’ plans for digital mobilization and how to join in.
• Order now the new, updated Climate Justice+Women+Peace cards (found at wilpfus.org/story/support-materials). Mail them to friends and family. If you don’t already have our banners, add one or more of these your collection: Climate Justice+Women+Peace, People & Planet Before Profit, and the Poor People’s Campaign “Uniting to End: Poverty, Racism, Militarism and Ecological Devastation.” The banners are all more than 6 feet wide, so on Earth Day, it may be possible to walk around your local park with one person at each end. Of course, be sure to be safe and don’t take a risk with your health.
• Pass a Climate Emergency Declaration in your city or country. (Check out this climate mobilization toolkit) and while you shelter-in-place, meet up by conference call or zoom to discuss if you might campaign later to pass a Climate Emergency Resolution.
Before the People’s Climate March in New York City, September 2014, there was no climate group publicly organizing around the need for a WWII-scale emergency action on climate and so The Climate Mobilization was founded and the Climate Emergency Campaign launched. Since then, working with grassroots activists, political leaders, and organizations around the world, almost 1,000 Climate Emergency Declarations have been passed. (See a map of the cities and local governments across the planet that have declared a climate emergency).
The aim is to:
- Pass declarations of Climate Emergency with commitment to reach zero emissions and begin carbon drawdown at emergency speed (10 years or less).
- Local elected leaders become advocates for emergency Climate Mobilization to the public, to other cities and to state and national governments.
- Develop and implement mobilization policy locally, after declaration is passed.
The #Climate Emergency campaign states: A climate emergency is not coming. It’s already here. Approximately 400,000 people are killed annually from its impact and millions are displaced. The Earth is a wood house in a burning field, an airplane in free fall, a chemical plant about to explode. This is an emergency accelerating by the minute. There are no ambulances on the way. No one is coming to save us.
In order for all of us to survive, we all must shift into emergency mode. The goal of the Climate Emergency Campaign is to compel governments to adopt an emergency response to climate change and the broader ecological crisis.
