🌱 The Grumpy Optimists #55
An Earth Day Exclusive
Happy Monday 👋 welcome to the Earth Day Special.
We couldn’t go by this week without doing a feature on one of the first global movements to raise awareness and action on environmental and social sustainability, could we? This week we’re diving into Earth Day - how it all started, celebrations around the world, how we’ve been celebrating, and some handy hints and tips on how you can do the Earth some favours and get involved in some exciting campaigns. Let’s get into it.
Enjoy and let us know what you think, and how you celebrated Earth Day this year 👇
Source: Choose Earth
⌛The Birth of Earth Day: How it all began
We tend to think of environmental issues as highly politicised, but Earth Day is a surprising example of people sidelining their differences to fight for something they believe in. Inspired by the energy of anti-war activism of the 1960s and the movement catalysed by Rachel Carson’s seminal book - The Silent Spring (1962) - the Democrat Senator Gaylord Nelson wanted “to shake up the political establishment and force this issue onto the national agenda”. The issue in question was the explosion of pollution and biodiversity loss since the spark of the industrial revolution 150 years prior. In 1970, Sr. Nelson put a young activist, Denis Hayes, in charge of organising teach-ins across university campuses, raising awareness of these environmental ills and broadcasting them on national media. Despite being a Democrat, he chose a Republican, Pete McCloskey, to be his right-hand man.
After organising further events and reaching a diverse array of organisations, the campaign reached 20 million people. It inspired demonstrations in which people from all walks of life - city slickers to farmers - participated. This catalysed the passing of several pieces of environmental legislation in the US, including the National Environmental Education Act, the Clean Air Act and the Endangered Species Act.
In the succeeding decades, Earth Day, celebrated on 22nd April each year, has grown from mobilising 200 million people in 141 countries in 1990 to being celebrated by 1 billion people in over 190 countries today. It hasn’t come with its barriers though. Climate change denial, promoted and funded by fossil fuel companies and politicians has had its role in disseminating misinformation and seeking to stymie environmental activism. Plenty of companies have also jumped on the Earth Day bandwagon for marketing and greenwashing - encouraging ‘green’ consumerism which only adds to the problem. We’ll focus on the optimistic side in the next section though!
🥳 Earth Day Celebrations around the World
America: New York hosts 70+ organisations each year that come together boasting talks, walks, festivals and symposiums. Other activities across the nation include school initiatives, such as at the Graham Creek Nature Preserve, Alabama, where children planted a butterfly garden.
Moldova: The organisation Gutta Club in Chisinӑu has hosted Earth Day activities, such as tree planting, litter picking and (my personal fave) making nesting boxes for birds.
India: Many of the activities in India focus on protecting the Asian Elephant, of which there are only 40,000 left.
Japan: Tokyo host a two-day celebration in Yoyogi park, with 100,000 participants. This year, visitors can expect to see art, music, vegetarian food stalls, and pop-ups from eco-friendly businesses. It’s also still cherry blossom (sakura) season in Japan, so it’s a wonderful opportunity to enjoy their blooms.
🌱 What did we do on Earth Day?
Mari: I went to an Earth night “party with a purpose” at Central Saint Martins, London. The night was curated by community and ecology centered fashion designer Alisa Ruzanina. There was spoken word by Queer Botany, vegan treats for sale to raise money for the Disasters Emergency Committee , eco-themed music and tarot card readings. The atmosphere was loud, fun and mixed with celebration and activism.
Ella: I’m a gardener and on Fridays I do a practical RHS course in Regents Park, London which felt very fitting for Earth Day. During the day, I went to a fascinating talk by Vicki Hird about her new book ‘Rebugging the Planet’. I’d recommend checking out her website for easy ways to create more insect-friendly spaces (see planting tips below). I think that gardening is one of the easiest ways that we can reconnect to nature and support biodiversity. I couldn’t recommend it more.
👀 Campaigns to follow
Choose Earth is a collaborative campaign between Earthrise and Choose Love. Relaunched for Earth Day 2022, it supports Indigenous leaders on the frontlines of the fight to save our planet. Indigenous communities make up only 5% of the global population, but they protect a whopping 82% of global biodiversity. Choose Earth is raising money and support that goes directly to Indigenous communities in Brazilian Amazonia. Choose Earth 2022 is ‘an invitation to Reforest the Mind, to uproot the current systems which are failing us and reseed ourselves with new ideas in order to relearn how to nurture ourselves - and nature - back into health.’ You can read more about how to get involved and donate here.
Earth Day Network grew out of the first Earth Day in 1970 and its mission is to continue the Earth Day movement throughout the year. The theme of Earth Day 2022 was ‘Invest in our Planet’, to build a prosperous and equitable future. It involved individuals, businesses, and governments in partnership with the planet and a focus on the economy. We can say a lot with our spending and investment choices and EarthDay.org is encouraging all of us to contribute to the green economy and hold governments and businesses to account.
The Sunrise Movement is a youth movement to stop climate change. It campaigns for the Green New Deal in order to create millions of green jobs, and a healthier planet and economy built for the people. It is a community-based, nonviolent movement. Current campaigns include ‘Good jobs for all’ and ‘green new deal champions’. The Sunrise Movement does some truly inspiring work and we highly recommend checking it out and supporting it if you can!
📅 Earth Day Everyday
So, in the spirit of these campaigns, what can you do in your everyday life to keep Earth Day going?
📈 Invest ethically. This can be in everyday choices such as where you buy your food to longer-term investments and where you bank. Check out this list of ethical banks, both UK-based and international, including Triodos and Starling. It’s also worth checking out Clim8, which specialises in ethical and sustainable investing, and Make My Money Matter for ethical pensions.
🌱 Plant. As the weather warms up, why not get out into the garden and have a go at planting some wildflower seeds or adapt your garden for the climate? This year has so far been unusually warm and dry and gardening can be extremely resource-intensive. In The Grumpy Optimists #41, Mari wrote about adapting your garden for climate change.
To start, follow these links to get some free, insect-friendly wildflower seeds. They’re super easy to plant and will bring some colour and life into your garden or window box. Seed bombs are a particularly easy way to sow some insect-friendly bursts of flowers. If that doesn’t appeal, check out this list of plants for pollinators and head on down to your local garden centre to pick some up and get planting!
🛍️ (Don’t) Shop. One of the best things we can do for the planet is to reduce our consumption, and the most sustainable clothes and items are the ones we already have. I highly recommend Consumed by Aja Barber - although I generally avoid fast fashion, I was still shocked by this book. The average person buys 68 new pieces of clothing per year. 100 billion items of clothing are produced each year globally. Read those stats again.
Where do most of those clothes end up? The bin. Even clothes that are donated to charity shops are often dumped in developing countries. We really encourage you to do what you can to break from fast fashion. Tips include: buying second hand; buying only what you need; not what you want; learn to repair your clothes; and delete all marketing emails - those sales only exist to make you buy more!
🔁 Share and campaign. One of the most effective ways to make your voice heard is to join movements, protest, write to your local MP or government representative and sign petitions. Together, we can have a huge impact and there are so many brilliant campaigns that have made ground-breaking progress such as making environmental damage illegal. Have a look and see what you can find in your local area and get involved!
That’s all for this week. Let us know what you think in the comments and we’ll be back in two weeks with more Grumpy Optimism.
The Grumpy Optimists 💚
A really interesting and useful read.. thank you. The consumption levels of the western world are just way too high... as is the resultant waste. Both elements... the using of resources and the use of the earth as a bin are totally unsustainable.