Happy b'Earth Day!
Small steps can grow and have huge outcomes. Earth Day reminds us of the power of individuals, of how much everyone can contribute to a better world if we consistently take small actions.
Fifty-one years ago, a young senator, Gaylord Nelson, witnessed the ravage of a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. All he wanted was to send a strong anti-pollution message to other policymakers. But he knew that he could not do it alone. He started a campaign inspired by the ongoing anti-war student movement. On 22 April 1970, he gathered thousands of university students in the centre of Denver. That new generation demanded to be free to pedal bikes rather than to be forced to consume cars and pollute. Their protest was also about taking simple, individual actions to clean up where they live: the streets, sea and beaches. Two years later, the action had reached over 20 million Americans and spread over the world to more than 100 countries. Like the young climate activists of today, the movement started with an individual walkout before it transformed into a global protest.
The environmental campaigns of the 1970s forced states to sign the first Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in 1972. It stresses that humans have a fundamental right to access a clean environment, but also that a life of dignity and well-being is a right for all living things. Thereby, Earth Days flourished and became the world’s largest civic event with over 1 billion supporters today. While not yet a worldwide holiday, every 22 April, we celebrate our planet’s birthday.
Today, wherever you work, whoever you are, there are many ways to contribute to the conservation of our planet. If we learn from actions that had an impact, we can use it for the benefit of future Earth Day campaigns. Unquestionably social media increases social exchanges and fuels better campaigns. But there are also other ways to take action on Earth Day.
Use shocking advertising to raise awareness
If you work in an NGO and you have a campaign to fuel, shockvertising is a powerful campaigning technique which deliberately targets impropriety, offensiveness or disgust in the imagery. To draw attention to earthly problems (e.g. loss of air quality, energy depletion, overflowing landfills, destruction of rainforests), the WWF’s #TooLatergram campaign firstly showcases environmental beauty as most of us idealise it. They then disgust the spectators by showing them a photo of the same place today: a beach in Thailand no longer with crystal-clear water but covered in rubbish, depleted coral reefs and constructions built all over the formerly idyllic place.
The pristine environments sold by tourist agencies—lakes, mountains, forests—should not be taken for granted, yet we still do. When the campaign luls us into a dream, instagrammers who live around the surrounding reveal the actual images and rudely awake us. It makes us rethink the beauty of our world and encourages us to take concrete steps to stop pollution. The spectator feels a glimpse of happiness before they get upset and disgusted by their ultimate dream dissipating. In other words, the images of a dream-like beauty can suddenly transform into piles of trash if we continue being careless.
Shocking advertising can help raise awareness of how our behaviour affects our planet.
Being approachable and engaging
If you work in a governmental agency, you can use other ways than schockvertising to raise awareness. Earth Day is also about educating people, especially children, about climate change and global warming. While community spaces for children’s recreation activities are increasingly limited and more time is spent indoors because of Covid-19, NASA released a 50th anniversary “Earth Day at Home” toolkit last year. Their Climate Kids website moreover makes climate science accessible and engages upper-elementary-aged children with games, activities and articles. It contains a variety of educational resources such as Earth system data exploration resources, digital learning resources, downloadable posters, articles and stories about NASA’s exploration of Earth. Their online platform still contains hundreds of lectures and science activities including quizzes. The content is not single use.
It is no coincidence that the most appreciated feature was to be able to make direct contact with astronauts by addressing their questions. After all, who has not dreamt about being an astronaut? Now, you have a chance to talk to one. NASA, as part of their social cause, helped millions of students, engage with astronauts and learn about the earth. Releasing informative sites on Earth Day not only was an effective way for NASA to attract curious young minds and engage them with climate change but the #EarthDayAtHome campaign also helped make NASA appear more approachable to its followers.
Humanising your organisation, making it more accessible to the audience, getting involved with communities and on the right platform at the right moment are key drivers for the successful development of your campaign on Earth Day.
Taking part in 2021 Earth Day
If you have not yet participated in any Earth Day activities, you can get started. If you think that your efforts mean nothing, you are wrong. Here are many activities you can create yourself or actively join. Over a billion activists from all over the world participate in all sorts of Earth Day activities. This Action Toolkit will help you identify which projects you can be part of. You can organise a cleanup session where you live or advocate for environmental justice or food sustainability.
Each year focuses on a different theme. 2021’s theme is about “Restoring Our Earth”. It reaffirms our link to nature, plants and the land that we live on as our lives highly depend on it. You can participate in one of 51 actions (because it’s the 51st anniversary) or organise your own event that drives positive change. You can list your activity for the planet on the Earth Day website, which offers many other possibilities as well. Some of the actions can be carried out collectively such as virtual gatherings, film screenings, environmental talks, and lectures.
Check what actions are taking place in your city. In Brussels, for example, StopGlobalWarming.eu invited mayors from all over Europe to share their best practices to fight climate change. It is inspired by the European Citizens’ Initiative advocating new carbon pricing which can still be signed by the 22nd of July 2021.
Taking care of our planet is our first mission whether by keeping it clean, planting more trees or recycling. Earth Day has also gone more digital compared to 1970 making it now easier to create actions online than ever before. The Earth Day Network has grown tenfold since the first Earth Day back in 1970. In 2021, there are more than 75,000 partners in over 190 countries, who organise numerous activities on social media.
Our Earth still needs you. Happy b’Earth Day!
Three tips to increase the impact of Earth Day
Raise awareness through shockvertising.
Be approachable and engage supporters with a toolkit.
Get organised and take part in an Earth Day action on 22 April.
- written by Elif Akyüz, elif[at]thedandeliongroup.eu
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