Press Release

EARTH DAY 2020 BRINGS TOGETHER AN UNPRECEDENTED COLLECTION OF VOICES INCLUDING ZAC EFRON, PATRICIA ESPINOSA, AL GORE, JEROME FOSTER II, DENIS HAYES, ALEX HONNOLD, VAN JONES, ANIL KAPOOR, JOHN KERRY, PRINCE ALBERT OF MONACO, AND KYRA SEDGWICK TO SHARE THEIR SUPPORT FOR OUR PLANET FOR THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY

Special Earth Day Address from His Holiness Pope Francis to be included in Earth Day

“The Earth is our environment to protect and the garden to tend to.” — His Holiness Pope Francis, Earth Day 2015

Washington, D.C., April 15, 2020 — With the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day (April 22) fast approaching, now more than ever we need to connect as a global community united in our fight to protect the health and welfare of the planet and its people. …

Written by: Joel Lev-Tov

Young people across the world have taken to the streets to demand action on the climate crisis, motivated by gloomy reports from prestigious bodies of climate scientists warning that the world needs to drastically cut its emissions in order to have any semblance of a livable future.

Part 1: The United States

In the US, activists say they have to start at the basics before getting to what should be done about the climate crisis. “In America, we have this unique problem: People talk about climate change as something that’s real or not, rather than what we should do about it,” 17-year old Madeline Graham, who strikes in Washington D.C., …

West African governments are doing too little to combat climate change — or to empower women and young people to defend their communities from its impacts. But young activists are taking matters into their own hands, says Lomé -based Kevin Ossah

Climate change presents a global challenge today — it has spared no country from its impacts. However, the reality of climate change that faces Africa is quite different from the challenges that face the rest of the world.

Africa has historically contributed very little to the greenhouse-gas emissions that cause climate change — yet today it is the world’s most vulnerable continent. Africa’s poorest rural communities are most exposed to the impacts of climate change that exacerbate poverty and poor living conditions.

In West Africa, we can already see that the challenges are enormous. Africa is being hit by more severe and more frequent heatwaves, bringing severe drought, especially south of the Sahel. We are also seeing floods, irregular rain patterns and coastal erosion in countries near the coast. …

Every once in a while you come across an idea that is elegant in its simplicity, one that makes you wonder why more people aren’t using it. That was my thought when an acquaintance described Eco Plastic Products of Delaware, a nonprofit organization located in Wilmington.

Started a couple of years ago by former solar industry workers Jim Kelley and Charlie Falletta, the focus of Eco Plastic is collecting discarded plastic in all its glorious forms and turning it into useful products that can be purchased by consumers.

It sounds simple enough. The products include benches, picnic tables, sandboxes, bike racks and furniture, molded from 100% recycled plastic. In addition to selling products, Eco Plastic, consistent with its nonprofit status, donates to other nonprofit organizations. Their mission includes going into schools to help educate students about recycling. …

Millburn High School junior Jacob Updyke is trying to help spread awareness about the state of the planet’s environment and climate, one film at a time.

“Since I was 10, I’ve had a love for animation and in middle school,” Updyke said. “I began looking for different ways to animate and create stories.” By age 14, Updyke knew what he wanted to do, walking into his parents bedroom and declaring that he wanted to go to art school.

His mother, Caroline, was shocked, but excited. “You don’t expect a 14-year-old to know what they want to do with their lives,” she said. …

If you’re concerned about climate change, should you feel guilty about hanging out online? Maybe not.

It’s been widely reported that data centers, the nondescript buildings that house the servers that keep our phones and computers buzzing with cool stuff, could gobble up enormous amounts of electricity over the coming decade.

But you don’t need to put down your smartphone just yet. A study released Friday in the journalScience finds that though data center demand has grown 550% in the last eight years, the energy needed to power those data centers only grew 6%.

“The report gives the most definitive number for global data center energy consumption available,” said George Kamiya, emerging technologies analyst at the International Energy Agency in Paris. …

Article by Iris Zhan

Many recent studies show that millennials and Gen Z are united across party lines on the issue of climate change. Among Americans ages 18–34, 70 percent are worried about the climate crisis. For the first time in 2020, millennials and Gen Z are projected to make up the largest block of registered voters. In an April 2019 survey from Yale Climate Communications, younger generations ranked climate change higher in voting priority compared to older generations, and it’s possible that this could bridge the political divide in this country.

I interviewed Isaiah Tobias Lee, a member of Sunrise Movement Providence hub. When asked about what needs to change about current politics, Lee said, “We need a Green New Deal, we need to dismantle capitalism, and we need to move quickly to rely on renewable energy.” …

Greener fuels, electric engines and more efficient aircraft are all being touted as ways to reduce the environmental harm of flying, but a new study suggests one simple move could help existing flights drastically cut their impact.

By changing the flying altitude by just a couple of thousand feet on fewer than 2% of all scheduled flights, a study by a team of scientists at Imperial College London concludes that aviation’s damage to the climate could be reduced by as much as 59%.

It’s all about eradicating airplane contrails — those white streaks you see criss-crossing the skies after an airplane has passed overhead.

Contrails, says NASA, are “a type of ice cloud formed by aircraft as water vapor condenses around small dust particles, which provide the vapor with sufficient energy to freeze.”

These cloud-like formations can have a cooling effect, acting to reflect sunlight that would otherwise heat the Earth. Contrails can also block outgoing heat from escaping the Earth — essentially acting like a blanket, trapping heat. …