Demand for Climate Action announced to mark 50th anniversary of Earth Day

The theme for Earth Day, held annually on 22 April, and acknowledged worldwide, has been announced, with major initiatives planned to mark the 50-year anniversary of the “world’s largest environmental movement”.

Major initiatives planned include global electoral mobilisation through a “Vote Earth” campaign, and the largest citizen science engagement in history, dubbed “Earth Challenge”, Earth Day organisers, the Earth Day Network said. Climate action is the overarching theme of the groups activities, which will be of interest to the early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector, given the underpinning themes of sustainability and environmental education featured in the approved learning frameworks and the National Quality Standard.

Earth Day Network President Kathleen Rogers said that the theme was chosen because “climate change represents the biggest challenge to humanity's future and the systems that make our world habitable”.

“2020 has to be the year of transformative change that seizes the positive action underway and makes it bigger and bolder worldwide,” she said.

Speaking about the Vote Earth campaign, Ms Rogers highlighted the 60+ national elections occurring in 2019 and 2020, alongside thousands of regional, provincial, and city elections worldwide, presenting a real opportunity for all citizens - particularly young and first-time voters - to examine the environmental platforms of their candidates and vote at the ballot box for candidates with clear, ambitious, and convincing plans to protect our planet.

Earth Challenge 2020, Earth Network said, will empower everyday individuals to join the largest-ever global citizen science initiative to report on environmental health. The Earth Challenge 2020 app will be launched early next year, supported by Amazon, the US State Department and the Wilson Centre.

The findings of this initiative will be uploaded to scientific networks to improve our understanding of the health of our world, with dual goals of triggering government policy shifts while arming citizens with better and more convincing facts.

Alongside the two initiatives mentioned above, the Earth Day Network will relaunch its flagship platform known as Billion Acts of Green, with a 2020 goal of 3.5 billion actions taken, logged and aggregated from around the world, and initiate the Great Global Cleanup.

Through a unified campaign including mobile registration, digital mapping and social media, the Great Global Cleanup will connect partners and participants around the globe to remove billions of pieces of rubbish from green spaces, urban communities, and waterways. Data collected will help build a better understanding of the sources, scope, and solutions to global waste problems.