Earth Day is an annual event celebrated on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First held on April 22, 1970, it now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally by EarthDay.Org (formerly Earth Day Network) including 1 billion people in more than 193 countries. The official theme for 2023 is ‘Invest in our Planet’. In the run-up to the occasion, let’s look at some of the global campaigns led by people and organisations to save the planet. By Shubhangi Shah
Fridays for Future
School Strike for Climate, also known variously as Fridays for Future (FFF), Youth for Climate, Climate Strike or Youth Strike for Climate, is an international movement of school students who skip Friday classes to participate in demonstrations to demand action from political leaders to prevent climate change and for the fossil fuel industry to transition to renewable energy. Publicity and widespread organising began after Swedish pupil Greta Thunberg staged a protest in August 2018 outside of the Swedish Riksdag (parliament), holding a sign that read ‘Skolstrejk för klimatet’ (‘School strike for climate’). A global strike on March 15, 2019, gathered more than one million strikers in 2,200 strikes organised in 125 countries.
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Slow Food
Slow Food began in Italy with the founding of its forerunner organisation, Arcigola, in 1986 to resist the opening of a McDonald’s outlet near the Spanish Steps in Rome. In 1989, the founding manifesto of the international Slow Food movement was signed in Paris, France, by delegates from 15 countries. At its heart is the aim to promote local foods and traditional gastronomy and food production. Conversely, this means an opposition to fast food and industrial food production. The Slow Food organisation has expanded to include over 100,000 members, with branches in over 150 countries. Offices have been opened in Switzerland (1995), Germany (1998), New York City (2000), France (2003), Japan (2005), the United Kingdom, and Chile. Global headquarters are located in Bra, near Turin, Italy.
Trees for Cities
Trees for Cities was founded in 1993 by a group of four friends: Jake Kempston, Belinda Winder, Jane Bruton and Julian Blake. For the first five or so years, the charity raised funds through its well-known parties. The charity was initially called Trees for London with the charitable objectives to ‘advance the education of the public in the appreciation of trees and their amenity value, and in furtherance of this the planting and protection of trees everywhere, and in particular inner-city areas’. In 2003, the charity changed its name to Trees for Cities to reflect a growth in activities in cities across the UK and across the globe. Since 1993, the organisation has reported that 125,000 volunteers have planted over 1,200,000 urban trees in parks, streets, woodlands, schools, hospitals, and housing estates. The charity also runs the Edible Playgrounds programme, which aims to inspire school children to grow and eat healthy food.
Camp for Climate Action
The Camps for Climate Action are campaign gatherings (similar to peace camps) that take place to draw attention to, and act as a base for direct action against, major carbon emitters, as well as to develop ways to create a zero-carbon society. Camps are run on broadly anarchist principles — free to attend, supported by donations and with input from everyone in the community for the day-to-day operation of the camp. Initiated in the UK, camps have taken place in England at Drax power station, Heathrow Airport, Kingsnorth power station in Kent, the City of London and The Royal Bank of Scotland Headquarters, near Edinburgh. During 2009 camps also took place in Canada, Denmark, France, Ireland, Netherlands/Belgium, Scotland, Wales and Australia.
Extinction Rebellion
Extinction Rebellion (abbreviated as XR) is a UK-headquartered global environmental movement, with the aim of using nonviolent civil disobedience to compel government action to avoid tipping points in the climate system, biodiversity loss, and the risk of social and ecological collapse. XR was established in Stroud in May 2018 by Gail Bradbrook, Simon Bramwell, and Roger Hallam, along with eight other co-founders from the campaign group Rising Up! Its first major action was to occupy the London Greenpeace offices on October 17, 2018, which was followed by the public launch at the ‘Declaration of Rebellion’ on October 31, 2018, outside the UK Parliament.
