Earth Day is an important day for taking action and using our voices to help save our precious planet. There are lots of things you can do to help, and there are many activities and resources on our website that can help you, from writing to local businesses and politicians to organising a litter pick, and from doing an eco energy audit at school to investigating the food miles of your dinner at home.
What is Earth Day?
Earth Day takes place on the 22nd April every year, and is a chance to come together to focus action and attention on our planet, and what needs to be done to save it. It is the largest environmental movement on Earth! Every year has a theme – for 2023 it’s ‘invest in our planet’ – and you can register the action you’ll be taking on the Earthday.org website.
#InvestInOurPlanet
Invest In Our Planet is the theme for 2023, and it’s all about shifting the focus from consumption, waste and making profit from our planet at any cost to making a swift change to a sustainable, green economy that puts the planet first.
The Blue Marble – the image of Earth from space taken by the Apollo 17 crew in 1972. Image courtesy of NASA
In the words of the organisers of Earth Day, it’s all about ensuring that ‘everyone is accounted for, and everyone accountable’. That means that we don’t allow some people to be left in poverty or poor conditions along the way to a greener future, and that we make sure that everyone’s voices and concerns are involved. And it also means that we all have a responsibility to take action, and more than that, the power to do something to help.
“The Earth Day 2023 theme is focused on engaging the more than 1 billion people, governments, institutions, and businesses who participate in Earth Day to recognize our collective responsibility and to help accelerate the transition to an equitable, prosperous green economy for all. We are focused on reframing the conversation, accelerating action, and bringing everyone together to understand that this is within our reach if we work together.”
What can I do?
Lots! There are many actions you can take as an individual, group or school to help.
Our oceans, our pollution
Our oceans are home to some incredible wildlife – majestic animals, tiny creatures, amazing plants… and a whole load of our pollution. And every year, about 8 million tons of plastic waste escapes into the oceans. So what can we do about it?
This activity is all about learning what waste ends up in the ocean, how it gets there, and what actions people are taking to clean our oceans and seas up. And it has lots of ideas of actions each of us can take, such as running a beach clean, or writing to businesses asking for them to support cleaning up our oceans!
Discover the Our Oceans, Our Pollution activity
Save water! Do an audit, make a pledge
Did you know that Abu Dhabi has one of the highest rates of water consumption in the world? It’s about 550 litres of water per person per day, and to supply that much water, groundwater is taken from reservoirs at around 15 times more quickly than they can be naturally replenished. And to make up the difference, desalination plants are need which use lots of energy AND pump very salty water back into the sea which is terrible for the environment.
But if we want to reduce our usage, first we need to know what’s using water and how much. This activity goes through how to do a water audit, and then encourages everyone to make a water saving pledge. Lets save our precious fresh water!
Discover the Water Saving audit and pledge resource
Make a Roots & Shoots gift box
Ramadan Charity Boxes made by Abu Dhabi Homeschoolers Association
Helping people is a huge part of the Roots & Shoots mission, and these gift boxes are a great way you can help less fortunate children or families. You could make them to help people over Eid Al Fitr, or to help refugee children who have been forced to flee their homes, or people who have been left homeless due to natural disasters such as the earthquake in Turkey and Syria.
For this activity, Roots & Shoots groups should work together to fill gift boxes. Try to choose items that will be useful to children or families, and that will not have a negative environmental impact; for example, opt for reused, recycled, fair-trade, organic and/or local goods where possible.
Discover the Roots & Shoots Gift Box activity
How do I spread the word?
Follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook for updates and more during the Awards
If you want to inspire others to get involved, and share your actions so we can help you celebrate them, then social media is a great way to do it. Whether it’s a video on Instagram Reels or TikTok, or photos and comments on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, use some of the following hashtags.
#InvestInOurPlanet #EarthDay #EarthDayEveryDay #ClimateChange #Environment #Sustainability #TakeAction #ItsNotADayItsAMovement #TheGreatGlobalCleanup #TheCanopyProject #FashionForTheEarth #VoteEarth #GreenCities #ClimateLiteracy
And of course if you’re a Roots & Shoots group or use one of our Roots & Shoots activities as the basis for your action, we’d love to know about it and share it! So don’t forget to at-mention us and and use the following hashtags;
@JaneGoodallUAE #Roots&ShootsUAE
It’s not a day, it’s a movement
Taking action on Earth Day itself is a good start, and it’s great for focussing attention and action, but it’s not enough on it’s own.
Earth Day is great for raising awareness, for encouraging more people to make greener choices, for focussing our voices as we call on politicians and businesses to make a transition to more environmentally friendly practices, but it doesn’t end there.
The actions we take and motivation we engender on Earth Day need to be translated into continuous, sustainable pressure and focus. We need to continue our actions beyond the day itself; we need to live greener lives, help others have their voices heard, use our voices and consumer power to make politicians and businesses aware that this is what we want.
TASIS celebrated Earth Day in 2020 with a tree planting
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