Published in most francophone media, here is An even more useful Earth Day? by Michel Gourd. For all intents and purposes, Earth Day is not only an initiative to raise sustainability awareness, but as elaborated here, it covers all aspects of life for everyone all around the earth.
As Published by Sam Pattisapu on Earth Day 2024 is an annual commemoration that was conceived and launched in 1970 by Democratic U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin and Republican U.S. Representative Pete McCloskey of California. The website provides a powerful reminder of the similarities between the two times and the differences in the environmental challenges faced by the present generation.
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SENE NEWS Par El Malick Faye
22 April 2024
Although it already shows that the world’s population is ready to take action to improve the planet, Earth Day could spark more positive actions to reduce environmental debt and the use of fossil fuels, COP29’s blind spot.
Globally, April 22 marks Earth Day. First held in 1970, it has become a symbol of awareness of the environmental challenges facing our planet on a global scale. It’s a powerful tool for the environment. Around one billion people from 190 countries are taking part this year under the theme of sustainable mobility and environmentally responsible travel. These gestures of responsible citizens who take local action can also be seen with the urgency of protecting the Earth that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pleaded for in July 2023, “The era of global warming is over; make way for the era of global boiling” he said at the time.
Overshoot Day
Each of us is part of a collective that consumes a little more each year than the Earth can produce. The day of the exceedance of the renewable resources produced by our planet calculated by the “Global Footprint Network” from three million statistical data collected from 200 countries was December 31 in, 1986, October 9 in, 2006, August 3 in, 2016 and August 2 in, 2023. This date varies greatly from country to country. If it arrives as soon as February 11 for Qatar in 2024, it is November 24 in Ecuador and Indonesia but does not exceed June 3 for Western countries.
We are currently consuming more than 1.7 times the available renewable resources and, therefore, the environmental capital that will be missing for future generations. Overshoot Day is one of the best symbols of human overconsumption and the need to reduce it to protect the Earth’s ecosystems. It can no longer sustainably support our production and consumption patterns. Therefore, we must collectively have the intelligence to reduce our lifestyle and adapt it to the maximum budget our planet gives us.
COP29 and Earth
Climate finance will be at the heart of COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan. Its chairman, Mukhtar Babayev, who is the host country’s Minister of Natural Resources, has so far responded little to the concerns of the protectors of the Earth. Instead, since the beginning of the year, it has been posting meetings with banks, countries and investment tools to secure the financial side of the event. His country has officially announced that it will increase its natural gas production by 35% by 2034. It thus abandons, as did the leaders of COP28, a major recommendation of the IPCC, namely that not all new fossil fuel discoveries should be developed.
2024 was the hottest year on record on the planet. The lack of interest in limiting the use of fossil fuels over the past 40 years is already producing extreme heat waves, leading to diseases such as cholera, malnutrition, habitat destruction, deteriorating living conditions, social inequalities, forced migration, and wars. Any citizen involvement in reducing the use of fossil fuels can only be positive.
An Earth Day that lasts all year round?
According to the latest annual United in Science 2021 climate report by UN scientists, climate change and its consequences are getting worse. Antonio Guterres said, “We really don’t have any more time to lose.”
In the face of self-serving inertia on the part of many large corporations and governments, the concrete citizen action promoted by Earth Day could be a voice for action. Citizens who want to take action to protect the planet can take millions of small, concrete actions that meet their daily needs and aspirations while respecting their environment, whether economic, social or physical, in the long term.
Thinking before you buy or destroy the environment is becoming more and more important. Reducing consumption is also compatible with happiness. According to Amélie Côté, a source reduction analyst at Équiterre, reducing work hours is not necessarily a deprivation since it allows you to have more time with your family and friends and often only requires you to be more sober in your consumption choices.
“Time is a very precious commodity.” Spending time working to buy things that don’t make you happier is not an optimal way to live. Living more responsibly for the environment, as Earth Day does, requires respecting our planet’s resources and boundaries.
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