Earth Day 2020

Earth Day: putting our planet’s future first

More than fifty years ago, the original Earth Day sparked a revolution and a global pledge to put our planet’s future first. Back then, the call to action was in response to a growing pollution problem and the resounding footsteps of millions marching on April 22^nd 1970 led to several environmental laws to make people clean up their act.

Since then, the focus has shifted to climate change and the challenge of preventing (potentially irreversible) the effects of unbridled global warming. The recent devastating fires in Australia revealed what heat extremes can do. Issues such as water quality, plastic pollution, and animal extinctions are as important as ever and have a firm hold on the heart of Earth Day’s vision. Revisit our previous Earth Day blog post for more on these themes.

An epic year for the environment
The last couple of years have seen environmental awareness surge. In September 2019, a record-breaking 7.6 million people marched for governmental action on climate change. The teenager who helped inspire these protests, Greta Thunberg, has shown the world how much the young generation want a cleaner, greener future.
Earth Day 2019 also launched the Great Global Clean Up with some fantastic results. Since April 2019, thousands of volunteers have plucked more than 10,000 kilograms of waste from the River Ganga, India. This shows what community action can achieve, and Beavers, Cubs, and Scouts are perfectly placed to get involved locally.
Create the climate for change
The seeds of change often begin at home as children learn to appreciate the natural world and the importance of protecting it. To help your troops get in touch with nature, we’ve created a few nature-inspired activities for Earth Day, from browsing for bugs to creating a natural collage. We hope that these will establish the roots of enthusiasm for the environment and perhaps even grow into the lifestyle changes being embraced by more and more people around the globe.

Do your best, do your bit
Climate change is a global challenge, but the choices we make each day as individuals can help. For many, eco-friendly living comes naturally, but others will need to make a conscious effort to change the habits of a lifetime. Here are a few suggestions to discuss with any (and hopefully all!) Scouts looking to reduce their personal contribution to global warming:

Eat less meat. Research has shown how much livestock farming contributes to carbon emissions. But you don’t have to go cold turkey and could start by halving your weekly meat intake. If that still doesn’t cut it, there’s loads of advice available on going full vegan!

Be travel wise. We all need a holiday every now and then, but flying is a major source of greenhouse gases. For your next adventure, try only travelling over land and sea, or take the opportunity to explore locally. Hiking and cycling holidays can be as rewarding as they are environmentally friendly.

Purge your plastics. With the ever-present pollution problem, we must each do our bit to prevent more plastic ending up in the environment. Earth Day’s top tip is to refuse to buy anything in plastic packaging. Now there’s a challenge worthy of a Scout!

Shop more sustainably. Besides shunning wasteful wrapping, we can also prioritise products that are reusable or made from recycled materials. Even the range of eco-friendly Scout clothing and accessories is growing!

There are also many ways to tackle climate change as a team. Scout Troops can easily adopt some of the ideas above or organise new group activities, such as planting trees to cool and cleanse the air, or planning a community discussion to inspire action in others.
Not all environmental acts need to be newsworthy to make a difference to the world.
So for Earth Day 2021, let’s do our best to do our bit for a better future.