It's Earth Day (every day)

This week, I’ve been having fantastic discussions with city leaders, college students, business folks, journalists, and people from all walks of life. Despite the diversity, they all have one thing in common –?they’re excited about climate action.?People are starting to see that tackling climate change can also address health, equity, and economic challenges, and protect nature. The wins just keep on coming as more and more people jump on board!

Often, we imagine climate action as a massive boulder at the bottom of a steep cliff, with only a handful of people like Al Gore, Greta Thunberg, or David Suzuki trying to push it up. They’re giving it their all, but it isn’t budging an inch. So we wonder,?“Why add my hand?if it won’t make a difference?”

The real picture, though, is on the right side below, not the left.?The boulder of climate action is already at the top of the hill and rolling down in the right direction.?Millions of people were already helping, and even more have joined this year. There's no reason to wait when it comes to climate action; we know what to do. If we add our own hand—and even better, if we use our voice to encourage others to add theirs—it?will?make a difference.

GOOD NEWS

Around the world,?more people are talking about —and support taking action on —?climate change than ever.?A majority of Americans, 69 percent,?favor taking steps?to become carbon neutral by 2050. The same share say that the U.S. should focus on developing renewable energy sources rather than the production of oil, coal, and natural gas. And?two-thirds of Americans?say large businesses and corporations aren’t doing enough to reduce their impact on climate change.

Those attitudes hold up globally.?In?a recent survey?that spanned 19 different countries in North America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific, three out of four respondents ranked climate change as the top threat to their country. The survey also revealed?people are optimistic?about the benefits of international cooperation for solving the problems facing their countries. Nearly two-thirds?said “many” problems can be solved by working together, while only 31 percent felt that “few” problems can be solved by international cooperation.

Even among those who remain?dismissive or doubtful, researchers have found that the balance of arguments has shifted from undermining climate science, or “evidence skepticism,” to challenging policy solutions, or “response skepticism.”?And in U.K. and U.S. media, newspaper outlets are?giving much less space?to those arguments.

I’m convinced the tide is turning: and to accelerate this progress, you know what to do.?Keep on having conversations that advocate for and support climate action,?to make climate action the norm and inaction the exception!

NOT-SO-GOOD NEWS

There’s plenty of news about the Earth this week too, though, and?none of it is good.?This past week, Southeastern Asia endured the?worst heatwave?ever recorded in April in many regions. Throughout the world, many rivers —?from the Yangtze to the Nile to the Danube — that serve as major freshwater supplies for huge populations of people are disappearing. An unusually warm winter, low rainfall, and a lack of snow, has?much of Europe?bracing for a repeat of last summer’s severe drought.?Italy’s longest river, the Po, which winds through its northern agricultural breadbasket, has 61 percent less water than usual for this time of year.

Water flow through China’s massive?Yangtze River is?more than 50 percent below?the average of the last five years,?threatening the water supply of 400 million people and?prompting the closing of shipping routes?and the shuttering of factories that rely on its hydropower.

Meanwhile,?the Colorado River —which fills Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the two largest water reservoirs in the U.S. —?is?suffering through the?region’s worst dry spell in 1200 years.?Though an unusually wet winter has provided a respite for the 40 million people who get their drinking water from this critical artery,?it’s nowhere near enough to fill the deficit.?The situation has led the nonprofit advocacy group American Rivers to declare the 1450-mile-long waterway that encompasses parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states the nation’s?most threatened river?for the second year in a row. At the same time, in many of the western states that saw record-breaking amounts of rain and snow over the winter, rapid spring snowmelt is already?increasing flood risk. In California,?thousands of acres are already under water and that area is expected to triple by summer.

This is exactly why I often refer to what we see as “global?weirding” rather than “global warming” – because?wherever we live, the weather is getting weirder and it’s putting us all at risk.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Earth Day is a great reason to?talk to people who might not usually be open to discussing climate change.?Here are?some resources?on the art of having those conversations.

What about?talking to kids? Check out?this guide, which includes a helpful script?and ways to take action as a family, and this?Netflix booklet?full of Earth Day activities for your family.

This is also a good time to remember that, while personal action is important, focusing exclusively on our own carbon footprint?won’t be enough to fix our problems.?Using our voices?to?push for collective action?from our governments, banks, schools, cities, churches, and companies?to eliminate fossil fuels and build climate resilience is what we truly need

Of course, our actions matter every day.?Adopting the mindset that "every day is Earth Day" reminds us that we all have a role to play in caring for each other and all the other living things that share our home, the Earth.