World Earth Day 2023 on 22 April
THIS EARTH DAY, INVEST IN OUR PLANET
?The Earth is struggling with converging environmental crises that are inextricably linked and compounding: climate change and the accelerating destruction of our natural ecosystems. Without bold and prompt action, business leaders and policymakers risk degrading the quality of human life, the health of the natural environment, and the vibrancy of the global economy. Said the president of the World Economic Forum. In fact, at the current pace of investment, net zero emissions would be attainable only by 2069—almost 20 years behind target—and the untapped net-zero opportunity could be worth trillions by 2030. This Earth Day, take some time to explore these insights on what it could take to achieve net-zero emissions, restore natural capital, and save our one and only home for years to come. While new technologies and policies are accelerating the world’s progress toward cleaner energy, we have not yet seen a corresponding decrease in global emissions. It is necessary to explore the commitments made to date, the lessons learned from actions that have been taken, and a path forward for companies and governments in navigating upcoming turbulence.
World Earth Day 2023: History, Theme, and Significance
?World Earth Day is celebrated annually on April 22nd to raise awareness of environmental issues and promote action to safeguard the planet. The first Earth Day was held in 1970 in response to growing pollution and biodiversity concerns. This year's theme, "Invest in Our Planet," focuses on encouraging companies to adopt sustainable practices. World?Earth?Day, also known as International Mother Earth Day, is observed on April 22 every year, it is celebrated to raise awareness related to the environmental problems around the world and encourage actions that safeguard the planet. The first Earth Day was observed in 1970 in the United States and has since evolved as a global event, with millions of people, organizations, and institutions engaging in diverse activities.
World Earth Day 2023: History
Gaylord Nelson, a Senator from Wisconsin, US, established Earth Day in response to growing concerns around pollution, biodiversity loss, and other ecological problems. He was concerned about the fact after seeing the oil spill in Santa Barbara, California, in early 1969. On April 22, 1970, over 20 million Americans participated in protests, rallies, and other events to demonstrate their support to protect the environment. This occurrence is broadly recognized as the inception of the modern environmental movement, which led to the establishment of the US Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of environmental laws like the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act.
World?Earth Day 2023: Theme
The?World Earth Day theme 2023?is "Invest in Our Planet," calling out companies to opt for sustainable practices. The theme is in continuation of the successful 2022 campaign. The anticipated outcome of this movement is a transformation in the business and political climates, as well as a shift in approaches to addressing climate issues. "Now is the time for the unstoppable courage to preserve and protect our health, our families, and our livelihoods," says earthday.org.
Environmental Sustainability & Net Zero Emissions
The theme for?Earth Day 2023?is?Invest In Our Planet?with a call to action to solve the climate crisis, create a prosperous and sustainable future, and restore nature to build a healthy planet for future generations. The call to action includes coming together in partnership with governments, businesses, and civil society to take responsibility and be accountable to accelerate the change toward a green, prosperous, and equitable future.
World Earth Day 23: take away and a Synopsis
Google has taken the initiative to celebrate World Earth Day 2023 via a doodle today, Saturday, 22 April.?The Google Doodle today is trying to create awareness among people about the harmful effects of climate change and how it can affect us if not controlled immediately. The doodle has a strong message for everyone.1 day ago. Global warming is one of the most alarming issues right now. We can already see the effects of global warming such as the ongoing heat waves. Google has taken the initiative to celebrate World Earth Day 2023 via a doodle today, Saturday, 22 April. The?Google Doodle today?is trying to create awareness among people about the harmful effects of climate change and how it can affect us if not controlled immediately. The doodle has a strong message for everyone. Building on the success of last year’s campaign, this theme emphasizes the need for increased investment in our planet’s well-being and sustainability. It highlights the crucial role of investment in driving positive change and addressing the pressing environmental challenges that we face today. The theme “Invest in Our Planet” calls on individuals, communities, governments, and businesses to prioritize and take action toward protecting and preserving our planet for present and future generations.
It is important to note that?World Earth Day?is observed on 22 April, every year. People organize different events and programs to talk about climate change and how disastrous it will get in the future. The Google Doodle today, Saturday, also speaks about global warming in a creative manner. It is sure to attract the attention of users. According to Google's blog, every individual's small actions include; "opting to air dry laundry instead of using the dryer, practicing a plant-based diet or opting for plant-based options when possible, walking or riding a bike instead of driving, when possible," can play a significant role in fighting against climate change. Today's Google Doodle talks about ways to make certain choices to make an impact and bring the needful chances. From the way we travel to the electricity we use, the food we eat, and the things we buy, we can make a difference amid the worst climate change impact across the globe.
?
Corporate role
Keysight?is helping to build a better planet by accelerating innovation to connect and secure the world and employing a global business framework of ethical, environmentally sustainable, and socially responsible operations. Three core principles underscore this commitment:
These principles align with Earth Day 2023 in building a healthy economy for all. At Keysight, we care for our people, our planet, and the communities where we operate. At the heart of this is a sincere belief in conducting business in an ethical, legally compliant, environmentally sustainable, and socially responsible manner. Together we can make a difference.
Net zero emissions for a sustainable future
Keysight’s net zero emissions goal demonstrates our commitment to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius per the Paris Agreement framework. This pursuit is in line with our company’s values:
Keysight will achieve?net zero emissions?in company operations by the end of the fiscal year 2040. The best way to accomplish this goal is through energy efficiency and conservation and transitioning to renewable energy sources. Using science-based targets (SBTs) is the best way to measure progress in greenhouse gas emissions reduction and to ensure targets are consistent with the latest climate change scenarios. Because of this, Keysight is committed to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and has submitted proposed targets in all three scopes of emissions for validation.
As we reflect on Earth Day 2023, we are inspired by Keysight’s commitment to building business resiliency in the face of climate change. We also know that more work is needed through a global cooperative effort to act on climate change now to lower climate risks by 2050. The question we all need to ask ourselves is what intentional daily action will we take to?Invest in our Planet? To see real change and protect our planet, we must invest in it.
Earth Day?the?first one?was celebrated on April 22, 1970. At that time, there was no Clean Air Act, no Clean Water Act, and no?Environmental Protection Agency.?There were no legal or regulatory mechanisms to protect our environment. The home state of Senator Gaylord Nelson, the founder of Earth Day. on a photo shoot and handing him a white pine sapling, a tree that he had requested to hold. Sixteen years after that, I worked with Tia Nelson, his daughter, and the climate change program director for the?Outrider Foundation—an organization that uses digital media to build an understanding of and inspire action for the Earth.?
So, every April 22 since 1970 has been a special day for us, and we take note of every annual theme. The one for Earth Day 2023 is “Invest in Our Planet.” We think it’s one of the best yet, as the scope is wider. Because now science is giving us a good reason and an excellent way to do just that. The 1970 Clean Air Act is a federal law that regulates air emissions from mobile and stationary sources. Among other things, this law authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency to establish National Ambient Air Quality Standards to protect public health and regulate emissions of hazardous air pollutants.
THE REA: THE PARIS CLIMATE AGREEMENT GOAL IS SON STILL POSSIBLE
?The?Paris Climate Agreement?is a?legally binding international treaty on climate change. It was adopted by 196 parties at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris, France, on December 12, 2015. It entered into force on November 4, 2016. Its all-encompassing goal is to hold “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels” and to pursue efforts “to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 C (2.7 degrees F) above preindustrial levels.” But, recently, world leaders have stressed the need to limit global warming to 1.5 C by the end of this century. That’s because the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicates that crossing the 1.5 C threshold risks unleashing far more severe climate change impacts, including more frequent and severe droughts, heatwaves, and rainfall. To limit global warming to 1.5 C, greenhouse gas emissions must peak before 2025 at the latest and decline 43 percent by 2030. The United Nations declared the Paris Climate Agreement is?a landmark because, for the first time, a binding agreement brought all nations together to combat climate change and adapt to its effects. And happily, according to a study published in the journal?Environmental Research Letters?in February 2022, the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement goal is still within reach.
?
领英推荐
The 1972 Clean Water Act established the basic structure for regulating discharges of pollutants into the waters of the United States and sets quality standards for surface waters.?In order to explore and plan for possible futures, the climate research community uses scenarios: forecasts of how the future might evolve based on factors such as projected greenhouse gas emissions and different possible climate policies. The most used scenarios called the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs), were developed by the IPCC starting in 2005. The Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) that followed, starting in 2010, were meant as an update. Together, the two sets of scenarios were used to create the IPCC’s?Sixth Assessment Report.
The authors of the?Environmental Research Letters?study started with a total of 1,311 climate scenarios from which the climate research community selected the 11 RCPs and SSPs. They then compared the scenarios to the projected 2005–2050 fossil fuel and industry carbon dioxide emissions growth rates most consistent with real-life observations from 2005–2020 and projections to 2050. The number of scenarios that most closely matched up to data from the past 15 years and subsequent emissions projections ranged from less than 100 to almost 500, depending upon the method applied. These scenarios represent what futures are plausible if current trends continue and countries adopt the climate policies they have already announced to reduce carbon emissions.
?The Environmental Protection Agency was created on December 2, 1970, as part of the response to growing public concern and a grassroots movement to “do something” about the deteriorating conditions of our air, land, and water. The scientists found that a subset of climate scenarios from the IPCC most in line with recent data and International Energy Agency forecasts for 2050 project between 2 and 3 C (3.6 and 5.4 degrees F) of warming by 2100, with a median of 2.2 C (3.96 F). In comparison, some implausible, worst-case scenarios have projected as much as 4 or 5 C (7.2 or 9 F) degrees of warming by the end of the century.
This news is cautiously optimistic with respect to where the world is today compared to where we thought we might be. That means that the two-degree target from the Paris Climate Agreement remains within reach. There is a caveat, though: because IPCC scenarios haven’t been updated for many years, the scientists say there are some futures that are plausible but haven’t yet been envisioned. And those could be more optimistic or more pessimistic. The global transportation sector is a major air polluter. In 2020, it produced approximately 7.3 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. Passenger cars were the biggest source of emissions that year, accounting for 41 percent of global transportation emissions. However, the analysis joins a growing consensus of independent groups around the world whose work suggests that the most extreme climate scenarios are unlikely to occur in this century and that midrange scenarios are more likely. The IPCC Sixth Assessment Report also notes that the likelihood of high emissions scenarios is considered low. Why are these worst-case scenarios now less plausible? Mostly because they were all developed more than a decade ago, and a lot has happened since then. For example, renewable energy has become more affordable and, thus, more common faster than expected. Climate scenarios also tend to overestimate economic growth, especially in poor countries. The researchers say that their study points out the need for these scenarios to be updated more frequently. Scientists may be using a 2005 scenario when a 2022 perspective is needed. But the authors also stress that 2 C (3.6 F) of warming will still take a dramatic toll on the planet, and this is no time for complacency. Data shows that the average global temperature has already risen around?1.1 to 1.2 C since industrialization,?and the planet could reach 1.5 C of warming above preindustrial levels in a decade.
The way: the Carbon Takeback Obligation could work
Imagine a single policy, imposed on one industry, which would, if enforced consistently, stop fossil fuels from causing global warming within a generation. The Carbon Takeback Obligation could do just that. It requires fossil fuel extractors and importers to dispose safely and permanently of a rising fraction of the CO2 they generate, with that fraction rising to 100 percent by the year net zero. This would include carbon dioxide generated by the products they sell. In 10 years, the price of solar electricity dropped 90 percent. Clean energy has already passed its economic tipping point. Since 2019, it has been cheaper to build and use a combination of renewables, such as solar and wind, than to build new natural gas plants.
A groundbreaking study from the University of Oxford and the University of Edinburgh, published in the international energy journal?Joule?in October 2021, explores the economic implications of imposing a carbon takeback obligation on the global fossil fuel industry and shows it provides an affordable and low-risk route to net-zero emissions, particularly if complemented by conventional measures to reduce fossil fuel demand. Despite the perceived high cost of carbon dioxide capture and storage, the cost to the world economy of a Carbon Takeback Obligation, even if entirely passed on to fossil fuel consumers, is no higher than the cost of mitigation in conventional scenarios meeting similar goals. According to this study, investment in carbon dioxide capture and geological storage has, to date, been dependent on state subsidies and consistently far below what is required to meet the Paris climate goals. Carbon Takeback provides the fossil fuel industry with the strongest possible incentive to make amends: survival. An independent expert in carbon capture and storage who reviewed the work commented that a Carbon Takeback policy as proposed in this paper will provide a safety net to make sure we achieve net-zero emissions even if we don’t manage to reduce the use of fossil fuels quickly enough. It extends the responsibility of producers to take care of the waste generated by using their products. The polluter pays to clean up, and the costs are included in the product price.?We hope our Earth Day 2023 will have a personal meaning. How do we intend to invest in our planet?
?The time: it’s now doable
?The Earth Day 2023 campaign highlights how investing in our planet is the most sensible option for our families, our finances, and our futures. High upfront costs are often given as a reason not to invest in renewable energy. However, in the past 10 years, the costs of clean energy technologies have declined dramatically. Wind power costs have decreased by half, solar panels by 90 percent and batteries by even more. Wind and solar now produce 10 percent of the world’s electricity and are adding 1 to 2 percent every year. The United States spends an estimated?$37.5 billion on fossil fuel subsidies?yearly, money that could be going to research and development of?renewable energy projects. Only a few years ago, even optimists would have considered zero emissions unrealistic. Today, two-thirds of the world’s polluters have committed to net-zero emissions by mid-century. Investing in clean energy has the potential to do most of the work in reducing the world’s greenhouse gases to zero. But like Earth Day for us, our Earth Day should be personal, too. How can we, invest in our planet? Here are several ways. ?Earth Day 2023, and here’s to finding your true places and natural habitats,?multiple award-winning author and writer specializing in nature-travel topics and environmental issues, Candice has traveled around the world, from the Arctic Circle to Antarctica, and from New Zealand to Scotland's far northern, remote regions. Her assignments have been equally diverse, from covering Alaska’s Yukon Quest dogsled race to writing a history of the Galapagos Islands to describe and photographing the national snow-sculpting competition in her former home state of Wisconsin. In addition to being a five-time book author, Candice's work has also appeared in several national and international publications, such as "The Huffington Post" and "Outside Magazine Together, Natural Habitat Adventures, and World Wildlife Fund have teamed up to arrange nearly a hundred nature travel experiences around the planet, while helping to protect the spectacular places we visit and their wild inhabitants.
?Earth Day 2023: How Oracle invests in our planet to serve a transforming world
This year’s Earth Day theme, Invest in Our Planet, resonates with us and so many around the world. Now more than ever, as the impact of climate change becomes abundantly clear, everyone’s efforts to protect and repair our environment are crucial. At Oracle, we’re committed to being at the forefront of environmental and social impact to serve a transforming world. “Transforming” is an important word here. Environmental, economic, and social pressures create wave after wave of change globally. Any successful endeavor to achieve positive change for the planet must be built to adapt to meet evolving circumstances, needs, and challenges.
Doubling down on our commitments
Setting ambitious sustainability goals and helping customers on their sustainability journeys are fundamental in our fight for a healthier planet. Because we embed sustainability within our operations, employee culture, and services, we’re able to share our results and success stories to inspire others—and drive change. Oracle is focused on achieving net zero emissions by 2050. Oracle has committed to matching all worldwide Oracle Cloud Regions with 100 percent renewable energy by 2025. Several Oracle Cloud Regions are already powered by 100 percent renewable energy, which enables customers to run their computing services more sustainably and with a lower carbon footprint. Oracle’s impact, however, goes well beyond our own company’s goals. We know that serving a transforming world requires lengthening our reach. It means ensuring change-makers are on the ground and have the resources they need to act quickly and effectively.
?Investing in effective and impactful projects
Beyond our own sustainability initiatives, we also invest in impactful projects that are protecting the natural world and wildlife. Take National Geographic?Pristine Seas?as one example. National Geographic Explorer Enric Sala founded the project in 2008 to combine exploration, research, and media to inspire country leaders to protect the oceans’ vital places, and Oracle began supporting the project in 2009. To date, the Pristine Seas h areas cover more than 6.6 million square kilometers. Still, the science is clear that more is needed: we need to protect 30 percent of the world’s oceans by 2030 to ensure the viability of our life support system—Earth. The ocean covers 70 percent of the planet and shelters an incredible diversity of life. It gives us food, jobs, and more than half the oxygen we breathe. Oracle has long invested in effective organizations focused on restoring critical ecosystems. One prime example is?Save the Redwoods League, which helps restore ancient California redwood forests to stimulate the growth of young trees, enabling the forest to regain resilience against drought and fire, expand wildlife habitats, and improve the health of waterways. Another is?The Nature Conservancy, whose mission is to conserve the lands and the waters on which all life depends. Our grants support the restoration of kelp forests on California’s North Coast, a critical ocean habitat that supports more than a thousand marine species, as well as the protection of the Barton Creek Habitat Preserve in Austin, Texas. The 4,000-acre preserve protects the habitat for several rare and endangered species and safeguards the quality of water in the Barton Creek watershed and the Edwards Aquifer, which is the main supplier of drinking water for two million Central Texans.
?Protecting endangered species
?Another example of a long-time Oracle grantee protecting wildlife and vital ecosystems is the?Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund?(Fossey Fund). Three decades ago, we teamed up with the Fossey Fund in a shared mission to protect endangered gorillas, and today, Oracle Cloud hosts one of the world’s largest, most comprehensive longitudinal collections of data on any wild gorilla population, for free. Also available free to researchers, students, and citizen scientists everywhere is Animal Observer, an animal health and behavioral data collection app developed by the Fossey Fund with support from Oracle. Why invest in gorilla conservation? Gorillas live in the second-largest tropical rainforest left on the planet, the Congo Basin. Rainforests are one of our best natural defenses against climate change. Often called the “lungs of the Earth,” they breathe in carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen. Yet, an alarming?39 million acres?of tropical rainforests were lost at the hands of human exploitation in 2017 alone. Known as the “gardeners of the forest,” gorillas play a critical role in protecting the health of their ecosystem. In the course of their daily lives, they disperse seeds, clear out underbrush, and prune roots and shoots – keeping the forest healthy and indirectly benefiting many other species of plants, animals, and insects. Further, humans share 98% of their DNA with gorillas. They are so like us, and by protecting them, we are ultimately protecting the planet and ourselves.
?Volunteering for a healthy planet
Oracle Volunteers?invest in our planet year-round by undertaking environmental projects in their communities. Each year, Oracle Volunteers rally around our Focus on Environment initiative, which runs through March and April.?Ocean Conservancy?is Oracle Volunteering’s global partner in this initiative. Ocean Conservancy is on a mission to engage communities around the world in protecting the ocean from today’s greatest global challenges. Their work focuses on creating evidence-based solutions for a healthy ocean and the wildlife and communities that depend on it. Oracle has partnered with Ocean Conservancy to host local cleanups around the world since 2021, and thousands of Oracle Volunteers have participated. We’ve implemented more than 60 projects in collaboration with Ocean Conservancy, and this year, Oracle Volunteers have already signed up for 33 projects across more than a dozen countries.
Oracle Volunteers are also helping in other ways including planting trees, undertaking citizen science projects, creating rainwater harvesting systems, and much more.
?The time to invest in our planet is now
?At Oracle, we have seen the widespread positive impact of our own investments toward a healthier world. But we know no one can create real change alone. This work would not be possible without our inspirational grantees and partners. Together, we are healing places and people, and protecting the natural world.
As conservationist Jane Goddall said, “You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” This Earth Day and every day, I hope we each make good decisions—about how we volunteer, how we power our households, what we purchase, what we eat, the vehicles we drive, and the organizations we support with our donations. No action is too small and each of us can make a positive impact on the world around us.“Water, water everywhere,/ Nor any drop to drink.” This famous line, spoken by the lost sailor in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem?The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, sums up one of the basic difficulties of life at sea: humans need water to survive, but seawater is too salty to drink. In fact, most of Earth is covered with undrinkable water; oceans cover 70 percent of Earth’s surface and account for about 97 percent of all water. The average salt content of ocean water is 35 parts per thousand, which—while it may not sound like much—works out to 120 million tons of salt per cubic mile of seawater. And there are about 332,519,000 cubic miles (1,386,000,000 cubic km) of water in the ocean. Where did all that salt come from?
It comes from the land, mostly. As rain forms and falls through the air, it accumulates carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, causing it to become slightly acidic. It then flows over the land, eroding rocks and picking up small amounts of salt and other dissolved minerals.?At this point, the water is still basically fresh; there is some salt in it but usually not enough to make it undrinkable. Eventually, though, most rainwater finds its way to the ocean. Once it gets there, some of the dissolved minerals—such as calcium—are removed from the water by biological processes, but salt tends to remain.?Additional salt is contributed by underwater hydrothermal and volcanic activity.
The idea that salt was gradually deposited in the sea by rivers was first suggested by the British astronomer?Edmond Halley?in 1715. Halley took his observation a step further and proposed that the salinity of seawater could serve as a kind of clock that could be used to determine the age of the ocean (and thus, he assumed Earth). He reasoned that dividing the total volume of ocean water by the rate at which salt was deposited in the ocean would show how long it had taken for the ocean to reach its current level of salinity. Measurement techniques weren’t precise enough to perform the calculation in Halley’s time, but the Irish physicist John Joly tried it in 1899, coming up with an estimate of 90 million years. (More-advanced techniques later revealed this to be a major underestimate; the actual age is more like four billion.) Unfortunately, Halley’s scheme had been flawed from the start; among other problems, he had failed to account for the fact that some sea salt becomes sequestered in the form of mineral deposits on the seafloor.
?CONCLUSION
?World Earth Day 2023: Significance
World Earth Day is significant because it gives an opportunity to raise awareness about environmental problems and inspire individuals to take necessary actions. The day is also observed to mobilize public support for environmental policies and promote sustainable practices that reduce the impact of human activities on the planet.