This Year, Earth Day is More Important Than Ever Before

I’ve been writing the Earth Day blog at Renewable Choice for the past 7 years. Each year, I’m happy to report that we’ve made new strides on bringing more renewables onto the grid in our quest for a low-carbon economy. That’s no less true this year; Bloomberg announced earlier this week that 55% of new global energy capacity in 2016 was from renewable sources, the biggest ever. It’s become a foregone conclusion that we’ve passed the renewables tipping point all over the world, as China shutters its coal plants, the Australian PPA market takes off, and the EU continues its march towards aggressive renewable energy and carbon reduction goals.

But this year, Earth Day feels a little more important, a little more crucial.

Despite these efforts, carbon emissions continue to rise. Temperatures continue to creep up. Climate science continues to be assailed. And we continue to see the impacts: unpredictable weather patterns, reef bleaching, unstable food prices, and massive human displacement.

In the midst of this scenario, it feels difficult to see a way through. However, what Earth Day always reminds me is that there are sources of inspiration all around us. Consider the recent position that U.S. companies have taken on renewables (they’re essential to the future), or the commitment Walmart made this week to remove a gigaton of carbon from its value chain.

As individuals, we can sometimes feel lost in how our own efforts roll up into a larger solution. That’s why for Earth Week this week, we focused our communications on reminding everyone how making different choices can make a big impact.

For example, both WRI and the NRDC are involved in extensive research on the environmental impacts of meat production. They’ve gleaned that one of the single most important changes everyone can make is to reduce the consumption of red meat. If every Westerner eliminated red meat from even a single meal—let alone began practicing vegetarianism—we could dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture.

As another example, this year transportation emissions surpassed electricity emissions for the first time since 1979. That’s both good and bad news. The good news is that it means our efforts on renewables are working. The bad news is that now we have new challenges in front of us. As individuals, we can reduce the amount we drive our single-passenger vehicles, opting for public transit or human-powered transportation instead—which is better for us, anyway.

At a broader level, all of us can commit to supporting systemic change through our daily activities. We can buy products from companies that are working diligently to green their goods—companies like Walmart, Target, Toyota, and Apple—and vote with our dollar. We can also reach out to our families, friends, and communities to encourage them to adopt changes like Meatless Monday or the purchase and installation of onsite solar. We can get political, and join the March for Science or the People’s Climate March to tell our leaders that these issues are mission-critical for Planet Earth. Earth Day reminds us that we all have power and influence that we can exercise to make real change.

The highlight of my Earth Week was presenting on clean energy to my daughter’s 3rd grade class. They were particularly inspired by this video from Earth Guardians. This Earth Day, let’s emulate these kids and all commit to #bethechange.