Today is Earth Day, and experts say the earth is hurting.
This year’s Earth Day theme is “Invest in our Planet,” with a focus on encouraging world leaders, businesses, and individuals to invest and switch to greener energies, technologies and practices.
It comes only a couple of weeks after the grimmest climate report to date. The UN IPCC report said that it is “now or never” for the world, and that we are currently on track toward an “unlivable world.” Rapid mitigation measures include the reduction of fossil fuels and building better practices, and they are needed to avoid unsustainable global warming.
The report says that without immediate, deep reductions of emissions across all sectors, limiting global warming is “beyond reach.”
There are protests to act against global warming across the world. Protests today include protests against Russian fossil fuels. Activists across Europe are calling for stronger action against Russian fossil fuels. In South Korea, activists protested with plastic waste. They layed not he floor with plastic bags over their heads in a demonstration of the climate crisis. In the U.S., Extinction Rebellion disrupted the printing of major newspapers in protest of climate coverage.
What is the U.S. doing? President Joe Biden has pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030. The U.S. also rejoined the Paris climate deal, after Trump left it, reaffirming a promise to limit global warming.
But not everyone is on the same page. During the U.N. Climate Conference last year COP26, India and China weakened pledges to “phase out” coal. More than 100 leaders agreed to address deforestation and slash methane emissions by at least 30 percent within the next decade. Whether that will be enough remains to be seen.
But as the IPCC report said, the time for words is over. Action is required to stop the world from cooking.
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