Everything about First-Ever Digital Earth Day 2020

Author: Priyanka Saxena on Apr 22,2020

Earth Day 2020 is going to be one of the remarkable years when we came together to protect the planet. Earth day is all about helping the planet to heal! With the outbreak of coronavirus, that process of healing has already started! With social distancing, lockdown & quarantine on the forefront, the planet has already been breathing like never before. If not as an obligation, but out of the fear of saving our lives from coronavirus, we have begun celebrating Earth Day much before. The trees are already breathing, rivers are already looking crystal clear like never before, the air quality has already surprisingly improved in a way as never before. All this has happened because of the reduced human movements, almost no vehicle movement on the streets.

In that way, Earth Day 2020, which is also its 50th anniversary has to be altogether different! Another thing that makes this whole celebration unique is the tag, Digital Earth Day. People are expected to mobilize (as a general phenomenon) and shout in unison for propagating the idea of protecting the planet. But, Earth Day 2020 is the year of lockdown, social-distancing and we are not officially allowed to do that. 

Suggestions are coming from different sources to begin rallies online or Digital rallies. It is continuously being emphasized to talk about the issue via various Digital sources instead of crowding parks & other places, interfering in this process of healing via social distancing & lockdown. So, if we can move to Virtual lunch meetings and virtual vacations - why not Digital Earth Day celebrations?

There are various other ways you can celebrate Earth Day 2020 from home. But, before finding your way to the Earth Day 2020 celebration, it is important to know about the 3 Ws (What, when & why) of Earth Day. Here we go:

What is Earth Day?

The concept of Earth Day came into existence during 1970. It was when millions of people in America came together on the streets protesting against the environmental reforms. The whole idea was a brainchild of US Senator Gaylord Nelson. He came with this idea after the incidence of the oil spill in Santa Barbara, California in 1969. Further, it also led to creating Environmental Protection Agencies and plenty of environmental laws. 

Right after the first Earth Day was celebrated, many acts as a means of protecting the planet were passed including the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Clean Air Act.  Which started as a way to handle the side-effects of incessantly growing industrialization and environmental protection, very soon took the form of Global environmental movements. 

Now, every year, around the globe, millions of people take part in various marches, protests, petitioning campaigns as a means of fighting the menaces of various environmental issues. People in every part of the world are actively involved in doing smaller to bigger things to curb this very menace of environmental disturbances. From planting trees to encouraging people to keep their surroundings clean, people are participating in different ways as they can. 

But, Earth Day 2020 is going to be all different! Almost no industrial pollution, no vehicle pollution, no human interactions, no overcrowding - and all because of the coronavirus outbreak. While this virus has nothing good about humans, it has all healed the Earth. In fact, there is no need for marches or protests. The need of the hour is to stay home and protect the world from falling prey to coronavirus. 

The participants are encouraged more to play their parts digitally and share trending hashtags. This is going to be the first-ever Digital Earth Day, where people are going to shout out loud in unison from the confines of their homes. 

This move to Digital Earth Day has come in the wake of the unforeseen health crisis. And, this is going to be a “global Digital mobilization”, with various events including social media campaigns, virtual protests & more. So, whether it’s a health crisis or something like a climate crisis, the ideas we have been working on in the past cannot be stopped. However, we can move on to find different ways to bring people and the propagators of the idea of action. 

What is the theme of Earth Day 2020?

Every year, there is a theme of the Earth Day celebration. In line with that idea, the theme for Earth Day 2020 is “climate action”. 

And, this theme of the year has been designed by the people sitting at the top - spotting the enormous opportunities for climatic actions. Climate action is going to be the most significant topic through this 50th Earth Day anniversary.