Dear EGAers,
Last week, in the middle of all of us sheltering-in-place, a windstorm toppled over a giant oak tree from my front yard right in front of my eyes. A century old part of my home was violently uprooted, and gone in an instant. The oak tree, like the current Coronavirus crisis, is a reminder that change can come in an instant, and that tomorrow can be starkly different than yesterday.
This week is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Early and new movement leaders movement leaders like Denis Hayes and Jamie Margolin have been organizing across generations for months and years to galvanize the young and old (and the rest of us) to show up in community on this day for the public and leaders to put people and planet first. This year, the ongoing public health crisis and necessity to stay home (for those lucky enough to have a home) is underway globally and across the United States, which means that Earth Day 2020 is a house by house, apartment by apartment, yard by yard commitment.
I stand in roots of my tree today on Earth Day wearing an EGA T, that says “Everything is Connected” and it has never felt truer or clearer.
Last week during a Community Catch-Up Conversation, EGAers had a chance to hear from Denis and from other EGA members on foundation efforts to amplify community organizing to support people, place, and planet this week and beyond:
Conducting our work and living our lives virtually does not have to silence our efforts to support our communities and our environment, and the empowerment of one another (take a cue from the 7pm cheering for frontline health care workers from rooftops and windows in NYC, San Francisco, Minneapolis, and cities around the world.)
There is no doubt of the trauma our communities are experiencing, losing far too many lives to bear. This crisis is displaying the stark inequities that are the norm and showing how connected health, environment, economies and our shared futures are, and as usual, due to structural inequity the frontline communities, communities of color, and those vulnerable due to age or disability represent the majority of the losses associated with this pandemic. While there is so much pain and suffering experienced on a global level as we face this pandemic, there is also some hope for our community to come together and support intersectional efforts that will result in tangible, community benefits and healthier environments, amidst the ruins.
And there is a commitment to go deeper and think bigger in our efforts.
Just a month ago I couldn’t imagine the front of my house without that oak tree, or New York City’s streets empty, or that every day too many people are losing family members without being able to say goodbye, or facing financial ruin and being at risk of homelessness, or staying physically isolated in place for months. One of the critiques of the call for a Green New Deal is it was too big. Now we are seeing with the Coronavirus relief packages, and likely forthcoming stimulus packages, being passed by Congress in swift halting negotiations that when there is a will, our leaders can go big and include health, and economic priorities in one monster package. What is in those depends on political will. One silver lining of this catastrophe is bringing new eyes and new context to struggle ahead.
This Earth Day let’s lean into a future that looks very different from yesterday and today. Join me in spending today engaging in any combination of the below and then practice imagining the vision and will of what we need to do – like breathing, if we center it, we can make it the center.
Check out these options and choose one or more to engage, to act, and honor Earth Day, and send me what you are doing today and this Earth week and we will share with our broader community by tweeting @EGAconnects. Everything is Connected, and we need to stay connected and act virtually today and in concert tomorrow when we can meet again.
Engage & Act
• Earth Day Organization’s 24 Hours of Digital Action
• Earth Day Live 2020, organized by This is Zero Hour, Sunrise Movement, Amazon Watch, and more
• Walton Family Foundation’s #EarthDay2020 Press Kit
• The Story of Plastic Documentary Global Premiere in Honor of Earth Day
Read/Watch
• Denis Hayes’ Op-Ed, The Most Important Election of Your Lifetime
• Outrider Foundation’s film for the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, “United, We Can Solve This”
• Earth Day: Meet the original eco warriors protecting the planet
• Bill McKibben Op-Ed “This year’s Earth Day will be as angry — and clever — as the one that started it 50 years ago”
• New York Times piece, ‘The Year You Finally Read a Book About Climate Change’
• Aileen Lee Perspective: Nature has sent humanity a wake-up call. How will we answer?
• New York Times profile of Denis Hayes in advance of Earth Day, ‘The Profoundly Radical Message of Earth Day’s First Organizer’
• Politico, ‘What the Coronavirus Curve Teaches Us About Climate Change’
• The History of Earth Day: From Radical Roots to Elementary School Classrooms
• Lois DeBacker, Earth Day 2020: Time to demand action on climate change and environmental health
Sending Love and Strength on Earth Day to our beloved EGA Community. Our friend and colleague Paul Beaudet, leader of Wilburforce Foundation just shared this and it resonates:
“Pick up the battle and make it a better world just where you are. It can be better and it must be better, but it's up to us." - Maya Angelou.
Yours in Solidarity and Collaboration,
Rachel Leon