Happy Earth Day global citizens!
I believe that EVERY day should be Earth Day, but today is a special day when the world comes together to honor Mother Earth.
Earth Day is a time to celebrate our incredible planet and the life it provides for all living things. It’s a time to pay tribute to this amazing place we all get to call home, and most importantly, it’s a time to take action to protect the planet for future generations.
A year ago, we launched the Stand For Trees platform as an innovative way for everyday citizens to be a part of the climate change solution. We created a tool (www.standfortrees.org) to empower people to take real and effective action to protect threatened forests and to combat the dangerous effects of climate change.
It has been beyond inspiring to see the enthusiasm and continued support of people of all ages, from all walks of life, and across borders, who truly care about our environment take matters into their own hands to make the world a better place for us all.
Although tackling the climate change crisis can at times seem like a daunting task, it is clear that people really want to do their part, and they are. This is amazing to witness. That’s what this is all about – shared responsibility and collective action. Together, we will transform the world!
Through our collective action, we have accomplished some pretty amazing things together.
To date 34,318 individuals have taken action on our platform by supporting Stand For Trees projects.
Collectively, we have avoided 62,000 tonnes of CO2 from polluting the atmosphere – that’s the equivalent of taking about 12,000 cars off the road for a year.
This is an incredible achievement and we hope to keep the momentum going!
In honor of celebrating our beautiful Mother Earth, we want to share with you the winner and top finalists of our 1st annual Climate Art Challenge. We asked global citizens to communicate the value of forests and how they relate to our climate change crisis through art on the International Day of Forests. People from around the world submitted original artwork to us based on the following themes:
- The urgent need to protect the world’s forests
- Humankind’s connection to nature
- Why humankind should care about forests
The winner of the Climate Art Challenge was a piece entitled 'Rooted' by a young woman named Heather that beautifully captures the interconnection between humankind and nature.
Our top finalists also shared some powerful artwork with us:
We are so inspired by all of you!
As Margaret Mead so timelessly said,
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
The views expressed here are not neccesarily those of each of the partners of Global Citizen.