{"id":770,"date":"2016-04-22T13:42:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-22T13:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/uncategorized\/770\/7-things-you-can-do-for-the-planet-this-earth-day\/"},"modified":"2019-11-06T08:23:37","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T08:23:37","slug":"7-things-you-can-do-for-the-planet-this-earth-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/blogs\/770\/7-things-you-can-do-for-the-planet-this-earth-day\/","title":{"rendered":"7 things you can do for the planet this Earth Day"},"content":{"rendered":"
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More than 45 years ago \u2013 on the very first Earth Day \u2013 tens of millions of people decided to\u00a0do something<\/a>\u00a0about environmental destruction. They rallied against pollution, oil spills, pesticides and deforestation\u2026 issues that continue to resonate with us today.<\/p>\n

Their activism remains inspiring. But as Earth Day comes and goes each year, we can\u2019t just celebrate the past. The day must be a rallying cry for action in this present moment! This Earth Day, challenge yourself, your friends and your community to step up and make a change.<\/p>\n

Want to get moving but don\u2019t know where to start? Here are a just a few ways you can do something for the planet right now.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"Happy<\/p>\n

\n1. Take action for the climate.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last December, world leaders met at the Paris climate summit and created an agreement \u2013 which many will sign on Earth Day \u2013 marking the beginning of the end for fossil fuels. But this agreement alone is\u00a0not\u00a0<\/a>enough<\/a>\u00a0to avoid the most catastrophic consequences of climate change. It\u2019s up to all of us (world leaders included) to take more action to keep coal, oil and gas in the ground and build a 100% renewable energy future.<\/p>\n

Take action in your own community this May to break free from fossil fuels.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Plastic<\/a><\/p>\n

\n2. Consume less.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last year, people used\u00a01.6 Earths<\/a>\u00a0worth of natural resources. Our fascination with throwaway packaging and plastic is harming wildlife,\u00a0the ocean<\/a>\u00a0and maybe even\u00a0ourselves<\/a>. This Earth Day,pledge to simply use less stuff<\/a>!\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Farmers<\/p>\n

\n3.\u00a0<\/strong>Be a picky eater.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our food system is\u00a0broken<\/a>. Industrial agriculture is\u00a0polluting water<\/a>, destroying habitat and harming our health. The\u00a0livestock sector alone<\/a>\u00a0contributes to climate change at least as much as all trucks, cars and planes combined! But you can fight back, starting in your own kitchen.\u00a0Make a personal commitment<\/a>\u00a0to help change our food system \u2013 from starting a garden, to eating less (or no) meat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And if you (or your feline friend<\/a>) eat tuna, check out\u00a0these shopping guides<\/a>\u00a0to make sure the fish you buy isn\u2019t connected to labour abuse or ocean destruction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Greenpeace<\/p>\n

\n4. Stand with traditional forest communities.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Across the globe, Indigenous Peoples and forest communities are fighting deforestation that threatens their livelihoods. Add your voice in solidarity: from Africa<\/a>,\u00a0\u00a0Indonesia<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0Brazil<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Shoppers<\/strong><\/p>\n

5. Slow down fast fashion.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every piece of clothing we buy has\u00a0an impact on our planet\u00a0<\/a>well before it enters our closet. Throwaway fashion sucks up water, uses huge amounts chemicals and encourages waste. But you can break this cycle. How? As fashion designer Vivienne Westwood advised,\u00a0“Buy less, choose well, make it last.”<\/a><\/p>\n

\"rban<\/p>\n

\n6. Get creative!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Art and activism go hand in hand. So make art that shows how you want the world to be! Already, over a thousand artists have contributed their own work to speak out against Arctic destruction.Check out their powerful works here, and add your own!<\/a><\/p>\n

\n7. Believe in the power of people to make change.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In your city, in your neighbourhood, in your own life. This may be the most important lesson from the original Earth Day: Each of us has the power to make the world a little better.<\/p>\n

This list just scratches the surface of the actions we can take for the planet. See something missing? Share it with us in the comments. And have a happy Earth Day!<\/p>\n

Dawn Bickett is the content editor for Greenpeace in the Americas<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than 45 years ago \u2013 on the very first Earth Day \u2013 tens of millions of people decided to\u00a0do something\u00a0about environmental destruction. They rallied against pollution, oil spills, pesticides and deforestation\u2026 issues that continue to resonate with us today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[30,49],"p4-page-type":[48],"class_list":["post-770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-changemycommunity","tag-plastics","tag-lifestyle","p4-page-type-blogs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=770"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8393,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770\/revisions\/8393"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}