Did you know yesterday (4/22) was Earth Day? Earth Day is an annual event that began in 1970 to show support for the environment. More than 193 countries recognize Earth Day.
Many of our Pillowfort Staff members, including our founder Julia, are very personally concerned about the climate crisis, and we want to take this opportunity to bring awareness to our community about this issue and encourage you to get involved in the cause. We want to stress that although we are a social media platform (not an advocacy organization), we feel morally obligated to use our platform to try to make change on something that affects literally all of us.
TheUnited Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently released a new report on the climate crisis impacting our world as we know it. Earlier IPCC research pointed out there would be more frequent extreme weather, increased wildfires, and mass extinctions if we did not act on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gas emissions are the highest they have ever been, as stated in the report. (source)
This sounds frightening, we know, but the point of this post is not to bring anxiety to our community. The good news here is that hope is not lost. Progress is being made: the IPCC report found 18 countries have been able to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions within the last decade. This progress can and will continue if as many of us as possible work together to help save our planet for future generations. This is an issue much larger than us as individuals, but we can tackle it as a united populace. So, we want to highlight a few organizations we have found that are working toward fighting the climate crisis and wanted to share them with you.
350.org- 350.org is an organization founded in 2008 that is building a grassroots movement to solve the climate crisis. It is a planet-wide collaboration of organizers, community groups and regular people fighting for a fossil free future.
Citizensclimatelobby.org - Citizens Climate Lobby is an nonprofit, nonpartisan, grassroots advocacy climate change organization focused on national policies to address the climate movement.
Drawdown.org - Project Drawdown® is a nonprofit organization founded in 2014 that seeks to help the planet reach “drawdown”—the future point in time when levels of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere stop climbing and begin to steadily decline.
Onetreeplanted.org - One Tree Planted is a nonprofit organization focused on global reforestation. They plant one tree for every one dollar donated.
Finally, if you are a US resident, you can use this directory to find your local & federal representatives to let them know that you care about climate change and want them to pass legislation to address it.
Since we are only novices at climate advocacy, we would love to hear from our community about what else we can promote or do ourselves to improve our contributions to climate activism. Feel free to leave comments in this comment section below pointing us to other resources and organizations that our users may want to look into. We would also love to get in touch with experienced climate advocates who may be willing to consult with us about how we can leverage Pillowfort to bolster this cause. If you are an experienced climate advocate and would like speak to our staff please reach out to us at [email protected].
giant corporations “participating” in earth day feels like the one kid who didn’t do anything for the group project but still got their name on the presentation
A great way to check which companies are full of shit and which are actually making an effort to reduce their negative impact on the environment is to look up their company ESG report. They are public information so you can usually find them on Google. An ESG report is a data-filled report on the company’s Environmental, Social, and Governance. It will list what the company is doing to the environment (Good or bad) and how they’re helping out diverse populations and the diversity within the company (including the board of directors!).
If you google the company name + ESG report and find nothing, start spamming their social media asking why they haven’t published one yet. It’s required in some countries but not in others. I know in the United States few companies are doing it yet. So they’re claiming to be green but it’s just “greenwashing” and they aren’t backing up their claims without an ESG report.
This is a sneak preview of a series of illustrations I’m creating for A.C. Imakumbili upcoming poetry book.
It seemed fitting to post it on Earth Day, a day dedicated to celebrate our Mother Earth and raise public awareness about pollution and climate change.
Earth Day is a single day each spring where the entire world agrees to celebrate nature and work to do something in return for the planet that supports us. For many of us, Earth Day is a staple holiday, one that we have never lived without, but Earth Day was actually first celebrated on April 22, 1970 created by Gaylord Nelson who was a senator of Wisconsin at the time.
As a witch, it probably seems like every day is a kind of Earth Day as we make offerings to the elements and individual plants, tend our gardens, and use herbs for everything from cleansing to tea. With all of that part of our everyday routines, making Earth Day special might seem a little daunting, but there’s plenty to that you can do to honor the earth even more than usual.
Get Your Hands Dirty
One of the obvious and most practical ways to celebrate Earth Day is to plant something. To be more specific you might consider planting a tree (you can dedicate it to a deity or other purpose if you want it to be even more special!) or tending to flowers, vegetables, or herbs. This is the perfect time to get to work on that native plant garden you’ve been putting off!
Make an Offering
For this, I suggest finding a specific entity or living thing that embodies your relationship with the earth and nature to make your offering to. You might consider making an offering to a tree that has provided you shelter or a garden that has provided you with nourishment.
If you choose to make a special tea, recipe, or other compostable item during your celebration today, you might consider burying it in that front of that tree or in that garden. If you already compost, maybe take today as an opportunity to use it to fertilize the plants around you. If you’re a witch in more of a city setting, something as simple as a liquid fertilizer would make a great offering for your houseplants!
Bless a Garden
A growth spell or garden blessing can be a simple celebration that allows you to spend some time outside meditating on the benefits and life of the plants around you and in the energy of the earth while also promoting growth.
I keep a small growth spell bottle in the pot of the majesty palm the lives on my balcony, and whenever I refresh that spell, I find that growth surges forth. (If you look at the linked post, I think that the sprouted seeds were, in fact, a good sign.)
Summon Rain
Two things are great for nature in most cases, rain and sunshine. Of course, these two things don’t usually coexist, so if you’re in an especially bright area, try your hand at a simple rain summoning spell to encourage some hydration to come your way, or if you’re in an especially soggy area, try to banish the weather to offer the plants in your area some sunshine.
One way to do this is to fill a bowl with water. Sit outside under the sky, and focus on the kind of weather you want. For rain, dip your fingers in the water, letting the droplets fall back into the pool below before stirring clockwise while meditating on rain. Once you are done, pour the water out onto the earth. To banish rain, you will want to stir counterclockwise and meditate on sunshine, disposing of the water inside.
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Whatever you choose to do on Earth Day, know that honoring the Earth in whatever small way you can is enough. If you aren’t able to do a large-scale ritual or plant a dozen trees, doing what you can for your small part of the world is just as valid as anything anyone else might do.
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