Women’s Equality Day marks the passing of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which granted women the right to vote. It honors not just the fight for suffrage, but the equality battles women still face today, including climate solutions. While women and girls are disproportionately affected by climate change, they are underrepresented in climate and environmental policy-making. Closing that gap isn’t a side issue — it’s the next front in the fight for equality.

Natural Disasters and Women

Globally, climate change is fueling more frequent natural disasters like floods, wildfires, and earthquakes – and the strain has fallen disproportionately on women and girls. They are 14 times more likely to die than men in an extreme weather event due to gaps in mobility, resources, and social status. 

Women also face greater exposure to heatwaves, housing insecurity, and rising utility costs, driven in large part by pervasive economic inequalities, such as lower wages and the burden of unpaid childcare and housework. The result is that 4 out of 5 people displaced by the impacts of climate change are women and girls.

These disparities become starkly visible after disasters like the 2010 Haiti earthquake. In the aftermath, women and girls in relief camps fell victim to a dramatic rise in sexual assaults due to a lack of planning and security to protect the displaced. 

When women are included in the traditionally male-dominated spaces, like helping run humanitarian response teams, they’re able to address risks that disproportionately threaten women and children. United Nations recovery camps have embedded women in leadership roles across camp governance, training programs, and livelihood projects to give women direct influence over recovery decisions and offer new paths to income-generating activities.

Women Leading the Charge

When women are given the opportunity to take on leadership positions, there is a greater likelihood that action will be taken to fight climate change. Likewise in the corporate world, climate governance, environmental reporting, and renewable power investment is greater in businesses with more gender diversity.

In politics, studies have also found that countries with higher proportions of women in parliament are more likely to have stricter climate policies, like higher taxes on carbon-heavy activities and more aggressive renewable energy subsidies. They’re also more likely to ratify international environmental treaties, like the 1993 United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, committing nations to protect animal and plant life.

Also consider that women drive 70-80% of consumer purchasing decisions in wealthier countries, and they are more likely to recycle, buy sustainably-labeled products, and save water and energy in the household. Together, this has a measurable impact on consumer behavior and attitudes.

Trailblazing female activists and leaders have paved the way for the modern climate movement. One of the most notable leaders, Jane Goodall, created a lasting legacy of hope and conservation with her groundbreaking research on chimpanzees. Transforming from researcher to advocate, she became a UN Messenger of Peace and founder of the Jane Goodall Institute, pushing for community-led conservation and civic participation until her passing in 2025.

Mia Mottley, the Prime Minister of Barbados, is a leading voice demanding fair climate financing for vulnerable island nations. She has already pioneered sustainable financing models and committed Barbados to transitioning to 100% renewable energy by 2030.

Nemonte Nenquimo, an indigenous Waorani leader from Ecuador, sued the Ecuadorian government in 2019, and in a landmark decision, successfully blocked oil drilling in half a million acres of ancestral Amazon rainforest.

A Data Gap

For decades, public and environmental health research has treated men’s behavior and bodies as the default, leaving critical gaps in data surrounding climate change’s effects on women. The people designing green infrastructure, disaster response, and public health policy are left working with an incomplete picture of who they’re serving when without that information.

Women’s health has historically been undervalued, creating significant gaps in the data we have to treat and protect them in response to growing threats. This fact remains true when talking about female reproductive health and plastics exposure. Humans are now ingesting six times more microplastics than in 1990, stemming from the world’s dependence on fossil fuels and their production of single-use plastics. Microplastics enter a mother’s body through everyday ingestion, inhalation, and skin contact and ultimately cross the placental barrier into a developing fetus.

The particles have been found in breastmilk and newborn’s first stool, and evidence shows that the effects of this exposure include higher risk of heart attack, stroke, cancer, and decreased fertility. Some vocal scientists, like Dr. Shanna Swan, are sounding the alarm on the public health threat this has become, but many products marketed heavily towards women, like cosmetics and perfumes, are still using phthalates, chemicals the leech into the skin and create lasting harm.

Beyond the health risks, this data bias also shapes the infrastructure meant to serve entire communities. Much of the data used to create climate solutions is collected primarily on men and treated as representative of the entire population. 

Take public transit, for example. Traditional transit networks use hub-and-spoke patterns, meant to easily transport employees to business districts and back to their residential suburbs. While there is a substantial portion of the population who primarily use the system in this way, women are more likely to engage in “trip-changing.” This means making multiple small stops like getting groceries, dropping on children at school, and picking up dry cleaning. The system’s design forces women’s travel to become slower, more expensive, and, at times, more dangerous, due to many bus and train stops’ distance from women’s intended destinations.

Representation Matters

Designing equitable, effective green infrastructure, and creating a world less reliant on fossil fuels and plastics requires an intentional effort. This means using climate data that shows how issues like energy access and public transport can impact women differently. It also means ensuring that climate disaster response plans and funding meet the distinct needs of women, from protections against gender-based violence to specialized healthcare for pregnant and nursing mothers.

When provided the opportunity, women and girls act as agents of change in their roles as business and political leaders, consumers, and members of our shared environment. There is immense value in looking back and seeing how past actions have created a world that has made women more vulnerable to global warming, but recognizing their critical role in the fight for a more sustainable future creates a better world for us all.

For Women’s Equality Day, we will continue our role mobilizing the environmental movement, and hope you join us in fighting for our future.

Learn more about Chemicals, Fertility, and Our Future by watching our 22 Minutes With Dr. Shanna Swan.

The post Women’s Equality Day: Counting Women In Climate Solutions appeared first on Earth Day.

People around the world used these events to exercise their power to advocate for, protect, clean, and improve our planet. Here in the United States, the birthplace of Earth Day, the story was no different.

EARTHDAY.ORG’s programs team worked closely with local organizations to build Earth Day coalitions in 13 cities across the U.S. We worked with grassroots partners in California, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Utah. 

Florida

In Orlando, Florida, The Mustard Seed of Central Florida hosted a successful event deconstructing mattresses to recycle their components. 

“Our Mattress Warrior Day protects our environment by deconstructing mattresses for the recyclable materials; therefore, diverting products from the landfill”, said Executive Director, Kathy Baldwin.

Michigan

The Manistique Community Treehouse Center in Detroit, Michigan hosted a community garden reset day. “The theme ‘Our Power, Our Planet’, means recognizing that real change starts at the community level. Our power is in our ability to come together, to transform vacant land into spaces of growth, and to invest in the health of both our environment and our people.” Said Tammy Black, Founder and CEO of the Manistique Community Treehouse Center.

New York

In Troy, New York, Capital Roots hosted a community tree planting. “These trees will help reduce heat, manage stormwater, and strengthen the health of our community,” said Amy Klein, CEO of Capital Roots. “This year’s theme, ‘Our Power, Our Planet,’ reminds us that real change starts with local action. When we come together to plant, learn, and invest in our shared future, even one tree can make a lasting impact.”

North Carolina

Trees for the Triangle, based out of Durham, North Carolina, hosted three events across the NC Triangle region throughout Earth Month. “On Earth Day, we’re bringing together local changemakers, business partners, and homegrown volunteers to help us establish Trees for the Triangle’s nursery location in Raleigh, where we will be growing our future impact, both literally and organizationally,” said Jean-Luc Duvall, Volunteer and Events Coordinator for Trees For the Triangle.

In Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte Mecklenburg Storm Water Services organized a creek cleanup and sewer grate tagging event. Volunteers at the event could join a stream cleanup or mark storm drains using Quick Captures to track locations. Regardless of the activity they chose, their work supported water quality and wildlife habitats in their community.

Ohio

In Medina, Ohio, Medina County Indivisible hosted a community Earth Day fair using the theme of “Our Power, Our Planet.” Attendees heard from a retired NPS Ranger, a poet, the American Chestnut Foundation, and High School and Middle School kids sharing their perspectives on the environment.“Our goal is coming together in community to remember the importance of taking even small steps to connect with our environment and protect it,” said organizer, Mosie Welch.

Pennsylvania

In West Chester, Pennsylvania, the West Chester Green Team hosted a range of events, including an Earth Day march. They also hosted a wellness fair, jazz performance, and community dinner. All of these events united voices around environmental action, plastics awareness, and collective power for the planet.

Texas

Volunteer Houston, in Houston, Texas helped local volunteer organizations adopt the theme and promote their events during Earth Month. “When volunteers come together to care for the places they call home, they strengthen neighborhoods, protect our planet, and demonstrate the collective power we have to create a healthier, more resilient Houston for generations to come,” said Gayla Wilson, Community Engagement Officer for Interfaith Ministries- Houston.

In Elgin, Texas, the African American Youth Harvest Foundation hosted a community garden workday at Casa De Miel. Their work brought young people together to support one of their local partners.

Utah

In Salt Lake City, Utah, local student activist Grace Christiansen organized an “Our Power, Our Planet” themed rally. The Earth Action Rally was the second hosted by Christiansen and featured EARTHDAY.ORG Volunteer Coordinator, Lee Franklin as a speaker. You can watch a short video about the rally on our instagram page.

Conclusion

These local groups across the U.S. united people in their own community, their states, and the whole nation, to uplift the theme of “Our Power, Our Planet.” They used Earth Day to activate thousands of people and build a foundation for future action in their own back yards. That is what Earth Day is all about.

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Do you crave early afternoon hikes on a dirt path that curves through a thick, green forest with thousands of trees to entertain you for miles? 

Or do you find the “great” outdoors to be not so much that?

If that’s the case, it’s ok! Not everyone feels a connection to nature. But if you’ll indulge us for a moment, we’d like to tell you why spending even a little bit of time in nature can be good and how you can make it feel more, well, natural. Read on to learn how being in the natural world can improve your physical, emotional, and intellectual health.

Is Nature “Natural” to Everyone?

In 1984, a biologist named Edward O. Wilson built upon the work of psychoanalyst Eric Fromm and proposed the biophilia hypothesis.

In other words, everyone should feel a desire to be around varying forms of living nature such as plants and wildlife. But his hypothesis may be incorrect; researchers still dispute its validity. In particular, many researchers disagree with its claim that mankind’s attraction to nature is a universal trait.

Instead, researchers suggest that humans’ attraction to nature presents itself in the human population on a bell-curve distribution, meaning most people fall somewhere in the middle with a moderate appeal to nature, while a few carry an extreme love or hate for it. 

Your childhood experiences also influence the strength of your connection to nature. As a child, the conversations and activities relating to nature sparked or suppressed by your parents or guardians have the greatest influence on your relationship with nature. Other important figures in your life such as friends and teachers can also impact your connection, but those you live with have the strongest effect.

Additionally, contact with nature as a child matters, too. Contact with nature refers to visiting natural spaces like the wilderness or a park and interacting with nature like gardening. This factor influences your connection to nature significantly more than your childhood living environment, which includes elements like the amount of vegetation around your home or light visible outside at night.

More specifically, interactive contact with nature leads to a deeper connection than simply visiting natural spaces. Observing events in nature and nurturing plants are the two most influential childhood nature activities, highlighting the importance of meaning and emotion.

Nature Nurtures Us

Even if you fall on the part of the bell curve that does not enjoy nature or your childhood experiences did not foster an affinity for nature, it is still in your self-interest to care about it as an adult.

Physical Benefits

Nature has physical benefits. Forest bathing — an English term for the traditional Japanese practice of “shinrin-yoku” — is when you enjoy a forest through your senses: the smell of wildflowers, the sight of sunlight filtering through the tree canopy, the sound of the wind rustling branches, the tickle of a leaf brushing against your arm as it cascades down from above. Scientific studies have explored how this activity enhances your physical health by lowering your blood pressure. 

And even something as simple as breathing in the forest air can strengthen your immune system. Plants and trees release an airborne chemical called phytoncides to increase their protection from disease. When humans inhale phytoncides, they trigger an increase in the production of a type of white blood cell that works to rid the body of cells that have been damaged by viruses or tumors. 

Intellectual Benefits

Nature provides intellectual benefits, too. Two similar studies found that walking in different environments can impact your brain’s attention and memory capabilities. Students that walked in a nature-filled botanical garden experienced improved attention scores after their walk, while those that walked in an urban, pavement-filled area saw less improvement.

According to the attention restoration theory, our fast-paced and digital society requires a lot of energy and therefore drains our brain. Nature also captivates our attention, but it does so in a less demanding way than modern life. As a result, spending time in nature allows the brain to rest and reset to its full potential.

Emotional Benefits

Finally, nature is full of emotional benefits. Forest bathing can improve your mental health by reducing and preventing painful emotions such as psychological stress, anxiety, and depression. Forest bathing can lower cortisol levels, a hormone in the human body that increases when you are stressed. Additionally, a study found that forest bathing increased serotonin levels in middle-aged men, and low levels of this neurotransmitter are linked to depression and anxiety.

And spending time outside in nature can boost your mood. Whether you choose to go for a peaceful wooded hike in a forest or meander through a scenic park, spending time in nature can make you feel more positive and happy. It can also improve your sense of self-worth, such as enhancing your body image. 

Nature is full of unique creations, and observing them can instill a feeling of being a part of something bigger than just you. By doing so, you allow nature to turn on a calming nervous system response and unravel the tension brought on from our busy, technology-filled world.

Settle For Making Nature Feel Normal

Nature may never feel completely “natural” to you, but that doesn’t mean you should avoid it and forgo nature’s gifts to your health! Over time, you can make spending time in nature feel normal by incorporating nature-related activities into your daily life.

EARTHDAY.ORG can help you do this. We’ve compiled 50 ways you can engage with nature routinely. The list includes actions that directly immerse you in nature like forest bathing and ones that indirectly immerse you in nature like educating yourself and others on how to help nature flourish. 

You can also normalize nature in your life by signing up for our email list so that articles like this are sent straight to your inbox. And you can explore our social media at X, Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube to stay up to date on environmental news and information. Want to make a bigger impact? Donate to EARTHDAY.ORG and help fund our work year-round.

Taking these first steps will place you on a path towards incorporating nature into your daily life and becoming a healthier, more attentive, and happier person.

This article is available for republishing on your website, newsletter, magazine, newspaper, or blog. The accompanying imagery is cleared for use with attribution. Please ensure that the author’s name and their affiliation with EARTHDAY.ORG are credited. Kindly inform us if you republish so we can acknowledge, tag, or repost your content. You may notify us via email at woods@earthday.org. Want more articles? Follow us on substack.

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What happens to an old pair of sneakers once they wear out? Or the coffee grounds left in your cup? Most of us toss these items without giving them a second thought but many everyday materials have value after their original purpose has ended.

June 24th marks National Upcycling Day, a reminder that waste is not always the end of the story. Around the world, people are finding new ways to reuse and repurpose items that might otherwise end up in landfills.

Upcycling is one way to rethink waste. By finding creative and practical uses for existing materials, this can lessen the demand for new raw materials while keeping the planet clean. While not every second-life solution falls under the definition of upcycling, they all share a common goal: extending the life of materials that could be discarded.

This National Upcycling Day, here are six surprising everyday items getting a second life:

After the Last Sip 

For many people, coffee is part of a daily routine and what happens to the grounds after the coffee is gone is easy to overlook. Globally, around 6 million tons of used coffee grounds are generated each year, and much of that waste ends up in landfills where it releases methane through decomposition. 

Researchers and companies have found that coffee grounds can remain useful even after brewing is finished. Spent coffee grounds can be processed into biodegradable food packaging used to wrap produce and protect food during shipping. As concerns about plastic waste continue to grow, coffee grounds are becoming a promising alternative for more sustainable packaging solutions.

What most people see as waste could help replace some of the single-use packaging materials that we rely on every day. 

Beyond the Finish Line 

Most athletic shoes are built to last through years of running, walking, and everyday use, but the challenge comes when they finally wear out. Sneakers are made from a mix of rubber, foam, and different synthetic materials which are difficult to recycle through traditional systems.

The average pair of sneakers may seem no longer useful once the sole wears down, but the fabrics inside can still be repurposed. Instead of ending up in a landfill, some worn-out sneakers are being transformed into playground surfaces, running tracks, and sports courts.

Recycled shoe materials have been incorporated into recreational surfaces worldwide, demonstrating how products designed for one purpose can also be repurposed for another. In the process, old sneakers are helping create spaces where future generations can play.  

Shells That Sustain 

Most people don’t think twice about oyster shells after a meal. Yet in coastal communities located in Maryland and Virginia those shells are becoming an important resource for ecosystem restoration.

In these areas what typically looks like food waste is actually one of nature’s best building materials. Oyster reefs once covered large portions of the Atlantic coast, but populations in the Chesapeake Bay have declined to roughly 1% of their historic levels. Without enough living oysters to naturally rebuild reefs, recycled oyster shells provide a critical hard surface for young oysters to attach and grow, making them one of the most effective resources for reef restoration. 

The benefits of this extend beyond just the oysters themselves. Healthy reefs can improve water quality, reduce erosion, and create a habitat for marine species such as fish and crabs. An analysis of 245 restoration projects from 1960-2020 found that restored reefs increased oyster production more than twentyfold while also improving ecosystem health. 

For coastal communities facing environmental pressures, something as simple as a discarded shell can help rebuild a habitat.

Sea to Shore 

Fishing gear that is left behind is one of the most persistent forms of marine pollution. An estimated 640,000 tons of fishing nets are lost or abandoned in the world’s oceans every year where they can continue to harm wildlife after they are no longer in use. 

Fishing nets are made from synthetic polymers like nylon, woven into dense grids designed to endure waves and abrasive sand without snapping. This toughness means the plastic doesn’t easily degrade over time. When recycled and recovered those same fibers can be transformed into long lasting products. 

Companies are increasingly recovering abandoned fishing gear and transforming it into products such as sunglasses frames and other consumer goods. By keeping these materials out of the ocean, these efforts can help reduce harmful marine debris while giving used fishing nets a second life.

What was once a threat to marine ecosystems is now being repurposed into everyday items. 

Spun from Citrus 

Orange juice may seem like an unlikely starting point for clothing but researchers have spent years exploring that exact possibility. 

Nearly half of every orange including the peel, pulp, and seeds remain after consumption and processing. In Italy alone, citrus production generates around 700,000 tons of waste each year. 

Textile innovators have developed ways to extract cellulose from orange peels and convert it into fibers that can be used in the manufacturing of clothing and textiles. What started as an experiment in a lab is now showing up in real fashion collections. 

As the fashion industry looks for alternative materials, agricultural byproducts such as orange peels are demonstrating how waste can become a new resource. 

From Wardrobe to Walls 

Americans discarded an average of over 17 million tons of clothing and textiles in 2018, while globally the fashion industry generates an estimated 92 million tons of textile waste annually, much of which ends up in landfills.

Because denim is primarily made from cotton it can be recycled into new products rather than being disposed of immediately. Programs collect worn-out jeans and denim scraps, which are then shredded and transformed into denim insulation, a natural building material that can be used in homes and in community building projects. 

Recycling denim into insulation means less cotton ending up in a landfill and energy going into producing new materials. Old denim can help improve energy efficiency in homes across the country. 

EARTHDAY.ORG is the driving force behind the Earth Day movement year-round. You can have articles like this emailed to your inbox by signing up for our email list. Make sure to also check out our social media at X, Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube for environmental news and information straight from the Earth Day source.

Looking for more individual actions you can take? Check out our 50 Easy Ways to Help the Planet Every Day.

This article is available for republishing on your website, newsletter, magazine, newspaper, or blog. The accompanying imagery is cleared for use with attribution. Please ensure that the author’s name and their affiliation with EARTHDAY.ORG are credited. Kindly inform us if you republish so we can acknowledge, tag, or repost your content. You may notify us via email at woods@earthday.org. Want more articles? Follow us on substack.

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A strong El Niño could make growing food harder in many parts of the world this year. This natural climate pattern brings warmer surface waters to the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, which in turn releases more heat into the atmosphere and shifts rainfall, wind, and storm patterns. El Niño can worsen heat and drought in some places and raise the risk of severe flooding in others. These changes could add more pressure to a global food system already strained by climate change, conflict, fuel costs, and fertilizer shortages.

This year’s El Niño could arrive at a difficult time. The World Meteorological Organization is predicting an 80% chance of an El Niño event beginning before August, rising to 90% by November. Forecasts also suggest that this El Niño could be moderate to strong, adding to what is already likely to be a year of record heat following the 11 warmest years on record. This extra heat can dry soils faster, increase water stress, and make droughts more damaging for crops and livestock.

The global food system, in particular, is also facing political and economic pressure. The ongoing U.S.–Iran conflict has raised concerns about the availability and price of fuel, fertilizer, shipping, and food. 

When fuel and fertilizer become more expensive or harder to get, farmers may face difficult choices. Some farmers may grow crops on less land to save money. Others may cut back on fertilizer, even if it lowers crop yields. Farmers may also have a harder time storing, moving, or selling their products.

When El Niño Reaches the Dinner Table 

El Niño changes where rain falls. Wetter conditions often affect parts of the southern United States, southern South America, East Africa, and Central Asia. At the same time, hotter and drier weather can affect Central America, northern South America, the Caribbean, Australia, and parts of South and Southeast Asia.

These changes can seriously impact agriculture. Persistent drought leads to reduced crop yields, delayed planting, shrinking pasturelands, and limited irrigation water. The intense heat stress linked to El Niño may also damage crops during key growth stages and lower milk, meat, and egg production from livestock.

Rain-fed farms are especially at risk. They rely on seasonal rainfall rather than irrigation, so shifts in timing or intensity can quickly leave crops without enough water. When rains weaken, arrive too late, or stop too soon, farmers can lose part or all of their harvest.

More rain can create problems, too. Heavy rainfall does not always mean farms have more usable water, especially when rain falls in short, intense bursts. Much of it can run off the land rather than soak into the soil, and flooding often washes away fertile soil, damages crops, and even overwhelms drainage and irrigation systems.

El Niño can also push food prices higher. When harvests fail in a major farming region, the shock may move through global markets and raise prices in other countries. A 2023 European Central Bank analysis estimated that a strong El Niño could increase global food commodity prices by up to 9%. Soybeans, corn, and rice, which are used across the food system in animal feed, cooking oil, and processed food, are at the greatest risk for cost increases. 

This risk could worsen in 2026 due to the conflict in the Middle East. In the two months after the war began, the World Bank reported that global food prices rose 5%, while grain prices rose 3%. These rising costs can make basic foods even more expensive, especially for households that already spend a large share of their income on food.

For low-income families, even small increases in food prices can be serious. Higher costs may force some households to buy less nutritious food. The impacts can continue even after El Niño ends. Damaged roads, irrigation systems, and storage facilities can affect future planting seasons. Farmers who lose income during one season may have fewer resources to buy seeds, fertilizer, labor, or equipment for the next season.

Making Food Systems More Resilient

A strong El Niño could place new pressure on a food system that is already under stress, reducing harvests, raising food prices, damaging infrastructure, and deepening hunger in vulnerable communities. This potential crisis makes the shift to sustainable and resilient food production even more urgent.

Regenerative agriculture can help farmers build resilience to El Niño by managing food production to restore soil health, support biodiversity, and strengthen ecosystems. One approach is reduced or zero tillage, which limits soil disturbance and helps the ground keep its structure, organic matter, and moisture. Farmers may also use cover crops to protect bare soil from erosion, heat, and water loss between growing seasons. Meanwhile, employing crop rotation helps maintain soil nutrients by rotating what is planted in a field over time, rather than growing the same crop repeatedly. Agroforestry can also be employed to grow trees alongside crops or pasture, where they provide shade, help retain water, and support biodiversity.  

Together, these regenerative practices can help farms better withstand shifting weather patterns, drought, and heavy rain. During dry periods, healthier soil can hold more moisture. Meanwhile, during heavy rainfall, the same soil can absorb more water, reducing erosion. Farmers planting a diverse variety of crops may also lower the risk of total loss when one crop fails.

Regenerative agriculture can also reduce farmers’ dependence on expensive synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. With fewer products to buy, farms become less exposed to rising prices or unstable supply chains.

Farmers cannot adopt regenerative practices alone. They need funding, training, secure land rights, and access to markers to make these changes possible and lasting. Resources such as early warning systems, digital tools, and farmer support programs can also help them prepare for future El Niño events.

The Path Forward

El Niño is a recurring climate pattern, but food crises do not have to be recurring outcomes.

As the next El Niño approaches, the need for more sustainable food production is becoming more urgent. Building healthier soils, mitigating climate change, supporting farmers, and investing in resilient food systems can help communities prepare for the next major shock.

To learn more about how regenerative agriculture can help build more resilient food systems, explore EARTHDAY.ORG’s Regenerative Agriculture campaign.

This article is available for republishing on your website, newsletter, magazine, newspaper, or blog. The accompanying imagery is cleared for use with attribution. Please ensure that the author’s name and their affiliation with EARTHDAY.ORG are credited. Kindly inform us if you republish so we can acknowledge, tag, or repost your content. You may notify us via email at woods@earthday.org. Want more articles? Follow us on substack.

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When opening your phone to check the news or scroll on your favorite social media platform, the doomscrolling spiral is excitedly awaiting its opportunity to burst on the scene. Five minutes of scrolling time turns into 20 and before you know it you’re still in bed and it’s been an hour. The ability to have millions of articles, opinions and apps at our fingertips has taken over our world in a powerful way. 

While these moments are frequently experienced, they can be avoided. Staying informed on what’s happening in our world doesn’t mean falling down the seemingly endless pit of bad news. In fact, breaking the cycle of constant scrolling can provide nourishment to your prefrontal cortex, which has been taken over by the fear processing amygdala, and chemically allow your brain to reset.  

Doomscrolling – a term that came to light in 2020 amidst the COVID pandemic – refers to constant reading of specifically negative news from an online platform. While your mind may jump to solely news outlets as providers of doomscrolling, the group is bigger than that. More recently, apps like Instagram and TikTok have become a source of news for many, especially young people, as well.

Our brains are wired to focus on danger, heavily increasing the stress that we experience on any given internet scroll. After an extended period of time reading articles, this stress can and often does follow us into our lived reality. While this is natural, it doesn’t have to be as constant as it is and escaping into nature is the perfect remedy. 

So the next time you read a bit of news, pair it with putting the phone down and reconnecting with nature and yourself (accessibility to rugged forests or wide beaches not required). Here are some ways to escape the potential of doomscrolling.

Plant Your Newest Passion: A Windowsill Garden Awaits

Getting your hands dirty is one of the most gratifying and easiest ways to connect with nature that can be accomplished from the comfort of your own home. No gardening experience, fancy tools or vast backyard needed to accomplish this goal. A windowsill garden is a phenomenal way to reset your mind and replenish your pantry. Empty jam, pasta sauce or fruit glass jars you haven’t gotten around to cleaning or disposing of? Coincidentally the remedy for both doomscrolling and your jars is one and the same. 

Head down to your local nursery, hardware store or even online and procure: pebbles/decorative rocks, potting mix and starter herbs of your choice. You’re ready to begin. Following online instructions to bring a mini herb garden to life has just created your newest hobby to ring in the spring. 

By physically being away from your phone, doomscrolling will be kept to a minimum here while also reminding you of your power to create something beautiful that helps the ecosystem that lives in your neighborhood (while saving you some money on your next herb or produce purchases). You’re not just helping the neighborhood ecosystem, you’re also helping your internal ecosystem. Gardening – windowsill or other – has shown to reduce stress, increase focus and regain serotonin by being exposed to a natural mood booster, mycobacterium, that lives in soils. 

Books and Libraries are a Brilliant Alternative

If your green thumb is still dormant and 2026 is not your year for it to blossom, not to worry – your doomscrolling can still be solved. In the era of digital media that we live in, it has become habit to do practically everything online, including reading. In doing this, it’s easy to find yourself in the news app when you mean to open your online book app. 

A simple solution to this problem is to hit the books, the physical ones! Research has shown there are several physical and psychological benefits of reading paper books. These range from making the tales come to life in the reader’s head when physically flipping the page to increasing the amount of empathy in one’s heart by reading different experiences. This mental creativity and empathy can reach far beyond what one thinks their mind is capable of and gets us thinking about more than just the information we are fed.

After seeing how affordable and quick it is to access a book online, it could be easy to be dissuaded into producing a physical book. Enter, libraries. Public libraries, of which there are 410,000 internationally, are a blueprint of being an eco-friendly citizen by offering reusable pieces of learning to gain more knowledge and perspective of the world. They share books within the library networks while sharing books in the community, creating a web of learners. They also create an environment of change through workshops and talks that welcome all backgrounds and perspectives. So, consider stopping by your local library (it’s free!), check out a book or check out the vibe in general. You’re bound to learn something.

Take a Hike with a Twist: Absorb the Sounds Around

Often, a hike or walk around the neighborhood is something that is accompanied by a phone, either to track steps or take photos. However, taking a walk without the phone not only removes distractions and the potential for wandering into doomscrolling territory but it also lets you listen to the world around you. 

A walk with minimal disturbance from the outside world provides an opportunity to appreciate nature once again. Listening to the coo of a bird, the croak of a frog, a trill of an insect or the rustling of leaves reminds us of the beauty of the natural world and can reignite the desire to save and nurture the natural world around us. These phoneless, sound conscious walks can also highlight the importance of taking a step back and slowing down. 

Studies have proven that getting outside to take a daily walk, for example, can regulate sleep cycles and improve the quality of at night, as well as reducing risk of depression and anxiety. An excellent mode of combating doomscrolling then can be a 20 minute walk. After reading an anxiety-inducing article, instead of finding the next terrifying thing to look at, take a reset walk outside to lower stress levels and ground yourself. 

Documentaries Over Doomscrolling

Okay, you’ve tried the other methods and they just aren’t calling you like the screens are. An understandable pull. Instead of the phone screen time however, an opportunity to learn and grow awaits in the form of documentaries. 

Countless stories happen everyday from all corners of the world that are never covered. Though documentaries have the power to capture these untold stories and reveal more along the way.

The genre of documentaries hosts a wide range of topics, all of which are waiting to teach you something and get your brain thinking about the world in a new way. Nature documentaries have especially jumped on the scene, with emphases on the natural world, the built environment and/or the animals that reside within them both. The online information can and should still be absorbed, but in documentary form you’ll be uncovering things you may not even think to look up. 

The End of Doomscrolling Doesn’t Mean Staying Uninformed

Even while understanding the impacts of doomscrolling and introducing some ideas to stop it before it starts, an underlying truth still remains: news of all sorts is important and needs to be read.  However, it doesn’t have to be all-consuming or addictive. 
Putting your phone down to take a break and reconnect with the communities around you is directly keeping you informed and fostering growth.

Pillar two of EARTHDAY.ORG’s 2026 Earth Day theme emphasizes the importance of shared interests and interconnected outcomes. This year holds plenty of opportunity to connect your community through shared environmental goals and interests. Host an event in your area and register it through the EARTHDAY map, or join one in a city near you!

This article is available for republishing on your website, newsletter, magazine, newspaper, or blog. The accompanying imagery is cleared for use with attribution. Please ensure that the author’s name and their affiliation with EARTHDAY.ORG are credited. Kindly inform us if you republish so we can acknowledge, tag, or repost your content. You may notify us via email at woods@earthday.org. Want more articles? Follow us on substack.

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Somewhere between your 9 a.m. lecture and your 11 a.m. seminar, the world is asking something of you. Not everything; not a solar panel, not a manifesto, not a personality overhaul, but just ten minutes. A small choice and the quiet understanding that you’re not too young, too broke, or too busy to matter. Here are ten ways to prove it.

Move: Walk The Block Instead of Summoning A Car

It’s 10:47 a.m., your next class is six blocks away, and your thumb is hovering over that rideshare app. The pull is real — faster, easier, predictable. But what that moment obscures is how carbon-intensive short car trips actually are. Cold-start engines haven’t warmed up yet, which means higher emissions from the jump, and stop-and-go campus traffic makes it worse from there.

The numbers aren’t subtle: according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, transportation is the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, accounting for 28% of the total — and the majority comes from exactly the kind of light-duty passenger vehicles used for short, routine trips. Every skipped ride is a small but real subtraction from that number. 

Walking those six blocks takes maybe eight minutes. It costs nothing, emits nothing, and reduces stress. Done consistently, across thousands of students on thousands of campuses, it stops feeling like a walk and starts looking like a movement.

Leave five minutes earlier. Take the long way. Notice what you pass.

2-10-minute walk, zero emissions.

Eat: Swap One Meat Dish for Something Plant-Forward

You’re standing at the dining hall line at noon, tray in hand, two options in front of you. Here is the climate math, straight from the source: Our World In Data, drawing on the largest meta-analysis of global food systems ever published, found that producing 100 grams of protein from peas emits just 0.4 of a CO2 equivalent — compared to roughly 35 kg for the same amount of beef. That’s nearly 90 times the footprint.

And it’s not just the plate. The FAO estimates that livestock supply chains account for about 14.5% of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions globally, with cattle responsible for roughly two-thirds of that total. The food system is one of the biggest levers we have — and unlike power grids or transit infrastructure, it’s one you personally interact with multiple times a day.

Nobody is asking you to go vegan by Friday. The ‘all or nothing’ framing is one of the most effective ways to make people do nothing at all. So just one swap, once a day, when it’s convenient, is participation — not sacrifice. 

Get the curry. Enjoy it. Come back tomorrow and do it again. 

Same time spent, fraction of the footprint. 

Save: Bring And Use A Reusable Bottle

A single-use plastic bottle is designed for minutes of use, and can take up to 450 years to break down in the environment. Your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandchildren will still share a planet with the bottle you tossed in 2024. That is not a comfortable thought to sit with at 8 a.m., but it is a useful one – because the fix is probably hanging by your dorm room door right now, a little dusty, but still there.

Most campuses have water refill stations within a few hundred feet of any building. The infrastructure is already there. The gap isn’t access — it’s a habit. And habits, as frustrating as it is to admit, aren’t built through willpower. They’re built through repetition until the action stops feeling like a decision at all. Bottle by the door. Fill before you leave. Repeat until it’s invisible.

There’s also a compounding effect here that’s easy to underestimate. People who carry reusable bottles tend to become more attuned to their daily waste streams — the cups, the bags, the packaging.

It’s a small thing that has a way of making you want to do more small things. Start here.

10 seconds, every day. 

Speak: Email A Representative Or Sign A Petition — Right Now, Between Classes.

Here is something that gets underplayed in nearly every “individual action” climate conversation: personal behavior, as meaningful as it is, does not hold a candle to policy. The ten most impactful climate decisions being made right now are happening in committee rooms and regulatory agencies — not dining halls. And the people in those rooms respond to one thing more reliably than almost anything else: constituent pressure from actual voters. That’s where EARTHDAY.ORG’s Earth Action Day campaign comes in — it’s a direct pipeline from your ten spare minutes to the inboxes of the people who write the laws, with pre-written letters to Congress on renewable energy, climate protection, and reducing plastic production, ready to send in under two minutes.

You have ten minutes. Pull up earthday.org, find the petition or letter that fits the issue you care about, and add your name. This is not naive — it is exactly how legislative attention gets moved. The Yale Program on Climate Change Communication found that 61% of Americans underestimate how many of their peers share their climate concern — and congressional staffers are even more out of step, dramatically underestimating constituent support for climate action. Contacting them directly is how you correct that record.

Climate legislation is actively being debated right now, in ways that will shape the next several decades.

You are a constituent. You are allowed to have opinions about your own future. Use the gap between Econ and Lit to say so in writing, to someone who is paid to listen.

3-5 minutes, measurable political signal

Save: Unplug What You’re Not Using

Your phone charger is plugged in right now. Your phone probably isn’t attached to it. It’s still drawing power — quietly, continuously, invisible. So is your laptop brick, your power strip, your old desk lamp with the slightly frayed cord. This is called phantom load, or standby power, and it is not trivial: the U.S. Department of Energy estimates that it accounts for 5 to 10% of residential electricity use nationwide.

Before you leave your room in the morning, pull the plugs. It takes five seconds. The electricity that doesn’t get generated doesn’t require the fossil fuels that would have been burned to produce it. The chain of causation is short and direct. And a DOE-managed research project at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has been tracking this for over 20 years — the problem hasn’t shrunk, because while individual devices got more efficient, the number of plugged-in devices per household has grown faster.

There’s something almost meditative about this one — leaving a space truly off, truly at rest, before you walk into your day.

Pull the plugs. Close the door. Go learn something. 

5 seconds, surprising cumulative impact.

Eat: Eat What’s Already In Your Fridge Before It Becomes Trash

There is a container of leftover rice in your fridge. There are two slightly soft tomatoes in the crisper drawer. There is a half can of chickpeas you optimistically opened on Tuesday. There is also an app on your phone with a dozen restaurants ready to deliver something new. Here is why the rice matters: according to UNEP, food that is wasted is responsible for 8-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions — and that figure includes not just the food itself decomposing in a landfill, but all the water, land, and energy used to grow, process, and transport it.

That’s nearly five times the total emissions from the entire aviation sector, by the way. The UNFCCC calls it one of the most cost-effective and readily achievable climate solutions available. And unlike power grid decarbonization or transportation infrastructure, it’s something you can act on right now, with the contents of your current refrigerator.

This one has the rare quality of being simultaneously an environmental win and a financial one.

Open the fridge. Make a slightly chaotic meal. Be proud of it. The planet won’t send you a thank-you note, but it will notice.

Saves money, cuts methane.

Speak: Talk About Climate Change Like It’s A Normal Part Of Conversation — Because It Is

Most people think they’re alone in their climate concerns. They’re not — but the silence makes it feel that way. The Yale Program on Climate Change Communication found that 61% of Americans underestimate how many of their fellow citizens are worried about global warming, while only 8% correctly estimate the actual level of shared concern. This “perception gap” has real behavioral consequences: people who think no one else cares are less likely to act, advocate, or talk about it themselves.

You don’t need a PowerPoint or a policy brief, just mention it when it comes up naturally — and it comes up naturally more than you’d think, because climate touches weather, food, travel, money, health, and the news. Mentioning that you walked to skip a car trip, or that you’ve been thinking about food waste, is enough. It signals that caring is normal. That signal, repeated, is contagious in the best way possible.

This is among the highest-leverage actions on this list because it doesn’t just change what you do — it changes what the people around you feel they’re allowed to do.

Say the thing. Start the conversation. Be the person in the room who made it okay to care out loud.

Anytime — the ripples go outward.

Move: Take The Stairs. Air-Dry Your Laundry. Do The Small Thing.

Two habits so minor they barely feel worth mentioning — and that’s exactly why they matter. Elevators use electricity; stairs don’t. Clothes dryers are among the highest energy-consuming appliances in any home, running heating coils for 45-60 minutes per load. A drying rack costs about twelve dollars and runs on the ambient air in your room. The International Energy Agency identifies everyday behavioral changes as a key component of reaching net zero emissions by 2050 — not as a footnote, but as a structural part of the scenario.

Here’s the thing about autopilot: it’s not fixed. It’s built from repeated choices that eventually stop feeling like choices at all. Right now, stepping into the elevator feels automatic. In a few months of taking the stairs, the elevator starts to feel like an effort. The habits that save the most energy over a lifetime are the invisible ones — not grand gestures done once, but small things done daily without noticing.

Climate action often gets framed as deprivation — doing less, having less, enjoying less. But taking three flights of stairs isn’t a punishment. It’s three floors of not waiting for a metal box. The drying rack isn’t a sacrifice. It’s laundry that smells better and costs less.

Do the small thing.

Zero extra minutes, compounding returns.

Speak: Show Up To A Campus Climate Group – Even Just Once

Student organizing has a track record that deserves considerably more credit than it gets. What started as a handful of campaigns at Swarthmore, UNC Chapel Hill, and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2011 grew with support from 350.org and student networks into a global divestment movement that has now moved trillions of dollars away from fossil fuel investments. Over 140 U.S. universities have made divestment commitments. This did not happen because students posted about it. It happened because they showed up in rooms repeatedly.

You don’t have to become an organizer. You don’t have to go every week. But showing up once — to a tabling event, a meeting, a cleanup — puts you in a room with people already doing the work, which makes the work feel less lonely and more possible. It also signals to whoever is counting attendance that students care. That signal matters to administrators, to faculty, to trustees who are watching participation numbers.

There’s also a less tactical reason: community. The climate crisis is heavy to carry alone. Being in a room with people who share your urgency — and are doing something about it — is one of the most effective antidotes to climate despair.

Go once. The door will stay open.

One hour — an open door.

Save: Bring Your Own Bag. Bring Your Own Mug. Build The Infrastructure Of A Lower-Impact Life.

A reusable coffee mug used every weekday for a single semester saves well over a hundred disposable cups — cups that, as the EPA notes, are generally not recyclable in most municipal systems because of their plastic lining. A cotton tote used consistently becomes an environmental net positive within months. The math on reusables is not complicated: the upfront footprint of making them gets paid back quickly, and after that, they just keep paying forward.

But the underrated part is what these objects actually do for you behaviorally. They make the low-impact choice the default. When your tote is already on your shoulder, you don’t have to decide whether to take a plastic bag — the decision is already made. When your mug is in your backpack, you don’t have to think about it — you just hand it over. The secret to sustainable habits isn’t willpower. It’s set up. Design your environment so the right choice requires no effort.

Put the bag by the door. Keep the mug in your backpack. These are not grand gestures. They are the quiet, cumulative architecture of a life that takes the planet seriously — without making that seriousness the loudest thing about you. 

The planet doesn’t need your guilt. It needs your habits. Build good ones. Start with the bag.

Habit over willpower, every time. 

The climate crisis is real. It is urgent. And it will not be solved by any one person making any one perfect choice.

But it will be shaped by repeated decisions — small, practical, and built into the texture of everyday life. The kind that doesn’t require more time, just a different default. The kind that, multiplied across millions of students on millions of campuses, starts to look less like individual habits and more like a generation deciding who it wants to be.

You already have the time. You already have the gap between classes. Go use it.

This article is available for republishing on your website, newsletter, magazine, newspaper, or blog. The accompanying imagery is cleared for use with attribution. Please ensure that the author’s name and their affiliation with EARTHDAY.ORG are credited. Kindly inform us if you republish so we can acknowledge, tag, or repost your content. You may notify us via email at woods@earthday.org. Want more articles? Follow us on substack.

The post The 10-Minute Climate Fix: What You Can Do Between Classes appeared first on Earth Day.

To mark Earth Day 2026, we spoke with Marcele Oliveira, a youth climate leader from Brazil whose work centers on climate education, community organizing, and amplifying Global South voices in international spaces.

Marcele Oliveira is a youth climate leader and cultural producer from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She served inside the COP Presidency and works at the intersection of community organizing, climate justice, and Global South advocacy.

Interview facilitated by EARTHDAY.ORG South America with special thanks to Rodolfo Ropo Beltran, Regional Director, EARTHDAY.ORG South America.

Q: Tell us a bit about yourself. What first shaped your path into climate leadership?

My climate activism started in Realengo — a neighborhood in the western zone of RIo de Janeiro, a peripheral community. There, we fought for a green park, and that really changed my life. It’s now changing the lives of my family, my brothers, my nephews. I really believe public spaces and a relationship with nature can send a strong message about the life we want to live.

When we talk about nature, community, and trees, we are not talking about something separate from us. I realized that when I understood the importance of that green park in my community. And now we are seeing many different young people working inside communities, defending their territories — because of the consequences of climate change, yes, but also because they have solutions and proposals to make things change. We say in Brazil it’s mutirão — collective effort. But every time I say that, it starts in Realengo. In my home.

Q: What did the fight for that park teach you about environmental justice?

When I understood the environmental racism in my community through that fight, it was also a moment to amplify the work we were already doing with cultural practices and arts communication. We moved the conversation around the park, and now it’s become public policy — my city doesn’t just have one green park but many, connected with a broader agenda.

Looking at that, and then looking at floods and heat waves, I understood: being a climate activist is not optional. It’s not just because we want to defend nature. It’s also because we want to defend people — especially the people we love, especially people living in marginalized communities.

Climate action is a proposition of life for everybody, because we know the impacts are different if you are in a big building versus an indigenous community. The injustice is inside the conversation, and climate justice is the invitation for action.

Q: This year’s Earth Day theme is “Out Power, Our Planet.” What does that mean to you in the context of youth leadership?

For me, it’s about mutual youth energy — the energy that says: you don’t need to do the same thing I did, you don’t need to be in the same spaces. But you do need to take care of your community and the trees around you.

In my city, marginalized communities, the peripheries, don’t have trees anymore because of globalization and urbanization. But the wealthier zones have trees, public spaces, museums, cinemas. Who is making those decisions about the cities we live in? It’s our power, our planet, our cities, our lives.

Last year, we launched a youth platform to connect youth movements and action agendas. In one month, 307 submissions came in from 46 countries. That’s a major milestone — proof of the connection between grassroots action and UN climate decision-making, and a reminder of how much effort we must keep investing in that connection.

Q: What needs to change to better equip young people to take part in climate decision-making?

Three things: access, funding, and connected strategy.

Funding is essential — it’s impossible to do good work without the necessary support. And I say this from experience. I participated in a youth climate negotiations program in my city that was free. I’m not an international relations scholar; I’m a cultural producer. Without free capacity building, what we’re doing would be impossible.

We also need young people to not just be in the room, but to be heard — because just following the steps is not enough in a context of emergency. We need to be creative. We need to do things differently. We need open spaces for more people in decision-making roles.

During COP, we ran a campaign with youth organizations calling for five percent of climate finance to go to youth. The youth are driving climate solutions but are not being compensated for that. That, too, is climate injustice.

Q: What progress are you seeing in climate education across South America?

Last year we had the luck to work with all the biomes in Brazil — the Amazon, the Cerrado, the Caatinga, the Pantanal, the Pampa, and the Atlantic Forest, which is mine. The conversation about climate changed in the common understanding of people, because not everyone follows COP discussions, but everyone knew the COP was held in Belém do Pará. That was a powerful moment for climate justice discourse, and it’s brought more people into the conversation.

At COP last year, for the first time, people of African descent were nominated in decision-making roles. The first time. That is a recognition of the existence of people like me.

Climate education also means understanding our relationship with nature, with decision-making spaces, and with the understanding that global decisions have local impacts. We need an education that builds capacity to advocate and lead — and that recognizes knowledge coming not just from data or academic contexts, but from people, from ancestors, and from ways of living with the Earth that were sustainable long before now. The IPCC itself has formally acknowledged the importance of traditional knowledge for adaptation and resilience. We need to center that.

Q: How does climate change show up in the daily lives of communities in Brazil and across the Global South?

Many times, heat waves in my country seemed like a normal thing — I’m from Rio de Janeiro, it’s always hot. But now it’s hot in a different way. Going to school starts to be a challenge. Classes get canceled because of the heat. We now have protocols in Rio for medium and high heat waves. I was recently in New York in April and it was 30 degrees Celsius. That is not right.

When temperature changes that drastically, it affects food, transportation, everything. And in the Global South, this doesn’t just represent a challenge in your day — it represents people dying. It represents people having to leave their homes and sometimes not coming back. UNICEF data tells us that one in three children and young people in the world live in areas where at least four climate and environmental shocks overlap. Not one — four or more.

In Brazil, 67 percent of people living in environmental risk areas are Black. I’m talking about my father, my mother, my friends. This is not just unfair. This is an interruption of our lives.

Q: Why is it essential that leadership from the Global South shapes broader climate solutions?

Because solutions need to come from those living the problem. The Global South is home to the world’s most vital ecosystems, the majority of global biodiversity, and communities whose traditional knowledge holds real answers — not just in beautiful speeches, but in daily routines, with children and communities.

If climate solutions are designed only in the Global North and only in global institutions, they won’t be enough. The real solutions won’t be included. Important data — disaggregated by gender, race, history — won’t be considered. You cannot solve a problem without listening to the people living it.

That’s why our work, at its core, is about listening. And starting from that listening to build hope on the table.

Q: You’ve spoken about mutirão as a model for climate action. What does that look like in practice?

Mutirão is a Tupi-Guaraní word from Brazil’s indigenous tradition. You can translate it as “collective effort,” but it’s mutirão because it’s about doing together. And you only make mutirão when something is wrong.

I’ve made mutirão many times — waking up with neighbors to clean a church, or communities coming together after a flood to build something new. A lot of people around the world are making mutirão right now, because something happened: a flood, a disaster.

When communities move together, everybody moves together. When women move, when children move, when people of African descent and indigenous communities move — we’re all in this conversation. We have too many decisions being made by a small group, while the solutions may be in a place that group isn’t listening to.

When we share responsibility — not compete, but share — and connect solutions at scale, we can move communities from Belém do Pará and Addis Ababa, from Greenland and the Amazon of Colombia, all at the same time. That collective force is mutirão in real life.

Q: What gives you hope right now in the climate movement?

My friends. My friends are always the reason I have hope. We work so much — many times without pay, as volunteers — because we believe in the importance of our voices inside decision-making spaces. And sometimes we’re exhausted. Many times I am exhausted. But we talk to each other and we support each other.

I was nominated by the President of my country, President Lula, to a climate leadership role. But first, I was nominated by my friends. That means everything.

And our role, when we do have visibility, is to use it to recommend and invite — not just me, but people from the Amazon, youth from Belém do Pará, people from the peripheries, people of African descent and indigenous communities. Every time I do that and see it happen — a friend in a space, sharing their experience and feeling that they are in the right place — that gives me hope. We are on the right path.

Q: What is one action people can take this Earth Day to step into their power?

Start where you are.

I was once so overwhelmed with studying and work that I didn’t notice the trees in my own periphery disappearing. When I noticed, that was the moment I connected the big global discussion on climate change to the local fight for a green park in Realengo.

Look at your own territory — your neighborhood, your friends, your school, your community. Understand what is necessary to organize there for a better life. Try to find your people, because sometimes we feel alone, but we’re not. Connect with the children you love. Follow the road to COP 31. Join your local Conference of Youth.

And don’t compare yourself to others. There is no single right way to do this — if there were, we wouldn’t be in a crisis. Your voice, your future, your history, your community: this is climate action. This is what matters.

The movement needs all of us. So start where you are. When you start, the pathways will appear.

The post Start Where You Are: Youth Climate Leader Marcele Oliveira appeared first on Earth Day.

It didn’t make sense to me why extractive industries seemed to be prioritized over human health and the natural environment. It didn’t make sense why the billionaires and their immensely profitable companies needed tax breaks and write offs, while my friends and my neighbors seemed to struggle so much with affording the essentials of life. And it definitely didn’t make sense why we were committing atrocities in other countries in the name of American Greatness.

For years now, the climate and progressive movements have faced significant challenges in translating momentum into meaningful change. Despite large-scale marches and passionate demonstrations, tangible policy outcomes have remained elusive. And while leaders have spoken to the urgency felt by so many, there is a growing sense among supporters that words alone are no longer enough.

What could we do? What could I do? I was just a worker. Just a student. Just one person.  It was when I felt most lost that, through a series of seemingly small, random choices, I joined Ignition Front. 

Ignition Front is a national youth movement that builds up leaders to confront the injustices bred from fossil fuel extraction, and also to challenge its members to envision the better world we know is possible. We are an organization born from the success and failures of the climate movement, renewing the climate fight for our generation, eager and unyielding in our pursuit of liberation.

Through political education, science, and the history of past movements, we give our members the tools to identify our targets for collective action to combat climate change at the local and national levels.

Ignition Front recognizes that the domestic and international crisis we are confronted with cannot wait any longer for a solution. At home in Houston, we see neighborhoods riddled with devastating health problems caused by power plants and fossil fuel infrastructure in their backyards. Our politicians co-conspire with liquid natural gas corporations; money in exchange for power, in exchange for more money, driving us deeper into man-made suffering as CEOs and politicians line their pockets.

We have watched for too long as the smallest, richest group of people in America pillage, plunder, destabilize, and massacre entire populations. We see the people of Congo, enslaved on their own land for minerals to benefit the western world. We see the typhoons in the Philippines that destroy whole cities, intensifying with the development of AI. We see the ravaging of the Amazon and contamination of our earth’s life-sustaining pillars from mineral mining.

We see it all.

But we also know that we the people have the ability to disrupt this system of harm and oppression. Through the mass movement that Ignition Front is building, we know that we can leverage our power and resources as the people against these seemingly insurmountable forces. 

So we have gathered at universities and on the streets, and we have recruited those with the power and the will to fight alongside us. The movement is now budding, and chapters are present in over half a dozen cities, including New York City, Boston, Chicago, and in cities like Houston and Corpus Christi,where fossil fuel infrastructure is industrializing at a rapid rate.

However, our movement has not been without our internal struggles. What we have gained in strategic knowledge and concentrated power, we still lack in mass forces. Our organization is small and growing, but we are committed to the development of a structured movement with educated masses that operates from measurable data and goals. 

We are currently looking forward to our national Earth Day To May Day week of action- a series of teach-ins, community events and direct actions that will officially introduce Ignition Front to the world. This will be a great opportunity for chapters across the country to connect with their communities and strategize around the frontline fights going on in their regions. As the Earth Day 2026 theme—Our Power, Our Planet—offers, we do have the capacity to shape our world through our actions, ideas, and dreams.

Our movement has only just begun, but just as the movements of those who have come before us, we are strengthened by each other, and made stronger by the wisdom of past leaders. By their contributions, their struggles, their sacrifices, and their undying love for the better world they hoped we would create. Our reality today is governed by these past movements, but the reality of tomorrow is shaped by the way we choose to govern ourselves today. In this way, each new generation stands on the shoulders of the last, with certainty that their reality is the culmination of our efforts.

The post Building a Climate Movement in the Gulf South appeared first on Earth Day.

Daily news events eclipse the growing urgency of the escalating climate catastrophe. Earth Day can feel irrelevant as people are living under bombardment or just struggling to make ends meet. Yet, we can not afford to lose sight of our only home. When we center the health of our planet, the impact of war becomes impossible to ignore. So why is this not the starting point of the climate conversation? 

Across the Global south, the same logic of extraction repeats itself. Each occasion of geopolitical conflict is a defining site of the world’s upheaval, but climate never enters the frame of how we are taught to understand and interpret them. Across the world, we have witnessed as countries are destabilized in pursuit of fossil fuels. Underlying and facilitating these events are companies, driven by the desire for oil to extract from the earth, produce wealth from the labor and resources from the Global south, and destroy our environment in the process. 

It is no coincidence that the US is the world’s largest institutional carbon emitter, sustained by multinational corporations committed to the pursuit of oil and profit.  We cannot begin to have a meaningful conversation about climate justice without challenging the systems driving this crisis, whether that’s fossil fuel companies or the military. We must cultivate a vision of the world where life is dictated by land, waters, and bodies turned into profit, rather than their health and continuity. 

At the heart of the world’s largest conflicts lies climate justice. What climate justice illuminates is what many systems work to obscure: that war and environmental collapse are not isolated crises, but products of the same structures. Without this recognition, the climate movement has nothing to stand on. 

This past decade, we saw an unprecedented rise of support for climate justice, led largely by frontline youth. Foundational to this strength was how youth movements centered the importance of intersectionality, revealing the ways in which environmental crises can unify movements and experiences we often see as fragmented. It revealed that at the root of these different struggles, is the demand for a healthy and liveable planet in which we have a reciprocal and regenerative relationship with. The climate movement must bring back these teeth. 

Climate justice is a vessel for truths and questions we have avoided, to finally be reckoned with, by daring to abandon the status quo and choose life over profit and the false fantasy of security and safety it provides.  

The health and future of our planet should be guiding our politics — our everyday commitments. There is immense potential in the climate movement becoming the guiding political framework of this moment if it reclaims its capacity to challenge the systems that produced this crisis. Climate justice cannot be understood, cannot be accomplished, until we confront and defeat the fossil fuel companies and military interests that profit from the destruction of people and places. This struggle is where we learn to live beyond capitalism’s forced scarcity and survival and where life-affirming practices, cultures, and institutions begin to emerge. 

For many of us, Earth Day has been rooted by protest, because it is hard to celebrate the Earth’s beauty while the world is consumed by violence and loss. Our power, Our planet invites us to acknowledge that love for the Earth cannot end at our gaze. It must live in and through our commitments. How we see the Earth shapes how we see ourselves. When we don’t understand our land, our waters, our literal home as sacred, we will never view ourselves in the same lens. 

Let this Earth Day be a reminder of the tenderness we are capable of embodying, but are so often denied. The water that gives us life. The air that cradles us. The soil we will return to one day. Dare to be a reflection of Earth herself — vast, living, fluid, holding all elements, all possibilities, all experiences at once. We are tasked with learning from her wholeness, refusing the fragmentation imposed upon us, remembering what it means to be held by a living planet, and committing to this inherited responsibility. 

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