Perspectives: Earth Day 2021
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From the Center
U.S., other countries deepen climate goals at Earth Day summitThe United States and other countries hiked their targets for slashing greenhouse gas emissions at a global climate summit hosted by President Joe Biden, an event meant to resurrect U.S. leadership in the fight against global warming.
Biden unveiled the goal to cut emissions by 50%-52% from 2005 levels at the start of a two-day climate summit kicked off on Earth Day and attended virtually by leaders of 40 countries including big emitters China, India and Russia.
The United States, the world's second-leading emitter after China, seeks to reclaim global...
From the Left
Four steps this Earth Day to avert environmental catastropheToday is Earth Day, which should provide us with an opportunity to pause and confront the awful predicament humanity faces. We eat microplastics, breathe pollution and watch other life-forms decline to extinction. We face intersecting poverty, health, climate and biodiversity crises. Our global predicament is that consumption by the wealthy is driving us towards planetary disaster, yet billions live in poverty and need to consume more to live well. In this cycle, any version of “success” only hastens catastrophe.
Solving this conundrum requires much more than merely reducing the impact...
From the Right
On Earth Day, youth activists can change the narrativeIn 1969, Denis Hayes was 25 years old in grad school. After just one semester and a 15-minute meeting with Sen. Gaylord Nelson in Washington, D.C., Hayes traded in his academic books for a picket sign and became a central organizer of the nonprofit group Environmental Teach-In, Inc., which would found Earth Day in 1970.
After the first Earth Day, a momentous accomplishment in and of itself, Hayes and his colleagues continued their activism by campaigning against the “Dirty Dozen” of incumbent anti-environment congressmen. Ultimately defeating seven out of the...
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