A Billion Acts of Green is this year’s theme of Earth Day celebrated on April 22. Earth Day Network (EDN), the organization that grew out of the first Earth Day in 1970 started the Billion Acts of Green campaign to encourage people to celebrate beyond the day. Currently EDN has over 45 million acts pledged toward their goal of a billion by the Global Earth Summit that takes place in Rio, Brazil in 2012. Here are a few of the major contributions thus far.
Avatar Home Tree Initiative
James Cameron and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment capitalized on the movie Avatar to increase discussion of environmental issues. They also created the Avatar Home Tree Initiative that was announced to coincide with the release of Avatar on DVD. The goal was to plant over a million trees. They succeeded by planting 1,006,639 trees in 16 countries.
Ocean Conservancy
While over 70 percent of the Earth is covered in water, there’s still a tremendous need to take care of this precious resource. Ocean conservancy contributed over 10 million acts of green by removing over 10 million pieces of trash from coastlines of 108 countries. They kept track of types of trash they collected so we can better understand what pollutes our waters. Learn more at www.oceanconservancy.org.
Green Schools
The Earth Day Network has partnered with the U.S. Green Building Council and The Clinton Foundation, and aim to have all K-12 schools in America green within a generation. They annually reach over 30,000 teachers and administrators that encourage students to have a sense of responsibility for the environment. The Earth Day Network also organizes legislation to encourage schools to become greener. These include the Healthy Schools Act, No Child Left Inside and the National Civic Education Project.
How are you going to contribute to A Billion Acts of Green? Visit www.earthday.org to learn more about what Earth Day does and how you can contribute to A Billion Acts of Green.
