World Earth Day: how to support the campaign and invest in Ukraine's green future
What is the problem?
April 22 is celebrated as World Earth Day. This date does not mean anything to many Ukrainians, and large projects in honor of this day have not yet been launched. However, everyone can do something to benefit the Ukrainian environment by joining the global action.
What is the solution?
Let's figure out what World Earth Day is
In the 1960s and 1970s, Herold Nelson was a US senator. The politician was concerned about the deterioration of the environment, and one of the first in the world decided to introduce a public movement among students to preserve nature. It all started with an educational campaign on campuses and a collaboration with environmental activist Denis Hayes. The first day of this campaign was April 22, a date between the academic semester and exams when students had free time.
The public movement rapidly developed, and a whole organization was created at the state level named Earth Day. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against environmental degradation, and cities and towns held mass rallies from coast to coast. By the end of 1970, a grassroots movement led to the creation of the US Environmental Protection Agency and the adoption of the first environmental laws of its kind.
One of the first environmental activists is Denis Hayes. Source:The Harvard Gazette
In the 1990s, Earth Day gained global status — Denis Hayes helped organize 200 million people in 141 countries and brought environmental issues to the world stage. Earth Day 1990 significantly boosted waste recycling efforts worldwide and helped pave the way for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit.
Today, Earth Day is widely recognized as a holiday celebrated annually by over a billion people as a day of action to change human behavior and create global, national, and local political change. The EARTHDAY.ORG organization develops local solutions to global problems — climate change, plastic pollution, threats to biodiversity in Africa, South America, South, and East Asia, and India.
How to join World Earth Day in Ukraine?
Ukraine also joins World Earth Day and conducts actions to improve the environment on this day. This is reported on the event map of the organization. So far, only Kyiv and Lviv will be participating.
Kyiv action will take place on April 22 at 11 a.m., and activists can gather for a tree-planting and clean-up campaign. The meeting will take place at the address Obolonska Naberezhna, 20. You can get more detailed information via e-mail [email protected].
On April 24, an online meeting Earth Day 2023: World-Café, will be held for students of Lviv Polytechnic at 4 p.m. and will be available to students and local experts. Anyone can join by following this link.
This year's theme of World Earth Day is Investing in our planet.
Where to invest in Ukraine?
In 2023, the organization proposes to invest time, effort, and money in nature conservation. You can make a one-time contribution or sign up for a monthly donation to EARTHDAY.ORG. However, since the organization does not implement large projects in Ukraine, and Ukraine's environment is more than ever in need of support and restoration due to the war, you can donate to Ukrainian environmental organizations and foundations. Here are some of them.
Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group
The organization takes care of issues such as the work of nature conservation institutions and forest protection, collects data on biodiversity and helps conduct environmental impact assessments, and also protects the Emerald Network — a network of nature conservation areas created to preserve species and habitats that need protection at the pan-European level.
Now, the main focus of the work of the Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group is financial support for employees of the currently occupied Askania-Nova biosphere reserve and preparation for its restoration after de-occupation.
Rubryka boldly claims that this organization helped preserve the unique zoo collection and live a year in the occupation of one of the largest natural parks in Europe. In Rubryka's October and April materials, you can read about how this happened last year.
How to donate? You can find the necessary details to transfer funds to the Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group account by following this link. Click on the Protection of the Steppes button, and your funds will go to fodder for animals in the Askania Nova reserve. Accounts for transfers in foreign currency are available here.
Ecoaction
The organization is engaged in scientific activities and analyzing normative legal acts in the field of nature protection and nature use in Ukraine. One of the main types of their activities is to notice in time and prevent the adoption of dubious laws and regulations, which can lead to the barbaric plundering of natural resources.
Rubryka looked into one of the latest results of Ecoaction's work. Energoatom wanted to build a hydro-accumulating power plant on Bug Guard National Park's territory to accumulate excess energy from the neighboring South Ukrainian Nuclear Power Plant. After Ecoaction and the Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group submitted comments to the environmental impact assessment report, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources rejected this project.
Ecoaction also concentrates its efforts on such areas as the post-war restoration of Ukraine's environment, the transition to renewable energy sources, the reduction of harmful emissions from transport, the development of small and medium-sized farms, and the reduction of the carbon footprint in Ukraine, raises these issues at international levels and talks about it to potential foreign investors in the sphere of green environment.
How to donate? You can contribute to Ecoaction's activities using the details at the link.
Environment. People. Law
The protection of the environmental rights of citizens is the main activity of this organization. Environmental impact assessment, consultations, environmental restoration in communities, and post-war reconstruction are the main aspects of the work of the Environment. People. Law.
EPL takes an active part in preserving the Svydovets mountain massif and protecting it from developers. Recently, EPL environmentalists and NGOs Danube-Carpathian Program, UPG, and WWF-Ukraine submitted a petition to the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine to create a nature reserve of national significance, Free Svydovets. Activists also petitioned the President to create a nature conservation area — a reserve of national importance and inclusion of its territory in the nature reserve fund of Ukraine.
You can support the organization's activities by signing this and their other petitions regarding preserving the natural heritage of Ukraine.
How to donate? You can help the organization by clicking the Support Us button on the official website Environment. People. Law.
Peli can live charity fund
The readers of Rubryka first learned about this fund two years ago when volunteers helped build a sort of rehabilitation center for several pelicans rescued from poachers on the Tuzly Estuaries National Park territory in the Odesa region. After that, the foundation did a lot of work to popularize the park among tourists.
Now the foundation takes care of the problems of the Hryshko Botanical Garden in Kyiv: they build an irrigation system, join other initiatives, or even start them independently. This winter, the fund helped to pay for the heating of the greenhouses of the Botanical Garden, and the unique collection of rare plants was preserved only thanks to charitable contributions to the accounts of the joint project with the garden Heat for Greenhouses. So far, the project has already collected about $81.4 thousand. This year, the project will reconstruct greenhouses to reduce heat consumption.
How to donate? Details for charitable contributions are available at the link and on the organization's website.
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