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Earth Day 2025: Why We Celebrate The Planet That Keeps Us Grounded
The author writes, “Happy Earth Day! For the 55th year, the world is using the day to celebrate Mother Nature and the wonderful planet we live on. ‘Earth Day really is a symbol of the environmental movement,’ Sarah Davies, the director of communications and media at EarthDay.org, told USA Today. … Earth Day has always been a day that acknowledges our planet, which provides for us, and ways we can protect and preserve its beauty. That being said, here’s everything you should know about Earth Day 2025.”
How Pope Francis Helped Inspire the Global Movement Against Climate Change
The author writes, “In a shift for the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis, who died on Monday at 88, was a strong and vocal environmental advocate and used his papacy to help inspire global efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions. He framed climate change as a spiritual issue, emphasizing the connections between global warming, poverty and social upheaval throughout his 12-year leadership. Within the church, taking such a stance was seen by some as unnecessarily injecting politics into church matters. For environmentalists, the support of Francis was immensely meaningful. In 2015, he penned the first-ever papal encyclical focused solely on the environment. In ‘Laudato Si,’ a sprawling call to action, the pope recognized climate change as both a social and environmental crisis, and emphasized that its greatest consequences were shouldered by the poor.”
The History of Earth Day: Driving Environmental Change
From Sustainability Magazine: “Every year on 22 April, Earth Day unites billions of people around the world in a collective call to protect the planet. What began in 1970 as a US-based movement has evolved into the largest secular civic event globally, influencing environmental policy, education, and activism across borders.”
Trump May Target Environmental Nonprofits in Executive Orders
From Inside Climate News: “Environmental groups across the country are battening down the hatches in preparation for new executive orders from President Donald Trump. Sources in Washington, including within the Department of Justice and on Capitol Hill, have told Inside Climate News that White House officials are preparing executive orders on environmental issues. One order, they say, would target the tax exempt status of environmental nonprofits, particularly those that do legal work. President Trump himself tipped his hand at this possibility in Oval Office comments made Thursday, after he was questioned about his administration’s plans to rescind the tax-exempt status of Harvard University. ‘Tax exempt status, it’s a privilege,’ Trump said. ‘And it’s been abused.’”
Biodiversity Loss in All Species and Every Ecosystem Linked to Humans
The author writes, “Humans are driving biodiversity loss among all species across the planet, according to a synthesis of more than 2,000 studies. The exhaustive global analysis leaves no doubt about the devastating impact humans are having on Earth, according to researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology and the University of Zurich. The study — which accounted for nearly 100,000 sites across all continents — found that human activities had resulted in ‘unprecedented effects on biodiversity.’ … The team looked at terrestrial, freshwater, and marine habitats, as well as including all groups of organisms, including microbes, fungi, plants, invertebrates, fish, birds and mammals. Human pressures distinctly shifted community composition and decreased local diversity.”
An American River
From CBS News: “We’ve damaged our rivers. What are communities across the country doing to save them?”
Climate Activists Were Hacked. There Was a Link Between Victims and an Alleged Attacker
From NPR: “For years, the US Justice Department has worked to unravel a global hacking campaign that targeted prominent American climate activists. Now, public tax filings reviewed by NPR reveal an unexpected link between the company that allegedly commissioned the attacks and some of the victims. … The Justice Department investigation has focused recently on an Israeli private investigator named Amit Forlit whom federal prosecutors are trying to extradite from the United Kingdom for allegedly orchestrating the hacking. Prosecutors say the operation was aimed at gathering information to foil lawsuits against the fossil fuel industry over damage communities have faced from climate change. Buried in the investigation’s court filings are the names of one of the world’s biggest publicly-traded oil companies and one of its longtime lobbyists: ExxonMobil and DCI Group.”
How 77 Tons of Radioactive Waste Ended Up in Brooklyn
The author writes, “New York City’s second largest utility is being sued in federal court for the alleged inappropriate handling of at least 77 tons of radioactive waste at a 120-acre site located in Brooklyn, the city’s most populous borough. The radioactive waste, as well as other hazardous coal waste, is a leftover of a bygone era, more than a century ago, when the parcel was the location of Equity Works, a manufactured gas plant that derived gas from heating coal, and then piped it across the city to power lighting, cooking, and heating. … The facility is located at the edge of the Greenpoint and Williamsburg neighborhoods, though the New York State Department of Health responded with assurances that no communities are at risk from the radioactive waste at the former Equity Works site. These neighborhoods have already received significant contamination connected to the oil and gas industry.”
Clearly Cool: A Transparent Paper-Based Material Could Replace Single-Use Plastics
From Anthropocene Magazine: “Close to 2 million metric tons of plastic enters the oceans every year from beaches and waterways, according to The Ocean Cleanup Project. Much of that plastic is single-use beverage bottles, cups, and straws. Researchers in Japan have now made a new paper-based material that could be an ideal replacement for those single-use plastics. The millimeter-thick paperboard reported in the journal Science Advances behaves like plastic, but only when needed. It is strong, transparent, and shapeable, and it can hold boiling water, but it degrades within a year after settling on the ocean floor.”
Sweden’s Hottest Show? Nonstop Live Coverage of the Epic Moose Migration
The author writes, “Millions are tuning in to the hottest show captivating Sweden: It’s reality, it’s live, and after hours of slow shots of calming nature, the stars arrive — Sweden’s beloved moose on their spring migration. ‘The Great Moose Migration’ started airing Tuesday on SVT, Sweden’s public service television company. It captures the creatures on the path they’ve followed for thousands of years to rich summer grazing pastures. The show will air nonstop for 20 days, following the moose via remote cameras and drones as they journey through forests and swim across the Ångerman River. … The series debuted in 2019 on SVT Play and drew about a million viewers in its first year. Last year, viewership exploded to 9 million.”
