Invest in Your Planet!
Earth Day is a global holiday designated to honoring, investing in and protecting Planet Earth. We’re using this special day as an opportunity to educate you on some things you may not have known about our beautiful planet as well while appreciating the women who came before us who boldly blazed the path for environmental justice!
Earthday.org, the global organizer of Earth Day, declared the theme “Invest in Our Planet”. Basically, this is a call to action for citizens to invest in a green economy. As governments and officials begin to incentivize society, investors are driving the masses toward green companies in order to produce ambition to address climate change through what people care about most: money.
“Like the industrial, space, and information revolutions of the past, all sectors of society can and must play major roles in the green revolution – this time with existential responsibilities to get it right. Together, we must invest in our planet.”
-EarthDay.org
Let’s start investing in our planet today and every day! Investing doesn’t have to have monetary value; the most important investment you can make is your education.
Here are three women who have dedicated themselves and their life’s purpose to educating others about climate crisis and how we can do better for our planet:
Thunberg is a 20-year-old Swedish environmentalist who has gone toe-to-toe with world leaders in her fight against climate injustice. She started her journey in 2018 when she was just 15 years old, skipping school to attend a strike against climate change. This act turned into Fridays for Future, inspiring hundreds of thousands of students worldwide to strike with her. Since then, she has spoken around the world, her biggest platforms being the World Economic Forum, United Nations Climate Conference and the U.S. House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis. She inspires environmentalists of all ages to get active in the conversation and has been key in bringing this conversation to social media and the public in general.
Shiva is an Indian environmentalist, scholar, author and feminist. As a trained physicist and researcher of environmental policy, she has defended biodiversity and native seeds for her entire career. Shiva, 70, is the founder and president of Navdanya International, a research institute dedicated to protecting native seeds and the diversity they offer to her homeland of Uttarakhand, India. It also worked towards sustainability by preserving fair-trade ideologies. Founded in 1991, Shiva’s research advanced this company’s journey by addressing environmental and social injustice, mobilizing its mission through workshops and projects like seed banks, and sharing the research and findings through publications. Shiva’s accomplishments are vast but some of her biggest ones are serving on the board of the international Forum on Globalization and being a member of the executive committee of the World Future Council.
Maathai was a Kenyan environmentalist, educator and government official. She did not follow traditional Kenyan female roles growing up, due to her outspokenness about environmental issues and women’s rights, which was her main fight aside from land conversation. In 1977, Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, an organization that focused on the social and environmental issues in Kenya. She mobilized this organization by planting 30 million trees by the early 21st century and helping to educate and steer world leaders to environmental justice. Since founding the Green Belt Movement, she received many awards from world leaders, one of her most significant awards being her Nobel Peace Prize for her approach to sustainability and democracy. She became the first Black African woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize. Then, she was elected to Kenya’s National Assembly in 2002 and went on to become a distinguished author. She passed in 2011 at the age of 71. But, her legacy lives on and can never be erased, as she has made her mark on society and the world!
You can make your mark on the world, too! By doing some simple tasks, you can reduce your carbon footprint and do some social good in combatting climate change. Here are a few ways to start:
At PPG, we always aim to support change and mobilize people; We can do better together this Earth Day! Let’s fight to combat the climate crisis and take care of our beautiful home.
“Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.”
- Howard Zinn
