This first edition of the CEP newsletter has been launched on Earth Day. Every year, April 22 marks the Earth Day. The anniversary coincides with the birth of the environmental movement in the 1970s.
The environmental movement was inspired by anti-war student movements and “emerging public consciousness about air and water pollution” in the United States[1].
Groups that had been fighting individually against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness and the extinction of wildlife united on Earth Day around these shared common values[2].
Today, Earth Day is global and the widest recognised day of observance and action. Although Earth day emerged in Northern America, communities in the global South have used the day to draw attention to the climate crises that will disproportionately affect the global South and the put a spotlight to the threats and killings of indegenous peoples and land defenders.
In addition to joining CEP, this Earth Day you can learn more about the actions taking place across the country and consider supporting groups like the Climate Justice Coalition that has been focusing on campaigning for not procuring further greenhouse gas-emitting energies and transitioning to
renewable energies, while safeguarding jobs through the framework of a just transition. Additionally, campaigns to follow this Earth Day are Asina Loyiko, which is a civil society society campaign that discourages the use of litigation to silence and intimidate activists. Another organisation that is doing good work across the country is EarthLife that envisions a “society living within the ecological limits of sustainable development with an equitable distribution for all, respect for all living things, and the end of social, economic and political exploitation”.