EARTH DAY 2022. Dedicated to the environment and celebrated in hundreds of countries, Earth Day took place on Friday April 22, 2022. The opportunity to remember what tricks help preserve our planet…
[Mis à jour le 23 avril 2022 à 09h01] World Earth Day, celebrated on April 22 each year, gives citizens an opportunity to reflect on the damage inflicted on the planet… and on the simple everyday actions to preserve it. Among them, the fact of favoring “the short circuits” by eating local, but also seasonal products to limit pollutant emissions and waste; the sorting of waste or even the reflex of return expired medication or unused to their pharmacist: collected, they are now transformed into energy.
Other tips available to everyone consist of turn off the light when leaving a room ; to use public transport, cycling, carpooling or his legs; to turn off the water while brushing or shaving… Another green gesture is to rent rather than buy, which ultimately produces less waste. And here is to finish a solution that may seem crazy to some but is becoming more democratic: adopt a chicken ! The gallinaceous is indeed able to peck up to 150 kilos per year of food waste. And in return will offer you fresh eggs every morning for breakfast…
Today’s world is at a “critical moment”, and according to the latest annual climate report United in Science 2021 carried out by UN scientists, climate change and its consequences continue to worsen, despite the temporary reduction of CO2 emissions in the atmosphere thanks to the pandemic of Covid-19. The past year has again suffered the devastating effects of global climate change: deadly heat waves in North America, particularly in Colombia Britain, which recorded an absolute heat record in June, with 49.6°C in Lytton, devastating fires in Canada, Siberia and around the Mediterranean, spectacular cold in the United States, extreme rainfall in China and in Western Europe (Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands)… “We really don’t have any more time to waste,” says UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, and even on our small scale …
With the melting of the ice and the dilation of the oceans caused by global warming, the level of the oceans could rise “several tens of centimeters” by 2050, explains AFP, and be “responsible for more frequent coastal flooding and more violent than today”, which could lead to global warming “of 3 to 4°C”, underlines GEO. “But if the commitments made under the Paris Climate Agreement are fully met, it would still be possible to contain global warming to just below +2°C”, reassures the monthly dedicated to travel.
The map of risk areas depending on the rising waters, developed by the NGO Climate Central, makes it possible to visualize the rise in sea level on the coasts of metropolitan France. The cities of Dunkirk, Boulogne and Calais in Hauts-de-France, Le Havre, Dieppe and Cherbourg in Normandy, Roscoff, Brest, Le Conquet, Concarneau, Port Tudy in Brittany, Saint-Nazaire, the Pointe Saint-Gildas and Sables-d’Olonne in Pays-de-Loire, La Rochelle, Boucau and Saint-Jean-de-Luz in New Aquitaine, but also Sète in Occitanie and Marseille, Toulon and Nice in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur would be totally flooded in 2200, the rise in sea level gaining 2 meters on their coasts.
If we tend to attenuate these alarmist projections by relying on current defense structures such as dikes or rockfill, AFP recalls that “if in certain coastal areas, the sea level rises by more than one meter , protection with dikes is also no longer possible”.
Extreme temperatures, coastline threatened by rising waters, drought… France will also have to face the significant consequences of climate change. And Météo France, the official service of meteorology and climatology in France, now provides tools that allow you to visualize “trends in climate change in the 21st century” throughout France, for each region. of the metropolis, but also for Reunion.
The first tool HD Climate of Météo France, makes it possible to know if such a region of France will encounter a change in its annual and seasonal precipitation, or a significant drying out of its soils.
The second tool, published by Agence France Presse (AFP) but still based on Météo France data, is called Tomorrow, what a climate on my doorstep and proposes three scenarios on the climate future of your municipality: optimistic, intermediate or pessimistic. In Paris for example, in the “optimistic” scenario, the annual average temperature increases by only 1.6°C more by 2050 “thanks to a drastic, global and immediate reduction in greenhouse gas emissions”. On the other hand, the “pessimistic” scenario announces 3°C more in the capital by 2050…
The rise in temperatures, leading to an increase in the concentration of CO², generating extreme weather phenomena and rising sea levels, have the following consequences:
- extreme heat waves leading to illness
- declining water quality causing diseases such as cholera
- air pollution and allergens, developing asthma and cardiovascular disease
- problems with water and food supply, causing malnutrition
- violent weather causing habitat destruction and having an impact on mental health
- the deterioration of living conditions, social inequalities and access to care
- environmental degradation leading to forced migration and wars
Many activities are offered the days following the event in the cities of France via this page from the French Earth Day website (just fill in your locality at “Your current location”, to find the activities on offer). For example, in Paris, on Saturday April 30, theFrans Krajcberg space, in partnership with FlorestaTV, Survival International and Amazon Immersive, organizes a meeting with the txana Nui Huni Kuin on the culture and the rights of the Huni Kuin people and the artist Mathis Berchery. On Saturday May 14, creative workshops for children combining art and nature are organised.
Coordinated by the “Earth Day Network”, Earth Day is all about appreciating the uniqueness of our planet Earth with its incredible biodiversity. According to the UN on its official website, the DNA of “International Mother Earth Day” is more precisely to raise awareness of the challenges facing our planet, based on the idea that the Earth and its ecosystems are what nourishes us and sustains our steps throughout life. Short, our only home. During this day, various national and international activities are carried out to understand biodiversity and how to protect our nature, plants, animals and the environment as a whole. Some of the actions carried out consist in encouraging the purchase of greener products, waste reduction, recycling and reuse, and promoting the fight against climate change. Earth Day Network, the organization behind the movement, works with more than 22,000 partners around the world. Today, more than a billion people participate in World Earth Day activities every year to make it one of the biggest events in the world.
Earth Day is a holiday celebrated in the United States since 1970, always on April 22, in commemoration of the creation of the environmentalist movement by a senator from Wisconsin, Gaylord Nelson. 47 years ago, the latter organized a major demonstration for the environment and to demand that it be taken into account in American federal policies. This parade led to the adoption of several founding laws such as those on the protection of air, water and endangered species, as well as the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) .
Taken over by the United Nations as a strong date on the calendar since 1971, Earth Day became a global event as early as 1990 (year since which France has taken part), in approximately 140 countries, mobilizing 200 million people. The Earth Summit, another founding event organized in Rio in 1992 and ancestor of the Kyoto conferences or the COP21, should also have a lot to do with this April 22. Over the years, and with a few milestone years such as 2000 or 2006, Earth Day, now called “International Mother Earth Day”, has gradually become the main environmental event on the planet, also the anniversary date of the environmental turnaround. In 2016, Earth Day took place on the same day as the signing of the Paris Agreement on climate change, resulting from COP 21.
Earth Day 2023 will take place on a Saturday, as it occurs annually on April 22 (and that it falls on a Saturday in 2023).