Happy Earth Day 2024!

Today, across the Unit­ed States (and around the world) pro­gres­sive activists and envi­ron­men­tal­ly con­scious folks are cel­e­brat­ing the fifty-fourth annu­al Earth Day by clean­ing up their com­mu­ni­ties and ral­ly­ing in sup­port of envi­ron­men­tal justice.

Here’s a roundup of Earth Day news and events that we’ve been tracking:

President Biden to make the first in a series of Earth Week announcements

Pres­i­dent Biden will mark Earth Day in North Car­oli­na, and while there, will make the first in a series of Earth Week pol­i­cy announcements. 

Here’s some back­ground from the White House: “Build­ing on his cli­mate, clean ener­gy, and envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice agen­da, Pres­i­dent Biden will trav­el today to Prince William For­est Park in Tri­an­gle, Vir­ginia, to cel­e­brate Earth Day 2024, and high­light his Administration’s unprece­dent­ed progress in tack­ling the cli­mate cri­sis, cut­ting costs for every­day Amer­i­cans, and cre­at­ing good-pay­ing jobs.” The fol­low­ing will be announced this week: 

• Today: $7 bil­lion in grants through the Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency’s Solar for All grant com­pe­ti­tion, a key com­po­nent of the Infla­tion Reduc­tion Act’s $27 bil­lion Green­house Gas Reduc­tion Fund.
• Today: New actions to stand up the Amer­i­can Cli­mate Corps – a ground­break­ing ini­tia­tive mod­eled after FDR’s Civil­ian Con­ser­va­tion Corps that will put more than 20,000 young Amer­i­cans to work fight­ing the impacts of cli­mate change today while gain­ing the skills they need to join the grow­ing clean ener­gy and cli­mate-resilience work­force of tomorrow.
• Tues­day will focus on help­ing ensure clean water for all communities.
• Wednes­day will focus on accel­er­at­ing America’s clean trans­porta­tion future.
• Thurs­day will focus on steps to cut pol­lu­tion from the pow­er sec­tor while strength­en­ing America’s elec­tric­i­ty grid.
• Fri­day will focus on pro­vid­ing clean­er air and health­i­er schools for all children.

Washington will have a solar-themed Earth Day event, too

Gov­er­nor Inslee will be in Seat­tle with EPA Region­al Admin­is­tra­tor Casey Sixkiller to announce the fed­er­al solar funds com­ing to Wash­ing­ton. Join­ing them will be Mike Fong, Direc­tor of the Wash­ing­ton Depart­ment of Com­merce, Joseph Fer­nan­di, Direc­tor of Cus­tomer Ener­gy Solu­tions for Seat­tle City Light, and Rod Bran­don, the Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the Seat­tle Hous­ing Authority. 

Oregon’s Jeff Merkley is working on tackling plastic pollution

Oregon’s U.S. Sen­a­tor Jeff Merkley tells NPI and oth­er media out­lets he is lead­ing a con­gres­sion­al del­e­ga­tion to the fourth ses­sion of the Inter­gov­ern­men­tal Nego­ti­at­ing Com­mit­tee (INC‑4) to devel­op an inter­na­tion­al legal­ly bind­ing instru­ment on plas­tic pol­lu­tion. The del­e­ga­tion, which includes U.S. Sen­a­tors Shel­don White­house (D‑RI), Peter Welch (D‑VT), and Kirsten Gilli­brand (D‑NY) and U.S. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jared Huff­man (D‑CA-02), will call for the devel­op­ment of an ambi­tious inter­na­tion­al agree­ment to address plas­tic pol­lu­tion. Gov­ern­ment lead­ers and inter­na­tion­al stake­hold­ers are con­ven­ing at INC‑4 in Ottawa, Cana­da through Mon­day, April 29th.

British Columbia’s government reaffirms its environmental protection policies

British Columbi­a’s gov­ern­ment is also mark­ing Earth Day. Pre­mier David Eby and Min­is­ter of Envi­ron­ment George Hey­man empha­sized that Canada’s west­ern­most province is also invest­ing in renew­able ener­gy and a respon­si­ble tran­si­tion away from fos­sil fuels. 

Said Hey­man:

As a gov­ern­ment, we’re tak­ing action on cli­mate change by help­ing peo­ple and busi­ness­es low­er their car­bon foot­print. Through the Clean­BC Roadmap to 2030, we have big goals to reduce emis­sions, and we’re get­ting there by invest­ing in clean-ener­gy projects, pro­vid­ing new incen­tives for indus­tri­al oper­a­tors to tran­si­tion to low-car­bon solu­tions, and by cap­ping emis­sions from the oil and gas sector.

And through the Plas­tics Action Plan and the Clean Coast, Clean Waters Ini­tia­tive, we’re recy­cling more of what we use and bet­ter pro­tect­ing our marine ecosys­tems, and every­one and every­thing that depends on them.

BC is cur­rent­ly being gov­erned by the New Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty (NDP), the more pro­gres­sive of the province’s major polit­i­cal par­ties. Though the NDP’s envi­ron­men­tal agen­da is far more respon­si­ble and eth­i­cal than the BC Lib­er­als, there’s room for improvement. 

The Tyee notes that a cam­paign called Tran­sit for Teens is push­ing the gov­ern­ment to allow all young peo­ple under the age of eigh­teen to ride pub­lic tran­sit at no charge. Right now, youth between the ages of twelve and eigh­teen must pay a fare. 

Wash­ing­ton State recent­ly made tran­sit fare-free for all youth through the Move Ahead Wash­ing­ton ini­tia­tive, which is fund­ed by Cli­mate Com­mit­ment Act mon­ey that the Wash­ing­ton State Repub­li­can Par­ty and right wing forces want to repeal. 

NPI strong­ly sup­ports the Tran­sit for Teens cam­paign and urges Pre­mier Eby and Min­is­ter Hey­man to make it a real­i­ty for British Columbi­a’s youth.

Hap­py Earth Day to all of our read­ers, and our grat­i­tude to the many vol­un­teers par­tic­i­pat­ing in com­mu­ni­ty events around the globe to plant trees, pick up trash, and elim­i­nate pollution.