Partner Spotlight: Kathleen Rogers, Earth Day Network

Kathleen Rogers, President of the Earth Day Network

Every two weeks the TckTckTck team proudly recognizes one of the 325+ partner organizations making up our global climate movement.

As the 42nd anniversary of Earth Day nears, we are pleased to share an interview with Kathleen Rogers, President of the Earth Day Network. In this interview Kathleen shares her vision for this year’s Earth Day actions; how close the world is to its ‘billionth act of green’; and why Kuwait hosted her favourite Earth Day event last year. Read on:

TCK: Earth Day has been running for over 40 years and takes place annually on 22nd April 2012. What are some of your primary objectives with this year’s Earth Day? What will be different compared to previous years?

KATHLEEN ROGERS: The theme of this year’s Earth Day is Mobilize the Earth™. Environmental issues have taken a backseat for world leaders, but the world can’t wait. So this year, Earth Day is a platform to make noise – for everyone to come together, refocus our energy, and demand that something be done. Rally. March. Vote. Petition. Do something. All these actions count, and if we do enough of them, if we make enough noise, we’ll not only be making a real impact on the environment and the popular consciousness about the environment, the powers that be will be forced to pay attention. Mobilize. Earth Day is a powerful tool; it happens every year, and it’s celebrated by a billion people and in virtually every country on the planet – the largest civic observance in the world. This year, we’ll harness that power. Earth Day is forum for all these concerns to coalesce and the platform to propel the movement forward. And this year, it couldn’t come at a more perfect time, as the momentum for change that swept from Cairo to New York is still inspiring people everywhere to action.

TCK: Earth Day 2012 takes place just 2 months before the Earth Summit in Rio. Do Earth Day Network have a list of outcomes they hope to see achieved at the Summit? What message would you send to world leaders in advance of the Summit? 

KATHLEEN ROGERS: Earth Day could not fall at a more opportune time in relation to Rio+20.  Earth Day is one of the last major platforms for individuals, organizations, and governments around the world to mobilize and make their voice heard ahead of the summit.  We hope the two months in between Earth Day and the summit will be a time of immense action as we work to engage world leaders in a dialogue on sustainability.  Specifically, Earth Day Network hopes to see some aggressive action taken to promote green investment.

We also hope to bring all of the environmental commitments from A Billion Acts of Green to the conference, and they’ll represent the decisive results of a global referendum on the environment. It’s hard to ignore a billion actions.

As you mentioned earlier, Earth Day Network is working with TckTckTck on the Renewable Energy for All campaign.  And we’ll be asking political leaders at Rio+20 to abide by four pillars that will get us closer to the goal of ensuring Renewable Energy for All:

• 30% energy use from renewables by 2020
• 40% decrease in energy intensity by 2020
• Universal access to modern energy services that end energy poverty:
• AND immediate action that will put countries on a pathway to sustainability, including putting an end to all fossil fuel subsidies 

TCK: If people have not previously participated in Earth Day what can they do to get involved this year? 

KATHLEEN ROGERS: First, they can go to www.earthday.org to learn about the issues at stake and about what other people and organizations are doing all over the world. Then, they need to act. If there’s an Earth Day event in their hometown, they need to go and bring the Mobilize the Earth message – or better yet, contact the local organizers and see how they can become an organizer themselves or how else they can help. If there isn’t an event, they should organize one, and we can help give them the resources to do that. This is a grassroots movement, built from the ground up; so it’s what we all make it. Make it something powerful that shows you care about the environment. Then take a picture, video or otherwise document it and send it to us. We’ll aggregate and amplify all these local actions into a unified, global call for action – to stop climate change, clean up our air, clean up our water, demand renewable energy and a sustainable future for all. And that will give us the momentum for the next steps to make sure something gets done about it.

TCK: I recently read about your campaign ‘A Billion Acts of Green’ which seems like an ambitious target but looking at your website you are almost half way there, congratulations! What do you plan to do once you reach the Billionth act? 

KATHLEEN ROGERS: A Billion Acts of Green® (http://act.earthday.org/) is the world’s largest environmental service campaign. It’s moving because it highlights what individuals, businesses, churches, schools, civic organizations, etc. do every day to protect the environment. All those little acts add up to something big. There are so many wonderful stories that could be told about this campaign, from the little girl and her mother who started a recycling program in a small Louisiana town…to the guy who said that he broke up with his girlfriend because she wouldn’t recycle! And once we reach a billion acts, we’re going to take them all to world leaders to show them the breadth of support for acting now to protect the environment. We hope to reach a billion acts by the UN Sustainability Conference (“Rio+20”) in June in Rio de Janeiro. That would send a powerful message at a critical time.

TCK: TckTckTck and Earth Day Network are working together on the campaign Renewable Energy for All. Given that you travel all over the world what do you believe can be done to ensure clean energy access for everyone on the planet? In your opinion what more can NGO’s do who are already working on this issue? 

KATHLEEN ROGERS: Well, we need a strong international climate treaty. But in the absence of national and international action, city and other local governments all over the world have been stepping up to the plate by implementing renewable energy policies of their own. That kind of local leadership will trickle up, and Earth Day Network wants to encourage even more of it. That’s why, for example, we’re partnering with cities from Grand Rapids to Santa Fe to help them develop and implement renewable energy standards, green government buildings, community education programs, and more. We also need to work with businesses to make them understand that renewable energy is the future and that they need to adapt or get left behind as everyone races to develop and harness these new technologies. It makes economic sense.

TCK: Can you name some of your favourite Earth Day events over the years? 

KATHLEEN ROGERS: Right now, I’d have to say that my favorite Earth Day events are the ones happening in the Middle East. In Iraq, the provincial government in Kurdistan is planting 5 million trees in honor of Earth Day; many young students from the area have been participating in the tree-planting in cities, villages, schools and public parks. In Oman, the Ministry of Education is making Earth Day, and sustainability in general, part of the curriculum in 1,043 schools; 500,000 school children will participate in Earth Day-related activities there this year. In Kuwait, they’ve taken our Billion Acts of Green campaign and ran with it! Last year, civil society groups in Kuwait started “Kuwait Million Acts of Green,” but they quickly exceeded their goal, collecting over 7 million environmental actions. Notably, they picked up 540,000 tons of trash – and the government even jumped in, planting 2 million trees.

Community-organized events all over the world really illustrate the power of Earth Day. It’s a point of entry to the environmental movement, and it’s a time to stand up and be counted; it diversifies the movement and provides a tool to educate and mobilize people.

Tags: A Billion Acts of Green, Earth Day, Earth Day Network, Personal Action, Voices top

Category: Voices