Today, April 22nd, 2020, marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, the annual celebration of the environmental movement.
The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown the world into a collective moment of disruption that demands a long, hard look at the ways in which we live within our environment. With resilience thinking, an understanding of environmentalism becomes better suited to the immense challenges that we must tackle before another Earth Day passes.
While resilience recognizes the importance of individual efforts to address climate change, it particularly underscores the need for systemic-level reform that holds corporations accountable and promotes equitable solutions for those communities that are most impacted by climate change. If individuals collectively and persistently pursue a more sustainable, resilient and compassionate society, they can affect change in their communities, states, nations and the world.
