Celebrating EARTH
To celebrate Earth Hour (27 March) and Earth Day (22 April), we, at The Environment Council reflected on the meaning of both of these events to us and illustrated our commitment to Earth with the below photograph, kindly offered by a friend.
Winsome MacLaurin: “Earth Hour and Earth Day are small collective actions that have the power to unite people and raise awareness. The Environment Council’s belief in the power of engagement is that ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts’. Those events harness this thinking and demonstrate how each of us can contribute to something greater.”
Nigel Homer: ‘This reminds us that we're all connected to nature in some way and that we should be good stewards of our planet's resources. If we look after our watersheds, forests, reefs, grasslands, meadows, and the huge diversity of ecological systems and species on Earth, people will be rewarded with health, food, clean water and all the other resources we need for our future. The key is to automatically "build in" stewardship, based on sound conservation science, into everything we do. We need to incorporate our planet's ecology into our everyday lives so that it’s not necessary to stop and think about it or to be preached to’
Eva Beresford: ‘'Earth Hour has the potential to connect us with millions of people across the world through one small action. We should be striving to make this a powerful event each year by logging how many people participate and what difference it made, and research ways to build on this small action to instigate long term behaviour change'
Donna James: ‘Earth Hour is special because so many people around the world, show in a practical way that they care about climate change and the future of our planet. It's just a shame it isn't much more widely publicised so that those less interested feel inspired to get involved too!'
Maeve O’Kearney (volunteer): ‘Our behaviour needs to change every hour of every year, not only when there's a sensational choreographed event for us to partake in and feel good about'
Moetia Castellani: ‘No words can ever describe the beauty of our planet that can be witnessed all around us, from the complexities of a snowball to the vastness of our sky, our home is amazing. We all have the power to create the future of Earth and living in harmony with nature; the choice is ours...I choose to celebrate LIFE on Earth’
The photograph seeks to express the undeniable link and balance between nature and humans; and foster harmony within it. The island on the photo is to represent the impacts climate change can have on coastal areas (especially low-lying islands) and therefore the pressure on developed countries to alter those effects through a reduction of carbon emissions among others. The man represents human beings and was placed at the centre of the photograph to represent its importance and responsibility to save the planet. Finally, to show that we are, in our work and personal lives, trying to make a positive change, the name The Environment Council was placed in the man’s hands, as having the power to make such change.
To mark this year’s Earth Hour and Earth Day, we would like to auction this photograph at a starting price of £99. This will help us with our volunteer programme which has been adding great value to our work. We continuously strive to help young students and professionals to gain experience in our field whilst enhancing the value of our projects through our volunteers’ diversity in background, ideas and experiences.
If you would like to contribute to our work and love the photograph like we do, please email Moetia Castellani (moetia@envcouncil.org.uk). The winner of the auction will be revealed this summer during The Environment Council’s 40th birthday celebrations. In exchange, we offer you the possibility to publish your logo on our website (if you are an organisation) and invite you and a friend to our birthday party in London this summer.
Thank you for your support!