Earth Day turns 50: how our planet has changed—and why it’s crucial we take action now

Back in 1970, the first ever Earth Day saw an astounding 20 million people in the US take to the streets to demand clean air and clean water. “That [first Earth Day event] remains the largest civic event in human history anywhere in the world,” Kathleen Rogers, president of Earth Day, tells Vogue. “It translated into laws and regulations [about] endangered species, clean air, clean water—basic laws that are still on the books in the US and worldwide [today].” 

Fifty years on from that initial Earth Day event, launched by US senator and environmentalist Gaylord Nelson, the challenges faced by our planet today are varied, and vast. Rising temperatures caused by ever-increasing CO2 emissions could lead to irreversible damage to the planet, a stark report by the IPCC in 2018 warned. Melting ice caps, deforestation and the increasing frequency of wildfires, hurricanes and cyclones are just some of the problems we’re dealing with. “The 50th anniversary of Earth Day is a call to action,” Rogers comments. “It’s [about] believing in the science and being prepared for the ravages of climate change.” 

Since the coronavirus pandemic began, environmentalists have understandably taken solace in the fact that CO2 emissions are down in countries like China. But Rogers says this is not the time to “revel” in this cleaner air and water we’ve seen as a result of the current crisis, considering the enormous human cost of coronavirus. 

Instead, Rogers hopes that this Earth Day, people will focus their attention on how we can restore our planet, the theme of this year’s event, following the coronavirus pandemic. “We’re going to focus on restoring the planet, as opposed to just looking at mitigating [the damage],” she explains. “I think that this decade, regardless of how dismally it has started, a big door [has] opened to changing the planet and saving it; not just for us but for all the other generations.” 

Here, we reflect on some of the major ways our planet has changed over the past 50 years, and the urgent action we need to take moving forward. 

The Amazon rainforest

The Amazon is the largest rainforest on the planet, stretching across nine countries in South America. Since 1970, though, it’s been devastated by deforestation, with an estimated 700,000 square kilometres, the equivalent to 20 per cent of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, lost over the past 50 years. The main cause is trees being cleared for cattle rearing, which is responsible for 80 per cent of current deforestation rates, according to the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Fires started by ranchers and farmers to clear land in the forest have also contributed to the massive forest fires we’ve seen in recent years, including in the summer of 2019.

While the Amazon is often described as the ‘lungs’ of the world because of its capacity to store carbon and release oxygen into the atmosphere, a recent study found 20 per cent of the rainforest is actually emitting more CO2 than it absorbs due to deforestation. “If the Amazon is left relatively intact, it can play a very significant role in absorbing carbon from the atmosphere,” says Nigel Sizer, chief program officer at the Rainforest Alliance. “[At the moment] the Amazon is in the process of shifting from being a net sequester of carbon to being a net emitter of carbon.” 

Preserving the Amazon’s biodiversity is also crucial, as well as protecting the communities that live in the rainforest. “Some of the [flora] could be of immense value as sources of medicine or other inputs for technologies for bio-engineering,” Sizer explains. “You’ve also got hundreds of indigenous groups who have called the rainforest their home for thousands of years.”

Moving forward, more action is needed to stop further damage being done, and to restore the forest that’s been lost. “It’s really time for policymakers and others to start paying much more attention,” Sizer concludes. “Since the 1980s, it’s been clear the Amazon was in trouble, and this is still going on.” 

Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets

While they may seem remote, the melting of the enormous ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland could have a catastrophic impact on us all. According to two studies by IMBIE, the ice sheets are now losing their mass six times faster than they were in the 1990s, due to increasing temperatures—with 6.4 trillion tonnes of ice lost in total between 1992 to 2017, and sea levels rising by 17.8mm globally. Another concerning report found that the Greenland ice sheet is melting faster than scientists had predicted, after thawing at a near-record rate in 2019. 

The potential consequences of further melting are bleak, with rising sea levels meaning entire countries could be left under water. “If all of the Antarctic ice sheet [was to] melt, we would get approximately 60m of sea level rise,” says Dr Alexandra Gossart from the Antarctic Research Centre at the Victoria University of Wellington, adding that this could have a profound impact on the world’s climate system. “[The melting] can trigger changes in the atmospheric circulation and organic oceanic circulation. These changes are not linear; once we reach the tipping point, we don’t really know how quickly things will evolve.” 

The 2018 IPCC report warned that temperature rises of between 1.5°C and 2°C could lead to the irreversible loss of the Greenland ice sheet, with drastic reductions in emissions needed to keep warming to 1.5°C. “We really have to mitigate climate change and stop these phenomena [from happening],” Gossart adds. 

The Great Barrier Reef

Situated off the coast of Queensland, Australia, the Great Barrier Reef is one of the world’s natural wonders. But it, too, has suffered the consequences of climate change, as seen with the rise of mass bleaching events over the years. That’s when high sea temperatures lead the coral to expel the algae living in its tissues, causing it to turn white and leaving it at risk of dying.

The first major bleaching event to affect the Great Barrier Reef took place in 1998, but these have increased dramatically over the years. Around half the coral reef died off after mass bleaching events in 2016 and 2017; another event this year means that the Reef has now seen three mass bleaching events in the past five years. “It’s a big increase that’s telling us time is running out,” comments Dr Selina Ward from the University of Queensland. 

The loss of the coral has a devastating impact on sea life, with the Great Barrier Reef being home to over 1,500 species of fish. But the destruction of the Reef—and other reefs around the world— would also have a catastrophic impact on millions of people. “If we think of all the islands through the Pacific, they are mostly protected by reefs; big waves coming onto those islands are broken by the reefs there,” Ward explains. “Millions of people eat from reefs, or get their livelihood from reefs.”

Beyond reducing our global CO2 emissions, which causes rising sea temperatures, conserving our reefs is crucial. “We need to protect as many areas as we can; a lot of work is going into restoration projects to try to replace corals that have been lost,” continues Ward. “We have to act very swiftly so that we can slow down climate change and have a chance of the [Great Barrier] Reef recovering in time.” 

The Sahara desert 

The Sahara desert has gone through a series of notable changes over the past 50 years, beginning with severe drought during the 1970s and 1980s and increasing rainfall since the mid-1980s. “There is a lot of natural variability; it’s difficult to pinpoint [how much of the] changes we are seeing is due to climate change,” says Professor Francesco Pausata from the University of Quebec. “The pattern of increased precipitation over the central and eastern Sahel and decrease in rainfall in the western Sahel [does appear to be] related to global warming.”

Increased rainfall caused by climate change could lead to the re-greening of the southernmost Sahara, which could also have a knock-on effect both locally and much further afield. “You have an increase in the intensity of West African monsoons, but you can also have an impact on the frequency of El Niño [a climate cycle in the Pacific ocean] events, or an impact on tropical cyclone activity,” Pausata explains. “We have seen that a stronger West African monsoon can also lead to a further amplification [of] the warming in the Arctic.” 

Understanding all of these potential effects of further climate change is essential. “A million people live in the Sahel,” Pausata says, adding: “Changes [in the Sahara] don’t just affect local communities—they can lead to a cascade effect. That’s why we should be concerned about changes in the climate.”

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