Schools and organizations in 152 countries have made commitments to participate in CNN’s Call to Earth Day, a day of action dedicated to conservation, environmentalism, and sustainability, on November 10th.
From the UAE to KSA, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, over 20 schools and organisations from the Middle East have pledged to participate in activities. Around the world, from Australia to Norway, via Japan, Chile, Kenya, China, and India, people have responded to the cross-platform initiative.
CNN correspondents will bring live reports from locations around the world on the day, while packages will include a look at air pollution in India, coral reef preservation in the UAE, redwood planting in California, the UK’s carbon neutral football team — Forest Green Rovers, ‘ghost nets’ in Hong Kong, and many other stories of conservation, environmentalism, and sustainability.
Connect the World with Becky Anderson will air a 45-minute debate filmed at the Expo 2020 site in Dubai. The discussion, involving youth from the UAE and the wider region, including school children from Brighton College Dubai and American School of Dubai, will center on the climate crisis and biodiversity, taking in topics such as food security, urban planning, and how the new generation can engage in the fight against climate change.
An exclusive discussion with filmmaker, explorer and Rolex Testimonee James Cameron will take place early in the day, around 2am ET/8am CET/3pm HK, talking about oceans, climate change and exploration.
A dynamic live blog will capture the events of the day in real time, alongside feature articles and op-eds from leaders within the conservation space. Following the day itself, CNN will host a major digital interactive page, where people can share their activities, pledges, events, and other contributions, alongside CNN’s Call to Earth Day content.
Ellana Lee, SVP & Managing Editor, CNN Asia Pacific, said: “The response we’ve already received from our audience for Call to Earth Day has been phenomenal, and CNN’s own teams are gathering some outstanding content and reporting that we’ll showcase too. These issues can sometimes feel vast and overwhelming, but what we hope to demonstrate on Wednesday is that there are solutions. This is about celebrating a planet worth protecting and the people creating a more sustainable future, driving awareness and inspiring action.”
These are some of the events expected to take place around Call to Earth Day:
Litter-picks will take place on beaches in Australia, the Caribbean, Lebanon, the UAE, and Japan; on mountains in Chile, organised by Rolex Awards Laureate Vreni Häusserman; by glaciers on the coast of Norway; in gorges and rivers and lakes across North America; on city streets, including London; and in rivers and canals across the globe.
Dozens of planting events organised by schools and NGOs will take place, particularly across Africa and Asia. A rainforest excursion in Singapore will see school students working with the National Parks team to replant areas of the rainforest impacted by deforestation. In Kenya, five schools will plant a total of 500 trees, while kitchen gardens, eco gardens, and bee and pollinator-friendly gardens will be established in Montenegro, Bosnia, Brazil, and Dubai.
Animal welfare and habitat protection events will take place around the world, including several live animal releases. An Egyptian Vulture release will take place in Lebanon, a butterfly release in Singapore, and a dolphin release in the USA. In Malaysia, Rwanda, Russia, and the USA, field trips and workshops will help show school children how to protect the habitats of endangered animals. A special litter-pick on a beach in Argentina will establish a clean environment ready for the penguin hatching season.
Arts events will form a key part of the day, including a project to turn school classrooms into different habitats in the USA, recycled fashion shows and dress-up days in the USA and across Asia-Pacific, and a theatre production in India. Eco-murals and art will be showcased including thousands of posters being painted by schoolchildren. One school in Nigeria has created a water irrigation system from plastic bottles, while a group in Lebanon has held a workshop to show children how to repurpose plastic waste into creative planters. In Singapore, the construction of a ‘pledge tree’ art installation made from recycled materials, will serve as a place for schoolchildren and their families to make and display pledges to protect the environment.