(This post is only a part of an article originally published in the first edition of CareOurEarth Archives)
Care for Our Mother Earth Campaigns have been widely underrecognized, unlike well-known green movements. They are diverse scientific, social, and educational attempts and activities that address the concerns about environmental sustainability through research, advocacy, and education, with primary focuses on the “triple planetary crises” – climate change, pollution, and species extinction. They are an international movement, represented by the organizations of the United Nations system, nonprofit think tanks, non-governmental organizations, educational bodies, private sectors, scholars, scientists, professionals, and individual advocates. With increasing concerns about global warming and other environmental challenges, more and more people and organizations are getting involved in the Care for Our Mother Earth Campaigns.
The root of Care for Our Mother Earth Campaigns can be traced back to as early as 1970 when International Mother Earth Day was created. In 1992, the Earth Summit, also known as the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, was held. In 1995, the Earth Institute was established at Columbia University. The institute aims to address complex issues facing the planet and its inhabitants, focusing on sustainable development. It is the world’s largest institute of this type, with more than twenty research units. In 2005, former U.S. Vice President AI Gore founded The Climate Reality Project, a non-profit organization devoted to spreading the truth about the climate crisis. The UNEP established an annual awards program – Champions of the Earth – to recognize outstanding leaders with significant contributions to environmental protection.
In 2006, Earth Overshoot Day was calculated by the Global Footprint Network. In 2007, Earth Hour was established on the last Saturday of March. In 2012, the United Nations launched Future Earth, an international research program. Other well-known organizations include Earthjustice (the most significant environmental law organization founded in 1971), Pure Earth (founded in 1999 to fight against global toxic pollution), Earth Champions Foundation (founded in 2000 to nurture and protect the environment), Earth Rights Institute (founded in 2002 to build sustainable communities in the world’s poorest regions), and Berkeley Earth (founded in 2010 to address concerns about global warming). Apart from these bodies, thousands of organizations focusing on the triple planetary crises and our planet’s sustainable development have been established worldwide in the past three decades.
The term “Care for Our Mother Earth Campaigns” has not been widely recognized so far as it is often viewed as a faction of the green movement. However, there are differences between them. Traditional green movement was led by grassroots green organizations, such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth. Its programs usually focus on environmental issues at regional or local levels. Care for Our Mother Earth campaigns are often initiated by scientists, scholars, and non-profit think tanks and coordinated by related organizations of the United Nations, such as IPCC. They address planetary crises. Unlike the traditional green movement, which usually uses direct action and advocacy to achieve its goals, Care for Our Mother Earth Campaigns focus on producing knowledge, nurturing innovative solutions, and promoting environmental education. A hierarchy of three models for sustainable development is shown in Figure 1. Nowadays, many mass green organizations have also engaged in Care for Our Mother Earth Campaigns.
CareOurEarth, a short name for Care for Our Mother Earth, is an ideal framework for environmental education. “Care” refers to socio-economic policies and human activities or behaviors, and “Earth” represents the natural environment or ecological systems. “Our” indicates a dynamic interaction between humanity and the natural environment. This framework consists of three crucial dimensions of sustainable development: natural environment, socio-economic practice, and public health outcomes. Each dimension comprises different categories. All these categories are inextricably bound to the core content of sustainable development. Unlike the structure of Sustainable Development Goals, this framework puts social and economic issues into one dimension. Instead, it includes an additional dimension – global health, which can be viewed as a collection of impact assessment measures.
CareOurEarth is an innovative framework for environmental education. It recognizes that the natural environment, humanity, species, and prosperity are all part of one earth system. This framework can integrate multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge or information well. It forms a basis for linking any specific topic, either an environmental issue or a socio-economic practice, into a coherent and progressive discussion of sustainable development. This framework can help to promote transformative education, enhance public awareness of global challenges, and call for responsible actions to promote environmental sustainability.
Preview CareOurEarth Archives (overview)
Purchase CareOurEarth Archives (first edition)
Leave a Reply