Join the Sierra Club for Earth Day Live, a 72-hour livestream of heartfelt stories, powerful discussions, amazing performances, and bold calls to action marking the 50th anniversary of the original Earth Day. Organized by the US Youth Climate Strike Coalition, it aims to bring together one billion people from around the world to demand clean air and water and a just and liveable future.
Every Earth Day Live event is worth attending. But if you have limited time, here are a few we’d be especially excited for you to check out. They feature Sierra Club staff and partners, and they’re focused on issues the Sierra Club community is especially passionate about -- things like putting climate champions into office, defending our public lands, and stopping the money pipeline that finances climate destruction.
Check out the action at sc.org/EarthDayLive, or on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, or Twitch.
Wednesday, April 22:
This day’s theme is “Strike.” It will highlight youth and frontline activists who are leading the movement to end the climate crisis.
2:30 PM EST: Naina Agrawal-Hardin helped make a promo video to get Sierra Club members excited about Earth Day. In this event, she lays out the Youth Climate Strike Coalition’s core demands -- in essence, what Earth Day Live is all about.
5:30 PM EST: You may know Mark Ruffalo from his movies, but he’s also a passionate environmental advocate. In Dark Waters, which came out last year, he mixed his art and his activism: He played an environmental lawyer who fought DuPont Chemical over its contamination of a West Virginia town with the class of toxic chemicals known as PFAS.
First, Ruffalo will be talking with two fellow environmental activists: Vic Barrett, a plaintiff in Juliana v United States, and Mark Favors, an Army veteran and member of the Fountain Valley Clean Water Coalition who testified before Congress about the damaging effects PFAS had on his family. Then Ruffalo will chat with Robert Bilott, the lawyer whose work inspired Dark Waters.
7:30 PM EST: Listen to a group of politically engaged artists talk about their work in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate emergency. Conceptual artist Ai Weiwei and musicians DJ Spooky and Amanda Palmer will join street artist Shepard Fairey, who designed our gorgeous new Earth Day T-shirts. 20 percent of each sale directly supports our work, so be sure to pick one up after the event.
Thursday, April 23:
This day’s theme is “Divest!” Its focus is ending the financing of climate destruction and building a new economic system that works for people and planet.
10:30 AM EST: Hear from Bekah Hinojosa, a Sierra Club organizer with the Beyond Dirty Fuels campaign based in Brownsville, Texas. She’ll be talking about her work with community leaders and the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe to stop fracked gas pipelines and export terminals from bulldozing wildlife habitat, destroying sacred Indigenous sites, threatening the local economy, and perpetuating environmental injustice by spewing toxic air pollution into South Texas communities.
12:00 PM EST: Representative Deb Haaland, one of the first Indigenous women to serve in Congress, talks about the importance of a Green Stimulus with Mark Ruffalo and activist Michaela Ciovacco. Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the US, the Sierra Club has been working hard to ensure a just recovery and push for a green stimulus. Learn why we think it’s a crucial part of enabling workers, the environment, and our democracy to flourish long-term
1:00 PM EST: Gwich'in Nation leaders Bernadette Demientieff and Councilor Cheryl Charlie will be in conversation with the Sierra Club’s Our Wild America campaign director Lena Moffitt. They’ll be talking about the fight to safeguard the Arctic Refuge, and how the Gwich'in have been able to get some of the country’s biggest banks to commit to not finance oil and gas drilling there.
Indigenous leaders will be speaking about their work to protect the planet all day, so make sure you don’t miss these other panels:
10:30 AM EST: Chase, Climate Destruction & the Frontlines of Resistance (with Bill McKibben, Freda Huson, Tara Houska, Joye Braun).
2:00 PM EST: A Pandemic Doesn't Stop Big Oil -- Pipeline Construction Across Turtle Island
2:30 PM EST: Indigenous Women Divestment Delegation (Michelle Cook, Osprey Orielle Lake)
5:00 PM EST: Indigenous Leaders on the Frontlines of Fossil Fuel Resistance (Samantha Arechiga, Makasa Looking Horse, Ta'Kaiya Blaney, Jasilyn Charger)
6:30 PM EST: Message from Xiye Bastida from Chase Headquarters
1:30 PM EST: Have you been craving connection to the earth while you've been stuck inside? Check out this segment on gardening with model, actress, and Sierra Club ambassador Amber Valletta.
Friday, April 24:
This day’s theme is “Vote!” Youth activists and adult allies will be registering young voters and calling on elected officials to support a People’s Bailout, Indigenous sovereignty, and a Green New Deal.
12:00 PM EST: Check out the hip-hop performance, “Water Rites,” featuring Frontline Detroit and the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition. Let these songs help you form a deeper connection to the struggle for clean water, which the Sierra Club has been involved with in Detroit and many other communities.
2:00 PM EST: Jane Fonda is well-known for her presence at Fire Drill Friday climate protests. She recently joined Sierra Club activists In LA to call for a 2,500-foot separation between oil and gas drilling and the places where Californians live, work and play, and she has also protested alongside Sierra Club supporters at Chase Bank branches in Washington, D.C. She’ll be talking with youth climate justice activist Vanessa Nakate, founder of the Rise Up Movement.
4:30 PM EST: Enjoy the heartfelt songs of Sierra Club ambassador and Guster frontman Adam Gardner. When he's not in the studio or on tour, Gardner is helping venues, musicians, and festivals go green with his nonprofit Reverb.
6:00 PM EST: The Sierra Club’s Chelsea Watson will lead a session on how to engage in virtual lobbying for the People’s Bailout with partners from Greenpeace and Future Coalition. Learn how you can pressure your member of Congress to pass stimulus packages that put our health, workers, communities, and planet first -- instead of corporations and polluters. Stick around, because by 6:30 Earth Day Live participants will be calling their senators to demand they support a People’s Bailout.