Earth Day Goes Digital

Walls Bracken helped to cleanup the beach during Earth Day in Lydgate Park 2019. This year, due to social distancing, Earth Day efforts should either be collaborative online or solo in the environment. Photo by Jennifer Leticia.

By Tommy Noyes

The Friends of Kamalani and Lydgate Park have celebrated Earth Day in Lydgate Park each spring for the past 15 years by hosting a community workday. The event was on track for 2020 until our routines were preempted by COVID-19’s arrival, park closures and the sensible imperative for social distancing.

While you won’t be able to enjoy a local community workday this spring, you could participate in a coordinated effort to advance awareness of the basic principles behind the Earth Day movement.

Here’s text from a global call to action distributed by the Earth Day Network:

“On April 22^nd, we mobilize — digitally.

“At Earth Day Network, the health and safety of volunteers and participants in Earth Day events is our top concern. Amid the recent COVID-19 outbreak, we encourage people to rise up but to do so safely and responsibly — in many cases, that means using our voices to drive action online rather than in person.

“With this in mind, Earth Day Network is postponing its live 50^th anniversary Earth Day event. Instead, April 22 will mark the first Digital Earth Day, a global digital mobilization to address the most urgent threats to people and planet.

“Digital Earth Day will use some of the world’s most innovative digital media platforms to mobilize millions in a collective call for climate action. The coordination will deliver an Earth Day unlike any other in history.

“In the face of a challenge that unites us all, whether it be coronavirus or our global climate crisis, we cannot shut down. Instead, we must shift our energies and efforts to new ways to mobilize the world to action.

“The first Earth Day was the biggest civic engagement demonstration the world had seen. The 50th anniversary of Earth Day will take mobilization to the next level. We’ll be in touch with ways you can participate in the coming days.

“Together, Kathleen Rogers, President, Earth Day Network”

If this coordinated global effort appeals to you, visit www.earthday.org to access the current details regarding how you can be a part of Digital Earth Day.

In March, the Surfrider Foundation, one of organizations that had planned to assist with Earth Day in Lydgate Park 2020, sent out an e-mail with the following suggestion:

“The [mid-March rain] storms have brought a major mess to our coastline.

“Neither the state, the county or the tourist industry cleans our Kaua’i beaches. It is up to us.

“Social distancing has made it necessary to cancel all Surfrider Foundation Beach Clean Ups and Net Patrols until May. Please help by going out by yourself and picking up some trash when the sun returns.”

Visit kauai.surfrider.org/ for more information.

The Friends of Kamalani will resume community strengthening events as conditions permit, and looks forward to their 16^th annual Make A Difference Day in Lydgate Park on Saturday, Oct. 24. Please put that date on your calendar as something to look forward to when we expect to have reestablished social networking.

• Tommy Noyes is Kaua‘i Path’s executive director, a League of American Bicyclists Certified Instructor and active with the Kaua‘i Medical Reserve Corps.