Earth Day

It’s been 55 years since a US senator and a young activist called for a one-day celebration of Mother Earth. About 20 million folks across the US gathered for demonstrations and teach-ins (remember these?) on Earth Day April 22, 1970, bringing environmental issues into the mainstream and leading to the creation of the US Environmental Protection Agency (the current EPA, under Trump 2.0, seems bent on upending previous gains on environmental protection and is set to roll back about 30 anti-pollution rules). Last year, over a billion across the globe participated in Earth Day activities.

Back then in the 70s, global warming and climate change were vague terms, hardly in our consciousness or our vocabulary. Today, climate change is a very real crisis, affecting all aspects of our lives, whether we feel it directly or not – increased temperatures (in 2024, the critical 1.5 degrees Celcius threshold was breached for the full year for the first time; today, danger-level heat index warnings are issued more and more often), more severe and widespread storms and droughts, loss of arctic ice, increasing sea levels…

There used to be doubters, those – especially policymakers – who would scoff at alarmist tree-huggers as the Chicken Little of the environment. Today there is no question or debate over the reality of the crisis confronting humankind in relation to the Earth we call home.

So what do we do this Earth Day 2025? Actually, we all know what we have to do – government officials, business people, bankers, industrialists, even we ordinary folks – we’re just not doing it, at least we’re not doing enough.

The theme of Earth Day 2025 is “Our Power. Our Planet.” The focus this year is on renewable energy, specifically to triple the generation of renewable energy – solar, wind, geothermal, hydro, tidal – by 2030 and move away from finite and polluting fossil fuels. While the tariff king in DC is pushing for renewed, expanded drilling and going back to coal, other countries have made and are making big strides towards sustainable, renewable energy.

China, for example, is currently the leader in wind and solar energy, with two times as much capacity under construction as the rest of the world combined. Forty-nine countries generate more than half of their electricity from solar, wind, hydro and geothermal sources, including Canada, New Zealand, Switzerland, Brazil, Norway. Iceland gets 99.99 percent of its electricity from renewable sources.

And what about the Philippines?

Republic Act 9513 or the Renewable Energy Act of 2008 set forth the National Renewable Energy Program, which aims to have renewable energy make up 35 percent of our power generation mix by 2030 and up to 50 percent by 2040. In 2023, only 22 percent of our country’s electricity came from renewable sources, particularly geothermal and hydro power, with small contributions (about 2.5 percent) from solar and wind. The bulk or just under 80 percent is still from fossil fuels.

As I write this on Good Friday afternoon I cannot look out the window because my eyes hurt from the intensity of the sun. We have such intense sunlight at least half of the year. Solar energy could – should – be a major source of electricity for us, but somehow it hasn’t quite taken off. With the cost of solar panels having gone down significantly, businesses and even households should be encouraged – incentivized with tax breaks, rebates, etc. – to set up solar energy systems.

Solar systems are ideal for an archipelago like the Philippines, so that isolated, far-flung areas do not need to be connected to any grid or electric cooperative but can have their own solar electricity systems. If government provides the capital and the infrastructure, the LGU or an NGO or residents’ cooperative can then manage and maintain the system.

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I reached out to environment lawyer and activist Tony Oposa, the man behind what has come to be known as the Oposa Doctrine, a landmark 1993 Supreme Court decision (case no. 101083, if you want to read it in full) – eloquently penned by then Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. – acknowledging the doctrine of “intergenerational responsibility” – that each generation has the responsibility to protect the environment for future generations. It also recognized the right of children to sue on behalf of themselves and future generations to protect the environment. The case has been cited by more than a hundred countries in the International Court of Justice and significantly contributed to the development of international environmental law.

“Di na ako nandedemanda (I don’t file suits anymore),” Oposa tells me in a text message. “Ang mga gumagawa ng mabuti ang binibida (I highlight those who are doing good).” He calls this “our new approach for new possible dreams.”

To illustrate his point, he sent a link to the “World Concert of Good Stories,” a video collage of “good stories” from around the world – from the Amazon Forest in Colombia being granted the human right to take legal action to a “School of Nature” in Poland to the transformation of Singapore from a poor kampong to a sustainable, prosperous Garden City.

There is also a petition to the United Nations to declare the international waters of the South China and West Philippine Seas as the Asia Marine Peace Park, bucking ownership claims by any country of these waters that can lead to conflict and confrontation. “We will have peace on Earth when we have peace with the Earth,” Oposa narrates. Sign up at asiamarinepeacepark@gmail.com.

And on June 21, there will be a festival of good stories, where individuals will be celebrated for the good they have done and are doing for Nature, for Mother Earth, for humankind. That there are still many good stories worth telling is hope enough to celebrate Earth Day 2025.