Happy Earth Day! Today, instead of focusing on the doom and gloom of climate change, we are celebrating the incredible strides we have seen in the past year that inspires us to continue fighting for our planet.

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Let’s celebrate the positives!

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• Cars that run on electricity instead of gas have become more popular, thanks to technological improvements, lower prices, and government action. The UK government is taking steps and will end the sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030
• Many countries, such as China, the US, India, Japan, Brazil, and Turkey, now generate around a tenth of their electricity from wind and solar power. In the UK the percentage is 33%!
• In December 2020, the Ocean Panel consisting of 14 world leaders signed an agreement to sustainably manage 100% of the oceans under their national jurisdictions by 2025—an area of ocean roughly the size of Africa.
• French startup, Carbios, discovered an enzyme that breaks down plastic bottles for recycling in hours has been created by scientists, making strides to tackle plastic waste.
• Kenya's elephant population experienced a baby boom due to anti-poaching efforts, recording a record low of 11 elephants compared to 80 in 2018. And no Rhinos were poached in 2020 which hasn’t happened since 1999.
• Fridays For Future continued to strike digitally or while social-distancing with 327 strikes across the world on Earth Day and 1028 on Global Day of Climate Action 2020.
• The UK’s biggest supermarket, Tesco, removed 1 Billion Pieces of Plastic From Across Its Stores in 2020.
• A group of scientists suggest that “substantial recovery of the abundance, structure and function of marine life could be achieved by 2050” if urgent action is taken including climate change, protecting places of remaining abundance, and working to recover negatively impacted populations, habitats and ecosystems.

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Make Earth Day Every Day

While we celebrate positive progress this Earth Day, we must stay tenacious and dedicated to supporting our planet. It is key to stay optimistic and hopeful for the future and know that each little action we take in our own lives makes a big difference. We got this and the future is bright if we make earth day every day!

Happy Earth Day from the community team at WeAre8!

Sources: Gov.UK, Ember Climate, Ocean Panel, The Guardian, NPR, AA, Fridays for Future, Good News Network, Nature.com

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