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This Earth Day, share the many faces of climate change

© Faces of Climate Change

It is almost time for Earth Day, Monday, April 22, and this year’s theme is The Face of Climate Change. To help put a human face on the challenge of climate change, the Earth Day Network is collecting images of people, animals and places affected by climate change, as well as images of people working to find solutions.

On Earth Day itself, an interactive digital display of all the images will be shown at thousands of events around the world. The display is also available online. To contribute to the project, post photos to Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #FaceOfClimate for inclusion in the mosaic.

Here’s how Earth Day Network explains the project:

Although climate change still seems a remote problem to some people, the reality is quite different. This past year marked many climate-change milestones. Arctic sea-ice cover reached a record low in September. The United States experienced its hottest year ever; this after the World Meteorological Organization announced that the first decade of this century was the hottest on record for the entire planet. Public perception of extreme weather events as “the new normal” grew, as unusual super storms rocked the Caribbean, the Philippines and the northeast United States; droughts plagued northern Brazil, Russia, China and two-thirds of United States; exceptional floods inundated Nigeria, Pakistan and parts of China; and more. Meanwhile, international climate change talks stagnated.

But as these Faces of Climate Change begin to multiply, others are multiplying, too: people stepping up to do something about it.

“The goal is to depict the very real impact that climate change is having on people’s lives and to unite thousands of Earth Day events around the world into one call for climate action,” said Franklin Russell, director of Earth Day at Earth Day Network. “The more people who participate, the more of an impact it will have.”