Happy 50th Anniversary of the Earth Day. Tracing back to the establishment of Earth Day in 1970 to commemorate the beginning of environmental movement, after Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. It was the time when mankind began to reflect on how simple habits and lifestyle choices impact the environment.

In 1968 the public saw the photo of “Earthrise” taken from Apollo 8, recognising fragility and limited carrying capacity of the Spaceship Earth.

By 1970s, environmental and advocacy groups emerge to tackle problems with research and legislation, but the ideas of modernisation and economic development model were seldom questioned. Today we are seeing more environmental disasters, notably the climate crisis, which has become a problem of life and death, of equity and justice.

As Naomi Klein described, “Climate change is our chance to right those festering wrongs at last—the unfinished business of liberation.”

The massive global investments required for communities to adapt humanely and equitably to extreme weather, and for the transitions and adjustments after COVID-19, reveals the chance to introduce a more equitable economic system with distributive fairness. The intervention point has come, it is time for our leaders and ourselves to rethink what kind of world we would like to be in. The future is in our hands, each small consumption choice could make a significant difference on our planet.