Earth Day, Environmental Justice, and Democracy

Every year on April 22, Earth Day marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. It was originally the brainchild of Senator Gaylord Nelson and was inspired by the protests of the 1960s, and so Earth Day began as a “national teach-in on the environment” and was held on April 22 to maximize the number of students that could be reached on university campuses.

Earth Day now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally by EARTHDAY.ORG including 1 billion people in more than 193 countries.

To talk about how PennFuture will be celebrating Earth Day, as well as how it connects to our work in Environmental Justice and Democracy work, we’ve invited two special guests to the show today.

Maria Ocasio serves as PennFuture’s Lehigh Valley Field Coordinator. She is responsible for identifying, engaging, and mobilizing a strong base of volunteers within the community to bring about change and awareness on environmental issues in the Lehigh Valley.

Through PennFuture’s Democracy for All program, Emily Gale is PennFuture's Director of Civic Engagement. In this role, Emily has created a new non-partisan voter registration program for PennFuture, which is currently active in active Monroe, Northampton, Lehigh, Dauphin, York, Lancaster, and Luzerne counties.

Links referred to in this episode:
https://www.pennfuture.org/join-the-ace-program

https://www.democracyforall-pennfuture.com/

For more information about PennFuture, visit pennfuture.org