Q and A with the experts: Earth Day and the climate crisis
April 19, 2022 Professor Sarah Burch discusses Earth Day's relevance more than 50 years on By Many view the first Earth Day as the beginning of the modern environmental movement. In advance of Earth Day 2022 on April 22, Sarah Burch, a professor at the University of Waterloo and Canada Research Chair in Sustainability Governance and Innovation, discusses its relevance more than 50 years on. She is the executive director of Waterloo's Interdisciplinary Centre on Climate Change and a lead author of the recently released report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN body that assesses the science related to our changing climate. Listen to Sarah Burch's full interview on the Beyond the Bulletin podcast , which will go live on Earth Day. The UN Climate Report stated that there has been a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in some countries. Is that promising news? The global picture is that we've seen the largest average annual increase in greenhouse gas emissions that we've ever seen in human history. So globally, greenhouse gas emissions continue to go up. However, the flip side is that we're seeing real evidence for the first time of sustained greenhouse gas reductions in around 20 countries. Those reductions are unfortunately swallowed up by the global increase, but they do show us that it's possible. They show us that good climate change decisions and policies are having a real effect, and we have a template to follow. Earth Day is a day when individuals show support for environmental protection. Does it still matter when so many years after the very first Earth Day we continue to have serious environmental problems?
