CAC Recommends: Earth Day Edition

While CAC docents, staff members and volunteers practice safe spatial distancing, we’re sharing great reads, viewing and more to rediscover why design matters. This week, we’re focused on Earth Day.

By Ian Spula and Hallie Rosen

Inspired by the environmental activism of the 1960s, Earth Day began 50 years ago on April 22 as a national teach-in on the environment and a way to raise public awareness about pollution. The day is traditionally observed worldwide with rallies, conferences, outdoor projects and service projects. This year, while we are staying at home, it requires us to use our creativity.

TAKE THE EARTH DAY CHALLENGE

READ AND DO

As we collectively take action to flatten the curve and reduce the spread of COVID-19, we cannot lose sight of the bigger picture: our global climate crisis. The Earth Day Network has put together a 22-day challenge that will allow people to connect through specific actions and “citizen science” right now and every day for our planet.

READ EARTH DAY ARTICLES

BBC ARTICLE • INSIDE CLIMATE CHANGE ARTICLE

In many ways, COVID-19 is providing a dress rehearsal for the behavioral adjustments that will be necessary to slow climate change. On this 50th Earth Day, read about the single biggest personal action you can take to shrink your carbon footprint in the BBC’s Smart Guide to Climate Change. Then, get inside the head of Earth Day co-founder Denis Hayes as he wrestles with the COVID-19 pandemic and what it says about both environmental vulnerabilities and opportunities.

LISTEN TO AN ENVIRONMENT-THEMED PODCAST

LISTEN

In this 2016 episode of WBEZ’s Sound Opinions podcast, local rock critics Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot explore the complicated relationship between music and the environment. Environmentalist Bill McKibben and musician/activist Adam Gardner also join in to discuss the role musicians can play in fighting climate change.

CAC Recommends content does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Chicago Architecture Center, members of its board and staff, or other stakeholders.