KOCHI: This year has brought many firsts and new experiences and this year’s Earth Day, April 22, is certainly among them. While people cannot get outside and participate in the outdoor and collective experiences in person, they are celebrating the Earth on Twitter.The conversation on Twitter has spiked 285 per cent around the discussion of ‘action’ and ‘innovation’ in sustainability and there have been more than one million tweets tying this period of Covid-19 to its’ impact on the environment. There have been at least 20 million tweets about the environment since the last Earth Day.
Ahead of Earth Day, Twitter launched a new #EarthDay2020emoji to encourage environmental conversations. To commemorate the 50th Earth Day, Twitter India (@TwitterIndia), Let Me Breathe (@LetMeBreathe_In) and Earth Day Network (@EarthDay_India) are partnering for #FiftyForFifty -- a campaign that highlights 50 years of Earth Day and gives a common platform to 50 crowd sourced steps that we can take in our daily life to combat climate change and live sustainably. Noted environmental activists and celebrities joined the environmental conversation. Actress Dia Mirza and singer-actor Monica Dogra participated in a live Twitter panel on April 21 to talk about 50 years of #EarthDay2020.
Of late, as the Covid-19 pandemic is keeping people indoors, reduced industrial and human activities have led to the rejuvenation of nature. Twitter has been witnessing volumes of discussions around how the lockdown has given the environment a chance to revive its lost glory.While people continue to spend time at home, they are also taking up #BalconyBirding and reading books on nature.
To bring out more focused conversations on sustainability, Let Me Breathe (@LetMeBreathe_In) has also launched three #FiftyForFifty Twitter lists on topics like Balcony Birders, Climate Activists and Sustainable Fashion. A Twitter List is a curated group of Twitter accounts. You can create your own lists or subscribe to lists created by others. Viewing a list timeline will show a stream of tweets from only the accounts on that list, usually around a particular topic. Organisations such as the UNESCO MGIEP (@UNESCO_MGIEP), WWF India (@WWFINDIA) and Earth Day Network India (@EarthDay_IN) are organising virtual concerts with performances from the finest musicians.