Earth Day 2024: Five Reasons To Be Optimistic According To Earthrise Studio’s CEO, Alice Aedy

Indigenous Peoples already hold many of the solutions that can help our planet to flourish. Although Indigenous communities comprise of just 5% of the world population, they protect a massive 80% of the world’s biodiversity. Their sophisticated knowledge of the natural world is also key to protecting our future.

We can all do our bit to help by supporting their work and amplifying Indigenous voices. One of the projects I’m most proud of has been Earthrise joining forces with non-governmental organisation Choose Love to launch Choose Earth - a campaign driven by Brazilian Indigenous leaders. Through the campaign, we’ve raised more than £350,000 to support vital environmental projects in Brazil. This year, we’re so excited to be expanding the remit of Choose Earth to directly support more communities on the front line of climate change and under threat of displacement.

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While it can be incredibly disheartening to see Big Oil cling onto power (often using dirty tactics such as greenwashing and lobbying to do so), the green transition is underway and there are many reasons to be hopeful.

At the beginning of this year, Earthrise launched ‘POWER’ - a four part video series investigating how fossil fuels changed the world and crucially, how we can move away from them. In making it, we learnt about how renewables are getting cheaper. So much so that The International Energy Agency predicts that renewable energy could provide half of the world's electricity by 2030. We also learnt about the amazing communities that are taking matters into their own hands, investing in local renewable energy projects. These projects are popping up everywhere and getting involved in one is one of the most tangible things one can do in the climate movement.

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While companies and even governments are slow to enact climate policies, law is becoming a powerful tool for climate action. Just this month in a landmark case, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Switzerland’s weak climate policy had violated the rights of a group of older Swiss women to family life.

We made a 12-part series on climate solutions back in 2022 called ‘Spotlight’, in collaboration with Bloomberg, and one of my favourite episodes looked at how the fight for the climate is taking place in courts. Globally, climate litigation cases have more than doubled since 2015: if corporations and governments don’t want to change going forward, then they might just have to - whether they like it or not.

To protect nature, we first need to value it - and the good news is that there are many amazing new ways that you can connect with the natural word, even from your own home.

Launching this Earth Day, the Sounds Right project sees NATURE become a verified artist on streaming platforms, collaborating with the likes of David Bowie x Brian Eno, Ellie Goulding, Aurora, London Grammar and more - with royalties going towards high-impact conservation projects.

Follow NATURE on Spotify to listen to Ellie Goulding’s 'Brightest Blue - Nature Remix', featuring sounds from the lush rainforests of Colombia, or Cosmo Sheldrake’s 'Soil', a homage to the powerful capacities of subterranean ecosystems. Every listen contributes towards vital environmental projects, supporting NATURE for generations to come.

In this line of work, we have to take the wins where we can, and one positive is that awareness of climate has grown hugely. Go back just 30 years and climate change was a story that fell on mostly indifferent ears.

Cut to 2024 and Earthrise has built an incredible online community of 3.6 million who care about the planet. We’ve not only collaborated with some of the most respected environmental names like Greta Thunberg and David Attenborough, but also started to work with musicians, artists, fashion brands, filmmakers and more. We know that having these culture makers on board is key to revolutionising how audiences engage with the climate crisis. Artists tell stories differently, breaking outside of the echo chamber and ultimately, driving all of us towards a more beautiful, just and sustainable future.

So this Earth Day, why not join the conversation? Share a positive climate story with your friends. Celebrate the amazing sounds of nature. Spotlight the Indigenous leaders who are protecting our planet. Because if we all shout loud enough, then another future just might be possible.