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Celebrating 52 Years of Earth Day

By Blog

By Molly Updegrove

Two years ago was the 50th anniversary of Earth Day and marked a milestone across our planet. Did you know that over one billion individuals participate in Earth day each year, on average? That is A LOT of incredible people helping to improve the future! The increasing urgency on halting or slowing down the effects of climate change means that this year’s Earth Day will likely bring in a large number of concerned advocates for change. Earth Day has been one of the single-most popular days for action history and must continue that way.  You can click here to learn ways to take action this year and learn more on the history of Earth Day via this official website. 

A Pace College student in a gas mask smells a magnolia blossom in City Hall Park on Earth Day, April 22, 1970, in New York. (AP Photo)

While Earth Day is celebrated across the globe, it is crucial that we recognize the importance of protecting our environment in Appalachia and the impact that environmental concerns have on our communities. Please explore our blogs and resources to learn more about the environmental concerns that are impacting your community and how you can get involved.  

An aspect that isn’t always highlighted on Earth Day but must continue to be reinforced is that the future of jobs in environmental work must be good unionized jobs. This will ensure that the economy is helping the individuals, families, and communities that are contributing to it. And while we create these good union jobs, this also means creating pathways for people that have been historically left out of the labor market and giving . For instance, we can modernize President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) by target hiring those affected by the opioid crisis and the formerly incarcerated. With this new type of CCC that is currently included in a proposed $555 billion climate reconciliation package, we can heal our lands, create effective job training and apprenticeship programs, and pay a living wage to the workers who can properly provide for their families.

“I recognize the right and duty of this generation to develop and use the natural resources of our land; but I do not recognize the right to waste them, or to rob, by wasteful use, the generations that come after us.”

-Franklin D. Roosevelt

We cannot perpetuate the jobs vs the environment myth. Good paying jobs and a healthy environment are not mutually exclusive. Our blueprint is a testament to that!

ReImagine Appalachia released its framework in July of 2020 with input and support from dozens of organizations in the Appalachian region, including Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.  The framework had key points to ensure the future of Appalachia is better for current and future generations.  As our blueprint states, “The future of the economy must be good for workers, communities, and the environment.”  As we celebrate Earth Day this year, ReImagine Appalachia is advocating for this and more, and with the theme of Earth Day 2022 being, “Invest In Our Planet,” we don’t see a more fitting time, than right now, to advocate for our workers, communities, and environment.

Molly Updegrove is the Director of Outreach for ReImagine Appalachia

Working from the ground up

This work is best done together.

We’ve gathered visions from around the region and received input from scores of community leaders. Our endorsements come from organizations representing the voices of millions of residents across four states in the Ohio River Valley: Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky.

OUR PARTNERS

Expand opportunity through public investments

Create new opportunities for extractive industry workers and build career ladders for young people from all races and backgrounds.

CREATE GOOD JOBS

Publicly funded projects should come with strong wages, benefit and diversity requirements, and union rights.

GIVE COAL WORKERS PRIORITY

People moving out of extractive industries have skills we need to create the world we want.

BUILD CAREER LADDERS

Build pathways for women and people of color into union jobs and family-sustaining careers.

We can create good jobs while putting our region’s energy dollars to better use.

Build a 21st century sustainable economy

National climate change legislation and federal economic stimulus packages are opportunities to bring much-needed resources into our region. We must be at the table, together, if we want to get a deal that works for us.

REPAIR DAMAGE DONE IN THE LAST CENTURY

Clean up abandoned properties and put them back to good use. And provide health care and secure pensions for coal workers, especially those with black lung disease.

MODERNIZE THE
ELECTRIC GRID

By upgrading our antiquated electric system, expanding broadband, and making our homes and businesses more energy efficient, we cut emissions, save money and create new jobs.

EXPAND MANUFACTURING BY MAKING IT MORE EFFICIENT AND CLEAN

Our vision grows manufacturing in the region. Federal investments will help us repurpose shuttered coal plants, turning them into eco-industrial parks. Together, we can spur more energy efficient manufacturing and reduce operating costs in a way that doesn’t involve lowering wages.

BUILD A SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM

By laying rail and expanding infrastructure for electric vehicles fueled by renewables, we can create good jobs while putting half of our region’s energy dollars to better use.

RELAUNCH THE CIVILIAN CONSERVATION CORPS

To absorb carbon, we can put people to work expanding our forests, wetlands, and sustainable farms. Give hiring priority to returning citizens caught up in the “war on drugs” and opioid epidemic.

Everyone is more successful when people are paid a living wage.

Grow unions, raise wages for all workers

We must improve job quality for working people in all industries by raising the minimum wage and providing them with real rights to form a union.

Taking Action Now

Our work is time sensitive.

We’re working to ensure the people of Appalachia have a say in how our region rebuilds.

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