The 50th anniversary of Earth Day is coming up on April 22. It’s a celebration that feels more important than ever to me. 



Can I distract you with a quick story?

1/17

Anyone know who this guy is? ... one of my heroes: @stewartbrand

In 1966, he started a campaign selling buttons for 25 cents with a simple question “Why haven’t we seen a photograph of the whole Earth yet?”

At the time, no human had ever seen the whole Earth. Stewart Brand sent these buttons to members of congress, UN officials, and luminaries like Buckminster Fuller and Marshall McLuhan.

It was only one year later, November, 10 1967 that @NASA released the first photo of the whole Earth shot from ATS-3 an early weather satellite.

In 1968 humans first saw the whole Earth with their own eyes, and were the first to witness what is now called the Overview Effect. The first “earthrise” taken by Bill Anders.

In 1969 we first stepped foot on the moon and captured earthrise from its surface, shot by @AstroMCollins

“The thing that really surprised me was that it [Earth] projected an air of fragility. And why, I don’t know. I don’t know to this day. I had a feeling it’s tiny, it’s shiny, it’s beautiful, it’s home, and it’s fragile.”

— @AstroMCollins, Apollo 11

It was one year later, in 1970 the first Earth Day was held coordinated by @DenisHayes. 2020 is its 50th anniversary.

As time passed and our probes travelled out into space, Voyager 1 captured this iconic photo of Earth from 3.7 billion miles away away in February 1990.

I think about Carl Sagan’s famous words all the time:

“Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives.”

The story that isn’t often told, is how much work it was to get the funding, political, and technical support to take this photo. It took Carl Sagan years to get it approved, as told in this great piece by @carolynporco https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/how-the-celebrated-pale-blue-dot-image-came-to-be/

Each of these moments came from a someone deciding it was important… From a 25 cent button, to a request for photo of the Earth shot from the edge of our solar system.

It inspired me to think about something useful I can do for the 50th Earth Day with my personal knowledge and friends.



This is what I came up with: http://slashpackaging.org  



A call for brands to have a page on their website at /packaging

Just like everyone has an /about page I am hoping that companies will create a /packaging page where they open up about their commitments to sustainable packaging — one of the biggest challenges of our time.

I hope you can be part of creating a Slash Packaging page at your company, or asking your favorite brands to join.



The directory will go up on Earth Day, April 22.



Join here: https://www.slashpackaging.org/join 

What are you doing for Earth Day?

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