This Week on Earth: May 3-10
This week on Earth…
Evanston celebrates Earth Day through a community cleanup
The Trump administration cuts funding for forest fire research
Amsterdam bans advertising that promotes the use of fossil fuels
Evanston
Evanston capped off a week of Earth Day celebrations with the annual Downtown Evanston Earth Day Clean Up, according to Evanston Roundtable. The event, which drew over 120 volunteers, was planned by the Women’s Club of Evanston and Brightview Landscaping to promote environmental stewardship and engagement in the community. Equipped with trash bags and gloves, Evanston residents set out in groups to clean the streets downtown.
“It’s all about bringing people to downtown, giving them a positive experience, contributing to the broader community, recognizing Earth Day, and hopefully just having a nice time for a couple hours doing good in the world,” Downtown Evanston Executive Director Andy Vick told Roundtable.
The garbage cleanup was far from the only Earth Day (or week) event in Evanston. The Ladd Arboretum hosted events every day of the week, ranging from native plant giveaways to an upcycling and repair station to ecology education classes.
United States
As the climate in some states gets warmer and drier, federal scientists have been sounding the alarm about increasingly intense and dangerous wildfire seasons.
Those same scientists are now being forced to hear an alarm bell about their own jobs and research being targets of federal cuts.
Despite evidence pointing toward worsening fire seasons due to climate change, the Trump administration has chosen to slash the Forest Service’s budget. The New York Times reports that President Trump proposed eliminating the Service’s entire research and development budget, which would cut the number of Forest Service employees by more than half.
In Washington state, a federal research station examining the impacts of hotter, drier weather on saplings is closing its doors. And as wildfire season approaches, losing this research means missing out on discoveries around management, mitigation and protecting the lands that Washington residents live on.
Forest Service research can last decades, investigating long-term ecological processes and their impacts. This means that cutting research today will have ripple effects over 20 years in the future. Additionally, this research often affects policymaking and how natural areas are managed; such as, in the Pacific Northwest, whether or not to let small burns run through an ecosystem. Without it, lawmakers will be less informed and struggle to legislate to protect our ecosystems.
The Netherlands
On May 1, Amsterdam enacted a ban on advertisements for activities that promote the burning of fossil fuels, including meat products and airlines, which are no longer permitted to advertise in public spaces.
The law almost exclusively applies to public walls and city-owned property, says The New York Times. Privately owned radio stations and newspapers are able to continue carrying these advertisements, but bus stations, train cars and billboards will face restrictions.
To some legislators, the ban made perfect sense,“If you spend lots of tax money and have lots of policies trying to manage climate change in Amsterdam, why would you rent out your public walls to exactly the opposite?” said city council member Anneke Veenhoff.
The move comes across as a stark contrast in a city where, famously, many vices are legal. Despite this, it was supported by a ruling from the Hague, stating that the health of citizens and the climate overrule commercial interests in the city. The law won’t go into full effect until next year, but some fines have already been enforced.