On December 4, 2024, CNN’s fourth annual Call to Earth Day will celebrate the links between people and cultures and how these can help to play a vital role in preserving our planet. Partnering with schools, individuals and organisations across the world, CNN will use its global presence for a day of action to raise awareness of environmental issues and to engage with conservation education.
This year’s theme will focus on Connected Generations and how wisdom attained through thousands of years of sustainable living practices can be put back into action in our daily lives. From African cooling techniques to Asian herbalism, Native American harvesting to Amazonian gardening, Call to Earth Day will examine the ways in which this age-old intelligence can provide solutions for a better future. Students will be encouraged to participate in trash clean-ups and to write a letter to their future selves, discussing what they love most about the environment in which they live and why it is part of an extraordinary planet worth protecting.
Over 226,000 people participated in last year’s Call to Earth Day, with events in more than 122 countries around the world. A total of 4,405 hours were spent on Call to Earth Day activities, with more than 2,600 trees planted, and almost 4,000 wildlife havens built.
Call to Earth Day is part of Call to Earth, a major network initiative launched by CNN in 2019, in partnership with Rolex and its Perpetual Planet Initiative, shining a light on those committed to safeguarding our planet for future generations. Over the last five years, this award-winning programming has told stories of changemakers, visionaries, and ground-breaking projects making a difference to the world around them.
Coverage plans for the day will see CNN meet the people looking to ancient insight for answers to some of the world’s most pressing ecological problems from locations around the world. Stories, live programming, and interviews gathered from across Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and both North and South America, will run in every hour of CNN International programming. CNN 10 will also host a theme week in the lead up to Call to Earth Day as part of its educational news show.
A special half hour documentary ‘Restoring the Andes’ will air on Call to Earth Day on CNN International and CNN en Español. This will highlight the work of Peruvian biologist and Rolex Laureate Constantino Aucca Chutas. Under his leadership, indigenous and local communities mobilise by the thousands each year to plant Polylepis trees, a tree unique to the high Andes ecosystem and crucial for the Andean water cycle. These efforts have contributed to the restoration of thousands of hectares affected by climate change and human activity. CNN visits Aucca Chutas in his hometown of Cusco for a journey retracing his roots and introducing the local community leaders who are integral to his project’s success.
CNN en Español will air Llamado a la Tierra elements in every live show. In addition, a special half hour show will be presented by CNN’s Gabriela Frias in Querétaro, Mexico, alongside environmentalist and Rolex Laureate Martha Isabel “Pati” Ruiz Corzo and the Sierra Gorda Ecological Group. The broadcast will include live hits from across Latin America.
Bespoke digital content will also run across CNN.com. The Lost Voices series will visit different indigenous groups from around the world and give a voice to those on the front lines of climate change. From the forests of Kenya, to the mountains of Scandinavia, and the waters of the Pacific Ocean, these stories will come together in a digital interactive which will take a global look at how indigenous customs, cultures, and languages are increasingly endangered, and why these ways of life could help to save the world. There will also be a dynamic live blog on CNN.com to capture the events of the day in real time and social-first storytelling on remarkable conservation projects around the globe,
CNN’s multi-platform content will be complemented by a series of live events, with participants encouraged to share their actions, ideas, and inspirational thoughts on social media using the hashtag #CallToEarth. Call to Earth Day content will also be available on CNN Arabic.
CNN International SVP, Managing Editor of Asia Pacific, & Global Head of Features Content, Ellana Lee said, “Call to Earth continues to engage more people every year, and its fourth year is on track to be our biggest ever. We have an incredibly powerful platform at CNN, and it is great to be able to hand that to the many thousands of students and individuals working to safeguard the planet for future generations. Call to Earth has always been about practical, tangible solutions to the problems we face, and the people and communities contributing to it are truly inspiring in their determination to make a difference.”
To register a Call to Earth Day event or find out more information, visit:
https://edition.cnn.com/world/registration-call-to-earth-day-2024-c2e-spc/index.html
