Stay-home singalongs, better air quality: Coronavirus makes mark on Earth Day 2020
A Davis artist and climate activist is helping to organize an Earth Day “Sing Out” on Wednesday, inviting the community to sing along to a playlist of environmental-themed songs from home or while safely social distancing at parks.
Chalk artist and mental health advocate Danielle Fodor, a UC Davis alumna, wrote in a university blog post that the campaign is in part a way to “find some joy and energy to keep going” amid the global coronavirus pandemic, while also marking the 50th anniversary of Earth Day and serving as a call to action.
“It’s rough times on planet Earth,” Fodor wrote. “In addition to the pandemic health crisis, we are struggling with an economic crisis, and the long-running destruction of our earth, water, and air for future generations.”
The Earth Day Sing Out, being organized by Fodor, local musicians and a number of local environmental and climate change activism groups, will take place from noon to 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday, with each hour serving as a singalong through a playlist of environmentally themed songs.
Fodor is associated with Climate Strike Davis, which is organizing the Sing Out in collaboration with Sunrise Movement Davis, Cool Davis, Davis Independent Music Initiative, Mothers Out Front, Extinction Rebellion Sacramento and the Yolo Interfaith Alliance for Climate Justice. Fodor and many of those groups also calling for “an economic stimulus that prevents future crisis — a green stimulus and a bailout focused on people, not profit,” she wrote in her blog post.
The Sing Out’s songbook can be found at climatestrikedavis.com, and the evening sing-out will be broadcast on KDRT-LP (95.7 FM) so that participants can sing along with local bands and musicians safely from home.
Fodor also says that those who wish to support local musicians with a small donation can do so through PayPal, to the Davis Independent Music Initiative, at davisindependentmusic@gmail.com.
“Our local musicians are hurting from lost gigs, canceled teaching jobs, and lost day jobs — making it hard to manage monthly living expenses,” Fodor wrote for the UC Davis website.
Pandemic makes Earth Day 2020 a peculiar one
Californians have been under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s mandatory stay-at-home guidelines, requiring all to stay at their place of residence except for essential purposes and banning physical gatherings of any size, since March 19. Yolo County issued its own countywide “shelter-in-place” order, with similar guidelines, a day before the statewide restrictions were announced.
“The #EarthDaySingOut page on the Davis Climate Strike website invites you to sing with your household out the front or back door while sheltering in place,” Fodor wrote. “Or, sing in the park while staying a safe distance from others.”
Physical distancing requirements and stay-home orders aren’t the only things making Earth Day 2020 an odd one. Some changes brought about by the coronavirus pandemic have appeared have an environmental net benefit; others seem to be a detriment; and many are being studied as an unprecedented, impromptu experiment.
Earlier this month, a number of grocery stores temporarily banned reusable bags as a means of reducing likelihood of spreading the highly contagious coronavirus. California in 2016 voted to ban single-use plastic bags, which can often end up littered and endangering wildlife in waterways, but many stores have effectively gone back to using those and paper bags for their purchases, said Ron Fong, president and CEO of the California Grocers Association.
On the other hand, a number of major urban centers worldwide, from Los Angeles to London, have had reports of lower air pollution and smog, as shutdowns around the globe have left millions of drivers off the roads every day.
Maps created by visual journalist Steven Bernard, of the Financial Times of London, showed stark before-and-after contrasts of nitrogen dioxide pollution levels, and how coronavirus shutdown measures reduced them.
“We will be able to get a much better handle on where the pollution is coming from in normal circumstances, because things like power generation will continue, but road traffic is shutting down,” James Lee, an atmospheric chemistry professor at the University of York in England, told the Financial Times.
At the same time, existing air pollution may be worsening the danger of the coronavirus in some parts of the world. The New York Times reported earlier this month on research linking areas with worse air pollution to higher death rates from COVID-19, which is a respiratory disease.
This story was originally published April 21, 2020 at 11:52 AM with the headline "Stay-home singalongs, better air quality: Coronavirus makes mark on Earth Day 2020."
