Have Facebook, Twitter and Web 2.0 Made Earth Day Every Day?

A quick and dirty guide to green social media. Getting involved is just a click away.

April 22nd will be the 39th anniversary of Earth Day, and you'll be forgiven if it’s not marked on your calendar – it's a shadow of its former self. In 1970, the first Earth Day inspired 20 million people to turn out for everything from sit-ins to a traffic-stopping march down New York's 5th avenue.

If the world's focus on the environment has only increased since then, what has happened to Earth Day? You might say it has turned into a year-round event, brought directly to our homes and workplaces via a Cambrian explosion of niche green media. In their wake, inevitably, has followed the web 2.0-ification of environmental activism. It won't be televised, but only because its practitioners are too busy tweeting it. (Speaking of which, don't forget to follow Green Living on Twitter (@GreenLivingMag) and to find us on Facebook.) 

Replanting the Rainforest

Political parties have long understood the importance of message discipline – spreading talking points among the faithful and making sure they stick to them. Activists are getting hip to this technique, and it's a natural fit for the web, where information spreads virally.

Replanting the Rainforests takes this technique a step further by following a blitz of posts from volunteer bloggers with a plea for donations.

charity: water

Charity: water is a classic example of how Twitter can make a fundraising effort go viral. Through Toronto's (and other city's) Twestivals, which are a way for people on Twitter to meet up for booze and socializing in “meatspace” (web 2.0 parlance for a real life meeting place, as opposed to a virtual one), charity: water was able to raise $250,000, all of which will go to drinking water wells to be drilled in Africa.

A search of Twitter shows exactly how charity: water got the word out: people who believe in the cause syndicated or "re-tweeted" charity: water's announcements about the event, spreading it from one Twitter friend to another like the chain letters of yore.

#earthtweet

#earthtweet, a consciousness-raising "tweet-a-thon" brought to you by the climate change activist organization Brighter Planet, assumes you're on Twitter and that you know how to use a Twitter-specific convention known as a hashtag. Hashtags allow Twitter users to categorize their own Tweets, in this case, as an #earthtweet.

#earthtweet "brings together tips, news, information about events, and anything else that’s relevant to solving our climate problem," drawing from a network of partners (including Green Living Online).

One Million Acts of Green

If the success of One Million Acts of Green is any measure, the combination of broadcast media and the web is as irresistible to the public as peanut butter and chocolate. Born on CBC's talk show The Hour, with George Stroumboulopoulos, and persisting on the One Million Acts of Green website, this is a movement that hinges on displays of green deeds made public on the web—nearly a million and a half so far.

350

The struggle for climate change activists to settle on a single message mirrors the struggle of scientists and policy-makers to figure out what we should do about climate change. Author and activist Bill McKibben cut the Gordian knot at the centre of this dilemma by naming his organization 350, after the upper limit (in parts per million) of carbon dioxide that should be in the atmosphere in order to avoid runaway climate change.

350 gives volunteers a central place to announce events planned for a world-wide action on October 24. It's a classic example of the power of the web to unite everyone with a web browser and a passion for a particular subject, wherever and whoever they are.

Earth Hour

Earth Hour is a yearly attempt to get concerned citizens to "vote for the Earth" by turning out their lights for one hour (read about its significance here). This year, on March 28, the City of Toronto reported a 15.1 percent drop in electricity use over the course of Earth Hour – nearly twice the drop that occurred during the Earth Hour of 2008.

Earth Hour leverages photo-sharing site Flickr to allow participants to display images of darkened homes and city streets.

Is there a green Web 2.0 initiative we've missed? Let us know, using the Comments form below.