Earth Day 2021: all set for the 51st United Nations World Earth Day. Live for the whole world to view on 22 April on www.raiplay.it 13 hours of direct livestreaming for the protection of creation. The 22 April 2021 marks the second episode of #OnePeopleOnePlanet – the multimedia marathon to celebrate the 51st Anniversary of World Earth Day, with 13 hours of live streaming – from 7.30 a.m. Italian time – on www.raiplay.it which can be viewed all over the world. #OnePeopleOnePlanet is the result of the efforts of two organisations – Earth Day Italy and the Focolare Movement – that gave life to the Village for the Earth at the Villa Borghese (Rome) which was unexpectedly inaugurated by Pope Francis in 2016 following the historic Paris climate agreement. Here are the words of Pierluigi Sassi, president of Earth Day Italy, interviewed by Lorena Locascio. Pierluigi, what can we expect this year for the second episode of #OnePeopleOnePlanet? “For the 2021 version we are putting young people first, because for the first time ever the United Nations are inviting young people to be present at the Climate Conference. So we are involving young people who have finally raised their heads and finally begun to make their voices heard, not only as the generation that will inherit this planet but also as the people who can bring about change because it is something they feel strongly about. (…) Our other commitment is to vigorously pursue the 17 goals of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. We think that by building bridges towards 2030 and then trying to create international links we can accelerate the process. What we would like to do is create lots of points of contact with the five continents, telling wonderful stories of people who are committed to the cause in every corner of the earth. (…) The third point is innovation for sustainable development. It’s the moment when the entrepreneur is faced with a blank sheet of paper and prepares to describe not only his business model but also the rules of the game, and is much more sensitive to the issue of sustainability. So innovation is the great challenge of the future”. What are the new or special features this year as compared to last year? “This year we wanted to include a module called VIP – Very Important Planet, where the VIPs are not the people we chase for autographs, but the planet that needs help from those people. So we’re asking a lot of people from the worlds of entertainment, sport, culture and art to help us with awareness-raising messages. This will help make our marathon much more fun because when we talk about important things there’s a risk that some may find it boring so there will be lots of music, lots of fun with the aim of mobilising and touching the heartstrings of our listeners to try to produce a little more change through this game”. This year part of the programme will also be dedicated to talking about #Daretocare; what can you tell us about this… without giving too much away? “First of all, we have to say that the meeting with the United World Project (UWP) of the Focolare Movement, and therefore the meeting with such an important mobilisation, which is so widespread at an international level, gives us great reason for hope. Seeing so many young people in hundreds of countries committed to unity, which is also one of our themes: #One PeopleOnePlanet says a lot about the fact that we are talking about one single human family, the unity of people with one sole planet, hence the importance of safeguarding our earth: it has certainly been a wonderful moment to find the UWP soul. This network of people already supported us last year with communications. It is a network that has been extraordinarily committed to this #Daretocare campaign on the theme of COVID and on the theme of the solidarity emerging from it.  We want to talk about these bridges for the common good on an international level, about the importance of coming together to achieve common goals and protect the common good. Putting man back at the centre and telling stories of courage and pride in doing good has been a very beautiful experience. I can’t wait to see the final product but I can already sense something very beautiful.” So the appointment is for 22 April 2021 from 7.30 a.m. to 8.30 p.m. (Italian time) on the www.raiplay.it website which is visible to the world and on the OnePeopleOnePlanet website to celebrate this important day together with the One People One Planet marathon.

Lorenzo Russo

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