Earth Day 1970–2022: What's Changed?

Earth Day 1970-2022: What’s changed? - Descriptive Transcript

[American Museum of Natural History logo animates out over an illustration of the rotating Earth.]

[TEXT: The first Earth Day was in 1970. What’s changed since?]

[TEXT: Since Earth Day 1970, our population has more than doubled.]

[The globe transforms into the head of a stick figure. The figure multiplies to fill the screen, then the figures double, to illustrate population growth since 1970.]

[TEXT: Global population 1970: 3.7 billion, 2022: 7.9 billion. Source: UN]

[The stick figures disappear and are replaced by a graph that starts at 1970 and goes to 2021. Bubbles of increasing size indicate growing annual CO2 emissions.]

[TEXT: We’re emitting 2.6 times more CO2… ]

[TEXT: Global CO2 emissions (tons) 1970: 13.7 billion, 2021: 36.3 billion. Source: IEA]

[A line graph shows an upward trend in temperature between 1970 and 2021.]

[TEXT: …causing temperatures to rise. 0.94°C rise.]  

[TEXT: Global surface temperature compared to 1951-1980 average, 1970: 0.0°C, 2021: +0.94°C. Source: NASA] 

[SOUNDS OF SPLASHING WATER]

[The line graph transforms into a sea surface. A block of ice is bobbing in the water. It shrinks, to represent sea ice melt since 1979.]

[TEXT: Sea ice has melted. 13% decline per decade.]

[TEXT: Arctic sea ice minimum (km2) 1979: 6.9 million, 2021: 4.7 million. Source: NASA]

[A cityscape appears on the horizon of the ocean.]

[TEXT: Sea levels have risen. 12 cm higher.]

[TEXT: Global average sea level compared to 1880, 1970: +11.9 cm, 2019: +24.1 cm. Source: CSIRO & NOAA]

[Scene is replaced by a circle containing a stand of palm trees. These fall to the ground.]

[SOUND OF WOOD SPLITTING]

[TEXT: We’ve lost nearly ⅕ of the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest. 743,000 km2 deforested.]

[Circle of fallen trees becomes a pie chart, showing 19% of forest lost.]

[TEXT: Brazilian Amazon forest cover (compared to 1970, estimate), 2021: 81%. Source: Mongabay]

[Circle transforms into a pie chart with a bird silhouette motif.]

[TEXT: More species are threatened with extinction, including: 14% of bird species]

[Bird motif in pie chart is replaced by elephant silhouettes.]

[TEXT: 26% of mammal species]

[Elephants are replaced by shark silhouettes.]

[TEXT: 38% of sharks & ray species]

[Sharks are replaced by frog silhouettes.]

[TEXT: 40% of amphibian species]

[TEXT: IUCN Red List: 40,084 of 142,577 evaluated species are vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered.]

[Pie chart disappears. A series of silhouettes are drawn on screen, illustrating four extinct species.]

[TEXT: Almost 900 animal species have been declared recently extinct, including: Golden toad, Saudi gazelle, New Zealand bush wren, Pinta Island tortoise.]

[TEXT: IUCN Red List 2022: 897 species documented as recently extinct (i.e. 1500 CE to today)]

[Background color turns from dark blue to yellow, and the music shifts from pensive to upbeat.]

[TEXT: With bold, collective action, we’ve shown positive change is also possible.]

[TEXT: In the US, the Clean Air Act was signed in 1970.]

[Richard Nixon’s signature is drawn on. Then it’s replaced by a bar chart.]

[TEXT In the US after the Clean Air Act, key pollutants have decreased (-78%), even as we’ve used more energy (+37%), driven more miles (+155%) and seen our economy grow (+286%).]

[SOUNDS OF CAR STARTING AND CASH REGISTER RINGING]

[TEXT: Clean Air Act covers: CO, SO2, NO2, lead, VOCs and particulates. Source: EPA]

[A car drives across the screen leaving behind a cloud of emissions. The cloud shrinks to represent reduced tailpipe emissions since 1970.]

[TEXT: New cars, trucks and buses are 99% cleaner.]

[TEXT: Tailpipe emissions of key pollutants: -99% between 1970 and 2021. Source: EPA]

[SOUNDS OF TRAFFIC]

[The emissions cloud transforms into a circle representing lead levels in children’s blood in 1976. A much smaller circle within it represents the figure for 2016.]

[TEXT: Unleaded gasoline means less lead in children’s blood. Down 95%.]

[TEXT: Mean blood lead levels (micrograms per deciliter, children aged 1-5, 1976: 15.0, 2016: 0.7. Source: CDC]

[Screen is cleared of graphics. Words appears.]

[TEXT: The Endangered Species Act was signed in 1973.]

[Silhouettes of a gray whale, Yellowstone grizzly and bald eagle appear. Number counters under each show their increasing population sizes.]

[TEXT: With protection, some populations have returned from the brink.]

[TEXT: Eastern North Pacific Gray whale 1970: 11,177, 2016: 26,960. Source: NOAA]

[TEXT: Yellowstone grizzly bear 1975: 136, 2019: 728. Source: NPS]

[TEXT: Bald eagles in lower 48 states (nesting pairs) 1974: 791, 2020: 71,467. Source: Cornell]

[A comic-book style speech bubble shows the grizzly roaring.]

[The animals are replaced by a thin horizontal bar of particles, representing the ozone layer.]

[TEXT: In 1987, every country in the world joined the Montreal Protocol to ban CFCs. Ozone-depleting emissions down 99%.]

[The horizontal bar bends, indicating the curvature of the Earth.]

[TEXT: The ozone layer has stabilized and begun to recover, preventing an estimated 2 million skin cancers per year.]

[Sunrays bounce off the ozone layer.]

[TEXT: Ozone layer: Projected to return to 1980 levels by mid-century. Source: UN]

[Ozone layer transforms into a line graph, representing growing CO2 emissions between 1990 and 2020.]

[TEXT: In 2015, 197 countries signed the Paris Agreement, the world’s most ambitious effort yet to tackle climate change.]

[TEXT: Paris Agreement: Cut CO2 emissions to limit warming this century to 2°C above pre-industrial levels. Source: IPCC]

[Graph extends to 2100 and a dotted line indicates rapidly decreasing carbon emissions in the future, to net-negative levels before the end of the century.]

[TEXT: Countries agreed to dramatically reduce carbon emissions.]

[TEXT: Meeting this goal is an enormous challenge.]

[SOUNDS OF CLAPPING AND CHEERING]

[TEXT: How do we get there?]

[Background is a sheet of lined paper on which several proposals are listed.]

[TEXT: Switch rapidly to renewables]

[Wind turbines and solar panels pop up.]

[TEXT: Conserve and restore forests and grasslands]

[Silhouettes of trees and grasses multiply.]

[TEXT: Protect coastal and ocean environments]

[Silhouettes of manatee, fish and sea plants indicate a thriving submarine world.]

[TEXT: Everyone has a role to play: the world, nations, cities, companies, you!]

[A dartboard has text on it, with the word you at the center.]

[Zoom in and the dartboard transforms into a turning globe.]

[TEXT: What will future Earth Days look like? Together, we decide.]

[Credits roll.]