To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, there will be a Climate Rally in Washington, D.C. on April 25th. The rally, to be held at the National Mall, is sponsored by the Earth Day Network. The organizers hope the rally will cause Congress to pass stronger environmental legislation.
There will be entertainment including Sting, John Legend, The Roots, Passion Pit, Bob Weir, Patrick Stump, Mavis Staples, Q-Tip, Jimmy Cliff, Joss Stone, Robert Randolph, Willie Colon, Honor Society, Tao Rodriguez-Seeger, and Booker T. There will also be speeches given by Jesse Jackson, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, Olympian Billy Demong, producer (and Sting’s wife) Trudie Styler, and Margaret Atwood.
Also attending will be director James Cameron. The Earth Day Network and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment have pledged to plant one million trees in honor of the release of Cameron’s blockbuster hit AVATAR on Blu-ray and DVD on April 22.
This project is just part of the larger News Corporation’s Global Energy Initiative to not only reduce the company’s carbon footprint, but also make its audience aware of environmental issues. The Home Tree Initiative project will plant trees in over 15 countries in 2010, including Australia, Brazil, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Haiti, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
If you purchase the AVATAR Blu-ray disc or DVD, look inside for the special code for “The AVATAR Program.” With this code, fans of the movie can adopt one of the trees being planted as part of Earth Day Network’s Billion Acts of Green program. The Billion Acts of Green program’s goal is “to aggregate the millions of environmental service commitments that individuals and organizations around the world make each year – thereby sending a powerful message that people from all walks of life are committed to solving climate change.” By using the code, the fan can count as one of the acts.