Earth Day's 'rallying cry' theme urges folks to take back their future
To mark this year's Earth Day on Wednesday, April 22, the organizer is encouraging people across the globe to "reclaim their voice, their rights, and their future."
The year 2025 didn't yield much improvement for the climate across the globe, with the organizer of Earth Day saying it featured "extraordinary, environmental retrenchment" as a result of sweeping policy changes from the U.S. government that showed very little in the way of progress.
Marking the 56th anniversary of Earth Day, the 2026 theme is Our Power, Our Planet, a rallying cry for people everywhere to reclaim their voice, their rights, and their future, according to a news release from the organizer.
SEE ALSO: Earth Day theme makes plea to triple renewable energy while saluting triumphs
Hosted by EarthDay.org since 1970, Earth Day is held annually on April 22 as a global initiative to show support for the environment and raise awareness for further action.
As part of it, EarthDay.org is calling on individuals, students, communities, faith groups, elected officials and organizations worldwide to co-ordinate actions on Earth Day, April 22, and throughout Earth Week (April 18-26).
Earth Day 2026 concept and green recycling. (Kayta Slavashevich/Getty Images-2261270243-170667a)
"Real change requires persistent public pressure that is impossible to ignore," reads a statement in the news release published on EarthDay.org.
2025 was a year full of environmental setbacks
As mentioned previously, EarthDay.org said in a news release that 2025 was a year marked by "extraordinary, environmental retrenchment."
According to EarthDay.org, the current U.S. administration took more than 400 actions--from sweeping executive orders to obscure regulatory changes--that are causing "irreversible damage to every facet of the global environment."
Volunteers picking up trash, promoting sustainability, teamwork, and responsibility. (Zamrznutitonovi/Getty Images/2197310614-170667a)
"Across the world, environmental safeguards that took generations to defend and create are under relentless attack, stripped away to the benefit of polluters while communities pay the price with their health, livelihoods, and lives," said EarthDay.org.
"The belief that progress can be secured quietly, through good-faith negotiations alone, is no longer a reflection of reality."
SEE ALSO: Renewables saw unprecedented growth in 2022, even as coal usage sets new record
Call to action urged
Some of the recommended actions to get involved, from the organizers of Earth Day, include:
Peaceful demonstrations and marches
Voter registration drives
Convening town halls with federal, state, and local officials to advance pragmatic pathways for restoring environmental protections, strengthening a clean and competitive green economy, and ensuring safe, affordable and resilient communities
Protests holding signs during a demonstration for environmentalism. (FG Trade/Getty Images-1385767555-170667a)
Grassroots organizing to protect environmental laws
Teach-ins at schools, universities and communities
Community cleanups (streets, parks, rivers, lakes, beaches) and actions to advance the end of plastic pollution
Targeted campaigns supporting reforestation, oceans, and ecosystem restoration
"All those years ago, in 1970, we were ridiculously confident that we were going to win. We launched a genuine environmental revolution. We proved that an engaged public can be an unstoppable force. It can be again in 2026," said Denis Hayes, organizer of the first Earth Day and board chair emeritus for EarthDay.org, in a news release.
In the months to come, EarthDay.org will initiate "targeted calls to action" to support organizing, voter engagement, community mobilization, student activism, and the defence of "life-saving, environmental protections," the organization said.
"Civic engagement is the only proven path to strengthening and rebuilding a fair, healthy, and thriving world. Together, we can protect the Earth," said EarthDay.org.
To register an event for Earth Day, click here. To sign up for updates, click here.
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Thumbnail courtesy of Getty Images/Conceptual Art/2268799652-170667a.
