By Lilian Gikandi
Music knows no borders. Around the world, song and dance bring people together and at a time when the world needs greater solidarity than ever, this year’s Eurovision is hitting the right notes. The world’s largest live music event is partnering with WWF to unite millions to give our planet, and all who call it home, a voice and call for urgent action to restore its fast depleting nature and prevent further decline.
Our planet is our life-support system. From the fresh air we breathe to the clean water we drink, the natural world sustains us and provides the essentials we all rely on for our survival and well-being. It also holds the key to our prosperity, with millions of livelihoods and much of our economic activity also depending on nature and its resources.
And yet, we’re using these resources faster than nature can replenish them. Our relationship with nature is at breaking point; the COVID-19 pandemic being the most recent, and a devastating, testament to the effects of our negative interaction with nature. We need to urgently prioritise re-building our natural systems which will help to solve both the global climate emergency and biodiversity loss. Key among the learnings from the pandemic is the impact - and hope - we can create by uniting for a common cause.
Between 18 and 22 May, Eurovision song contest will bring millions of people together urging them to open up, unite and raise as many voices as possible for the planet. As contestants put their ‘best voice forward’, people around the world can also share their voices through Voice for the Planet, a platform launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2019 on behalf of a coalition of over 25 NGOs with an aim to showcase the growing movement of people around the world calling for urgent global action to address the current crisis for nature. And this has never been more important as now.
From September to November this year, world leaders will meet at various political events decide our collective future and that of our planet. As they meet, the voices raised through Eurovision will be presented to them to remind them that the world is tuned in and demanding action.Add your voice now.
