EARTH DAY, EVERY DAY
Be an Earth Hero
Earth Hero: Climate Change
Climate action, Carbon tracker
Like many of us, Chicago-based developer Ben Gerhold wasn’t sure how he as an individual could meaningfully contribute to the fight against climate change.
So he began to bring in others.
“I just started reaching out to people online with an idea for an app,” says Gerhold. “Saying you can code—and will work for free—tends to open doors.”
Within months, it opened doors all over the world. Launched in 2017, Earth Hero is a largely volunteer-run nonprofit app that suggests concrete, practical ways anyone can reduce their impact on the planet.
Answer a few questions (the number of miles you travel by car each year, whether you have a yard with grass) and the app estimates your “emissions profile.” It then presents actions you can take to impact climate change, like cutting out meat, washing clothes on cold cycles, and switching energy suppliers.
To build Earth Hero, Gerhold collaborated with a truly global network of volunteers—designers, developers, students, teachers, and more—all brought together by the power of a common cause. “Anyone who does the slightest thing to sustain our planet is a hero,” says Martin Chukwumah, a volunteer from Nigeria who wrote a script for a forthcoming video about how to discuss the environment with children. He’s particularly driven to reduce his region’s use of fossil fuels.
Like Chukwumah, many of the app’s volunteers welcome the chance to help. Naomi Sugiura, a teacher in Tokyo, translates the app’s text into her native Japanese. Lan Anh Dang, a mobile developer in Vietnam, created the app’s “30-day challenges” feature to encourage people to check in with Earth Hero every day.
Anyone who does the slightest thing to sustain our planet is a hero.
—Martin Chukwumah, Earth Hero volunteer from Nigeria
And Cristina Mendonça, founder of an environmental consulting firm for the private sector in her native Brazil, added “actions” to the app that she took herself, like switching to a plant-based diet, taking the train instead of flying, and adding low-flow aerators to her faucets.
“That was my motivation to join Earth Hero: to compassionately support individuals and gently invite them to reflect about their choice and impact,” says Mendonça.
Their job is ongoing. Earth Hero volunteers are continually expanding the app’s features and languages, all with the goal of making it a global resource for humanity’s fight against climate change.
In the end, the strength is in the numbers, says NASA climatologist Peter Kalmus, who cofounded the app. “Climate and ecological breakdown will continue to get worse until we come together to stop it,” he says. “As a climate scientist, I'm terrified of where we're heading. But with a billion climate activists, we can end this.”