Our first Maailma Captain and Earth Day (22 April)

We are pleased to announce that India Poiner, in Year 11, has just been appointed our first Maailma captain. She was chosen from an impressive list of candidates and we look forward to her leading the Maailma girls, promoting sustainability at SCEGGS and education our community on environmental issues.

Maailma had its 31st birthday this year. When Alex Kopra (class of 1993) went to Finland on exchange, she came back passionate about the environment. Maailma, Finnish for “earth” or “world”, was born with the help of Miss Lean (Deputy Head) and a young teacher called Miss Pizzata (who is now Mrs Pizzinga). The Maailma Environmental committee continues to be an organisation in the school, working on sustainability at SCEGGS and informing the community about environmental issues.

This week, Earth Day is being celebrated on Thursday April 22. This day commemorates the beginning of the modern environmental movement started in 1970. Twenty million Americans took to the streets to protest about the ravages of 150 years of industrialisation on the planet. Earth Day went global in 1990 mobilising groups in 141 countries. This gave a huge boost to recycling and led to the 1992 Earth Day summit in Rio De Janeiro. The Paris Agreement was signed on Earth day in 2015. This was adopted by 196 parties with the goal or reducing global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius compared to preindustrial levels. This week, April 22-23, President Biden is hosting a virtual summit with world leaders to revisit the discussion of the Paris Agreement. Australia has also been asked to be at this summit.

The theme for Earth Day 2021 is Restore our Earth. Click on the Earth Day link to learn some more information about Earth Day or test your environmental knowledge through quizzes located on the site.

Susan Zipfinger
Joint co-ordinator of Maailma