Our incredibly popular Earth Optimism event is back for 2020, with a host of speakers ready to inspire with messages of conservation success. On Saturday 25th April, Cambridge Conservation Initiative will open its doors and invite you to join us in celebrating reasons for environmental optimism straight from the field.
A variety of speakers including Sir David Attenborough, Steve Backshall, Lily Cole and Mya-Rose Craig (aka BirdGirl), alongside leading conservationists working from the Pennines to the rainforest of Sierra Leone, and from Wales to the Indian Ocean, will star in a day-long Stories of Hope programme. Simultaneously, our flagship conservation campus in central Cambridge will host a Solutions Fair where thousands of visitors will meet 50 organisations to discover practical advice on everyday actions we can all take to make a real difference for the planet. This event is part of a global movement, with other Earth Optimism celebrations taking place in Nairobi, Rio, Washington D.C., Beijing, and Sydney.
The Earth Optimism movement has emerged from two key realisations: that fear without hope leads to apathy rather than action, and that conservation successes are numerous but largely invisible to the general public. Our aim is to fundamentally shift how we frame the environmental narrative, from one of doom and gloom, to one focused on solutions and success. At our previous Earth Optimism event in 2017 Sir David Attenborough said,
‘We all know that there are great problems [but] we don’t hear enough of some of the successes. Successes which can give us the courage, information and the inspiration which we need to continue with this sort of work.’
All are welcome to attend on the day and all events are free. The Solutions Fair will run from 10am – 4pm and the Stories of Hope sessions will run from 10am – 6pm. Tickets for the Stories of Hope talks will be released in three batches, with the first set available to book on Monday 16th March at noon. You can find the full speaker schedule and more information on our website.
