Planet CLE | Here's How You Can Help Protect Northeast Ohio As We Celebrate Earth Day 2022

Earth Day 2022 promises to be a busy day for WKYC Studios, as we launch a year-long station-wide effort to raise awareness about the urgent need to preserve our environment locally and globally.

On April 22, our “Planet CLE” campaign kicks off with our station broadcasting live from outdoor sites in Cleveland, and a team of reporters sharing stories about the biggest environmental challenges facing Northeast Ohio.

We’ll even partner with the TODAY Show during the 8 am hour and join with teams in other cities to help set a world record for the most plants watered simultaneously.

3News meteorologists Payton Domschke and Jason Mikell will be in Eastlake on Earth Day, helping the Western Reserve Land Conservancy plant trees along a stretch of property that was recently purchased by a public/private partnership in order to conserve it.

Our Earth Day coverage also includes an interview with Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb about his environmental agenda and why restoring the city’s parks has become a personal mission for him.

And tune into our What’s Next show at 11 pm on Friday to learn about the monthly “Planet CLE Challenges” we’ll be posing to our viewers in the coming year. For our first challenge, we will encourage our viewers to reduce the amount of driving they do by at least one car trip before May 30, and instead to walk, bike or take public transit.

A recently released United Nations report on climate change warned that nations must drastically change their energy policies and reduce dependence on fossil fuels or the resulting climate change will be catastrophic. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded in its report that the world’s greenhouse gas emissions must peak no later than 2025 and then decline dramatically, in order to avoid extreme weather, rising sea levels and threats to water and food supplies.

Future Planet CLE challenges include participating in community or beach clean-ups, cutting down on use of single-use plastics, curbing water waste, and all sorts of other practices that help preserve the environment.

We hope that our viewers will participate each month and post pictures using the #PlanetCLE hashtag.

To learn more about what individuals can do to preserve our environment, check out our Planet CLE digital guide which offers way to celebrate Earth Day at home including tips for recycling, reducing use of plastics and cleaning up Lake Erie.

Our Planet CLE initiative will stretch far beyond Cleveland’s boundaries; it will share information vital to all our Northeast Ohio viewers. Click here for a calendar of Earth Day events happening across the region, including in Medina, Stark and Richland counties.