Earth Day is a pretty big deal at Walt Disney World, especially at Animal Kingdom theme park. Disney has shared more ways to celebrate throughout many different aspects of their business during the entire month of April. While Earth Day itself is on April 22nd, the same day as the theme park’s 25th anniversary, the month-long celebration kicks off Saturday.
Disney prides itself on taking meaningful action to support a healthier planet by reducing their environmental footprint and investing in animal care and conservation.
Since 1995, the Disney Conservation Fund has directed more than $120 million and the expertise of our dedicated teams to support organizations working with communities to save wildlife, inspire action, and protect the planet.
Dr. Mark Penning – Vice President, Animals, Science and Environment, Disney Parks
During the past week, we’ve shared details on new sweet and savory treats, specialty merchandise, and limited-time character sightings. Disney Parks Blog has also shared that there will be a new National Geographic photo opportunity at the Animal Kingdom park entrance to celebrate the second season’s debut of Magic of Disney’s Animal Kingdom on Disney+.
Over at Disneyland, Paradise Garden Grill serves a new, fully plant-based menu for the Disney California Adventure Food & Wine Festival through April 25th. Kristen Kish from National Geographic’s Restaurants at the End of the World will be stopping by the Festival for a cooking demonstration on April 22nd and 23rd.
Disneyland Resort cast members are sharing their love of Disney and the environment by designing unique works of art as part of the annual Environmental Art Challenge. The art is created using waste found in cast members’ work areas ranging from park maps, plastic bottles, bubble wrap and more. Guests can join in on the fun and vote on their favorite art piece at Stage 17 located in the patio area near the Super Store featuring Avengers Campus in Disney California Adventure park.
Disney Parks Blog
A new four-part series, Secrets of the Elephants, is premiering on the National Geographic channel on April 21st and will stream on April 22 on Disney+ and Hulu. In the series, they travel from the savannas of Africa to the urban landscapes of Asia to showcase the extraordinary lives of different families of elephants and to highlight how similar they are to us.
The May issue of National Geographic’s flagship magazine, publishing on April 13th, will focus on Asian elephants, as will the May issue of Nat Geo’s Kids magazine. A three-episode Overheard at National Geographic podcast series will air beginning April 11th, along with the following two Tuesdays, and a brand new National Geographic book, Secrets of the Elephants – a companion to the streaming series – is set to publish on April 4th.
Disneyland Resort’s Downtown Disney will be home to life-size elephant sculptures inspired by the new series and created from recycled flip-flops.
Disney+ will highlight its Earth Month collection with content from National Geographic and Disneynature. In addition to Secrets of the Elephants, the collection will add new titles this year, including Born in Africa, Botswana, India’s Lost Worlds, Path of the Panther, Secret Life of Predators, Super/Natural, and Wild Japan Snow Monkeys.
In celebration of the theatrical release of Avatar: The Way of Water, Disney and Avatar launched the global “Keep Our Oceans Amazing” campaign to raise awareness of the challenges facing oceans and marine life in support of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and its work to protect 10 of our oceans’ amazing animals and their habitats, connected to the beauty of Pandora.
As part of the campaign, fans can continue to participate in celebratory experiences, including the Virtual Pandoran Ocean. Through this unique digital activation, fans can help Disney and Avatar “Keep Our Oceans Amazing” now through July 31, 2023, by creating their very own Avatar-inspired ocean creature at Avatar.com/KeepOurOceansAmazing. For every creature created in the Virtual Pandoran Ocean, Disney will give $5 to TNC to help the organization achieve its goal of protecting 10% of the ocean by 2030.
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Disney refers to these collective efforts as Disney Planet Possible — tangible actions Disney is taking “that put possibility into practice and inspire optimism for a brighter, more sustainable future for us all.”
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