Earth Day (April 22) is here. Model, actress, and environmentalist Cara Delevingne shares why she launched Initiative Earth to help one million people restore the ecosystems where they live - and why imagination is the key to a greener future.

Back in January 2019, model and actress Cara Delevingne decided to launch #MyEcoResolution with her friend Christabel Reed.

The goal is to show the world what we can do to change the enormity of our environmental challenges - both individually and collectively.

Since then, Delevingne, 28, has campaigned for climate action and launched a new grassroots charity, Initiative Earth, to help rebuild the planet's ecosystems. In it, she tells us to simply ask ourselves, "What if I did this?" Is to take the first step to contribute to the earth's environment.

Close your eyes and imagine the future. How do you feel? Imagine the Earth 20 years from now, and all the creatures we co-exist with, and what do you see? Take a moment to think about it.

I don't know your answer, but what I feel is butterflies in my stomach, I feel overwhelmed, I feel like I have a knot in my stomach. I know a lot of people who feel the same way. I also know that many people can't sleep or eat without imagining the future -- their lives are bad enough right now. There is widespread despair among these people and a desire for change.

As we browse news and social media feeds online, we are bombarded with narratives and attitudes that promote polarization, hate and fear. We also face the stark realities of social injustice, racism and escalating climate and ecological crises.

Against this backdrop, people around the world - especially those "fortunate" enough to recognize the threat that climate deterioration poses to humanity - are suffering from what is known as "climate anxiety" or "pre-traumatic stress disorder." This is a natural response to today's difficulties.

But the future is yet to be written. From the history of countries around the world, we can see countless stories of overcoming dangers and quickly embarking on the road of sound development.

We must remember that solutions to the climate and ecological crisis already exist. When future generations look back on history, they will be stunned to see that our generation, armed with so much information, was unable to take effective action to address the root causes of the problem.

We have to ask, "What if we do this?"

How did we get in such a mess? Rob Hopkins argues that the reason is that humans have left behind one of their most powerful tools: imagination. "Sadly," he writes, "we've thought of all the dystopian scenarios, but we struggle to imagine that we actually have the power to take action to create a different future and rescue humanity from the hole we've dug ourselves into." He added: "In response to arguments such as' we have no choice ', 'the end of the world is inevitable', 'there is nothing I can do', ask 'What if I do this? 'is the ideal antidote."

In the wake of this book, my small team and I asked ourselves a lot of "what if I did this?" Type of question.

What would happen if people had access to free, high-quality knowledge about restoring ecosystems and were actively involved in restoring degraded environments? What if, instead of waiting for the government to say something, communities took action on their own? What if we could all recognize that the health of the planet and human health are two sides of the same coin?

What if we could understand that human oppression and the degradation of the Earth's environment are intrinsically linked? What would happen if we could contribute to healing ourselves, our communities, and our ecosystems?

New initiatives to restore ecosystems

These questions have led to the creation of a new charity, Initiative Earth, which will launch later this year.

Its mission is to build and support the global movement to reclaim the planet and revitalize communities. Why would you do that? Because the need to rebuild damaged ecosystems has never been more urgent.

As climate activist Vanessa Nakate puts it, temperatures are rising and people everywhere are "struggling with an endless vicious cycle of drought, famine, cyclones, floods and destruction."

According to WWF's Living Planet 2020 report, the populations of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish have declined by an average of 68 percent since 1970, while the loss of biodiversity in Latin America and the Caribbean has reached 94 percent.

Recent data show that nearly 90% of the world's Marine fish stocks are now fully exploited, overexploited or depleted.

We believe that humans and nature can live in harmony because humans are part of nature - a crucial point we seem to have forgotten. We can all do our part. Through Initiative Earth, we hope to get one million people on the move to promote the regeneration of local ecosystems and strengthen the resilience of communities.

Initiative Earth grew out of EcoResolution, an education-driven platform for action that grew out of a social media campaign we started in 2019. If you feel powerless and overwhelmed in the face of the climate crisis, I invite you to join this community of learners, activists and reformers to make a positive difference.

My environmental path

My environmental journey has not been easy. I do not fully understand the gravity of the crisis facing humanity, and now the weight is on the most innocent.

The more I learn about the fashion industry's appalling environmental damage, the more I reflect on my own role in it. I have sometimes failed to do the right thing, but I will learn from my mistakes, try to make smart decisions, and work with companies that are making big changes to the environment.

As we move forward, I hope to see the collective imagination of humanity unleashed to rewrite the narrative that now dominates fear and destruction.

I want to be a part of the interwoven social movements that are emerging today, working to spark imagination for positive action and change.

There are an infinite number of lives in the world, and it is gratifying that we have an infinite number of visions for the future, but I hope that we can all work together with compassion and with the goal of creating a civilization that is just, free and ecologically balanced.