"We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children." – Native American proverb.

Environmental Fridays (https://www.theenvironmentalfridays.com/) is entering its ninth (Fall 2025) and tenth (Spring 2026) seasons as the new school year begins. It is Zoom-based environmental education innovation held each Friday at 9:30am (EST) during the school year. While the scope and reach of Environmental Fridays is global, national, regional, and global, local, our tagline is “Environmental Fridays … it is personal.”

Environmental Fridays seeks to bring awareness and action, education and engagement. This is the driving ethos of Environmental Fridays, little by little, sometimes imperceptible, we believe that awareness will trigger individual action and community engagement. We need to see earth anew, our blue planet, our only home, as we first saw it on Christmas Eve 1968. It was the camera shot seen around the world, the photograph that has a name, Earthrise. This new view and iconic shot taken by Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders launched the largest environmental movement in history, leading to, among other things, the creation of Earth Day (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day). Find, read and learn more about Earthrise, its meaning and significance at https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230511-earthrise-the-photo-that-sparked-an-environmental-movement.

Season IX will begin on Friday, September 12, 2025, at 9:30am EST. There are 15 episodes lined up each Friday from September 2025 to December 2025. Details and updates will be posted at our Environmental Fridays website (https://www.theenvironmentalfridays.com/) and in our Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/environmentalfridays). Our first episode presentation will be by Dr. Pudupakkam K. Vedanthan (PVK), founder of the International Asthma Services organization, from the University of Arizona, Denver. We will also introduce Caribbean Compass (https://caribbeancompass.com/) as a new partner and collaborator with Environmental Fridays.

General topics in Season IX include asthma and allergies, environmental justice, carbon emissions, climate change, invasive species, sea turtles, nature-based schooling, bioplastics, indigenous environmental knowledge, citizen science, youth engagement, teenage environmentalist, biodiversity, environmental health, Guyana’s sustainable development, New York City’s sustainability, Sri Lanka, plastic pollution, and perspectives regarding the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) to be held in Belém, Brazil, from November 10 – 21, 2025.

Season IX guest speakers come from a variety of backgrounds, expertise and experiences across the United States, Caribbean, and elsewhere. For example, they come from Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, Pennsylvania, Trinidad, and Washington. They represent small businesses, elementary schools, high schools, universities, museums, news media, and nonprofit organizations. They are students, professors, poets, journalists, and environmental professionals. In addition, this upcoming Season IX has already seen an increasing interest in Environmental Fridays with over 24 persons requesting to participate as episode co-hosts. So far, 10 of this season’s 15 episodes has two scheduled co-hosts. They too come from all walks of life but are all interested in the environment and our role in it. Photos and bios of Season IX guest speakers and co-hosts will be posted shortly for easy public access and viewing at https://www.theenvironmentalfridays.com/environmental-fridays-schedule-and-speakers-bio.

An important goal of Environmental Fridays is to inspire, engage, and mentor high school students, college students, youth, and the public in critical and socially responsible thinking about environmental, scientific, technological, sustainability and justice questions that intersects with public health, medicine, energy, urbanization, climate crisis, biodiversity, and air, water, and soil pollution. We hope that these talks would inspire students to have future careers in these areas and motivate everyone to environmental action, engagement, and collaboration.

Each week notifications would be sent out broadly across multiple media platforms, including in the Benton Spirit (http://bentonspiritnews.com/) to provide more specific and detailed information of the upcoming lecture, guest speaker, co-hosts, and the Zoom link. All are welcomed to attend and participate in these public science episodes either live on Zoom or via video-on-demand on YouTube. All previous episodes can be accessed, viewed and used for free by searching for ‘Environmental Fridays Combined’ at YouTube.

More information and details can be found at our Environmental Fridays website.  Everyone is encouraged to join and actively participate in our Environmental Fridays Facebook group. If you want to participate in Environmental Fridays as a student, teacher, guest speaker, co-host, an environmental group, club, or organization, community member, co-sponsor, media, or have any questions, please contact Dr. desmond Hartwell Murray, Founding Director of Environmental Fridays, Inc. at murrayd@environmentalfridays.com or environmentalfridays@gmail.com.

Tax-exempt donations are encouraged to maintain the mission and work of Environmental Fridays.