equinoxes 
® invites you to see the equinoxes as universally and uniquely suited to be Earth Action Days¹:
1) Equinoxes are true planet events
Fixed events every spring and autumn in Earth’s orbit around the sun
2) We are equal under the sun at equinox²
Equal day and night – 12 hours – wherever you are on the planet
3) Two equinoxes double up our annual commitments to act
Pledge twice a year to spring into action and turn over a new leaf at equinox
So many of our problems cross boundaries, continents and oceans – above all, the climate-biosphere crisis. Yet at a planetary level, so much more unites us than divides. Equinoxes are ideal moments to rebalance and reconnect, to energise our instincts to both innovate and preserve.
Whether through a pledge, an audit, a link, or just small actions multiplied a thousand-thousandfold, twinned equinoxes can help us accelerate towards a sustainable post-carbon future.
These EQ blogs offer perspectives on what equinoxes offer.
® registered to W M O Nelson 2024
® registered to Equinoctial Days Ltd. 2015
We need grounding. 6th November 2024 is the day when Americans woke to the political triumph of feelings over facts. It’s another victory for post-truth populism, with swathes of humanity in pell-mell retreat from a reality we are all reluctant to face.
November 6 is also the exact midpoint between equinox and solstice. Continue reading
Ready to be part of something truly illuminating? Here’s how and why…
Equinoxes are the magic moments in March and September when all life on Earth is in balance.
EQ says at equinox, with 12 hours of day, 12 of night everywhere on the planet we are equal-under-the-sun. Simply by joining shutterbugs around the world you can prove it! Continue reading
Yesterday – April 22nd – was the 55th Earth Day. It has been impinging here in the UK more over recent years, but you might not have noted it. If you did, did you pledge to change or act? Initiate something? Perhaps as tellingly, did you feel reassured, less helpless and panicky in the face of looming environmental threats? Continue reading
The highly-praised movie we made last year lacked one crucial image; that of the sun setting into the horizon precisely due west at exactly 6pm*. This – with the dawn due east 12 hours earlier – is the unique and universal property of equinoxes. The entire biosphere experiences it. It’s the USP of EQ and why Brean Beach and Down were chosen as our location: Continue reading
COP 28 (30th Nov – 12 Dec) concluded this morning, extended as ever, but also slipping back in the calendar (COP 26: 30th Oct, COP 27: 6th Nov), and now the winter solstice and crowded festive season approach… a short triple post therefore, starting with the consolidation of EQ: Continue reading
There was no post for Spring equinox 2023, but I was certainly busy, because at equinox adventurer-filmmaker James Levelle and I were on the beach, filming. Brean Beach and Down on the Bristol Channel are aligned N-S and E-W; ideal for explaining equinoxes and promoting EQ’s positive and universal message, and the sand under the cliffs perfect for raking out a large EQ™ logo. The plan was hurriedly put together on the phone, and in fine morning sun we met – for the first time – on the beach. Continue reading
This NASA real image from space shows Earth at the moment of equinox. The Equator is exactly parallel to the Ecliptic, the plane of Earth’s orbit around the sun, so the noonday sun is vertically above the (shadowless) observer at the Equator.
How will you Spring into action and Turn over a new leaf? Equinoxes give new life to these slogans. Using them for your twin Earth Day pledges can unite and energise us all into tackling the biosphere/climate crisis.
EQ has had a logo ‘makeover’. It retains the geometry of Phi, the golden section proportion that carries so much information and philosophy central to EQ, but also incorporates the tilt of Earth’s axis – 23.5°
A year ago, before COP26, I reflected upon the bald statement made in LIFE, the popular mainstream magazine, way back in 1953: ‘Man himself … may be the cause of our warming climate’. Now, after COP27, with some anaemic progress chalked up, what personal experiences resonate with global events and deliberations? Well, during a summer visit to NE Poland, on a riverboat trip in Gdansk, we witnessed bulk carriers loading grain and unloading coal… Continue reading
The moment of Autumn Equinox is at 01.03 UST (GMT) on Friday 23rd September this year. Thursday was World Car Free Day, and on Wednesday 21st UNESCO celebrated International Day of Peace (President Putin did not). It seems the 23rd is also World Za’atar and Restless Legs Awareness Day. Or, daysoftheyear.com tells me, you could hug a vegetarian, or celebrate bisexuality.
Where do the equinoxes fit into this busy calendar of diverse celebration? Above and beyond, surely, Continue reading
‘The carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by 10% in the last 50 years…Man himself then, may be the cause of our warming climate.’ Nothing unremarkable at first glance, but reading this a few weeks ago stopped me in my tracks. Why?