A group of YouTubers has banded together to raise enough money to plant 20 million trees. As people reject the authority of politics and businesses, they're leveraging the power of influencers instead and on their ability to attract millions to their platforms to rally around social issues.

People are protesting the Amazon forest fires by donating money to plant trees through the website Offset.Earth – under Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s name. Online spaces have democratized protesting, allowing normal people to take a stand against political issues that were once too big to tackle.

With more circular initiatives surfacing – from small start-ups to corporate strategies – not everybody is on the same page about what a circular economy entails. As global debates in academic, business and consumer circles heat up, will a zero-waste lifestyle move from a fringe movement to the mainstream?

The UK has become the first nation to declare a ‘climate emergency’, but will raising an alarmist tone inspire action? Canvas8 spoke to Dr. Ezra Markowitz, a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, to learn how different types of eco messaging influence people’s behaviours.