With a theme of Together for Tomorrow, a local Earth Day festival celebrated the community’s efforts to address climate issues. It featured many local organizations helping to educate and engage the public on climate action.
“With this event, our intent was not to necessarily speak to any one particular area of climate change adaptation or things like that,” said Chris Skawski, energy and climate team lead at CCE.
“There are so many organizations in our community that work to educate the public, connect folks to resources, help people get engaged in thinking about local climate action. So, our real thought was let’s bring all those folks together,” he added.
Climate and sustainability
While many local organizations participated in this event, one of them was Sunrise Ithaca, a youth-led climate justice organization, and the creators of the Ithaca Green New Deal, a local climate initiative.
Ithaca College Eco Reps also participated. Eco Reps is a student organization at Ithaca College to increase sustainability awareness on campus and across the community.
“There is a lot more work to be done,” said Alicia Menduni, Assistant Manager at IC Eco Reps. “While there are programs in place, there is lots of room for improvement.”
Challenges
Ithaca and Tompkins County currently face a range of climate and sustainability issues, including increased flood risks, higher temperatures, drought stress, and waste reduction.
Among these climate-related issues, Ithaca also faces challenges concerning the Ithaca Green New Deal, a resolution consisting of goals for an equitable transition to carbon neutrality and climate justice.
“We had a lot of federal funding that has now been frozen, that we no longer expect to have access to,” said Ace Dufresne, high-schooler and leader of Sunrise Ithaca.
As a result, the loss of funding for projects pertaining to the Ithaca New Deal has been put on hold, affecting the timely way these goals are met.
“A lot of people understand the very basics of climate change, what people don’t always understand is how incredibly actionable it is and how much we could do to prevent it and to reduce effects,” said Dufresne.
Collective Impact
“It really takes all of us and the more people we get involved and excited and committed to these efforts, the better. The better we can do, the more we can get done,” said Munduni.
This is why community events such as Earth Day Festival are important because not only does it showcase the work of local organizations coming together to combat climate and sustainability issues, but it also helps connect residents with ways to get involved.
“People in this area care a lot and they want to know what they can do, what they can learn, and what they can work together with other people on,” said Skawski. “It’ll never be dependent on just one organization getting it right. It’s going to be all of us.”
For more information about Cornell Cooperative Extension log on here.
For more information about Sunrise Ithaca log on here.
For more information about Eco Reps log on here.
