Earth Day Festival returns to Ithaca Commons 

On April 19, Earth Day Festival will return to the Ithaca Commons for its second year, with the theme “Together for Tomorrow.” 

From noon to 5 p.m., attendees can enjoy family-friendly activities, resources and music, organized by the Cornell University Cooperative Extension (CCE) in collaboration with the city of Ithaca.

Authentic Jerk Restaurant and Grill and Kiely’s Cooking will serve a variety of dishes, including locally sourced vegetarian and vegan-friendly options, starting at noon until they run out.

“We had such a great turnout last year and loved being in the mix of everything on the Commons,” said Dawn Montanye, environment issue leader at Cornell Cooperative Extension Tompkins County.

Last year, CCE estimated that about 1,000 people braved the gusty weather to attend, according to Chris Skawski, energy and climate change team lead for Cornell Cooperative Extension Tompkins County.

“For a pretty windy day in mid-April, we thought it did pretty well,” he said.

Montanye said that this year she is looking forward to people learning more about what the Cooperative Extension has to offer, as well as other community organizations that partnered with the Extension for the festival. She said the festival gives visitors an idea of how the community is responding together to address the climate crisis when it comes to electrification and electric vehicles, as well as the ways in which climate change is intersecting with nutrition and family well-being.

“There are so many people in our community doing cool work, and it takes all of us,” Skawski said.

There will be hands-on experiences such as a mending circle.

“There will be expert menders there that are volunteering with cloth and leather, and people can bring clothes they want mended and work on them,” Montayne said.

One of the most popular activities from last year’s festival, a clothing swap, will be back again this year. 

There will be an induction cooktop demonstration wherein chili will be cooked using electricity from a Ford F150 electric vehicle.

“That will show how effective an electric cooktop is, and how we can move away from gas, which can be harmful to the environment and people’s health when it’s used inside,” Montayne said.

Master Gardeners will join the festivities to educate those who are interested about how to grow their own food.

Cooperative Extension energy resource advisors will educate people on incentive programs regarding heat pumps and solar energy systems for their homes.

The Lilypad Puppet Theatre will perform a puppet show from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.

A PowerHouse tiny house will be parked on scene, full of educational information about energy and renewable energy.

“It’s educational but very hands-on,” Montanye said.

Some of the other 25-plus cooperative extension projects and community partners that will be present at the festival include a CCE Electric Vehicle Show, Ithaca Bikeshare and Carshare, Ithaca College Eco Reps, Sew Green and Soil Factory.

“It’s going to give people something they can think about on Earth Day, the day after,” Skawski said, “the whole idea being come on down, enjoy the atmosphere, and walk away with something you’re going to chew on in your own life and bring back to your community.”

Don Haas, director of teacher programming with the Paleontological Research Institution, will be on hand with interactive demonstrations for all ages.

Haas hammers home the impacts of fossil fuels using props like a block of pure graphite that is two inches by two inches by six inches. He asks people how they think it compares to the amount of carbon in a gallon of gasoline. The answer? Three blocks of carbon of that size weigh about 5.5 pounds, which is still not as much as the six pounds present in one gallon of gasoline.

“Basically, the big goal is to communicate that we urgently need to get to work in addressing climate change and figure out how to drastically reduce emissions that we’re putting into the air,” Haas said. “We need to take fire out of the energy system wherever it is and replace it with a cooler process at a lower cost. … Wherever we can replace that fire with another process, that is a step in the right direction.”

“My goal,” he added, “is to stun people into action and not leave them scared but leave them with something they can work on to make the situation better.”

For more information on the event, visit https://energy.ccetompkins.org/earthday/. 

To visit the event on Facebook, visit https://www.facebook.com/share/18t5HcModM/.