Watch Gila Earth Day 2020 Digital Event

WATCH RECORDING OF LIVE EVENT here.

Gila Earth Day 2020 – Welcome from GRIP

April 22nd marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Back in 1970, the first Earth Day was a watershed moment that galvanized 20 million Americans to demand that our nation protect our environment. Earth Day 1970 birthed the modern environmental movement that led to establishment of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and passage of the first federal Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act, bedrock environmental laws that protect our nation’s water and air quality. Earth Day is now celebrated in 190 countries and mobilizes over a billion people around the world.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, organizers across the planet will unite as part of the first “Digital Earth Day,” a global digital mobilization to address the most urgent threats to people and planet.

Please join us on Wednesday April 22 for Gila Earth Day 2020, a special 2-hour online event showcasing the earth-friendly work, goals, and products of organizations and businesses around our region. 

This year’s international Earth Day theme is climate action. As we respond to the current COVID-19 outbreak, what are the lessons we are learning that we can carry forward as we address the climate crisis?

Gila Earth Day’s virtual event will highlight themes of resilience, community planning and response, and cooperation that will be critical to local efforts to address climate change.

Gila Earth Day 2020

FREE LIVE EVENT

Wednesday, April 22, 10 am – noon

Watch recording of the live event on Facebook here.

Hosted by Escher Bowers and Hanna Wynne of FreeManFilms

Escher Bowers – Grant County born and raised, Escher Bowers spent a good bulk of his childhood doing what can only be described as endless frolicking by the riverside, leaving him with an innate appreciation of everything wild.As he got older his exploits only escalated. When he wasn’t instructing hang gliding or embarking on any number of bizarre projects, schemes and adventures, he was crunched over his computer spending countless hours chronicling his undertakings to his youtube channel, aptly entitled MyNameIsEscher. Through this outlet Escher discovered his love for the art of storytelling and has since been doing what he can to help members of this community find a voice through FreeManFilms, his freelance production company.

Hannah Wynne – A child of two environmental scientists, Hannah Wynne grew up thinking terms like “carbon emission” and “ocean acidification” were part of everyone’s third grade vocabulary. As she developed as an individual, the knowledge and passion she’d inherited from her parents turned into a true love for this planet we call home–and, of course, the desire to affect meaningful change. During her time at university, Hannah was able to travel to Germany to attend the 23rd Conference of Parties, an experience that opened her eyes to the way that climate change action must happen at every level, not just between big world powers. 

Although Hannah is relatively new to this area, already this has been a wonderful place to both offer her experiences and gain new knowledge from the overwhelming amount of active, engaged members of this community. A substitute teacher at Aldo Leopold Charter School, she loves helping students with climate conscious activities, such as building solar ovens or embarking on multi-day backpacking trips deep in the Gila wilderness. In short, she feels incredibly lucky to have found this community, and knows that there can only be more learning (and doing!) to come.

RUN OF SHOW

• Welcome
• Gila Resources Information Project
• Dr. Fred Fox – Our Planet, Our Future – Climate Change and COVID-19
• Community Collaborative Rain Hail and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS)
• Upper Gila Watershed Alliance – Thinking On a Mountain
• Guadalupe Montessori School
• Gila Conservation Coalition
• Great Old Broads for Wilderness – Aldo Silver City’s Broad Band
• Silver City Watershed Keepers
• Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Silver City
• Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter
• Cut Your Waste, Grant County!
• Advocates for Snake Preservation
• Southwest New Mexico Audubon Society
• Gila Native Plant Society
• Food Corps – The Commons
• Aldo Leopold Charter School Youth Conservation Corps
• Lone Mountain Natives
• Lotus Center

THANK YOU to our sponsors: Southwest New Mexico Green Chamber of Commerce, Advocates for Snake Preservation; Binary Circuits; Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network (CoCoRHaS); FreeManFilms; Kids Vote!; LoneMountainNatives; UpperGilaWatershedAlliance-Thinking On a Mountain; Aldo Leopold Charter School Youth Conservation Corps!

SPECIAL THANKS to Escher Bowers and Hanna Wynne, Hawk Fugagli, Nick Prince, and Gabriela O’Keefe

For more information, visit www.gilaresources.info or contact Doyne Wrealli, GRIP program associate and Gila Earth Day coordinator at earthendoyne@gmail.com or 575-297-9734.

Thank you for joining us for this first-ever, digital Earth Day!