Join us for a day of action!

The Ithaca Climate Action rally is designed to help teach how everyone can take individual and community action to combat the threat of climate change. It will be held at Stewart Park in Ithaca, New York, as part of the Global Climate Strike activities planned on September 20th. The rally will start at 3 pm at the Small Pavilion in Stewart Park, after the noon Strike Rally on the Commons in Ithaca.

Speakers include:

Barbara Lifton, New York State Assemblywoman, NY125

Tracy Mitrano, the Democratic candidate for the NY-23 seat in US House of Representatives

Annie Armstrong, Author of “Communicating Climate Change: A Guide for Global Climate Strike”

Dayna Jorgenson, Director of Live Animals, Cayuga Nature Center

Dr. Louis Derry, Professor, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Cornell University

Maya Soto, Student, Lehman Alternative Community School

Clara Swartwout, Student, Lehman Alternative Community School

Franny Lux, Student, Lehman Alternative Community School

Marina Howarth, Science & Education Coordinator, Discover Cayuga Lake

Katie Quinn-Jacobs, Mothers Out Front Tompkins

Participating organizations include:

• Cayuga Nature Center
• Cornell Cooperative Extension Energy Team
• CCE Environmental Education/Electric Vehicle Team
• Discover Cayuga Lake
• Dryden Climate Awareness Coalition
• Extinction Rebellion
• Finger Lakes Get Your GreenBack
• History Center
• Ithaca High School Green Team
• Mothers Out Front Tompkins
• Museum of the Earth
• Project Drawdown
• Sciencenter
• Sierra Club
• Sustainable Tompkins
• Tompkins County Climate Protection Initiative
• Tompkins EV
• Tompkins NY23Votes

Cruise on the Lake

Following the Stewart Park Rally Discover Cayuga Lake is running a special cruise from 6 – 8 pm, featuring a discussion of climate change and local watersheds with  Dr. Chuck Greene, Professor of Oceanography, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, Cornell University. Discounts on tickets are available:

Students: enter promo code “Student_Strike” to get a free ticket

Adults and families: enter promo code “Climate_Strike” to get 50% off the ticket price.

sign up on their website: https://www.discovercayugalake.org/

Speakers bios:

Barbara Lifton

Seven-term New York State Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton’s legislative work focuses on education and environment, and she is a member of NY Assembly’s Work Group on Climate Change and Committee on Environmental Conservation.

Lifton was a sponsor of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. The CLCPA requires that a climate action plan be put into law and codifies the goals for greenhouse gas emission reductions, all in a transparent and inclusive manner. “I see the CLCPA as critical in providing the structure our state needs to move much more swiftly on the path to net zero emissions, so as to help mitigate the worst impacts of climate change.” said Lifton. “It will also become a model for other states, and perhaps the world, to emulate as we work to save our planet from the devastation of a warming climate, creating tens of thousands of good, green jobs as we implement our plan.”

Anne Armstrong

Anne Armstrong, a doctoral student in the Cornell Department of Natural Resources, is an author of “Communicating Climate Change: A Guide for Educators” (Cornell University Press, 2018), which was co-authored with Marianne E. Krasny, Professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Jonathon P. Schuldt, Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at Cornell University.

In the book, Armstrong proposes effective tools for educators in understanding the complexity of the science of climate change and the socio-political contexts in which climate change is taking place. Also discussed are climate change educational programs that foster both dialogue and subsequent action in classrooms of all levels. Armstrong is also a co-instructor of the Cornell online course, “Climate Change Science, Communication, and Action”.

Tracy Mitrano

Tracy Mitrano is the Democratic candidate for the NY-23 seat in US House of Representatives. Mitrano is campaigning to unseat incumbent Rep. Tom Read. As part of her platform, Mitrano has committed to federal funding for climate change research “to both reduce our contributions to the changing climate as well as to support our businesses, especially our farmers, as they adapt to increasingly unpredictable weather patterns.”

Dayna Jorgenson

Dayna Jorgenson is the Director of Live Animals at the Cayuga Nature Center. She teaches workshops on climate and the environment to many different audiences including hundreds of school children across Tompkins County each year.

Dr. Louis Derry

Louis Derry is a Cornell University professor in the Earth and Atmospheric Sciences department. Derry studies the effects of climate change on water chemistry and watersheds. He is also a Professeur Associe at the Institute de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP) and a Presidential laureate of the Make Our Planet Great Again program, France.

Maya Soto and Clara Swartwout

Maya Soto and Clara Swartwout are students from Lehman Alternative Community School.

Marina Howarth

Marina Howarth’s interest is in climate and water, with a particular focus on climate change impacts on water quality in ecosystems and communities. Howarth has a degree in Environmental Science & Policy from Smith College and has researched and modeled water quality in ecosystems and communities such as rural Laos and the Everglade. She is the Science & Education Coordinator at Discover Cayuga Lake, responsible for overseeing educational programming and data collection. Discover Cayuga Lake, is a non-profit organization focused on lake and stream science and education. She is also a member of the Tompkins County Water Resources Council and a board member of the Community Science Institute (a local non-profit water quality monitoring organization).

Katie Quinn-Jacobs

Mothers Out Front Tompkins.

The Stewart Park event is being hosted by the Paleontological Research Institution (PRI), which has been at the forefront of Climate Science education. PRI is the publisher of “The Teacher-Friendly Guide to Climate Change”, which has won national recognition. In conjunction with the publication of the Guide, PRI has undertaken a drive to fight climate-change denial propaganda by raising donations to distribute copies of the Guide free to every school in the United States.