More Central Florida & Walt Disney Earth Day Celebrations, 2022 US Climate Action Summit, Western Carolina U. Earth Week Events

CENTRAL FLORIDA EARTH DAY CELEBRATIONS

All these events in Orlando are leading up to one big celebration of mother Earth called Central Florida Earth Day. The Earth Day celebration is hosted by Vegetarians of Central Florida, a social and educational group for vegans and those who are trying to live more plant-based. 

This year is the 17th annual Central Florida Earth Day and it’s the longest-running celebration of Earth Day in Central Florida. Bless their hearts. Earth Day is actually Friday, April 22nd, but Central Florida Earth Day is actually Saturday, April 23, 2022.  

(Good news is, if you live in Central Florida, you get to celebrate Earth Day twice!)

If you live in or around Orlando, check it out. Festivities are happening  from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. at Lake Eola Park in downtown Orlando. Activities on the day include food as well as climate change education for kids and adults alike. 

Walking the walk and not just talking the talk, the festival organizers are taking concrete steps to make the festival as zero waste as possible. They’ll use solar power for all electrical needs. They’re asking festival goers to bring their own reusable containers and cutlery, and vendors to only provide compostable/biodegradable materials. There will be recycling and composting bins on site. Oh and exhibitors are encouraged to bring only recyclable packaging.

DEEPER DIVE: Central Florida Earth Day

WALT DISNEY’S EARTH DAY CELEBRATIONS

If you’re a Disney World fan and you love the Earth, you’ll be thrilled to know the Disney Company is joining in the Earth Day celebrations. 

At Disney’s Animal Kingdom, an annual Earth Day celebration, Party for the Planet, will be held on April 20-22. It’s a three-day event all for the love of nature, where attendees get to explore, engage and connect with the Earth through events by animal care experts, animal educators and conservation experts.

For an extended Earth Month celebration, the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival is running an event through June 3 that educates and shows off the Earth’s most gorgeous flowers and greenery. In 2019, Disney World opened a 270-acre, 50MW solar facility which now provides about 25% of the theme park’s electrical power.  The system is comprised of 518,000 solar panels, enough to power 10,000 homes for a year.

That solar farm joins the infamous Mickey-shaped 5MW solar park that Disney installed next to its Epcot center in 2016.

Solar projects are not a new technology for Disney. According to Angie Renner, the Environmental Integration Director at Walt Disney World Resort  the company initiated its first solar projects in the 1980s. The more aggressive push into solar is one prong of a company-wide push toward more environmentally-friendly operations.

DEEPER DIVE: Orlando Sentinel, CleanTechnica, Disney Parks

2022 U.S. CLIMATE ACTION SUMMIT

Based upon the success of President Biden’s 2021 Leaders Summit on Climate, The Climate Group is convening its inaugural Climate Action Summit. The Climate Group was founded in 2003 with a mission of driving climate action, fast, and a goal of global net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The program will focus on co-developing solutions on:

• Delivering the clean energy economy:
  • How combining renewed federal commitments, state-based net zero strategies and private sector investment and innovation can deliver the clean energy economy
• Embedding climate justice:
  • Comprehensively integrating climate justice into the clean energy and economy transition 
• The US energy transition:
  • How the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law can expand opportunities to accelerate implementation and the transition to a clean energy economy
• Green finance:
  • Mobilizing public and private finance to build the clean economy 
• ZEV infrastructure:
  • Leveraging the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to deploy national zero-emission vehicle infrastructure

If you’d like to be part of the action, click on the link in the Deeper Dive section of this story at theclimate.org/episodes and register now. Deadline for registration is today, 6PM US East Coast/3P US Pacific

DEEPER DIVE: The Climate Group, US Climate Action Summit Registration

WESTERN CAROLINA UNIVERSITY EARTH WEEK EVENTS

Western Carolina University (WCU) has planned a week’s worth of Earth-loving activities. Lauren Bishop, WCU chief sustainability officer, says, “The quality of our resources impacts all of us and [is] an important thing to [be] mindful of not just during Earth Week, but every day.” Remaining WCU sustainability and Earth Week events include:

• Campus Heritage Tree Walk – today, April 19, 

• Lessons in Sustainability from Costa Rica – Wednesday, April 20

• Arbor Day of Service –  Thursday, April 21

• Annual Trashion Show – Friday, April 22 (recycling clothes in a fashion show)

• Annual Tuck River Cleanup – Saturday, April 23

WCU should get some extra props. Not only are they holding the series of sustainability events during Earth week, but they have just been recertified as a Tree Campus USA by the Arbor Day Foundation.

Bishop says, “One of the best ways we can mitigate climate change is through carbon sequestration. Currently our campus trees are removing approximately 1.037 million pounds of CO2 per year, along with filtering just over seven million gallons of stormwater runoff, which helps keep our air and waterways healthy.”

Well done, Catamounts! (That’s their school mascot, which is a type of wild cat, like a cougar.)

DEEPER DIVE: WCU, The Sylva Herald