It was a hopeful spring Sunday in Healdsburg. No better weather, location or company could be asked for to celebrate the Earth at the second annual Climate Fest on April 21, produced by Climate Action Healdsburg citizen’s group and the City of Healdsburg...

It was a hopeful spring Sunday in Healdsburg. No better weather, location or company could be asked for to celebrate the Earth at the second annual Climate Fest on April 21, produced by Climate Action Healdsburg citizen’s group and the City of Healdsburg.

More than 70 booths, tables, food stands and exhibits radiated down the octopus arms of the Plaza, providing insight and inspiration aplenty. They included an illuminating breakaway diagram showing what happens to mattresses when they are properly recycled, from Recology; a surprisingly humbling “How Much Do We Know About Climate Change” questionnaire; the chance to join crowdsourced Air Quality Index (AQI) monitoring with a sensor in the nearest backyard, and much more.

Elsewhere, high school techies from an AAUW program extolled the value of piezoelectricity to unsuspecting passersby, and food vendors gave away as much product as they sold (if in smaller measures). While major sponsor Enso Village offered handmade seed bombs, Move! Healdsburg encouraged kids to pedal-blend their own smoothies, and HHS art teacher Linus Lancaster showed off a beaver house designed to provide live video streams of the Russian River, both above and below the surface, as it wends through Healdsburg.

It wasn’t Lancaster’s only job that afternoon. About 1:30pm, he fired up an electric blower to inflate a 50-by-14-foot “aerocene,” an art project by Jessica Martin. Associated with the international Aerocene movement, the inflatable sack is an “airborne, lighter-than-air form made solely from reused plastic bags,” an aerial solar-powered sculpture to ride the global breeze. 

While not designed to float (in some circumstances solar heat can provide lift) this aerocene was elevating all the same: to merely walk inside the space with fellow aeronauts of all ages and stripes, cohabitating an interior world surrounded by a thin transparent film of plastic … the metaphor was painfully beautiful.

Though not one of Martin’s own creative works, it bears her imprint. Martin and Lancaster built this one long so people could walk inside, but she hopes to change its shape and allow it to float for a West Side School open house next month. “I have a feeling it will be making appearances at more events, and we may even make it bigger each year—at least until we can get plastic bags banned,” Martin said.

“I am not sure of the numbers, but it seemed to me like it was twice the size of last year!” enthused Ty Benoit, the director of egalitarian Climate Action Healdsburg who largely organized the event, corralling participants and supporters with enthusiasm and hard work.

“The theme for this international Earth Day is focused on ending plastic pollution,” Benoit said. “The aerocene balloon definitely helped us to understand the challenge …”

For those who attended as much as those who volunteered, it paid off. “We distributed over 700 free tamales, burritos, dim sum, ceviche, 400 small 4-ounce drinks, 700 Earth Cookies and 400 popsicles”—berry, mango or horchata, Benoit said.

“We want to inspire people to make personal changes, not through fear, but because we can all play a part,” Benoit said. “We had over 70 vendors/booths, and they all explained in their application how they could help reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.”

As the Earth Day cookies ran out and the horchata disappeared, Rocio La Dama de La Cumbia took the stage for her third energetic salsa show in Healdsburg, this time wearing a spangled, clinging pink dress and a matching cowboy hat. Take that, Beyoncé!

News Source : https://www.healdsburgtribune.com/healdsburgs-heart-is-in-the-right-place-for-earth-day/