In early observance of Earth Day, dozens of SD350 volunteers, high on solar power and down on fracking, showed up Sunday, April 19th to work at Earth Fair 2015. (Officially Earth Day is April 22nd.) 60,000 fair-goers crowded into the park, many of them crossing Cabrillo Bridge and walking along El Prado where they came upon SD350’s Sustainability and Anti-Fracking booths. What a great spot for visibility! — right there on Balboa Park’s only western access route.
On the Prado
Volunteers Keith Fowler, Bob Braaton, and Bruce Graves are kept busy answering questions and soliciting petition signatures.
All day long on El Prado we could see from a distance that the largest groups of people were gathered in front of our booths, easily identified by our Blue Man and our willing volunteers bobbing with their yellow sun hats. — Sue Zesky, SD350 Earth Day volunteer coordinator
Easily visible, SD350’s Blue Man, Paul Sasso, helped slow traffic down so volunteers could corral visitors with our message about climate change: It’s happening, humans are causing it, and together we can do something about that.
Concerned mom urges son to listen while Emily Weir explains what his family can do about climate change. It’s his future.
Blue Man’s embrace of a kindred spirit from outer space draws cameras.
A new attraction this year was the photo booth. Volunteers enticed passers-by with the lure of having their picture taken for signing petitions on Nooks, also new this year. With signers often waiting, volunteers could have used more of those Nooks. Over 800 people signed petitions.
Petitioner-signers got this fun souvenir from the photo booth.
Signers could don a wig or a mustache and hold their choice of climate-change slogan placard for three photos that would be made immediately into a bookmark they could take with them. Kids, especially, had fun mugging for the camera while their parents signed two petitions, one to Governor Brown to stop fracking in California and the other to Mayor Falconer to strengthen San Diego’s Climate Action Plan. Three copies of each bookmark were made. Two were signed on the back to be delivered, one to the governor and the other to the mayor, and the third went home with the petition-signer.
Over 800 signatures gathered!
San Diego’s former Interim Mayor, current Councilman and Climate Action Plan champion Todd Gloria came by to offer encouragement. He even joined in the photo booth hilarity.
Emily and Blue Man usher Todd Gloria into the photo booth, while Masada stands by with petitions and climate-change brochures.
All day long, people entered and exited Earth Fair by way of Cabrillo Bridge, providing many opportunities for SD350 volunteers to engage them in conversations about combating climate change.
Nicole, sporting a newsboy-in-knickers look, appeals to fair-goers to learn about the harm caused by fracking.
Fracking Team members seized this opportunity to inform the public that fracking degrades the environment and the water supply in a number of ways. But engaging people who know little about climate change issues takes some ingenuity. To introduce fracking to people who didn’t know what it was, Nicole Peill Moulter used this easy-to-grasp image:
In the past oil was easy to access, like a swimming pool of oil not too deep underground. We could drill a well and suck the oil up, like through a straw, without much effort. Now all that easy-to-access oil and gas has been used up. The only oil and gas left is locked up in shale rock layers many thousands of feet underground. So we have to use more extreme extractive processes like fracking.
Peg Mitchell found herself challenging a skeptic from the financial industry who didn’t like the idea of disrupting the economy with new policies to address climate change. She approached him from his own perspective: Hearing from her that there are known financial risks associated with climate change gave him something to think about.
The Garden of Eating
Rob speaks to a crowd gathering to see his display of dumpster-derived food waste.
One big attention-getter at Earth Fair 2015 was Rob Greenfield’s eye-catching Food Waste Fiasco, found in the Garden of Eating. In addition, this year SD350’s Planet-Based Diet Team had a massive educational display right at the center of the park in the Plaza de Panama. The featured message was the astonishing amount of greenhouse gases contributed to the atmosphere by animal agriculture — more than that produced by all transportation worldwide!
Attractively presented vegan sampler.
But the Garden of Eating had even more to offer, including live music and informative talks from their stage — with colorful vegan recipes to sample.
Kate Placey serves vegan samples to an audience attending Planet-Based Diet Team’s presentation at the Garden of Eating.
Dynamic rapper Kiyoshi Shelton draws an audience to the Garden of Eating with his empowering message of healthy, conscious living and hope for humanity.
High-Fives and Solar Smiles
In fact, SD350 gave this Earth Fair a lot of its energizing color. High-fives from SD350’s Blue Man came in sizes from Adult Extra High to Toddler Extra Cute.
Wow! A big blue man and he’s giving me a high-five!
Blue Man, being very tall and very blue, got people’s attention, but what drew them in was the photo booth. When Councilman Todd Gloria came by, he entered into the spirit of signature-gathering and smiled for the camera.
Kids in fake glasses with big noses and mustaches pose with important messages for their bookmark photos.
Todd Gloria holds a placard for his session in the photo booth.
Among fair-goers, reactions were varied and the interest level high.
A supporter or a skeptic? Hard to say, as Bruce explains climate change … or is she explaining it to Bruce?
He shakes the hand of a happy fan.
Blue Man’s intergalactic appeal.
It was quite a day, exhausting but ultimately gratifying. Many SD350 volunteers spent the whole day gathering electronic petition signatures on Nooks, explaining the need for a ban on fracking or how animal agriculture affects climate change, taking time out to wander around and see other booths and displays, and enjoying the camaraderie of our big group effort.
Peg shares an SD350 solar smile with her grandson .
Bonnie draws in a prospective petition-signer with, “Hey, you got that at the Garden of Eating, right?” Not long after, she got signatures on both petitions.
High-tens for all the volunteers who worked so hard and with such spirit to make our Earth Fair effort so successful!
Volunteer John Garcia welcomes the crowd with his solar smile.
Thanks to SD350 volunteers Bill Avrin, Janina Moretti, Martha Sullivan, Masada Disenhouse, Ashley Mazanec and Angela Deegan for sharing photos they took at Earth Fair 2015.
Speak Your Mind