At Sacramento climate festival, activists spread awareness on environmental solutions
Two days after the hottest October day in city history, the Sacramento Climate Coalition and Oak Park Farmers’ Market held a climate justice festival at McClatchy Park on Saturday to educate residents about the climate crisis.
Highlighting solutions was at the center of the event. Anuska Kalyan, a 17-year-old climate activist, said the event’s goal was to inspire Sacramento residents to combat climate change.
The festival held booths for climate organizations across Sacramento, an environmental photo contest, a vegan chili cook off and a “trashin’” fashion contest, where individuals made garments out of recycled materials.
“It inspires you to just take change, and inspires you to then make those systemic changes. By incorporating this fun element to it, we’re bringing the community together,” Kalyan said.
The festival came in the middle of an autumn heat wave. Downtown Sacramento reached triple digits the first four days of October, setting an all-time record for the calendar month of 103 degrees on Thursday, according to the National Weather Service. The city hit 99 degrees by mid-afternoon Saturday and was forecast to approach 100 degrees again Sunday and Monday, forecasts showed.
Climate change has resulted in crises like the increase of hot temperatures, extreme weather events like wildfires, air pollution, water scarcity and sea levels rising, according to the World Health Organization.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 2023 Annual Climate Report found that temperatures are continuing to rise. Since 1850, combined land and ocean temperature have increased on average of 0.11 degrees per decade. The rate of warming has been triple that since 1982, upticking by 0.36 per decade.
The destruction of climate change is preventable, NOAA says on the Climate.gov webpage. Through transitioning to energy sources that don’t produce greenhouse gasses, like solar, wind, biofuel and nuclear, the pace of climate change can be slowed.
There’s a lot of hurt and pain when looking at the climate crisis, Kalyan said. Oftentimes, it’s easy to get lost in the doom and gloom of it all, she added. But by centering solutions, it’s easier for communities to reduce the harmful effects of climate change.
“By coming together to support each other, to find the joy in community organizing and solidarity is really important,” Kalyan said. “Because that’s the way we continue.”
Carol Kinser, the organizer of the festival, said the event aimed to empower young people to take part in fighting the climate crisis. Their generation will be the ones that inherit taking care of the earth during the peak of the crisis.
“We are looking out for our future generations,” Kinser said. “We are trying to get our youth involved in this movement from a very young age, so they’re having fun in that and recognizing there’s a possible better future for them.”
Striving for a better future is something Lexi Anguiano, a youth wildlife activist, is passionate about. For her, there is no age limit in getting involved.
“It’s important that youth are involved. It’s the main thing, because we’re the ones that are getting the Earth. We’re the ones that have to take care of it,” Anguiano said.
