“Attending to the urgent need for action, with love in our hearts.”
“Attending to the urgent need for action, with love in our hearts.”
Ithaca shows what reclaiming Earth Day looks like!Seven marches converging in the heart of town for a unified call to action.
Ithaca High School students march to Declare a Climate Emergency for Reclaim Earth Day. Photo: Laura Mead
April 29, 2024
by bethany ojalehto mays If any doubt remains about the resurgence of climate activism post-Covid, Reclaim Earth Day in Ithaca, NY may have dispelled it. An upwelling of mass mobilization was in full force as over 440 people engaged in seven distributed actions around Ithaca and then converged on the Ithaca Commons for a unified call to action.
On Monday, April 22, the people of Ithaca came together across campuses and the community to Reclaim Earth Day. Contesting that the original event has been coopted by greenwashing and forceless celebrations of ‘sustainability,’ they joined a national youth-led movement to Reclaim Earth Day (RED) for action – specifically, for a “multiracial, cross-class movement” to end fossil fuel influence and center climate justice communities. In concert with a national youth escalation, they called for a Declaration of Climate Emergency demanding that their schools and governments act with the speed and at the scale required. Ithaca’s action, the largest RED action in the US, demanded that these changes be undertaken in a framework of decolonization. 
Two young participants climb a tree to hold signs highlighting endangered species. Photo by: Sara Tro
Arriving from the North, East, South, and West
Reclaim Earth Day began at 2pm with distributed actions across seven sites in Ithaca, mobilizing hundreds of individuals to issue specific demands to their respective institutions. Arriving from the north, east, south, and west, participants marched to converge on the city center via six different marching routes. From the north, 18 community members and homeschoolers marched to the Commons after Reclaiming Earth Day with a die-in at a park outside the Tompkins County Legislature. From farther north, 30 Ithaca High Schoolers and Boynton Middle Schoolers marched to The Commons to support climate justice and call on the Ithaca City School District to enact a Climate Action Plan now. From the south, a revolutionary group of Ithaca College students made their way to the Commons, some of them members of the Ithaca College Chapter of the Revolutionary Students Union who had also participated in the Ithaca College Students for Palestine demonstration two days prior on April 20. 
LACS teachers Bronwen Exeter and Aurora Rojer hold a banner in support of their students' call for climate action.
From the near east, 66 New Roots Charter School students and staff marched to the Commons after leaving classes, winding their way through city streets to denounce, with undeniable flare, that “CO2 (not love) is in the air.”
From farther east, 35 students, faculty, and organizers from Cornell University marched onto the Commons. They had just acted with a larger group of 54 people to symbolically mark one acre for Indigenous land back on Cornell’s Arts Quad – a call to action in support of the current Indigenous Ojibwe struggle for one acre back from Cornell-owned land in Wisconsin. From the west, 20 Lehman Alternative Community School (LACS) students and teachers marched over a mile, holding signs that read “We can save the Earth, we just have to try” and “This is your sign to end climate change.” Their march followed a larger action at LACS that drew 87 participants and featured youth leaders from Sunrise Movement Ithaca calling for a declaration of climate emergency. From even farther west, 18 EcoVillagers marched on foot for 3 miles to Declare a Climate Emergency, bearing a large puppet of Mother Earth and signs with messages such as “Emergencia climatica.” In their words, they were “attending to the urgent need for action, with love in our hearts.” 
Marchers from EcoVillage at Ithaca make their way through neighborhood paths at the start of their 3-mile march to the Commons. Photo: Frank Muller
Speaking for All Our Relations
Converging at the Commons to honor the world’s largest secular holiday, 350 people stood to attention for a call to action which began with an opening address by Diné (Navajo) scholar and Cornell professor Michael Charles. Noting that his ancestors come from the Four Corners Region in the Southwest, Dr. Charles observed: “I cannot invite or welcome you as I am also here as a guest and am still learning, like all of you, what it means to be in relation with these relatives of the Haudenosaunee and in particular, the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ'.” He thanked them for their kindness and noted that acknowledgment of the Haudenosaunee can come through actions of reciprocity with the lands and waters they have stewarded. “Today, my words are an invitation to all of you to build, or continue to build, that reciprocity within your own lives, and to act in acknowledgment of Nahasdzáán, our Mother Earth, and the original peoples to this area by striving to be good guests and good relatives.” Seneca youth leader Yanenowi Logan extended these calls in her address to the people. “I stand before you today to declare a climate emergency. We must act with urgency and determination to protect our planet and all of our relations.” Drawing attention to the colonial roots of genocide in Gaza and the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People’s epidemic in the US, Yanenowi highlighted their 'intricate links to climate change' and urged those present to reclaim interconnectedness with earth and all living beings. The deeply relational work of climate action was underscored when Assemblymember Anna Kelles took to the stage with the words: “Fighting for the environment is like a deep spiritual experience.” Kelles called on those present to recognize the true costs of their lifestyles of comfort, convenience, and throw-away culture while calling out the recent failure to include climate legislation in the New York State budget. Kelles made clear that there is no political “neutrality” on climate issues: those who remain silent and continue with the status quo are serving fossil fuel interests and climate inaction. At a time when climate action is so urgent and the stakes are so high, people might seem ‘paralyzed’ by the scope of the problem. At Ithaca’s Reclaim Earth Day, an entirely different phenomenon was on display. “Let yourself learn, and don’t stay stuck!” 8th-grader, Lochlan Makepeace Nunn outlined the connections between environmental and racial justice. He pointed repeatedly to the people’s power to challenge an ecocidal system rooted in injustice. If paralysis is a defining feature of US climate inaction, it is a feature of systems, not of the people. As Cornell Professor and divestment activist Caroline Levine pointed out, the fossil fuel industry has relentlessly worked to protect their own interests against the change we need. She noted that now is the time to draw on time-tested strategies for collective action to build pressure in our movement against fossil fuels. “What works better than individual actions? Organized, collective pressure campaigns.” Her speech underscored the people’s power to reclaim the reality of collective action against the US myth of individuality. Ironically, the educational institutions whose scientific leadership reveals the urgency of the climate crisis are themselves failing to act. Cornell professor and scientist Robert Howarth urged those present to demand climate accountability from all of our institutions including Cornell: “Cornell is way behind on climate commitments. Good promises were made. I think we need to hold their feet to the fire.” 
Hundreds of people stood to attention at the Ithaca Commons, holding flags for Earth and bilingual signs for climate action. Photo: Shimon Edelman
Walking in Beauty, with Humility
Michael Charles emphasized the importance of walking in beauty, noting that we will learn to decolonize in part by upholding the Diné ethic of walking in beauty. “Walking in beauty means we walk with humility, understanding that our movements are not led by our egos but by our love for justice and our love for our people. When we act with humility, we also honor all the work that has been done before us. We understand that our work has already been elevated by the work of our ancestors and the generations who fought for justice before us.” He reminded those present: “We [Indigenous peoples] are here for a reason and the more we are included and given a voice, we will be able to use that resilience to also enable your existence, our existence, and that of our future generations.” As African American farmer and Director of Khuba International Christa Nunez reminded those present, we all carry our grandmother’s gifts today. Let us become good ancestors to those who will come after us. Our time to act is short, but the story of life is long. Under clear blue skies, the students and people of Ithaca reclaimed their right to create the world that they want to live in, one of beauty, honesty, and action. For many in attendance, the event was a moving reminder of our power to act. “I stand with you all, shoulder to shoulder, in hopes of a brighter future,” said one community member, Sara Tro. And the time to act is now. In the words of Cornell Professor Robert Howarth, “It is not too late. I want to emphasize that …. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change tells us it’s not too late. They say, however, that this is the last decade we have to take meaningful action if we don’t want to have extreme disruption to human society. This is a climate emergency.” Ithaca’s county-wide Reclaim Earth Day was coordinated by organizers from three groups (Cornell on Fire, Extinction Rebellion Ithaca, Mothers Out Front Tompkins) in coalition with community justice groups including Native American & Indigenous Students at Cornell, Climate Justice Cornell, Sunrise Movement Ithaca, Ithaca College Eco Reps, Student Sustainability Club at TC3, Environmental Law Society, Society for Natural Resources Conservation, Fossil Free Tompkins, Campaign for Renewable Energy, Cornell University Sustainable Design, Ithaca Democratic Socialists of America, Sustainable Finger Lakes, and the Durland Alternatives Library. Their work was initiated, led, and constantly supported by the national student organizers for Reclaim Earth Day. |
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