Saturday was Earth Day, and in Kingston, some local climate action groups banded together to host an event aimed at seeing a brighter future.
It’s been four years since the City of Kingston declared a climate emergency, and local environmental activist groups are still carrying on the fight.
“The Earth day event is kind of a way, again, to bring the community together through various artistic activities,” said Hannah Ascough, a member of New Climate Stories.
Climate activists young and old gathered on a sunny spring day to play and learn about the climate crisis.
Kids could recycle T-shirts, plant sunflowers and learn more about their world and what they can do to help.
Ascough said art can be a vehicle to help people avoid feeling helpless about climate change.
“We were a bit concerned that sometimes climate messaging can veer into the apocalyptic, so it does feel, especially to young people, like we have no future,” Ascough said.
April Swoboda and her young daughter June were out on Saturday, but it was far from their first climate-based activity together.
Swoboda said she’s trying to educate her daughter early on about the realities of climate change.
“I want her to understand how important preserving our earth and our world is. I want her to understand that it’s not someone else’s job to go out and protest and to do the work,” she said.
Despite being so young, Swoboda said she’s proud of her daughter for learning and caring about the world.
At the end of the day, Ascough said her hope is that events like these will help people to see a better future for themselves and for the climate.