Earth Day Marked By Celebrations, Demonstrations In Massachusetts
BOSTON (CBS) -- Celebrations and demonstrations are happening all across the state on Friday and through the weekend for Earth Day.
Games and music were arranged at the Rose Kennedy Greenway in Boston on Friday. Mayor Michelle Wu was there to announce a plan for heat resilience in the city.
A climate action march is expected to take place on Copley Plaza.
Volunteers will also be out cleaning the Charles River Friday morning.
An eco-friendly pop-up market will be held in Cambridge from Friday to Sunday. Vendors will be selling eco-friendly items including home goods, art, and clothing at CambridgeSide.
On Sunday, Newton's Earth Day Festival will take place from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at City Hall. Attendees can learn some tips for how to save energy and lead a greener lifestyle. There will be activities for the whole family, including a petting zoo and face painting.
The Peabody-Essex Museum is launching its climate initiative with four exhibitions on-site, including one outside. The Blue Trees installation is the brainchild of Konstatin Demopoulous. The hope is the blue trees are an environmental call to action. A team of volunteers gathered on Thursday to paint these trees with biologically safe watercolors. Why blue? Because blue trees don't happen in nature, and that spurs bigger conversations about the role trees play in our changing climate. Wes Bruce, the on-site artist heading this project, said, "It's as if painting them blue, we're opening the door for people to step in and be more curious about trees than they typically have been." They will gradually fade back to their natural color as the paint washes away in the rain. The anchor exhibition, "Climate Action: Inspiring Change" will run until late June.
The city of Melrose will kick off its second annual Earth Week commemoration. The city built giant "Litter Letters" that they'll stuff with recycled materials they gather on Saturday to clean up. Demi Dubois, of Keep Melrose Beautiful, said, "People stop and they wonder what it's all about. It really creates a buzz around town." Last year, the letters spelled "reduce." This year, they'll be filling up "care." Melrose is also launching custom Earth Week Wordles over the next seven days.
The Museum of Science in Boston is teaming up with ISeeChange to roll out an app that allows users to capture and share pictures about how their environments are impacted by climate change. By collecting and sharing these observations across communities, the museum hopes users gain more of an appreciation for the unique ways each ecosystem is changing.