Earth Month 2025
Earth Month 2025
Our Power, Our Planet
April 2025
Dive into Earth Month at the Paleontological Research Institution and Museum of the Earth! Join us as we celebrate our planet with an array of engaging activities and insightful explorations throughout April.
As stewards of Earth, we're committed to addressing pressing environmental issues. This Earth Month, we're discuss the Earth’s past and it’s future climate change with a series of thought-provoking activities designed to spark conversation and inspire meaningful action. From virtual workshops to in person events in Ithaca, NY, there's something for everyone eager to make a difference and learn about the Earth around them.
Most programs for this event this year are offered free of charge, but please consider contributing to our educational programs so that we can continue to offer resources and information to our community.
2025 Calendar of Events
Science in the Virtual Pub
Dining in the Garden of Eden: Earth's First Herbivores and the Evolution of the Modern Terrestrial Ecosystem
Thursday, April 10, 2024 @ 7:00 pm EST - Virtual
The world outside our windows, known as the "modern terrestrial ecosystem," is defined as a relatively small number of carnivores who are supported by a large crop of herbivores. But when, where, and how did this ecological construct first appear? And did this evolutionary innovation begin with a bang or a hurdle-filled whimper that, for whatever reason, eventually caught on? Let's travel back more than 300 million years to the late Paleozoic Era, where carnivory reigned supreme among tetrapods; that is, until a few, rather eclectic (and now extinct) groups flirted with and then embraced herbivory.
Dr. Richard Kissel, Paleontologist & Chief Program Officer, The DoSeum
Solar Power Now! Deep Takes on why solar is truly THE essential climate solution; why it needs YOUR Support; and HOW you can help.
Thursday, April 24, 2024 @ 7:00 pm EST - Virtual
In this presentation I will discuss the fundamental reasons why solar is such a promising clean energy source, including various interesting recent technological developments in the field; why even with its promise a timely and just clean energy future is far from assured; and how one can make a real contribution to its advancement through self-education and empowerment, promoting its adoption publicly in various ways, and supporting clean energy policies against the powerful counterpush by waning but still determined conventional energy interests.
Dr. Ben Luce is a physicist, educator, and long-time clean energy advocate, a commercial solar system designer with Buffalo Solar Inc, and chair of the American Solar Energy Society, the nation's oldest and largest solar energy society (www.ases.org).
Earth Day Festival on the Ithaca Commons hosted by Cornell Cooperative Extension
Saturday, April 19, 2025 @ 12:00 pm to 5:00 pm EST
Visit members of our Climate Team at the 2025 Earth Day Festival on the Ithaca Commons, April 19 from 12-5 pm! Enjoy fun, family-friendly activities, resources, food, and music as we celebrate how together we are protecting the planet and communities.
Learn about actionable climate solutions that are both possible and attainable. Explore sustainable ways to reduce waste, lower energy costs, grow and cook food, and more. Together, we can take action to create a livable and vibrant tomorrow!
Learn more about this event.
Tree “Buds” Weekly Phenology Hikes at Cayuga Nature Center
Weekly on Monday afternoons
April 21, 2025 to Oct. 27, 2025 | 3:00pm - 4:00pm (No Program on May 19)
Be our tree "buds" and join our weekly citizen science walk to observe and collect data on seasonal changes in trees.
Rain or shine, we will monitor when buds break, leaves emerge, flowers bloom, fruits ripen, and when leaves change color and fall. We send the data to the USA National Phenology Network, which makes it available to researchers who are trying to understand the mechanisms behind seasonal changes and how they are influenced by a changing climate. We have been collecting this data for 11 years!
You’ll learn how to make these types of observations, and how to do this at home or in your neighborhood.
This event is free and everyone is welcome to attend. We'll meet in front of the Cayuga Nature Center lodge at the beginning of the program.
Spring BioBlitz
April 25-April 28
Please join us from wherever you are in the Cayuga Lake basin! We are calling all nature observers to document the life around us using the iNaturalist app. This event is part of our series of seasonal bioblitzes, to help document the diversity of life in our region over time as the climate and other factors change.
You don’t need to be an expert to participate. Create an account on iNaturalist and add the app to your smart phone. Then photograph wild things, or record their sounds, and upload them. Or use a regular camera and upload photos later on your computer. If you don’t know what you’re seeing, no worries – the app will help identify the organisms you observe. And a community of other observers can help you refine the identification later as well.
