We can’t stop global warming overnight, but we can help slow its rate by reducing human emissions of heat-trapping gases and soot. Learn how you can make a difference in our world!

Emmy Award-winning meteorologist Bernadette Woods Placky takes us inside the science of climate change.  You’ll hear about actions you can take to make a positive impact on our climate and help save Earth.

This interactive event will allow guests to ask questions and learn to think differently about environmental action. Bring your curiosity and commitment to a healthy planet!

Register here.

In celebration of Arbor Week, Speak for the Trees is offering Boston community groups, schools, and nonprofits FREE seedlings to distribute in their communities. We’ll be distributing a variety of tree species, including serviceberry, eastern redbud, pawpaw, hackberry, and pin oak! Each seedling will come in its own individual bag with planting instructions. Come stop by any of the locations below to grab your very own FREE seedling to take home and plant!

10am – 6pm: Cambridge Naturals – Brighton | 92 Guest Street, Brighton, MA 02135

11am – 1pm: Roxbury Public Library | 145 Dudley Street, Roxbury, 02119

11am – 1pm: Dudley Cafe | 15 Warren Street, Boston, MA 02119

11am – 1pm: Nubian Markets | 2565 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02119

12 – 3pm: Boston Little Saigon Office | 1443A Dorchester Avenue, Boston, MA 02122

12:30 – 2:30pm: Emerald Necklace Conservancy Office | 350 Jamaicaway, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130

3 – 5pm: WE Tree Boston | Thoreau Path, near 6 Whittier Pl, Boston, MA 02114

 

Bringing together food, fun, entertainment and trees, in the heart of Roxbury!

Join Speak for the Trees and The American City Coalition (TACC) for our ‘3rd Annual Savor the Square Tree Giveaway’ in Nubian Square for Roxbury Arbor Day! This event is sponsored by Verizon and in collaboration with the Arbor Day Foundation.

Savor the Square brings people together and connects them to local businesses and other community members. It celebrates and leverages the history and cultural assets for social and business development, and expands neighborhood vitality.

Roxbury is listed as an EJ (environmental justice) community, where tree canopy coverage is at an inequitable level in comparison to other towns in the Greater Boston area. At Speak for the Trees, we work at the intersection of environmental justice, racial and social equity, public health, and climate change to advocate for a healthy and equitable urban forest in all Boston neighborhoods.

Species include (10 of each tree; 50 trees total): European Hornbeam, Eastern Redbud, White Fringetree, Flowering Dogwood, Sourwood.

First come, first served. Register here for your free tree!

In the spirit of community, Speak for the Trees, Boston, is proud to announce a series of events to celebrate trees and all they give us. We hope you can join us either in-person or online to acknowledge, thank, and honor trees. Trees are critical for our well being; they provide us with clean air, connection, cooler temperatures, beauty, character, a feeling of home, perspective, and strong community.

Friday April 21

• 10am – 2pm Seedling Bagging
  Join us as we prepare over 1,000 seedlings for distribution for Arbor Week. In collaboration with WS Development we’ll be meeting at the Seaport at The Community Table at The Rocks at Harbor Way. Come enjoy snacks, coffee, and company as we help build a greener Boston for all. Please plan to stay for an hour or longer anytime between 10am and 2pm.

Saturday April 22

• 12 – 2pm Nature Collaging: Creating Art with Recycled and Organic Materials
  The Friends of the Fields Corner Library and Speak for the Trees invite you to join us for this free workshop session. This session will inspire creativity and environmental thinking about trees. Learn about Tree Equity, Urban Forestry and identifying local trees, all while creating your own collage. Please let us know if you will join us by April 17 by emailing kmccleary@bpl.org!
  Location: Fields Corner Library, 1520 Dorchester Ave.
• 1 – 2:30pm Urban Hike with L.L. Bean
  Join us on a walk through the Seaport neighborhood led by an L.L. Bean Customer Experience Staffer. We will walk our way through the history of the Seaport landscape including the Boston Harborwalk, Seaport Common and the Massachusetts Fallen Heroes Memorial, a stroll through The Rocks at Harbor Way, and a stop at Martin’s Park. We’ll end the tour at L.L. Bean for some in-store Earth Day activities! All participants will receive free boot laces, courtesy of LL Bean, and a limited edition Project Paulie Arbor Week bandana! Register here.
  Location: L.L. Bean, 56 Seaport Blvd.
  
• 1 – 3pm “Nature is Nurture”: Healing Mother Earth
  Join Speak for the Trees and HERO Nurturing Center in our celebration of Earth Day. Judith Foster, founder of Healing Empathy Redemption Oasis (HERO) Nurturing Center, will share about her work and the importance and power of nature in health and wellness for the body, mind, and soul and, consequently, our environment. She will be joined by Jeff Perrin, Associate Professor of Psychology at Lesley University, and David Meshoulam to discuss efforts to make nature prescriptive and the important role that urban trees play in these efforts. Their discussion will be followed by snacks, a sing-along, and a walk at the Boston Nature Center. Register here.
  Location: Boston Nature Center, 500 Walk Hill St.

Sunday April 23

• 9am – 12pm Forest Bathing with Tam Willey
  Slow down and awaken your senses on a guided therapeutic experience in the Arnold Arboretum, led by certified forest therapy guide Tam Willey. Register and join Tam for forest bathing.
  Location: Arnold Arboretum – Bussey Gate Entrance, Hemlock Hill Road
• 1 – 2pm PoeTREE: An Afternoon of Tree Themed Poetry Readings
  Visit the Weld Hill Research Building at the Arnold Arboretum for an afternoon of poeTREE Poets Jennifer Barber, Charles Coe, and Deborah Leipziger will read aloud their tree and nature-related poetry. Register for the event in person or to attend virtually.
  Location: Weld Hill Research Building, 1300 Centre Street
• 1 – 2:30pm Story Time with Kari Percival
  Local author and illustrator, Kari Percival, will be reading her book How to Say Hello to a Worm at Martin’s Park. Enjoy a story hour with Kari followed by a hands-on activity for kids and adults, as well as a complimentary signed copy of Kari’s book. Register here for an incredible reading and signed copy. 
  Location: Martin’s Park, 64 Sleeper Street

Tuesday April 25

• 5 – 8pm Project Paulie Presents: Spring Wreath Workshop
  Create a spring wreath with Market Floral Studio, enjoy tasty treats from Buenas, and let your sustainability shine with hair tinseling by Love + Mercy! To make your own free wreath, register here.
  Location: The Rocks at Harbor Way, 111 Harbor Way

Wednesday April 26

• 7:30 – 11:30am Seed Packet Giveaway with Bike Check-Ups
  Making a shift to commute more sustainably? Join Landry’s and the Seaport Transportation Management Association (STMA) for a complimentary bike check up. While you’re there learn about all of the sustainable ways to commute to Seaport and pick up a complimentary non-GMO packet of herb seeds to start your own garden at home. Registration is required for a Bike Check-Up: click here to reserve your spot.
  Location: Seaport Common, 85 Northern Avenue
• 6 – 7pm What’s Place Got to Do With it? How Urban and Rural Trees Provide Different Benefits
  Join Speak for the Trees and Dr. Lucy Hutyra at the Boston Public Library (Central Library) to learn more about urban and rural tree canopy! Event will be held in the Commonwealth Salon community room of the Main Branch of the Boston Public Library at Copley. Register here.
  Location: 700 Boylston Street, or Virtually

Thursday Spril 27

• 4 – 5:30pm Urban Foraging Tour with Rob Riman
  Explore the outdoors with Rob Riman, through an interactive, refreshing, and educational urban foraging tour! Participants will meet at the Farm in Fort Hill Neighborhood. Register here.
  Location: 95 Thornton Street
• 6 – 7pm “A Part of Us: Trees And Our World”: Presentation by Professor Mwalim
  Join Speak for the Trees and Professor Mwalim to learn more about the traditional Indigenous perspectives on trees, which were dismissed as mystical nonsense by colonizers that later proved to be scientific fact! Attend in person, or register here for a link to the virtual event.
  Location: East Room, The NonProfit Center, 89 South Street, or Virtually

Boston Terror: The Origins of Ecological Genocide In Your Backyard (and how you can stop it)

From the perspectives of David Shane Lowry’s anthropological fieldwork/conversations with American Indian communities (e.g., the Lumbee Tribe) and the MIT community, he will introduce Boston University community members to their proximities to and relationships with the creation of policies, educational models and corporate cultures that displace American Indian (Indigenous) peoples in the United States and, simultaneously, create a national economy of ecological disruption and persistent environmental disrepair. Within this conversation, he will focus on an ongoing tension at the center of American life that needs to be quickly resolved: wide scale suppression of American Indian (Indigenous) presence in everyday American institutions (such as BU) vs. a rapidly increasing need for everyone across the United States and the world to have access to American Indian (Indigenous) knowledge and political authority.

The virtual event will be open to everyone, including those outside the BU community. Register here to get the link.

Join Sierra Club Massachusetts’ Toxics Team for a week of action during Earth Week 2023!

We should be able to walk around our neighborhoods and not see endless plastic litter. Microscopic plastic particles are hurting human health and our environment: Our oceans are drowning in plastic pollution, and oil and consumer products companies are only increasing their use of plastic. Plastic is permanent and toxic, and the only way we make change is with people power.

That’s why this Earth Week, we are asking you to help us bring more people into the fight to stop the oil and gas companies from continuing to accelerate the plastic crisis!

How can you help bring more people into our plastics reduction campaign?

1. Take a walk outside.
2. See a piece of plastic pollution on the ground, in a local stream, or up in a tree.
3. Take a picture of that plastic and upload it into our submission form. We will compile them into an interactive map to provide visual evidence of how plastic pollution is found everywhere across Massachusetts.
4. Once folks upload their pictures, we will send them easy ways to start taking action on our campaigns, and invite them to become part of our statewide plastics reduction team!

Will you join our #MillionPiecesofPlastic campaign and share this opportunity with your networks?

Sign up for our mailing list to hear more about how to submit your photos and take action as we get closer to Earth Week.

You can also find more information about the project and sample posts to share this opportunity in our Million Pieces of Plastic Toolkit.

Saturday, April 22 marks the 5th Annual Cohasset Earth Day Clean Up sponsored by the Open Space & Recreation Committee (COSRC). Cohasset residents will rally to remove non-biodegradable, single-use trash and debris that bogs our parks, shorelines, and neighborhoods.

WHERE/WHEN: To participate in Cohasset’s Earth Day Clean Up, stop by the Town Hall at 35 Ripley Rd in Cohasset, MA on Saturday, April 22 between 9:00 am to 2:00 pm to receive your area assignment.

• Bring a trash bag and gloves.
• All trash collected will be deposited in a dumpster located at the town hall.
• In previous years, participants collected tires, six-pack rings, straws, cans, plastic bottles, clothes and more that harm our beautiful community and waterways.

FACEBOOK/INSTAGRAM: In addition, we are asking people to take pictures of themselves picking up trash wherever they may be and post to social media using hashtag #keepcohassetclean

MIT departments, labs and centers will celebrate Earth Day throughout the month of April. See below for a current listing of environment, sustainability and climate change-themed events in April 2023.

MIT Symposium for Advancing Climate Education

Thursday, April 6 to Friday, April 7, all day
Location: The MIT Samberg Conference Center
Host: MIT Climate Education Working Group
A series of expert sessions on teaching climate change in higher education. View the agenda here.
Register online by April 2 or in person at the event, space permitting.

Climate and the Classroom: Unlocking the Potential of K-12 Education for Climate Action

Thursday, April 13, 1-2 pm
Virtual
Host: MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative
In this webinar, specialists in K-12 climate education will discuss the benefits of climate education in a variety of courses at the high school level and earlier, and the challenges teachers face in finding or creating appropriate climate coursework and bringing it to their classrooms. They will introduce resources for teaching climate, best practices from schools and educational institutions around the U.S., and new ideas to support teachers at every level, and take audience questions.
Register here to connect to the webinar

America’s Big Year of Climate Action: A TILclimate Liveshow

Wednesday, April 19, 11:00 am-12:30 pm
Location: The MIT Museum
Host: MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative
Between November 2021 and August 2022, the United States passed a series of bills featuring the largest investments in climate change solutions in history. But the size of these investments is not the whole story. They also commit the U.S. to a new approach to climate: creating large consumer markets, demonstrating new technologies quickly, and manufacturing at a massive scale at home.
Join TILclimate, MIT’s award-winning climate change podcast, for our first live show event, as host Laur Hesse Fisher sits down with Dr. Elisabeth Reynolds—Lecturer in the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning, former Special Assistant to the President for Manufacturing and Economic Development in the White House, and a partner in the investment firm Unless focused on industrial transformation—to understand the new course of American climate action, why it came about, and what it means for the U.S. and the world moving forward.
The show will take place from 11:00 to 12:30 with time for audience questions, and will be followed by a light lunch for all attendees.
Register for a free ticket here

MITEI Earth Day Colloquium

Wednesday, April 19, 4:00-7:15 pm
Host: MIT Energy Initiative at the Tang Center
The MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) will present an Earth Day Colloquium on Wednesday, April 19. Speaker to be confirmed. The event will also include a poster session themed MIT research for a changing planet, where MIT students will share their research on water, food, energy, and the environment. The poster session is co-hosted by MIT Abdul Latif Jameel Water & Food Systems Lab (J-WAFS), MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative (ESI), and MITEI.

Making Sustainable Design, from the Classroom to the World

Wednesday, April 26, 3:00 pm
Location: The MIT Museum
Host: Morningside Academy for Design
How can design address different dimensions of sustainability? We will explore this question through three dialogues, ranging from the design of solar-powered vehicles, to the definition of analytical and sensing mechanisms to improve buildings’ thermal performance, to the elaboration of energy-efficient systems to cook. The event will show how sustainable design solutions are possible for every scale and context, and how these solutions can transition from academic experimentation and research to real-world implementation.
Register here.