The Drawdown Festival Focuses on Regenerating Earth and Reversing Climate Devastation

EVENT SCHEDULE

All times are EST

FRIDAY, JANUARY 21

6:45 – 8:30 PM | Drawdown Festival Opening Celebration
Celebrate the opening of the Drawdown Festival with a welcome from SAC executive director Tom Dunn, followed by a blessing by Shane Weeks of Shinnecock Nation. Filmmaker and activist Damon Gameau, our presenting partner, will speak with Project Drawdown founder Paul Hawken on the concept of regeneration and ending the climate crisis in one generation. The session will end with the joining of sustainable musician AY Young and the Regeneration Anthem.

8:30 – 8:45 PM | Festival Tweet Storm + Tutorial with AY Young
Let’s spread the word about this great festival! Learn how to tweet, how to schedule tweets, and how social media can accelerate meaningful change.

8:45 – 10 PM | Youth Festival
Long Island University Professor Scott Carlin will lead a youth workshop of high school and LIU students, blending experiential exercises including yoga and mindfulness in order to honor the vision of youth that our bodies are extensions of the earth and we need to create a world of total wellness.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 22

9:30 – 9:50 AM | Welcome BackSAC executive director Tom Dunn welcomes participants to Saturday’s program with a drumming blessing from Shinnecock Nation’s Shane Weeks. A video explaining drawdown will be presented, followed by a presentation of Carbon CREW Project.

9:50 – 10:35 AM | Electrify Everything
Curated by the League of Women Voters of the Hamptons, Shelter Island, and the North Fork’s Terry Wildrick and Sue Wilson, with speakers Lynn Arthur, Stephanie Larsen, Andy Smith, and Krae Van Sickle, the presentation will discuss dramatic carbon reduction as a result of electrifying everything from transportation to heat pumps to induction stove tops.

10:35 – 10:55 AM | Growing Environmental Voters
Nathaniel Stinnet will discuss a simple way to expand the environmental voter base and how you can be an integral part.

10:55 – 11:15 AM | Break

11:15 AM – 12:25 PM | Soil Sequestration
Environmental journalist Alexandra Talty will moderate presentations from around the world on vanguard soil sequestration techniques. From a carbon buyback program in Sri Lanka to an urban reforestation business in the Middle East, these experts will share their unique business models as well as potential tips for home gardeners also wishing to drawdown carbon and in turn revitalize their soils. Speakers include Jason Hansna-Cofield, Adib Dada, Tanja Hester, and Marc Hernandez Folguera.

12:25 – 1 PM | Lunch Break

1 – 2:15 PM | Sea Sequestration
The ocean is our greatest ally in our carbon reduction future. One third of the carbon emitted by human activity, roughly two billion metric tons each year, is absorbed by the ocean. Dock to Dish and Eat More Kelp founder Sean Barrett will curate a session on how kelp farming and much more will play a role in regenerating our planet with the debut of the short film, Sea Forest. Speakers include Casey Emitt, Paul Greenberg, Indré Rockefeller, and Tela Troge.

2:15 – 2:25 PM | Break

2:25 – 3:25 PM | Climate Cuisine: Meet the Chefs, Farmers and Foodie Climatarians
What we do with food is a critical climate solution. Southampton private chef Ellen Greaves and Drawdown East End co-founder and climatarian Mary Morgan will co-moderate a conversation on climate cuisine and what it means to be a “climatarian.” Tom Geppel, owner of 8 Hands Farm, and chef Jason Casey, private chef and author of The Shelter Island 36, will join the panel.

3:25 – 3:45 PM | Games for Regenerators: Solutions
Solutions is an engaging board game designed for activating discussion and critical thinking about the amazing science-based solutions to our climate crisis, based on Project Drawdown research and ranking. The creator, Sam Levec-Levey, will discuss the design philosophy behind the game, why it matters, and the impact that it has already had.

3:45 – 4:05 PM | Instant Action 101
Climate Action Now app founder Brett Walter will introduce the app and discuss our responsibility to Mother Earth.

4:05 – 4:20 PM | Break + Anthems of 1 Million Women
As we listen to singers brought to us by Natalie Isaacs’ 1 Million Women, come sing along and enjoy the festivities.

4:20 – 5:20 PM | The Solution to Climate Change: Women
Carbon CREW Project and Drawdown East End co-founder Dorothy Reilly will introduce Natalie Isaacs of 1 Million Women and Elizabeth Lesser from Omega Institute to speak about the power of all women and their opportunity to be the number one solution.

5:20 – 6:15 PM | Dinner Break

6:15 – 9:30 PM | Don’t Look Up Film Screening + Night Owl Commentary with Bill McKibben
Screen Don’t Look Up, a feature length film directed by Adam McKay, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio, at home at or before 6:15 p.m. At 8:30 p.m., Bill McKibben, author, environmentalist, recipient of the Sierra Club’s John Muir Award, and founder of the climate campaign group 350.org, will begin his Night Owl Commentary with William Shutkin and NYS Department of Environmental Conservation climate policy analyst Dazzle Ekblad.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 23

10 – 10:10 AM | Introduction to Drawdown
Learn more about Drawdown, the point in the future when levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stop climbing and start to steadily decline, thereby stopping catastrophic climate change, and Drawdown Solutions, with short intro videos.

10:10 – 11:10 AM | Model Towns
Curated by Karen Root Watkins, Model Towns will discuss possibilities for decarbonization on a municipal level. Sustainability director Luis Aguirre-Torres, PhD of Ithaca, New York, sustainability director Andrea Becerra of Acton, Massachusetts, attorney and researcher Jordan Gerow at Legal Pathways for Deep Decarbonization, and MassEnergize.Org co-founder Bradley Hubbard-Nelson, PhD will offer glimpses of different approaches as we tackle the complicated, yet essential and doable, challenge of reducing our carbon footprints on the community level and beyond.

11:10 – 11:40 AM | The 20 Best Climate Change Resources
Lena Tabori, co-founder and publisher of ClimateChangeResources.org will cover the 10 best climate change websites and the 10 best climate change newsletters, providing valuable tools to help you choose how to become part of the solution. Lena believes that learning more will lead to doing more.

11:40 AM – 12:20 PM | Communicating for Changing Times
Curated by Carbon CREW Project co-founder Sheila Peiffer, this discussion highlights climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe’s assertion that “the most important thing we can do about climate change is talk about it,” as well as introducing techniques that can be used to inspire productive conversations about climate change.

12:20 – 1:05 PM | Lunch with Drawdown East End and Carbon CREW Project

1:05 – 2:05 PM | Our Landscapes, Our Lives
Perfect Earth Project founder and president Edwina Von Gal will present the accessible, affordable, and highly effective actions we can all take to boost biodiversity and slow down the climate crisis including an overview of the benefits and basics of nature-based land care. Speakers include Farm Landscape Design owner and architect Abby Clough Lawless and Piazza Horticultural owner and landscape contractor Tony Piazza.

2:05 – 2:25 PM | Financial Impact for Regeneration
Southampton High School climate activist KGB Bodington and Village of Hastings on Hudson mayor Nicola Armacost will lead us to understand the impact our financial services can have on greening the planet and what we can do about it. It will include banks, credit cards, and pledges we can take to boost our financial climate actions as well as why Climate First Bank has partnered with Paul Hawken’s Project Regeneration.

2:25 – 2:35 PM | Break

2:35 – 4:10 PM | Consumption Be Done
Curator Mark Haubner, vice president of North Fork Environmental Council, will lead a discussion on the high cost and consequences of our consumption while offering actions to take at every level. Panelists include Drawdown New York City co-founder and leader of Pachamama Alliance Programs Elly Lessin, Fashion Institute of Technology alum and sustainable fashion collaborator Breana Rountree, and Thicker Than Water: The Quest for Solutions to the Plastic Crisis author, activist, and artist Erica Cirino.

4:10 – 4:15 PM | Break

4:15 – 5:30 PM | Changing Paradigms: The Power of Regeneration Documentary Screening + Conversation on the Power of Indigenous Wisdom
Changing Paradigms: The Power of Regeneration is a powerful documentary out of Australia featuring the inspiring Charles Massy (author of Call of the Reed Warbler), followed by a discussion with Dr. Michael Dunaway, a postdoctoral fellow at Syracuse University, Mark Junker of the Sac & Fox Tribe in Kansas and Nebraska, and Ma’Ko’Quah Abigail Jones of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation on Indigenous knowledge as a climate change adaptation strategy.

5:30 – 5:45 PM | Closing with Reverend Kimberly Quinn Johnson of Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the South Fork