As Earth Day marks its 50th anniversary, EarthX will be celebrating the world&rsquos largest environmental exposition, EarthX2020 virtually, because of the coronavirus pandemic. In collaboration with the National Geographic Society, this festival will reflect upon the critical issues facing our planet. While some events and conferences will be presented online, others have been delayed until the fall of 2020.
The conferences, youth programmes and film festival will be exhibited from April 16 to 26, with inspiring conversations with people of diverse ideologies, creative storytelling sessions, and interactive experiences.
EarthX will be hosting Women in Environment, its first intergenerational women's summit where American actor and political activist Jane Fonda will join youth activist Xiye Bastida along with other transformative women to talk about and address urgent environmental challenges.
For EarthXFilm, around 35 short films and features are scheduled for online screenings along with live-streamed conversations with eco-storytellers. The highlights of the festival include screening of films such as The Great Green Wall, The Story of Plastic, Mossville When Great Trees Fall, The Love Bugs, and Public Trust, narrated by Robert Redford.
&ldquoWe&rsquoll be mixing, so, you might have a legal symposium for the first two hours of the day, and then [the channel] will switch over to films. Essentially, it&rsquos a showcase of the select. Some of the best content that we were going to be showing before, but digitally&mdashonline,&rdquo said Michael Cain, the president and founder of EarthXFilm as reported by D Magazine.
To further enhance the viewing experience, EarthXR&mdashthe virtual, augmented and mixed reality segment of the film festival&mdashwill include around 50 extended reality experiences that will take the audience to another level of immersion, from underwater dives to walking with the elephants. The segment will be in co-operation with YouTube XR, Google Earth, Oculus, Samsung and HTC Vive.
The March for Science Youth Summit will have a range of activities from eco-art and film making to virtual hackathons. Not only this, joining them every day for live interactions will be National Geographic&rsquos Explorers who will share their stories with children around the world.
On April 22, Earth Day, a special address by Tia Nelson, the daughter of Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson has been scheduled. The virtual stage will also be taken up by Michael Ulica, President, National Geographic Society along with Enric Sala and Sylvia Earle, National Geographic&rsquos explorers among some others.