The 2nd annual Earth Day Festival at Balloon Fiesta Park was an opportunity for renewable energy expert Rachid Darbli to talk with young people about how they may be able to reduce pollution and slow the rate of climate change.”I think the most rewarding part is how interested the kids are in the different technologies,” said Darli, who works at Sandia National Laboratories. “A lot of them already know how it works because some of their parents have solar panels, and they’ve seen wind turbines. So the fact that they know this already and we can help inform them a little more — I think that’s really exciting.”The intergenerational connection is a reflection of his own experience growing up in Puerto Rico and living through Hurricane Maria, which decimated the island in many ways, including a prolonged electricity outage.”For me, outreach is really important,” Darli said. “I was a kid once, and I needed to be guided and just shown what was out there. So to me it’s like seeing myself when I was younger — you want to motivate people, to impact their lives.”In Darli’s case, working at Sandia Labs means taking on environmental challenges and helping others overcome the challenges of climate change by sharing knowledge of renewable energy sources, something he does in communities throughout the U.S.The festival also featured PNM’s ride and drive event, where attendees could try out EVs from local car dealerships, as well as a children’s activity center and youth art contest.