Earth Day

Originally, I had anticipated writing about Earth Day and the obligation that people of faith have to care for God's creation. After all, if we cannot be the prophetic voice and model an earth-conscious life, how can we possibly honor our God? And yet, the events of this week demand reflection. Eyes glued to the television, tears streaming down my face, a face that mirrors a nation of faces in mourning, I try to make sense of the senseless. I'm not a news junkie. I cannot do hour after hour of television.

Call it "Earth Day at the Bay. " The Newport Bay Conservancy will present the 22nd annual Earth Day at the Bay on Sunday. The event is located at the Peter and Mary Muth Interpretive Center within the Upper Newport Bay Nature Preserve. This free ecological festival, "Preserving Nature for the Future," takes place from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Earth Day is a time for all of us to think about how we can protect our planet and preserve it for the future. There are many ways to do so: recycling, reusing, conserving resources, preventing pollution.

Deirdre Newman Eric Halverson found two socks. Rokyt Dulac came across some beer bottles. Others from their Cub Scout troop discovered discarded records and rugs. The enthusiastic Cub Scouts picked up these sundry items at Fairview Park and plopped them into trash bags Saturday morning as part of the first Earth Day in the Park. Earth Day is celebrated around the world as a day to pay tribute to the environment. Fairview Park, more than 100 people showed up to lend helping hands to the clean-up effort and enjoy typical attractions like free train rides from the Orange County Model Engineers.

Marisa O'Neil When it comes to the rainforest, don't be a grump. California Elementary School second- and third-graders turned Forrest Grump, not to be confused with Forrest Gump, from a mean-spirited litterbug into an environmental activist during a Thursday assembly. The students performed the musical "Forrest Grump" to highlight an appropriate message for Earth Day. "This [performance] was special because it's about saving the environment," writer and director Kathleen Chapman said.

Danette Goulet CORONA DEL MAR -- Students donned colorful Earth Day 2000 T-shirts Friday morning and gave their classmates at Harbor View Elementary School a few rhythmical solutions to some of the planet's pollution problems. In a full school assembly that drew a crowd of a dozen parents, students from two classrooms performed an alphabetical list of pollution solutions followed by an Earth Day rap song. "Turn up the volume, the time is now -- to save our earth, make a difference somehow," sang second- and third-grade students in Stephanie Wallace's class.

Lindsay Sandham The first nationally observed Earth Day celebration was in 1970, and although its focus has evolved, the environment and its natural ecosystems remain in danger. Earth Day was observed Friday, but the Peter and Mary Muth Interpretive Center in Newport Beach hosted a family-oriented educational festival Sunday. The Newport Bay Naturalists and Friends organized a celebration with a variety of exhibits designed to educate residents on indigenous sea life, plants, birds and how they depend on one another.

The Peter and Mary Muth Interpretive Center will host its 19th annual Earth Day celebration with children’s activities, film and live music 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Children can take part in a scavenger hunt at the event, where they will learn about plants and animals. The Newport Beach Film Festival will screen short environmental films at the interpretive center as part of the Earth Day celebration from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The event also will feature an eWaste collection center, where people can drop off their old electronics for environmentally friendly disposal.

Do you know what Wednesday is? True, the third day of the week, and the hardest to spell, but that’s not exactly what we’re looking for. Anyone? Yes, Beatrice, it’s Earth Day — the 39th to be exact. Who started all this? That’s easy. It was a U.S. senator from the state of Washington named Gaylord Nelson. Why people name their children Gaylord is beyond me, but we’ll leave that alone for now. At a conference on the environment in Seattle in September 1969, Nelson called for a nationwide, grass-roots demonstration for the environment in the spring of 1970.

Earth Day this year is Sunday. Come join your friends and neighbors and help us celebrate from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Peter and Mary Muth Interpretive Center, 2301 University Drive, Newport Beach. It's free, and families are welcome. There is ample free parking, and food and soft drinks will be available for purchase. This is all about enjoying the Back Bay and learning about its local environs through exhibition booths and interactive, educational displays. Many agencies and volunteer organizations from around Orange County will host booths and demonstrations to explain their respective roles in helping to protect Mother Earth.

Celebrate Earth Day on Sunday at the SoBeCa District’s 15th annual Earth Day festival at two of our favorite shopping centers for eco-friendly enthusiasts and trend-setting shoppers: the Camp and the Lab in Costa Mesa. The free event starts with the first annual electric car parade beginning at South Coast Toyota (on Harbor Boulevard) in Costa Mesa and ending at the Camp green retail center. Prizes go to cars with the highest mileage, the best decor and more at 11 a.m. The two centers plan an afternoon of fun earth-friendly tips, live music, children’s arts and crafts, artisan displays and demonstrations from noon to 4 p.m. Learn about green moving, eco car washes, healthy eating options, and use your artistic skills in an Earth Day community art project.

Originally, I had anticipated writing about Earth Day and the obligation that people of faith have to care for God's creation. After all, if we cannot be the prophetic voice and model an earth-conscious life, how can we possibly honor our God? And yet, the events of this week demand reflection. Eyes glued to the television, tears streaming down my face, a face that mirrors a nation of faces in mourning, I try to make sense of the senseless. I'm not a news junkie. I cannot do hour after hour of television.

Miles of coastal scrub-lined trails winding around the San Joaquin Marsh ponds were the perfect setting on Earth Day for some 30 hikers to take part in a community walk. The event was a partnership between the Irvine Ranch Water District, which owns the land, and the city of Irvine in observance of the national day. "We are one of the nation's leaders in stewardship," Mayor Sukhee Kang said before setting out on one of the twelve miles of trails on Saturday. "The preservation of 16,000 acres is a giant step and commitment to the environment," Kang continued as reference to the city's total acreage of preserved open space.

Call it "Earth Day at the Bay. " The Newport Bay Conservancy will present the 22nd annual Earth Day at the Bay on Sunday. The event is located at the Peter and Mary Muth Interpretive Center within the Upper Newport Bay Nature Preserve. This free ecological festival, "Preserving Nature for the Future," takes place from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Earth Day is a time for all of us to think about how we can protect our planet and preserve it for the future. There are many ways to do so: recycling, reusing, conserving resources, preventing pollution.

Get ready for some trash talk just in time for Earth Day. Orange Coast College's Recycling Center Director Mike Carey is giving a lecture on "You Are What You Trash: the 3 R's of Recycling" at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the OCC Library Lecture Room, 2701 Fairview Road. Carey was the first recipient of the Award for Environmental Excellence from the Costa Mesa Sanitary District. The program is sponsored by the OCC Friends of the Library. A donation of $5 or a gently used book is requested.

Beyond Limits Newport Coast resident Bonner Paddock was born with cerebral palsy. This 39-minute documentary documents his journey to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Paddock made the climb in 2008, although he has limited mobility and weak legs. The film will screen with a series of short documentaries with environmental themes in honor of Earth Day. Cast: Bonner Paddock; Elbariki Kitomari; Jayson Dilworth; Jeff Dolen; Kent Bassett; Michael Clarke Duncan; Mitchell Mcintire Screening: 10:15 a.m. today at the Peter and Mary Muth Interpretive Center, 2301 University Drive Newport Beach.

A year ago, about this time, I was invited to join an Earth Day celebration at the Peter and Mary Muth Interpretive Center, which is tucked into a bluff overlooking the north end of Newport Beach’s Back Bay. I went, enjoyed it and I’ll return Sunday to share the 2010 version. It will have more meaning to me because, in the intervening year, I have learned a lot of history about Earth Day, which, a year ago, would have made my decision to attend easier. What I learned starts about four decades ago when a U.S. senator from Wisconsin named Gaylord Nelson set out on a mission.

Earth Day, which officially falls Thursday, is a time for all of us to think about how we can protect our planet. There are many ways to do this: recycling, reusing, conserving resources, preventing pollution. Often simple steps are all it takes. We just need to understand what those steps can be. From 10 a.m. till 4 p.m. Sunday, we, the Newport Bay Naturalists and Friends, and our partners at Upper Newport Bay will be holding our 20th annual Earth Day event at the spectacular OC Parks Peter and Mary Muth Interpretive Center, which overlooks the bay. What better place to celebrate Earth Day than at a facility constructed mainly with recycled materials, such as the nearly 200 tons of spent oil filters used in making the steel bars that reinforce the concrete in the floor, walls and roof.

The first Earth Day was celebrated April 22, 1970. Across the United States, more than 20 million people participated. It is anticipated that this year’s 40th anniversary events will be commemorated by more than 1 billion people worldwide. Did you realize that using your library is one of the greenest things you can do? Where else can you pick up books, movies and music in one stop? Where else can you get a free canvas bag to check out so that you can carry your items?

Students marveled at electric cars on the lawn outside the Robert B. Moore Theatre on Wednesday after listening to a two-hour lecture on the dangers of the amount of plastic amassing in the Pacific Ocean. Dubbed “Green Coast Day,” Charles Moore, a Long Beach ship captain, talked to 300 students inside the theater, explaining how the Pacific has become a depository for millions of tons of plastic due to the prevailing clockwise atmospheric currents that continually swirl around trash with no end in sight.

Vanguard University students recently earned $1,000 and an expense-paid trip to attend National Geographic’s Explorer’s Symposium, school officials said. The students, Cody Crawford, Josh Hamilton and Scott Houston, were named the 2009 Audience Award winners in National Geographic’s Preserve Our Planet public service announcement contest. Their project, a stop-motion public service announcement titled “Together We Can Change Our World,” used natural and sustainable resources for its production.