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Celebrate Earth Day with EarthShare California!

Each year, Earth Day -- April 22 -- marks the anniversary of what many consider the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970.

The height of hippie and flower-child culture in the United States, 1970 brought the death of Jimi Hendrix, the last Beatles album, and Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water". Protest was the order of the day, but saving the planet was not the cause. War raged in Vietnam, and students nationwide increasingly opposed it.

Earth Day 1970 capitalized on the emerging consciousness, channeling the energy of the anti-war protest movement and putting environmental concerns front and center.

The idea came to Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, after witnessing the ravages of the 1969 massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. Inspired by the student anti-war movement, he realized that if he could infuse that energy with an emerging public consciousness about air and water pollution, it would force environmental protection onto the national political agenda. Senator Nelson announced the idea for a "national teach-in on the environment" to the national media; persuaded Pete McCloskey, a conservation-minded Republican Congressman, to serve as his co-chair; and recruited Denis Hayes as national coordinator. Hayes built a national staff of 85 to promote events across the land. As a result, on the 22nd of April, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment in massive coast-to-coast rallies. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values.

The fight for a clean environment continues in a climate of increasing urgency, as the ravages of climate change become more manifest every day. We invite you to be a part of Earth Day and help write many more victories and successes into our history. Discover energy you didn't even know you had. Feel it rumble through the grassroots under your feet and the technology at your fingertips. Channel it into building a clean, healthy, diverse world for generations to come.*

* Text from www.earthdaynetwork.org

Get involved!

  1. Donate to EarthShare California Click Here!
  2. Introduce your workplace to workplace giving opportunities with EarthShare California (contact
    maya@earthshareca.org)
  3. Volunteer with EarthShare California (opportunities listed below)
Member group Earth Day Project Date Location How to Sign up
Save Our Shores Beach cleanups Apr 21, 2012 Santa Cruz and
Monterrey Beaches
Email:
Dave at ESCA
Our City Forest Nursery work- weeding, repotting, organizating tools OR tree planting project Most Fridays and Saturdays San Jose and various Email:
Dave at ESCA
Slide Ranch Invasive plant removal and other garden/landscape projects Anytime Slide Ranch, Muir
Beach
Email:
Dave at ESCA
Heal the Bay Beach cleanups April 21-22, 2012 Santa Monica/Malibu Email:
Dave at ESCA
Butte Environmental Council Endangered species fair- one day event, set up, teardown, staffing booths. Program distribution May 5, 2012 Cedar Grove in
Bidwell Park
Email:
Dave at ESCA
Surfrider
Foundation
Beach cleanups and tabling events Varies Throughout
California
Email:
Maya at ESCA
California Native
Plant Society
Multiple projects for Native
Plant week (Apr 15-22)
Ongoing, but special focus for native plant week Apr
15-22
Throughout
California
Email:
Maya at ESCA
Golden Gate
Audubon Society
Habitat cleanup and restoration Monthly by appointment Oakland and San
Francisco
Email:
Dave at ESCA
Sacramento Tree
Foundation
Seedling planting, irrigation building Apr 21, 2012 Elk Grove Email:
Dave at ESCA

One environment… One simple way to care for it.