Mountain Views News          Saturday, April 14, 2012

SECTION B

SATURDAY APRIL 14, 2012

VOLUME 6 NO. 15

 

 SIERRA MADRE TO 

CELEBRATE EARTH DAY

Sierra Madre’s Green Advisory Committee has been feverishly 
working on putting together an extensive list of 
events to create an enlightening and fun day to help the residents of the city and neighboring cities 
celebrate Earth Day with style. Local merchants are pitching in to add to the festivities with specials 
and by hosting and participating in some of the many events that will be scattered throughout various 
locations in town. 

 

On Saturday April 21, SMEAC will be holding the annual Bailey Canyon Park Clean-up. All volunteers 
are needed in the park by 8am and will work to beautify the park until noon. Billy’s Bottle shop will be 
hosting and Organic Wine Tasting Event from 5pm-10pm, and the San Gabriel Valley Water District 
will be hosting a Water Saver Toilet Exchange event. On Saturday April 21, SMEAC will be holding 
the annual Bailey Canyon Park Clean-up. All volunteers are needed in the park by 8am and will work 
to beautify the park until noon. Volunteers should bring gloves, labeled tools, wear long pants and 
sturdy shoes for protection, and bring a friend. Billy’s Bottle shop will be hosting and Organic Wine 
Tasting Event from 5pm-10pm, and the San Gabriel Valley Water District will be hosting a Water Saver 
Toilet Exchange event from 9:00am to 11:00am at the Sierra Madre Recreation Center (800-366-6995 
for more information).

 

 On Sunday April 22, the day will begin at 6:30 am in Kersting Court where there will be a sunrise 
meditation and yoga class to honor our planet. Beantown has been gracious enough to donate coffee 
for the event to start participant’s day of right. From 11am to 3 pm in Kersting Court REI will provide 
free bike safety inspections and maintenance. There will be various agencies present in the court 
throughout the day to distribute information and advice on lowering your impact on the environment. 
Residents are encouraged to come and learn how to reduce your waste,water usage, and energy consumption. 
The Green Advisory Committee will be available to answer questions about what our city 
is doing to become a greener place to live. Citizens who enjoy painting are encouraged to bring their 
easels and supplies to Kersting Court beginning at 1pm to participate in a Plen Air Painting Workshop. 
Local artists will be on hand to offer advice and assistance on capturing the beauty of our town and 
mountains in your paintings. The creative kids in town are invited to scour their trash and recycling for 
interesting items and bring them to Kersting Court at 3pm to be “repurposed” in a Trash to Treasure 
Workshop. LA County will be providing a workshop at Mary’s Market at 1 pm on composting and vermaculture 
and will be selling heavily discounted worm bin kits (complete with worms) and compost 
bins. At sunset a drum circle will be held in Kersting Court lead by our renowned artist and drummer 
Djbril N’Doye from 6:30-7:30PM. Everyone is encouraged to bring whatever percussion instruments 
you may have and join in the celebration. The evening will conclude with a documentary film to be 
shown at Beantown at 7:30pm followed by a discussion of the film.

 

Other plans in the works, but not yet confirmed, include several more gardening workshops and more 
events and specials sponsored by the local merchants. Stay tuned to next weeks edition of the paper for 
more details and a schedule of the weekend’s events!

 

For more information or if you would like to participate by adding an event to our schedule, please 
contact Cole Butler or Kim Kelley of the Green advisory Committee at SMGAC at smgac.sierramadre@
aol.com


Sierra Madre Environmental Action Council's

BAILEY CANYON 

WILDERNESS PARK 

SPRING CLEAN-UP

APRIL 21, 2012 - EARTH DAY

8:00a.m. - Noon

Bring gloves, tools, and friends

If you care to add any text, the most important piece would be to 
stress the need for volunteers to help clean up the heavier than 
normal debris and die-back in the park due to the severe wind 
damage 

of our recent violent windstorm. If you need for one of our members 
to actually write something up please contact our Publicity 
Chair, Albert Metzger at (626) 355-6054 or by email at albertmetzger@
rocketmail.com 


EARTH DAY: THE HISTORY OF A 
MOVEMENT

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.

 At the time, Americans were slurping leaded gas through massive V8 sedans. 
Industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of legal consequences 
or bad press. Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity. 
“Environment” was a word that appeared more often in spelling bees than on 
the evening news. Although mainstream America remained oblivious to environmental 
concerns, the stage had been set for change by the publication of 
Rachel Carson's New York Times bestseller Silent Spring in 1962. The book represented 
a watershed moment for the modern environmental movement, selling 
more than 500,000 copies in 24 countries and, up until that moment, more than 
any other person, Ms. Carson raised public awareness and concern for living 
organisms, the environment and public health.

 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.

 Earth Day 1970 achieved a rare political alignment, enlisting support from 
Republicans and Democrats, rich and poor, city slickers and farmers, tycoons 
and labor leaders. The first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States 
Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, 
and Endangered Species Acts. "It was a gamble," Gaylord recalled, "but it 
worked."

 As 1990 approached, a group of environmental leaders asked Denis Hayes to 
organize another big campaign. This time, Earth Day went global, mobilizing 
200 million people in 141 countries and lifting environmental issues onto the 
world stage. Earth Day 1990 gave a huge boost to recycling efforts worldwide 
and helped pave the way for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de 
Janeiro. It also prompted President Bill Clinton to award Senator Nelson the 
Presidential Medal of Freedom (1995) -- the highest honor given to civilians in 
the United States -- for his role as Earth Day founder.

 As the millennium approached, Hayes agreed to spearhead another campaign, 
this time focused on global warming and a push for clean energy. With 5,000 environmental 
groups in a record 184 countries reaching out to hundreds of millions 
of people, Earth Day 2000 combined the big-picture feistiness of the first 
Earth Day with the international grassroots activism of Earth Day 1990. It used 
the Internet to organize activists, but also featured a talking drum chain that 
traveled from village to village in Gabon, Africa, and hundreds of thousands of 
people gathered on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Earth Day 2000 sent 
world leaders the loud and clear message that citizens around the world wanted 
quick and decisive action on clean energy.

 Much like 1970, Earth Day 2010 came at a time of great challenge for the environmental 
community. Climate change deniers, well-funded oil lobbyists, reticent 
politicians, a disinterested public, and a divided environmental community 
all contributed to a strong narrative that overshadowed the cause of progress 
and change. In spite of the challenge, for its 40th anniversary, Earth Day Network 
reestablished Earth Day as a powerful focal point around which people 
could demonstrate their commitment. Earth Day Network brought 225,000 
people to the National Mall for a Climate Rally, amassed 40 million environmental 
service actions toward its 2012 goal of A Billion Acts of Green®, launched 
an international, 1-million tree planting initiative with Avatar director James 
Cameron and tripled its online base to over 900,000 community members.

 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.

Climate Change and Water

Free Public Forum - Saturday, April 21, 2012

When it rains, it doesn’t pour -- enough. Climate change is taking a toll on water supplies. To keep the taps 
flowing, California constantly changes policies and laws that also change our daily lives and business as well. 

To put these issues into perspective, the League of Women Voters Pasadena Area is holding a public forum on 

Climate Change and Water, Saturday, April 21, 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., at Sweetland Hall, All Saints Church, 
132. N. Euclid Ave., Pasadena. It is free and open to the public. A complementary continental breakfast will be 
available from 8:30-9 a.m.

Water and environmental authorities from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Union of Concerned Scientists and 
the Main San Gabriel Water Basin Watermaster will discuss local water issues, climate change, policies and 
legislation to mitigate the causes, and effects of climate change on the economy. 

Dr. Josh Fisher of JPL will provide a climate change primer with projections for the future and effects on water 
sources, vegetation and health.

Tony Zampiello of Main San Gabriel Water Basin Watermaster will discuss the history of local water sources 
and the current situation with the state water project and bond as well as contamination and water rights. 

Adrienne Alvord of the Union of Concerned Scientists will address recently enacted bills to curb pollution and 

mitigate climate change and the subsequent effects on the economy, jobs, health and costs.

Felicia Williams of the Pasadena Environmental Advisory Commission will emcee the panel discussion.

Reservations for the continental breakfast are requested. Please call the League office, 626-798-0965, or email 

office@lwvpasadenaarea.org with “RSVP April 21” in the subject line. 

DUARTE AND BRADBURY TO HONOR THE EARTH WITH 
JOINT COMMUNITY VOLUNTEER PROJECT

Duarte and Bradbury will honor Earth Day 2012 with a joint community volunteer project starting at 9 a.m. on 
Saturday, April 21, planting trees, drought tolerant plants, gardens, and cleaning up the Royal Oaks, Bradbury 
North and Lemon trails.

 California America Water Company has donated the drought tolerant plants that will be installed along 
Duarte’s Encanto Park Bioswale and Nature Trail. Two trees donated by the Los Angeles County Sanitation 
District will be planted at Duarte Park, which lost a beloved old oak tree and several others during last 
November’s major windstorm. The Duarte Teen Center will also unveil a fruit and vegetable garden planted by 
members of the Teen Nutrition Council. 

 Some 70 volunteers including 50 teens from the Duarte Area Resource Team (D.A.R.T), Cardinals 
Helping Youth Live Life (CHYLL), Teen Nutrition Council, and Share Mentoring Program will participate in 
the Earth Day activities along with staff volunteers from Duarte and Bradbury. 

 Mayors from both cities will welcome volunteers at a continental breakfast at the Teen Center that will 
kick off Earth Day activities. Benet Sanchez, of the Los Angeles Regional Agency (LARA) will be the special 
guest speaker. LARA is a consortium of 16 environmentally conscious large and small member cities in the 
Los Angeles County committed to the state mandated reduce, reuse, and recycling philosophy of Assembly Bill 
939. 

 The community Earth Day project was made possible through the support of sponsors, the City of 
Bradbury, City of Duarte, Burrtec Waste Industries, Frontier Hardware, California American Water, Sophia’s 
Garden, and Duarte’s Promise – The Alliance for Youth.

 For more information, or to volunteer, call Duarte City Hall, (626) 357-7931, ext. 267. 


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