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MyspaceSanta Barbara could not have asked for a better weekend to host its 40th annual Earth Day Festival, the two-day event promoting ecological and humanitarian efforts. Between the beautiful weather and an appearance by James Cameron, this year’s event, said attendees and organizers, topped previous years’.
The shade of the trees in Alameda Park provided the perfect setting for the festival, keeping families and dogs cool while they strolled the booths. Popularity has caused the event to grow, and it’s now expanded across two blocks of the park. Approximately 18,000 people attended on Saturday and an estimated 15,000 people came on Sunday. “This year has been phenomenal,” said Alan Irwin, praising the Community Environmental Council which hosts the nonprofit event each year. As a booth volunteer with Edible Santa Barbara magazine, Irwin has attended the Earth Day events multiple times. “[This year], it’s a broader base of people and better volunteers. I’ve been more impressed this year than in previous years.”
Rob Hoffman Photography
James Cameron
The highlight on Sunday was the presentation of an award to director and Santa Barbara resident James Cameron for the environmental consciousness in his work and his efforts to live an eco-friendly lifestyle. As anyone who has seen the movie Avatar can guess, Cameron is interested in preserving natural habitats and the indigenous peoples who live in them. “The point of Avatar was to use the visual effects, to use the 3D, to use the spectacle and all that to draw people into the theater, and touch them in the heart, make them think about these things,” Cameron said.
Cameron and his wife recently returned from Brazil where they fought to prevent the building of the world’s third largest dam, a plan that would displace approximately 25,000 native inhabitants. In his speech, Cameron questioned why the greater population of the world does not understand the importance of sustainability and denies the existence of a problem. “[But] not here in Santa Barbara. We know what to do — we’ve got our heads screwed on straight,” Cameron said. His main message was the importance of understanding science and ignoring campaigns to slander the facts, as this is the only way to fix the environmental problems going on under our noses.
For anyone inspired by Cameron’s speech, the variety of booths offered a number of eco-friendly living solutions, whether it involves transportation, clothing, food or home improvement. Local businesses displayed their environmentally friendly products or gave consumers tips on how to make their homes more sustainable. The green car show modeled sustainable public transportation vehicles, solar powered cars, bicycle shops, and even Segways. One shining example of stylish sustainability was a Porsche that a San Marcos High School class converted into an electric vehicle. Not only is the car eco-conscious, the project was celebrated as a great way to inspire young adults.
This festival was not just for hula-hooping and swaying to the rhythm of the various bands that played, although that was an enjoyable part of both days. Information on a number of important topics was at the people’s fingertips, including tips on how to improve your garden and how to volunteer for children with learning disabilities. Children’s activities around the park made the festival a great place for families to spend the day and let their kids play an instrument or make a t-shirt.
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Comments
What's up with Albertsons and Ralphs at Earth Day?
Trying to appear green when their shelves are largely full of unhealthy, earth-killing %&$P. Lets invite Exxon-Mobil too.
Georgy (anonymous profile)
April 20, 2010 at 11:16 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Independent editors, can't you give your newbies a crash course on local place names? First "Mission Valley," then "Anacapa Park." Please.
JanT (anonymous profile)
April 20, 2010 at 12:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)
JanT,
You're absolutely right. As the editor of the piece, however, it was my mistake for not catching the error. Thanks for letting us know.
Tyler
Tyler (Tyler Hayden)
April 20, 2010 at 12:50 p.m. (Suggest removal)
What does a rock band on a stage making offensive noise pollution and a fenced in beer garden have to do with Earth Day? Good causes that turn to contrary means to raise money have lost their integrity and their purpose for being.
While Santa Barbara may be proud to be the origin of Earth Day, I am not sure that celebrating it with beer and noise is the appropriate way to do it, especially considering the party hearty debacle at the IV beach last year and not so much this year, which took so much public money to prevent it from happening again it could be considered a toxic dump for community resources.
Has Earth Day turned into just another excuse to drink and party like the beer hall section of State Street on designated drunk days?
Bird (anonymous profile)
April 21, 2010 at 12:44 a.m. (Suggest removal)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biMGUT...
As far as the drinking, if they didn't have a beer garden then people would bring their own alcohol and it would be more difficult to enforce underage drinking and such. I wouldn't have any problem with that, but I'm sure Bird would be screaming.
If the city didn't put on a rock concert in the park on earth day, then people would do it themselves. I'd be perfectly ok with that, but again, Bird would probably be screaming for the city fascists to come in and control and setup the event.
But I do hope there is important information being made aware to the people who attend, and hopefully real environmental issues like toxic chemicals and destruction of our watersheds rather than the bogus CO2 stuff. Plants love CO2, we've had periods of time where CO2 concentrations were much higher here on earth and plants thrives, animals had no problem and we didn't have out of control temperatures. The man made global warming stuff which comes primarily from the IPCC has been proven to be bad science, and they've already had information leaked that has proven they manipulate and lose data. There are people in control at the IPCC who have an agenda, not one to protect people or the earth, but to make laws from an international body that will affect everybody on earth and eventually will become a part of our daily lives. We will be slaving ourselves for the elite global bankers for a bunk cause, and I won't have it.
loonpt (anonymous profile)
April 21, 2010 at 9:16 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I commend the Earth Day Festival for their recycling and composting efforts! But-- what's up with all of the dead animals on sticks??? Even aside from the morality issue of "honoring Mother Earth" by slaughtering, skewering and roasting her animal children en masse, serving meat at an "eco-conscious" event that claims to be promoting sustainability is hypocritical at best! (Come on now, we've all read the research on vegetarianism being a more effective carbon footprint reducer than driving a Prius.) I'm not saying we all have to be vegetarian all of the time, but it seems to me that in truly paying homage to our beloved planet, and in the interest of educating ourselves and others on more earth-friendly habits, we could make the committment to be meat-free just for the weekend. After all, when a vegetarian is hard-pressed to find a meal at Earth Day, something's stupid.
Arielle (anonymous profile)
April 22, 2010 at 10:57 a.m. (Suggest removal)