A Plethora of Earth Day Events

You wake up to a sunny day and realize you’ve slept past noon. Your bed is surrounded by empty soda cans and beer bottles and your hair reeks of smoke from the previous night out. You drag yourself out of bed, take a relaxing shower and throw all the bottles and cans in the trash. Looking in the mirror and around the room, you feel much better about yourself. Except that it’s Earth Day, fool, and you just took a ridiculously long, wasteful shower and then put a bunch of recyclable stuff in the garbage can!

Guilt-tripping aside, there are a bunch of celebrations and events going on this week in honor of Earth Day (read about the secular holiday’s invention in this SFBG piece). And since it’s lame to only care about the Earth for one day per year, I’ve included other Earth-appreciating events.

Earth Day Eve: Creating a Healthy Future
Wednesday, April 21^st, 7pm
Celebrate the 40^th anniversary of Earth Day at the David Brower Center’s reception/presentation. Keynotes by the amazing John Robbins (author of Diet for a New America and the Food Revolution) and Mark Dubois (about the Four Years Go initiative). Plus you can go early and have dinner at the fantastic new local/sustainable restaurant Gather.
David Brower Center
2150 Allston Way [Berkeley]
$15 (Admission includes a copy of the Sustainable World Source Book which normally costs $12, so admission is really only $3)

Earth Day @ the Academy of Sciences
Wednesday, April 21^st: FREE Admission Day
Enjoy FREE admission to the California Academy of Sciences (3^rd Wednesday of every month).
Thursday, April 22^nd: “Extremely Green” Nightlife
Another rad Nightlife party, this time featuring “green games:” competitions with environmental themes. Not that’s the definition of “fun.”
California Academy of Sciences
55 Music Concourse Drive'¨[Golden Gate Park]
Nightlife: $12

EPA Earth Day Festival
Thursday, April 22^nd, 11am-3pm
This is the official Bay Area Earth Day celebration put on by the EPA. Yep, the US government. They love to mess with the planet 364 days/year and pretend to love it for one. But it’s at a lovely park, so there’s that.
Yerba Buena Gardens
Mission St. btwn 3^rd St. & 4^th St.
FREE

Berkeley Earth Day
Saturday, April 24^th, 12-5pm
Celebrate Earth Day the Berkeley way: biodiesel, electric car, and solar power demonstrations, climbing wall, Farmer’s Market, vegetarian food booths, dance and music performances, reggae, and take Bart, don’t drive (that’s an order straight from their flyer).
Civic Center Park
MLK Way & Allston Way [Downtown Berkeley]
FREE

Garden Fare
Sunday, April 25^th, 3pm.
Leslie Bennett, owner of Garden Fare, a Bay Area business that installs edible gardens, is giving a talk about how to make your own edible garden. Try growing your own food (even if it’s just some herbs!). It tastes better and gives you some perspective on how much energy goes into growing food.
Omnivore Books
3885 Cesar Chavez St.
FREE

More:

More Academy of Sciences Earth Day Events (ongoing)
Earth Day Marin (Saturday, April 24^th)
Earth Day El Cerrito (Saturday, April 24^th)
San Leandro Watershed Festival (Saturday, April 24^th)
Lafayette Earth Day Celebration (Sunday, April 25^th)
Albany Arts & Green Festival (Sunday, May 2^nd)