Join us at Earth Day SF for Earth Day’s 50^th anniversary.

A statement from Earth Day SF founder, Douglas Kolberg

As an avid backpacker and naturalist, I’ve traveled every national park trail I could, and seen more and more change in the natural world. I saw more clear-cutting of trees. I saw mountains torn up for fracking. Rivers in California are drying up due to bottling water, while the process is oil-dependent and transport uses more oil and adds to greenhouseemissions. The long drought California recently suffered and increasing numbers of wildfires are concerning. Extreme weather has caused more and stronger hurricanes than usual. Island nations are already feeling the effects of rising sea water as the Arctic melts.

As I write this, the last Sumatran rhino has just died.

In 2000, I had a baby boy. I needed to do everything I could to ensure he’d have a healthy planet to live on. I felt a personal responsibility, towards the woods, especially. But though I’m something of an outdoorsman, I’m also an urban animal, with limited resources. What could I possibly do to tackle such a huge challenge? What could I do to make people more aware of what we, as humans, were doing? What could I do to slow things down? I needed to figure something out. I owed it to my new son.

I became an eco-geek. Read everything I could find on the topic. Attended every lecture I could. Informed myself.

Being an event producer, I started there. I begged parades and festivals for a green area at their events, and brought in eco-villages, promoting solar power and other green measures. I finally realized that San Francisco, a major world city, had no Earth Day commemoration, no Earth Day action. An Earth Day celebration would be a good platform for spreading awareness, so I took it on. The event grew from tiny to over 10,000 strong.

That’s 10,000 people who might have learned something new about how to lower their carbon footprint. 10,000 people who might have gained resolution to do more. 10,000 people who cared enough to stand in solidarity with the planet we live on, our home, our Earth.

We are now in a climate crisis. We need massive action and we need it sooner rather than later. As we approach the 50^thanniversary of Earth Day I feel more responsibility, more urgency, than ever, to bring people out to both celebrate the Earth and learn more about what they can do, right now, to stem the tide of catastrophe before it becomes a tsunami, unstoppable and deadly.

Now my son is 18, not a baby anymore, but I still worry about what kind of future he will have. Will there be wars over water? How will the alarming decrease in the world’s insect population affect him? Will he have to move away from San 

Francisco where he was born because of rising sea levels? I can only work hard and hope, and I will. He and I are still on the trail to a more sustainable future. Join us. Only standing together as one green voice can we effect change.