San Francisco’s green community kicks off Earth Day Weekend with a special parade down Market Street to raise awareness about the climate crisis (www.350bayarea.org/earthday-sf), culminating with speeches from the main stage at the Earth Day San Francisco Fesival (www.earthdaysf.org) highlighted by 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben at about 1:30 PM.   Marchers will gather at Justin Herman Plaza at 11:00 AM and start down Market at about 11:30 AM.

“The time has come to put citizen action back into Earth Day,” says 350 Bay Area’s Rand Wrobel, the parade’s main organizer.  “This  ‘Earth Day Action Parade” is a good way to put our feet in the street to declare that the earth and its climate needs our action now - as the recent IPCC report warns (see links below).”

Besides 350.Org, there are several influential Bay Area Environmental organizations participating in the parade: 350 Bay Area & 350 San Francisco, the Sierra Club’s SF Bay Chapter, CREDO Action, Sunflower Alliance, 350 Marin, AFSCME Council 57, Greenaction, Ecology Center, Citizens Climate Lobby, Amazon Watch, Berkeley Climate Action Coalition,  OccupySF Environmental Justice, 350 Silicon Valley and others.

 "There will be marchers of all sorts,” Wrobel expains.  “We have a large youth group participating, and another group of bicyclists, some electric vehicles, and even a brass band.  We’re getting a lot of interest from people representing communities threatened by crude oil ‘bomb’ trains and air pollution, as well as folks fighting the Keystone XL pipeline and those supporting the Air District's plan for the Bay Area to lead the nation in an 80% reduction in carbon pollution by 2050."

After McKibben and other speakers address the crowd, the event’s main music stage features a mini-Jam Band festival (http://www.earthdaysf.org/line-up.html), including local favorites New Monsoon and The Earth Day SF All Starts (Rat Dog’s Mark Karran, Hot Butter Rum’s Nat Keefe, Further’s Sunshine Becker and others. 

There are two other multi-cultural stages offering a wide variety of performances and presentations, highlighted by the special Planet Dance Electronic Music Show featuring the Crystal Method’s Ken Jordan and six of the area’s top DJs.  There are also many onsite lectures, DIY workshops on subjects varying from raw foods to greening your home, 80+ eco-friendly exhibits, Eco-Chic Fashion Shows, Clean Energy Zone featuring electric cars (sponsored the Chevrolet Volt and the All Electric Smart Car), Green Kids Zone, Green Tech Pavilion, natural food sampling, live music and the Organic Food & Beer Court. Key sponsors are Rogers Family Coffee, KTVU TV 2, Alice 97.3 FM, KCBS 740 AM, KALW and The Park Trust Alliance.  For more information go to www.earthdaysf.org, or call 415-272-8889.

About Earth Day San Francisco:

First conceived by United States Senator Gaylord Nelson in 1970, Earth Day has become a major international holiday, and nowhere is that more evident than San Francisco.  Local organizer Douglas Kolberg and his steering committee of influential activists and green businesses are in their fourth year producing San Francisco’s Official Earth Day celebration at San Francisco Civic Center’s United Nations Plaza on Saturday, April 19, from 10 AM to 6 PM.  The event is expected to draw over 10,000 attendees.

Recent IPCC Report Background Info:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/04/13/ipcc-report-touts-clean-energy/7593073/)

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/blog/2014/apr/14/ipcc-report-scientists-world-seize-opportunity-roadmap

http://news.sciencemag.org/climate/2014/04/ipcc-mitigating-climate-change-more-challenging-ever

Matthews Communications Media

Matthews Communications Media

Matthews Communications Media represent many green clients, some of them non-profit events such as San Francisco Earth Day.

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