Those Who Will Inherit Earth Hear How It’s Imperiled

After weeks of headlines and soul-searching, today marks the 20th anniversary of the first Earth Day, an event that jump-started a national movement but was largely viewed with passing indifference in Orange County.

Environmentalists say that has changed, and today will prove it. Across Orange County, from Brea to San Clemente, thousands of people are expected to gather in parks, at beaches and even in South Coast Plaza to take stock of the environment’s condition.

Twenty years ago, the first Earth Day was largely a fringe event in Orange County, carried off by student activists with such melodramatic touches as mock burials of automobiles and bicycle riders wearing gas masks.

The accent today at dozens of rallies, large and small, will be on education, organizers say. The primary target, in many cases, will be young people, who will inherit an Earth that many warn is reeling from decades of rapid-fire advances that have also delivered a host of long-term environmental threats.

“If nothing else, we have to leave an imprint on the children that enough is enough,” said Marion Pack, executive director of the Alliance for Survival’s Orange County chapter, the group coordinating many of the county’s Earth Day activities.

“We’ve all got to mend our ways--think more environmental when we shop, consume and dispose of household goods,” she said. “But if we can reach the children and instill in them the right way to live, then the Earth has a chance.”

The centerpiece of today’s events is the Earthfestival at Centennial Park in Santa Ana. Activities begin at 8 a.m., with a seven-mile walk along the Santa Ana River trail from the park to the ocean. Refreshments will be provided along the route, and Orange County Transit District shuttles will return walkers to the festival grounds at no charge.

More than 50 environmental exhibits--covering recycling, wildlife preservation and global warming--will be on display. Music by an autistic choir and 1960s rock ‘n’ roll star Dick Dale is planned for 1 p.m. Admission to the festival, which ends at 4 p.m., is $1 or a large bag of newspapers, aluminum cans, scrap metal, glass jars or plastic soft drink bottles. Festival-goers who ride the bus to the event and show their stubs will also be admitted free.

Some Earth Day events were held Saturday, including UC Irvine’s Earth Expo, which attracted hundreds of students and county residents, such as Carl Schiller of Irvine.

The 48-year-old microbiologist said Earth Day is more than a passing fad: “I think this new awareness will last, because it’s more necessary now than it was 20 years ago when it started. Some of this is hype, but the ideas will be with us forever.”

But Steven Lamm, 18, a Culver City high school senior, was not as confident that Earth Day will have a lasting impact. “This is the first time I’ve heard of it,” he said. “I’m wondering if people will forget about it next year.”

County Earth Day organizers say they they decided against a big, centralized event and intentionally urged local communities to stage their own observances today in a bid to reduce traffic and generate “neighborhood awareness and action.”

“The last thing we wanted was one single mega-event attracting thousands of people in thousands of cars,” said Pack of the Alliance for Survival. “That is hardly being good environmentalists.”

The bug has apparently bit even the most unsuspecting.

Behind the gates of Big Canyon, a private Newport Beach community where some of the county’s wealthiest residents live, about 50 people gathered at a cocktail party Saturday afternoon to help dedicate a young pine tree that will be planted on community’s golf course. The tree was bought by longtime resident Karol Wilson and a friend who raised money by recycling cans, bottles and newspapers.

It was Wilson’s idea to hold an Earth Day party, a concept that caught many of her well-heeled neighbors off guard.

“I didn’t have one person respond who knew what Earth Day was,” Wilson said. “I’m amazed at the amount of indifference or ignorance. We’ve got to reverse it.”

Today’s rallies, speeches and exhibits are aimed at doing just that. Among them is a daylong series of events in Laguna Niguel--including a student art show, water conservation demonstrations, music, puppet shows and nature displays--at Crown Valley Community Park near Niguel Road. Activities will begin at 9 a.m.

Nature walks are being offered throughout the morning at Upper Newport Bay, the Bolsa Chica wetlands in Huntington Beach and Santiago Oaks Regional Park in Orange.

The Santa Ana Zoo, starting at 11 a.m., has planned demonstrations on dangers of household cleaners, among other things.

And at 2 p.m. in South Coast Plaza, a children’s play, “Clean Up Your Act,” will be presented.

Correspondent Greg Hernandez contributed to this story.

GLOOMY OUTLOOK

The global prognosis is not good as Earth Day arrives. A1