Crescenta Valley Residents Celebrate Earth Day

This Saturday it is time for Crescenta Valley closet hippies to join with fellow soul mates across the country in a spiritual connection with Mother Earth. Activists will brush off the tie dye clothing, bring out the flowers and hold a quiet, peaceful demonstration in honor of the world we live on as we celebrate Earth Day at a time when global warming is becoming a grave concern to many.

Glendale Unified School District’s Mountain Avenue Elementary had everyone sign an Earth Day banner promising to respect the Earth and Rosemont Middle School is traveling to another school district to help clean up a school campus.

Ralphs Market in La Crescenta has distributed paper grocery bags to local schools, anyone who wants them. The students are asked to color the bags and bring them back to Ralphs. They will receive five cents for every bag.

The colorful Earth Day bags will then be used to pack shopper’s groceries and remind them to reuse the bags each time they visit the market. Ralphs has been doing this for years to involve the community in the recycling process. Throughout the year they offer five cents for every cloth, paper, or plastic bag reused by the shopper.

But this April 22 is less than upbeat for those who have been long sounding the warning bells of pollution and Earth awareness. This Earth Day has been accompanied by loud and clear warnings that it is time for the human race to step up and take care of their home.

The idea of Earth Day is generally contributed to Senator Gaylord Nelson, from Wisconsin. In 1962 he persuaded President John Kennedy and Attorney General Robert Kennedy to give a “visibility to this issue by going on a national conservation tour,” according a an article written by Nelson.

President Kennedy did his tour; it was not a overwhelming success. Nelson did not give up, he continued to speak out and finally on April 22, 1970 the first Earth Day was observed by the United States.

There was not one single agency that organized the day, it just happened. People were concerned, pollution levels were rising and gas was almost 35 cents a gallon. The world was in trouble, the people were responding.

Somewhere between the 1970s and now the interest in Earth Day has been sporadic at best. We have been warned of impending doom several times from Al Gore’s book “Earth In The Balance” written in the early ‘90s to even Dr. Seuss with his warning from “The Lorax.”

But this time is a little different. Many scientists, including those from JPL Earth science studies, have reached an almost celebrity status as magazines, newspapers, news programs and even talk shows clamor for information on the melting of the world.

This data has not gone unnoticed by the people who make policy in Washington, D.C. In an e-mail interview, Congressman David Dreier praised JPL for its continuing research.

“Thanks to the La Cañada Flintridge-based JPL, we are all learning a great deal about climate change and its potential consequences. Thanks to their research, we know that for the good of our environment, as well as our economy, we must foster greater use of renewable energy and encourage conservation to reduce our dependence on foreign oil,” Dreier responded.

The fact is the global ticking bomb has just sounded an alarm.

Scientists are telling us that global warming is real and it is rapid and they have proof. According to research from JPL, the loss of ice from Greenland doubled between 1996 and 2005. Scientists predict that this melting affects the entire ice sheet and increases its contribution to global sea level rise. This affects everything from temperatures to more frequent and severe storms.

According to JPL Climatologist and Oceanographer Bill Patzert the ocean holds the heat and the heat is rising.

“In the past century the temperature of the planet has increased one and a half degree Fahrenheit, which is quite a rapid change,” Patzert said. “The glaciers are disappearing rapidly, like nothing we have seen in a long time. The sea level has raised ten inches in the last century.”

In a fast-paced world of technology this type of change in a century may not seem like much, but on a global scale it is an extremely fast rate.

Most scientists now agree that global warming is a trend set in motion by what is known as greenhouse gases. The Earth’s weather is driven by the sun, which heats the Earth’s surface.

The heat enters the atmosphere, warming the Earth, then escapes. Some heat is trapped by “greenhouse gases,” water vapor, carbon dioxide and other gases. This keeps the Earth at a reasonable temperature. The problem is that the gases have increased at an accelerated rate, thanks to humans, which causes more heat to be trapped.

“The green house gases have a long resistance in the atmosphere,” Patzert said.

He pointed out that Earth’s population is outgrowing it’s environment.

“During the Twentieth century the world went from less than one billion [people] to 6.4 billion,” he added. The increase in population, increases the demand of goods including the fossil fuels. “There are too many people. If everyone had the same standard of living we now enjoy it would take four earths [to accommodate them] .... There are too many of us using too much stuff.”

This population increase and warming trend can be felt locally.

“There are 19 million people between here and Tijuana,” Patzert said. With the building of high rises, adding homes in natural California chaparrals and other changes to the land due to added demand, the state has changed its natural weather pattern. “In the past 100 years the average temperature in California has risen by five degrees.”

The question is what can we do about it and is it too late.

“There is nothing we can do to reverse this, but we can make the impact much less severe,” Patzert warned.

Money is being given to research on the impact and the causes of global warming. Congressmen Dreier and Adam Schiff are strong supporters of JPL and its research.

There are signs that the government is beginning to listen to the Earth. Schiff has been a longtime supporter of the environment.

“I am cosponsoring a few things the Climate Stewardship Act of 2004, 2005,” Schiff said, adding that he is sponsoring a resolution for the administration to provide the House of Representatives with documents related to global warming. “This is a great issue and a grave threat.”

Schiff adds that it is important to concentrate on renewable resources. By tapping into the technological ability of the American people we will be able to reduce our dependence on foreign fuels, Schiff said. “I think it is crazy for us not to be pursuing this [alternative energy.]” He added that a strong effort needs to be put toward the discovery of these alternatives. “We need to put as much effort as a Manhattan Project or the Apollo project.”

Dreier also believes that creating renewable energy is important.

“I am committed to doing this [reducing our dependence of foreign oil] by creating renewable energy incentives for businesses and consumers, and expanding incentives for the purchase of alternative fuel vehicles,” Dreier said.

The awareness is encouraging however Patzert said there are three major components to global warming: “Population, pollution and poverty. Too much of all three has lead us to tremendous economic, religious, and political polarization.” He said it is this polarization that has affected the political atmosphere and the lack of action on the part of many governmental officials.

Patzert said the federal government must respond to this crisis but action should come from local and state levels as well.

“You think it is global but you can act on an individual basis. Use energy-efficient lightbulbs in your home, be careful about how you use your energy. Be aware of the global [situation] but bring it home,” he said.

Individual responsibility and community grass roots effort is how the first Earth Day began but conserving and recycling on one day out of the year is no longer enough. Warnings from the science community are getting stronger. Perhaps we should take heed of the Lorax’s warning, “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better.”