Earth Day, April 22, 2013

Spring seems to be more beautiful than ever this year. Every day new flowers bloom or another tree seems to suddenly leaf out. We live in a valley and the hills seem especially beautiful. We're lucky along the coast of California that we have very clean air that has been scrubbed as it crosses the Pacific.

Planet Earth is surely a beautiful place. The first Earth Day took place April 22, 1970. On that day more than 20 million Americans took part in environmental activities, from cleaning litter along the coast to protesting industries that were big polluters. Earth Day is now observed by more than one billion people in 192 countries. This weekend here in Sonoma Valley there are numerous Earth Day events, all designed to get people out to enjoy the spring wildflowers, or learn about environmental issues. An event at Sonoma Plaza will include a sound healer, information about advances in green energy, information about alternative healing, and much more. We all need to take care of Mother Earth. She's the only planet we've got.