In a city full of environmentally-conscious individuals, it's no surprise Oakland has a plethora of ways to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day on April 22. Many of the events take place this weekend.

Where are you celebrating Earth Day? Add events to the list, please!

Earth Day celebrations in Oakland kicked off on Wednesday with the city's "Earth EXPO" in Frank Ogawa Plaza where dozens of green organizations from Bay Localize to Greenbelt Alliance distributed material while eateries distributed locally grown organic food. Politicians, including Mayor Jean Quan, even strolled through. 

The actual Earth Day - which is Friday, April 22 - is the day when 41 years ago, 20 million people in cities across America gathered in city squares, parks, school auditoriums and capitol buildings to call for a change from business as usual to protect our air and water and land   At the time, cars used leaded gasoline and coal burning power plants had few filters on their belching smoke towers. Rivers and other waterways carried raw sewage in their currents. Lake Erie famously caught fire from all the chemicals dumped into it.

That first Earth Day of activism prompted formation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act, as Congress and people everywhere woke up to the harm of unbridled pollution. Those two Acts continue today to provide the major protections of our air and water.

The international organization Earth Day Network was formed to carry on the work of that first Earth Day and continues today, decades later, to galvanize a world to act on behalf of healing the planet. As a call to action to follow the effective activism of that first Earth Day, the organization launched a campaign this year around the idea that every green act - every intentional decision to lower one’s carbon footprint - helps make the world a better place by their cumulative effect. Its “Billion Acts of Green” campaign is fast attracting commitments by individuals and organizations around the globe to take steps to help heal the planet. 

You can register an act of green you commit to at act.earthday.org.