It's About Animals

Earth Day Los Angeles, a coalition of 100 environmental and social justice groups, has crafted a Clean Energy Agenda for the city and is planning a series of activities for Earth Day, culminating in an event in Exposition Park with 100,000 people.

Massachusetts Earth Day 2000 in Boston will feature a huge environmental festival and concert at the Esplanade on the Charles River. This event will be powered exclusively by renewable energy. Chicago's celebration in Lincoln Park features green energy, green space, and green living. An alternative vehicle parade, events at the City Zoo, and happenings at various other parks will all be linked by walkways and public transportation.

In Australia, Friends of the Earth, Nature Conservation Council of New South Wales, and others are organizing a large "Car-less" Day event that will block off central Sydney streets to cars, drawing attention to air pollution. The car-free streets will become the site of a festival with music, theatre, and educational exhibits. In India, children will present a Children's Clean Air Manifesto to the First Lady in a ceremony in New Delhi organized by the Centre for Science and Environment with a Children's Bicycle Rally to draw attention to clean transportation. Earth Day China 2000 is organizing a series of Earth Day events, including a Green Life Commitment campaign asking people to pledge to make 12 lifestyle changes for the environment. Viet Nam Plus is organizing a clean up by 3,100 women of their homes and the surrounding environment on Earth Day 2000. The clean up will focus on reducing plastic bag waste in Vietnam. The Israel Association for Earth Day is coordinating a coalition Earth Day Concert and Fair that will feature performances by top Israeli artists, a huge exhibition of environmental art and performance art, and presentations by Israel's leading environmental organizations on critical issues. In Honduras, RARE Center for Tropical Conservation, which coordinates the Nature Guide Training Program for local people living in buffer zones of national parks throughout Latin America, is coordinating interpretative presentations on Earth Day 2000 given by all course graduates in their respective national parks.

And right here in Queens, a fair, festival and expo organized by the Queens College Environmental Club will begin at 12:00 p.m. on May 3, at Queens College in Flushing. For more information you can contact the Environmental Club at 718-461-3084. Need more action? You can learn all about edible wild plants, nature, science, and ecology throughout the New York metro area with New York's favorite naturalist, "Wildman" Steve Brill. Contact: wildmansteve@yahoo.com for tour calendar, travel directions or other information or send a SASE to "Wildman" Steve Brill, 143-25 84th Dr. Apt. 6C, Jamaica, NY 11435 or call (718) 291-6825 to schedule special event for school classes or other organization. Plant a tree. Pick up a bottle. Walk your dog. Celebrate our planet.

Bob DeFranco is an animal behavior therapist, executive director of the Animal Behavior Center of New York and president of the American Foundation for Animal Rescue, Inc. in Queens. Watch him on Pet Talk Live, Saturdays at 8:30 PM on Channel 34 in Queens and listen to him on the new radio talk show It's About Animals on NewsTalk 1050 WEVD AM on Saturdays at 9:00 PM. Questions or comments? Write P.O. Box 7623, Rego Park, NY 11374 or e-mail him at: bob@canines.com

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