On Sunday, April 22, the City of Lafayette and Acalanes High School hosted two exciting events—Lafayette’s second annual Earth Day Festival and a student organized Science Symposium on global warming. The theme was “Global Warming – A Local Event”, focusing on the threat of global warming and what we can do about it in Lamorinda.
The highlight of the afternoon was the Science Symposium on global warming that ran from 1 – 2pm in the Performing Arts Theater. Acalanes students had worked since the beginning of the year to plan the event, with the assistance of two teacher advisors—Janet Thomas and Thomas McNamara. The Symposium was kicked off by seniors Kennan Cronen and Jeremy Wolff who introduced the issue of global warming and how it is directly affecting the world in which we live. Wolff said, “We hope to make people realize that even one person can make a difference.”
The Symposium’s keynote speaker was well-known Professor Dan Kammen, Director of the Renewable Energy Laboratory at UC Berkeley, who talked about Global Warming and the steps we must take to improve our situation. Speaker Adam Lerner shed light on solar panels and Becky Shafi, an agent with AAA, talked about how to reduce greenhouse gases by making smart transportation decisions.
On the same afternon, in the Acalanes parking lot from 12:00 – 4:30pm, the second annual Lafayette Earth Day festival was held, with over 30 vendors and displays. A children’s entertainment group, “Earthcapades,” performed a show on recycling from 2:00 – 2:30 which was a big hit. The academy award winning documentary, AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, was shown from 3:00 – 4:30 in the Performing Arts Theater. All events were free of charge and free burritos were offered to those that attend the symposium (complements of Casa Gourmet).
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View the Earth Day flyer or Science Symposium flyer
View a slide show of photos from Earth Day
View the list of organizations that participated and their contact information
For more information about the Earth Day Festival or to share suggestions for next year's event, please send an email to info@sustainablelafayette.net