Tag archives: Earth Day

E-fun at the Environmental Festival 
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 30, 2024

A great gathering of fellow eco-minded citizens, Green Car test drives (including Rivian!), groovy sounds from a gaggle of good bands, GMO (and plastic)-free food and, we hope, gorgeous weather. Yes, it’s Santa Barbara’s annual Earth Day celebration, a two-day community-minded affair in Alameda Park, the city’s version of Central Park. Planet vs. Plastics is […]

Los Padres ForestWatch Earth Day Volunteers Needed
By Joanne A Calitri   |   April 23, 2024

The Los Padres ForestWatch is excited to celebrate Earth Day during all of April in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties with info sessions and clean ups. The organization is calling for volunteers to work shifts in Santa Barbara, Ojai, and Ventura. Duties include signing up new volunteers, selling merchandise and meeting like-minded individuals who are […]

Focus on Festivals: Earth Day Expands Again
By Steven Libowitz   |   May 2, 2023

It’s been four years since Earth Day in Santa Barbara – where the annual celebration originated nearly 50 years ago – occupied Alameda Park for a weekend festival. But, hey, in the relative timeline of the planet, that is barely more than a nanosecond in a human life. Or maybe not, given some of the […]

A Fundamental Example for Earth Day
By Amélie Dieux   |   April 25, 2023

Walking in the grass, feeling the morning dew, hearing the serenity of the place – we might think of a beautiful park surrounded by nature, our senses alive with feeling. But instead here we are back in 1994 – when the Devereux Slough was still a golf course.  What so intrigued a businessman that he […]

Explore Ecology
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 28, 2023

Imagine an artistic hub in downtown Santa Barbara brimming with materials, tools, ideas, and creativity, a curated and dynamic gathering space where community members are welcome to imagine, invent, create and collaborate, all in an ecologically friendly way.  That’s the idea behind a new vision for the Art From Scrap (AFS) workshop as a permanent […]

Sustainability Symposium Goes to Ground
By Jeff Wing   |   March 28, 2023

Life-giving energy enters our biosphere as solar light; just incidentally fading our favorite curtains, keeping sunblock magnates in lobster bisque, and fomenting Earth’s diverse panoply of life—from Argoacterium to Tax Attorney. Our warm, wet little planet does its part to receive this bath of solar nourishment, endlessly turning on its axis like a rotisserie chicken. […]

Metamorphosis for the Environment
By Laura Capps   |   May 24, 2022

It would be nearly impossible to list the many unique features of Santa Barbara County that differentiate us from other places across the country. In contrast to all the incredible positive attributes, I recently learned of one startling distinction that may surprise you: our county is one of the fastest-warming places in the nation. According […]

Economic Failures Created the Climate Crisis, but Economic Policy Can Fix It
By Robert Taylor   |   May 10, 2022

As a new resident of Montecito, I’m learning about issues and concerns in our community through reading the weekly Montecito Journal. Since the climate crisis is my major concern, I particularly appreciate articles by columnists Rinaldo Brutoco, Tom Farr, and Robert Bernstein, as well as frequent reports of news and opinions from local environmental groups. […]

Arctic Locale: Local Residents Travel FAR South to Bring Back Lessons and Stories 
By Zach Rosen   |   April 21, 2022

Think globally, act locally. It is a phrase often used in regard to the environment, especially on Earth Day. But sometimes, to really know how to think globally, it helps to get out into the globe. Traveling to other parts of the world helps us understand the interconnectivity of our world communities and the impact […]

Art in Action
By Lynda Millner   |   May 27, 2021

As I was heading up to the Paseo Nuevo parking lot roof to go to the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), I saw two artists painting a gigantic mural on the wall outside. Turns out it was due to be finished the following day in honor of Earth Day. Check it out the next time […]

Montecito Miscellany: Down for Earth
By Richard Mineards   |   May 6, 2021

Earth Day, which started in Santa Barbara after a disastrous oil spill of more than four million gallons in 1969 which killed thousands of seabirds, dolphins, seals, and sea lions, has certainly been celebrated by Jennifer Smith, the publisher of Santa Barbara Magazine and C Magazine. Jennifer, daughter of Anne Towbes, tells me they have […]

Earth Day: Backwards and Forwards Looking at the ebbs and flows of environmental wins
By Rinaldo Brutoco   |   May 6, 2021

Wow! Hard to believe we’ve celebrated 51 Earth Days and the environmental battles we are fighting are worse than ever. Looking back, we delight in the history of Earth Day, in part catalyzed by the Santa Barbara oil spill of 1969. Earth Day was officially launched in 1970 by Senator Gaylord Nelson and Congressman Pete […]

Patriotic Pandemic Performance
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 22, 2021

“Nay, why reproach each other, be unkind,For there’s no plane on which we two may meet?” The words might be a little too poetic and eloquent for modern times, but the sentiment is surely something that might have been spoken aloud on the floor of the U.S. Senate this week, say, perhaps by a centrist […]

Talking Baseball in Tokyo
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 21, 2021

Veteran journalist and author Robert Whiting is one of only a few Western writers to have written a regular newspaper column in the Japanese language. The author of several highly successful books on Japan and the city where he has lived on and off for more than half a century include the best-selling You Gotta […]

Community Environmental Council
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 15, 2021

With Earth Day 2021 rolling around just a week after the publication date of this issue of the Montecito Journal, you’d think the big three-day festival would be all anybody at the Community Environmental Council (CEC) would want to talk about. After all, it was a nascent CEC that organized Santa Barbara’s first Earth Day […]

She’s Our Hero
By Richard Mineards   |   April 8, 2021

Annie Leonard, executive director of Greenpeace USA, is the recipient of the Santa Barbara’s Community Environmental Council’s 2021 Environmental Hero Award. “Her work exemplifies what it means to build the broad, boots-on-the-ground base of activism that we need to go all in together on the climate crisis,” says the CEC executive director Sigrid Wright, who […]

Earth Day 50
By Hal Conklin   |   April 23, 2020

Looking Back / Looking Forward Santa Barbara is often referred to as the “birthplace of the Environmental Movement.” It is true that back on April 22, 1970, Santa Barbara had become a key catalyst for the first Earth Day, having galvanized public outrage a year earlier when it experienced the worst oil spill in U.S. […]

Letters to the Editors
By Montecito Journal   |   January 30, 2020

Inaugural Event a Success Congratulations to the Montecito Journal on a very successful and well attended 1st District Supervisor Debate. The evening was informative, professional, well organized, and even had some humor sprinkled in. Although free to those of us in the audience, I’m confident that even with the support from the Montecito Association, the […]

Celebrating the Earth
By Richard Mineards   |   May 2, 2019

Earth Day was celebrated at Tecolote, the tony tome temple in the upper village, when four local poets and authors, accompanied by Diane Ippel on a hammered dulcimer, read and recited from their works. Santa Barbara Poet Laureate Laure-Anne Bosselaar, editor of four anthologies and a Pushcart Prize recipient, joined Montecito native Doyle Hollister, author […]

Celluloid Heroes: Tierney Tackles Soundtracks
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 25, 2019

Jazz singer Tierney Sutton has such a clear, compelling, and communicative voice, it’s surprising to learn that early on in the 20-plus-year career of the band that carries her name, Sutton was a reluctant focal (and vocal) point for the group. “When I came out to L.A., my heroes were Bobby McFerrin, Al Jarreau, Flora […]