Bay Area celebrates Earth Day 2023 with action and activism

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. (KGO) -- The Bay Area was showing love for the planet on this Earth Day. From picking up trash to raising awareness about the environment, people were out in force today.

Tom Nazdam is showed us just some of the debris fished out of the San Rafael Canal by his customers on Earth day. Forty people got a free kayak or paddleboard rental from 101 Surf Sports if they set a course for trash above and below the water. Many returned with a lot of weird stuff like furniture and a printer.

"We've been doing this for 12 years. It's awesome. We build on participation and help clean up the canal," Nazdam said.

Victoria Hansen and her son Mateo from Concord were taking part in an Earth Day litter clean up at Shorebird Park in Berkeley.

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"I'm trying to teach him how important it is to take care of the Earth. It's scary, we have to take care of it. It's the only one we got," Hansen said.

Organizers say 200 people took part in the event to make the park a little cleaner and help keep plastics out of the bay.

"With a small action like this, coming together, we can make a difference," said Diego Espinosa from San Ramon.

In San Jose, volunteers were out cleaning up neighborhoods across the city to combat litter and blight.

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Clean air and water and preserving the environment, in the midst of climate change is the goal of many across the globe. The cool afternoon fog rolled in over the Golden Gate, a reflection of our amazing Bay Area microclimates.

There was a lot of trash being collected nearby in Golden Gate Park, near the San Francisco Earth Day Festival where all things sustainable, recyclable and vegan were being celebrated.

"We want to keep the focus on reusable and sustainable goods, be environmentally conscience, and we wanted to have a lot of food to see how delicious it is being plant based," said Christy Griffin, president of the San Francisco Veg Society.

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