Those of you who are feeling uninspired to hug a tree or two today in honor of Earth Day may find solace in today's video lunch, featuring the late George Carlin and his bit about the ego-environmentalism of saving the planet. We humans are funny, aren't we? Oh, and PS, like we need to warn you, but Mr. Carlin was a lot of things, but "safe for work" was not one of them. Headphones on, watchers! And, uh, Happy Earth Day! more ›

Happy Earth Day, Angelenos! Honoring Mama Earth today makes the sun shine a little brighter, the air blow a little cleaner, the grass grow a little greener and the water flow a little clearer. So let us pledge to be green, not just today, but throughout the entirety of spring and summer. L.A. hosts a bevy of green events all year round, and here are ten of this season's greenest local events. more ›

Celebrate your love of planet earth and caffeine dependency* today with a free cup of brewed coffee or tea, hot or iced, from participating Starbucks. The catch: You gotta bring your own receptacle in which to catch the liquid. Okay, they aren't throwing it at you, they're pouring it into your reusable mug or tumbler, which you are bringing into a Starbucks to collect your freebie. more ›

UC Irvine, recognized recently by the Urban Land Institute and Princeton Review's "Green Colleges" for its sustainability and energy efficiency efforts, has won a tree-planting grant from the ADF and Toyota and will celebrate Earth Day on Friday April 22 with an on-campus, volunteer tree planting in Aldrich Park, reports the UC Newsroom. more ›

The TV Junkie Plan: "How to Save the Planet", "Attack of the Show", "Community", "30 Rock", "The Office", "30 Rock", "The Daily Show" (Zoe Saldana), "The Colbert Report" (Gorillaz!!), Ferguson (Busy Philipps) more ›

According to Mother Nature Network, the Let's Be Frank and the Green Truck rank among ten of the food trucks cruising U.S. cities from Washington D.C. to Seattle, Washington that are the most eco-friendly. more ›

Tonight through Sunday are a few events to take you far enough away from the city to make you feel like you're on a trip without the Coachella traffic experience. more ›

LA has a diverse cast of characters. Whether it's the characters with stirring stories or interesting occupations or the people who are just simply characters, this town has them all. In an effort to get to know some of those characters a little better, we've created "Seven Questions with..." If you have a suggestion for a future Seven Questions subject send us an email. more ›

The Los Angeles region is a behemoth, but the reality of it is that we are all connected. Garbage left on city streets ends up in storm drains, which carries it to the ocean. The water gets polluted, the animals get poisoned, the people get ill, the beaches close and none of it ends well. more ›

Now that San Francisco Mayor Twitter Master Gavin Newsom is officially running for Governor, he's heading South to Los Angeles and San Diego today for visits to two green companies (it's Earth Day, after all). At noon, he'll be in West LA with Marmol Radziner and Associates, an architecture firm that builds "green" prefab homes. Newsom will tour their design spaces and one of their "cutting edge" homes. Later, he'll be in San Diego touring a a renewable energy's laboratory. more ›

Spend you Sunday celebrating Earth Day and our oceans at Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium, where today from 11-6 they will have displays, presentations and activities focusing on environmental issues for which Heal the Bay is advocating will give visitors a range of areas for involvement. If you want to help pitch in, you can sign up for a beach cleanup between noon-3:30 and gain free admission to the museum for your participation. Special exhibits inside the Aquarium will highlight the environmental problems of marine debris. Artist “Deb Ris,” will display samples of her work, composed of trash found in the marine environment, along with many more special presentations and opportunities to interact with marine life. Lots of other kid-friendly activities, too. more ›

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Another Earth Day is upon us, and to me the 'celebration' of such seems to be about encouraging folks to hop in the Prius, rush out to the nearest participating retail establishment, whip out the charge card and purchase some (imported, of course) environmentally conscious thingamajig or three. In between the free concerts serving organic micro-brew, of course. more ›

This past weekend, the Green Apple Festival (MySpace), billed as "America's Largest Earth Day Celebration," was held in eight cities across the country (with the exception of Washington D.C., which was reportedly rained out), including here in Los Angeles. more ›

It's Earth Day on (some of) TV. Below are some marked programming that is Earth Day-related and of course there's plenty online, including web "TV" properties like Joost who have launched an Earth Day Channel. more ›

It's Earth Day. And as mentioned yesterday, there are plenty of events today and in the upcoming weeks to celebrate it. For the record, one event left out of yesterday's listings for today is Metro's noontime concert at Union Station featuring Latin singer/songwriter Carina Ricco who replaces Canon (the lead singer is sick). more ›

There were a lot of earthy things to do this weekend, but the true Earth Day is tomorrow. And after that, Earth Day-like events continue through May 10th with one of the best Earth Day festivals around -- WorldFest in Encino. more ›

If all goes well, Assemblyman Mike Feuer's bill, AB 2321, will let Metro and local officials "go to the ballot in November to ask voters to consider a half-penny sales tax hike. That would raise at least $720 million annually in a county with a long, long list of needs," according to LA Times' Road Sage Steve Hymon wrote today. more ›

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A few months ago I noticed a nekkid lady’s torso perched on a plinth in the middle of the Windward Traffic Circle in Venice. Considering the calle vida thereabouts, this shouldn’t have raised an eyebrow. Yet, the utter incongruousness of a slick, black, metal, larger-than-life sculpture in the midst of "don’t harsh my mellow" Bohemia, made me stop and gawk. Regardless of yellow caution tape, I sprinted across to the island, which is roomy enough for the locals to gather and drum together on Earth Day, and got a lensful of sexy. more ›

The festival kicks off this morning with a director's coffee talk at the Landmark. Scheduled panelists include moderator James Mangold, Paul Haggis and the next Bond director Marc Forster. Tickets are $11. The big event today (and it's free!) starts at noon and runs until 6:00 p.m. at the Landmark Regent Theater. It's Live Earth Day: A Celebration of Earth and includes 50 short films commissioned by SOS-Live Earth. Some of the filmmakers who've contributed are Roman Coppola, Rob Reiner, Chad Lowe, Casey Affleck and Madonna (Madonna?). If you can't attend the afternoon showings, another free Live Earth program kicks off at 8:30 p.m. at the Festival Promenade on Broxton. more ›

The LA Film Festival returns to Westwood tonight with the world premiere of Kasi Lemmons’ Talk to Me (not Talk To Me) at the Mann Village Theater. The film stars Don Cheadle and Chiwetel Ejiofor and tells the story of Ralph Green, an ex-drug addict and convicted felon who became one of Washington D.C.’s most prominent disc jockeys and community activisits in the 60s and 70s. A sure to be congested after-party follows the screening. more ›

LAist Rants are strictly the opinions of the author in question. Uncanny as it is, they are written in first person! We keep them on Sundays because even the hive mind needs a rest. more ›

If you've been wondering how you can express your affection for our planet, tomorrow is your answer. Saturday, April 22, is Earth Day. We turned to Green LA Girl to see what's happening around the city. We culled these from her list: more ›

Not a joiner? You don't have to sign up to plant a tree, ride your bike, or pick up some trash while you're at the beach. Or even to recycle and reuse. more ›

April is generally the time for all things Earth--Earth Month, Earth Week, Earth Day. April 22, 1970, was the historic day that parks and streets, schools and public spaces everywhere were filled with over 20 million people demonstrating for a healthier environment. Since then, April has become a time for the whole planet to stop and reflect on the worldwide effort to protect the earth--which has also come to embody principles of social justice and human rights. more ›