COMMENTS & CURIOSITIES:

Do you know what Wednesday is? True, the third day of the week, and the hardest to spell, but that’s not exactly what we’re looking for. Anyone? Yes, Beatrice, it’s Earth Day — the 39th to be exact. Who started all this? That’s easy. It was a U.S. senator from the state of Washington named Gaylord Nelson. Why people name their children Gaylord is beyond me, but we’ll leave that alone for now.

At a conference on the environment in Seattle in September 1969, Nelson called for a nationwide, grass-roots demonstration for the environment in the spring of 1970. Demonstrations were big in those days, especially for those of us who were doing the college thing at the time. There were demonstrations for the war and against the war, for drugs and against drugs, for women’s rights and against them and for the whales — just for, none against. Everybody likes whales.

The times and the issues were much different then. The biggest environmental issue by far was overpopulation. There were dire predictions that the world population would explode over the next 50 years, reaching 15, 20 or even 25 billion people by the year 2020. “Zero Population Growth” became the catch phrase. If we didn’t get there, we were all going to die. Oh well. To borrow a line from Mr. Berra, “Predicting the future is hard, especially if it hasn’t happened yet.”

A UCLA astronomer named George Abell made a tongue-in-cheek prediction that on Friday, the 13th of November in 2026, the earth’s population would become infinite.

Nobody knew what it meant then either, but it scared everyone senseless. I interviewed Abell for a PBS program on astronomy in 1980, shortly before he died, and he said that statement was one of the great regrets of his career. He was worried that picking Friday the 13th might give away the joke too soon, but he was horrified when he realized it never did.

The other big issue was, believe it or not, not global warming, but global cooling. The coming of “a new Ice Age” was the cover story of Time magazine in June 1974.

“Whatever the cause of the cooling trend,” predicted Time, “its effects could be extremely serious, if not catastrophic.” Then as now, scientists discovered the problem, and the problem was us: “…climatologists suggest that dust and other particles released into the atmosphere as a result of farming and fuel burning may be blocking more and more sunlight from reaching and heating the surface of the Earth.”

University of Toronto climatologist Kenneth Hare said it was time to go home and get our affairs in order and told Time, “I don’t believe that the world’s population is sustainable if there are more than three years like 1972 in a row.”(See Yogi Berra above: “Predicting future.”) All of that might be a cautionary tale for us — we know more today, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we know better.

What we do know, 39 years after the first Earth Day, is that the demonstrations, celebrations and permutations of what has become the earth’s annual worldwide birthday bash have been going on for weeks around the world, around the clock, all-green, all the time. Much of it across the country will happen today and is being coordinated by the Earth Day Network — including celebrations on the National Mall in Washington and in all the major cities.

But lucky for you, you little earthling you, you can hug the earth and give it a great, big smooch right around here. Your hair will get mussed up, but it’s worth it.

Today in Costa Mesa, there will be earthy things for the whole family at the 15th Annual SoBeCa District Earth Day Festival at the Camp and the Lab on Bristol Street.

You’ll get tips on greening your life, plus live music, arts and crafts and the first annual electric car parade from South Coast Toyota on Harbor Boulevard, with a rousing finish at the Camp. I’m not sure what a rousing finish is with electric cars. Maybe they hum really loudly.

Want to go green in Surf City? On it, got it, we’re all over it.

Today is the big Earth Day party in Huntington Beach from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., hosted by the city of Huntington Beach and Rainbow Disposal.

The Huntington Beach Centennial Earth Day Celebration is at Rainbow’s recycling center at 17121 Nichols St., Huntington Beach, with eco-friendly everything — food, entertainment, games, even eco-friendly prizes. I’m not sure what those are, but I’m guessing nobody’s walking away with a gas-powered leaf blower.

Want to make some new eco-friends in Newport Beach? Next Sunday, April 26, is your day. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the city of Newport Beach and a raft of environmental agencies will host an Earth Day celebration at the Muth Interpretive Center in Upper Newport Bay.

Games, live music, demonstrations and information: It’s all there and it’s free, which is cheap.

While we’re at it, I have a few suggestions for saving the Earth.

Could be just me but I think they’re important: no more talking loud on cell phones in public, ever; no more pharmaceutical commercials, especially about erectile dysfunction. And could someone tell me who sits in bathtubs on their lawn to watch the sunset, nude? I don’t get it. Does Cialis cure that or cause that? Finally, if we’re serious about global warming, we need a total news blackout effective immediately on Angelina Jolie and her kids, Madonna and her kids, Jennifer Aniston and her lack of kids, Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Jessica Simpson. I know she’s gaining weight. I don’t understand why it matters; we need to stop talking about it. Seriously. If we can do all those as quickly as possible, I believe the air will be cleaner and the Earth will start cooling down in 72 hours. OK, a week maybe.

I think that’s it. Gaylord Nelson, Earth Day and Cialis. It really is a whole new world, no? I gotta go.