The following comes from the Beacon Institute of Rivers and Estuaries in honor of this year’s 40th anniversary of Earth Day.

Beacon Institute today announced that it will celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day and kick off its 2010 season with events headlined by internationally renowned environmentalist John Cronin and legendary musician and activist Pete Seeger.

John Cronin internationally renowned Hudson River environmentalist and Time magazine “Hero for the Planet,” opens Beacon Institute’s new Third Thursday Series on Thursday, April 15 at 7 p.m. at the Center for Environmental Innovation and Education (CEIE) at Denning’s Point in Beacon, NY.

Cronin’s compelling call to action about the emerging water crisis is titled Brains vs. Brawn: The Future of the World’s Water. Cronin will explore the causes and downstream effects of the water crisis – from the era of industrialization that caused blatant pollution of waterways, to the spectacularly failed Clean Water Act, to finally, a new paradigm for cooperation and imagination in environmental science that marries the genius of technological innovation with the passion of environmental advocacy.

Cronin leads Beacon Institute as Director and CEO and is Senior Fellow for Environmental Affairs at Pace University. He lectures nationally on our environmental future. “If the 20th century was the era of environmental brawn, the 21st century has to be the era of environmental brains,” he tells his audiences. “One billion people are without safe water. We have the know-how and compassion to correct that tragedy, and harmonize forever the human and natural worlds. This is the greatest challenge of the 21st century.”

On Sunday, April 18 at 4 p.m. at the CEIE, Beacon Institute proudly presents legendary musician and activist Pete Seeger for a very special Sunday Author Series featuring Seeger’s newly revised and expanded sing-along memoir and musical autobiography “Where Have all the Flowers Gone.”

According to publisher Sing Out!, “From the 1940s, when Seeger began playing with Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly, through his fifty-plus years of activism, he has held the belief that everyone should be able to participate in making music. This book is a celebration of that spirit, and a thoughtful examination of a life well lived.”

The songbook includes more than 200 songs, and is infused with Seeger’s erudite commentary on topics ranging from songwriting to politics, supported by stories, anecdotes, photos and drawings, as well as directions for musicians and audience participation. A data-CD with 267 MP3 song samples accompanies this fully-indexed edition.

“We worked on this book for 25 years. I’m genuinely proud of this new edition, in which we got some old mistakes corrected and added 14 new songs,” Seeger explains. “The songs [in the book] are very different from one another and some of these songs, like the one about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., turned my thinking around 180 degrees.”

Due to anticipated audience size, guest are strongly encouraged to pre-register for one or both events . Select the event from the calendar and click on the link inside to register.