A.M. Greenlist: Santa Monica gets crunchier tonight

>> Upset about the felling of ficus trees, Santa Monica's Treesavers group plans an all night "Save Our Trees" protest tonight at City Hall. Among the things the group's asking for: A Tree Commission. (via LAist) Earlier: 23 ficus trees are chopped down in Santa Monica.

>> The Santa Monica Community Permaculture Gathering happens tonight at 7 p.m. in the Community Meeting Room at the Santa Monica Main Library, 601 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica.

>> Missed the Great L.A. River Cleanup? Volunteer vicariously via Mark Mauer's photo essay in LA Daily. "First pick out dozens of plastic bags, then when that gets too frustrating, switch to digging out some huge piece of trash." Now that Mark's cleaned it up for you, take a tour of the spiffed-up river!

>> The White House interfered with the Environmental Protection Agency's decision over California's bid to regulate greenhouse gas emissions in vehicles, says Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Frank O'Donnell provides links to documents in question in his Grist post.

>> The U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) raised its tree planting goal to 7 billion trees by late 2009, up from the previous goal of 1 billion trees in 2007. Like our city's own Million Trees L.A. program, UNEP lets people register their newly planted trees online. Also like L.A.'s program, UNEP "does not check that all seedlings or saplings are actually planted or survive." Earlier: I never wanted to be a tree killer.

>> Our noise may be causing ecological tragedies. Man-made noise -- a.k.a. anthrophony -- intrudes on "the information flow in the jungle," affecting the population of some species by changing the soundscape. "Cities have long had noise ordinances," writes Clive Thompson in Wired." "Wilderness areas could benefit from tighter protections as well." Earlier: Those loud leaf blowers.

>> Beware the Easy-Off Oven Cleaner. Wired explains the ingredients in the scary stuff: "One of the most commonly abused inhalants, butane poses severe health risks. But that's not a worry here: Huffing fumes from the other ingredients would almost certainly kill you first."

Image from Santa Monica Treesavers