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 >> The battle over the Expo line continues, with the latest being a parade of anti-at-grade crossings people during Tuesday's community meeting about the light-rail line. Steve Hymon of the Bottleneck Blog also takes a closer look at the controversies.
>> "Bottlemania" author Elizabeth Royte shares her thoughts on America's bottled water culture. "An entire generation has grown up thinking that fountains equal filth, and the bottled water people are happy to exploit that. Some of the ads for water and even for water filters play on this, hyping this idea of public fountains being not quite pure." Earlier: A prize-winning, almost-free drink: L.A. tap water.
>> Bears: The reason for yet more lawsuits. Two enviro groups -- The Center for Biological Diversity and Pacific Environment -- plan to sue under the Endangered Species Act to protect the bears, alleging that "Bush administration officials have been so keen to grant offshore leases, they have not given proper consideration to the potential harm to polar bears." (via Grist) Earlier: Polar bears to plastic bags.
>> Burning garbage to create energy still means a lot of pollutants get produced in the process, but Britain's going to put into action a gasification plant that does just that because the country's running out of landfill space. "A big reason for Britain's landfill addiction is that it's relatively inexpensive to bury rubbish," but E.U. fines will take effect in 2010, changing that cost-benefit balance.
>> Bamboo flooring: Green or not? Bamboo floors can be eco, but not if the bamboo's grown by clearing old-wood forests, fed chemical fertilizers, and treated with formaldehyde. On the bright side, there is a bamboo flooring company that has obtained FSC certification. "The bottom line is that the onus is on you to ask questions before you fork over thousands of dollars for new flooring," writes the Lantern at Slate.com.
Image courtesy of metro.net
 For a primer on current environmental concerns -- alongside lessons in sociocultural, architectural, and political history around the world -- pick up Alan Weisman's book, "The World Without Us."
I read this book after watching "Your house without you," a short animation that shows just how long a typical U.S. home would last if humans suddenly disappeared. That times 100 is what "The World Without Us" looks at, examining what seemingly-indestructible edifices will quickly disintegrate without our presence -- and what material legacies will remain of human life long after we disappear as a species.
What will remain: A lot of plastic. "The World Without Us," in fact, features an interview with Capt. Charles Moore, whose discovery of the "Pacific Garbage Patch" -- a huge area in the ocean covered with plastic debris -- prompted the current Junk raft trip, which departed Long Beach for Hawaii on June 1.
Frighteningly, every bit of plastic we've ever created -- save the small amount that's been incinerated -- still remains, according to the chapter titled "Polymers are forever." Even more frightening is the fact that plastics, instead of biodegrading, are simply breaking into smaller and smaller bits -- and getting ingested by smaller and smaller organisms. And because plastics act as sponges for toxic substances such as DDT and PCBs, the potential for bio-accumulation of these poisons as they work their way up the food chain really gets scary.
Not all of "The World Without Us" is so doom and gloom. In fact, because the book covers so much ground -- from the history of the Hagia Sophia to today's virtual water trade in Kenyan flowers -- "The World Without Us" sometimes reads as a compendium of bits of sociocultural histories you've always wanted to learn more about but never got around to exploring on your own. Do you know why wild African animals have survived alongside humans while so many U.S. species went extinct when European settlers arrived? Are you familiar with VHEMT -- The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement? Reading "The World Without You" will educate you about the things you never even knew you were curious about -- and perhaps make you a better Jeopardy player in the process.
Even as it points out some man-made ecological disasters, "The World Without You" doesn't get preachy or push a strong environmental agenda. More than anything, "The World Without You" gives us a glimpse of both the fragility and resilience of life on Earth -- a nature that humans have proved quite adept at destroying, but also a nature that will long outlast the human species. In the end, the book paints a history and future of the Earth that's not so human-centric, and correspondingly, encourages a more humble perspective of our role on this planet. What you end up doing with that perspective is entirely up to you.
Smokey Bear's back with a new series of public service advertisements that encourage you to "Get Your Smokey On" by practicing fire safety habits. Odd feature of the main TV spot: Smokey gender morphs!
A girl metamorphoses into Smokey -- who warns some boys about forest fires in a girly voice -- before turning back into a girl. Then Smokey with a boy's voice comes on to say the usual "Only you can prevent wildfires" line.
I'm guessing the point of the ad is that everyone (women included!) can do like Smokey and educate others about forest fires. I don't remember this gender-morphing happening in the past though -- and Smokey really has a long past, having been around since 1944. Anyone remember a past campaign when Smokey was female?
We've certainly had a lot of fires in SoCal of late, so Smokey's advice, if not new, remains relevant. If you're bored at work, Smokey Bear's website features a vault with posters, as well as radio and TV spots since the '40s.
Erik Knutzen and Kelly Coyne, who write the blog Homegrown Evolution chronicling their adventures as urban gardeners and farmers, recently released their first book, "The Urban Homestead" from Process Media. Last Friday, Erik, who is also a board member of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, sat down in his garden with Streetsblog's Damien Newton to talk about the new book and sustainable transportation.
DN: So the book's called "The Urban Homestead." How did you come up with the name?
EK: It's a phrase that's been floating around since the '70s. That's the earliest I've seen a reference to an "Urban Homestead." The magazine Mother Earth News, a classic resource for back-to-the-land hippies, and still a wonderful resource, had a bunch of stories in the 1970s that used the expression "Urban Homestead."
There's also a classic example in Berkeley from the early 1970s that was an experiment in self-reliant living in the city called the Integral Urban House. It was a very ambitious project based in Berkeley aimed at setting up a self-reliant urban household. For instance, they had fish ponds with bee hives over the fish ponds. The dead bees would fall into the ponds, providing food for the fish. The goal was to apply principles of the back-to-the-land movement to living in the city.
I'm actually not all that happy with the phrase Urban Homestead because the word homestead suggests a sort of Little House on the Prairie, completely self-sufficient life. Our focus isn't on that kind of extreme living, but on small things that anyone can do. It's about integrating things like growing some of your own food into a normal urban or suburban life. It's not about becoming completely self-sufficient. Community is a good thing, after all, and we still need to work with each other, not focus on running off alone.
DN: Does your family have a history of farming?
EK: Half of my family moved from Germany to Missouri and they are farmers. Some of them are farmers today, but like most family farmers, can't make a living off of it so they have to do other jobs as well. Kelly's family does not have any farmers in it, at least in the last century. But all of us are descended from farmers. In 1900, a majority of people lived on farms. Today, less than 2% of the population feeds the other 98%.
DN: Is that the inspiration to do all this? You have the gardens in the front and back, the chicken coop... Was that all a master plan from earlier in your life, or was it something you came up with as you went along?
EK: It kind of evolved. Like a lot of people we're concerned about where our food comes from.
DN: So you've been at this house...
EK: ...ten years now.
DN: And what was it like when you got here?
EK: The reason we picked this house was because it had everything inside from when it was built in the 1920s. Unfortunately, that also meant it was incredibly dilapidated. But there were also a lot of charming details. This is a modest house, it's a small house. But we prefer a small, nicely detailed house rather than a large dry-wall pup tent.
DN: But when you got here there was no chicken coop.
EK: No chicken coop. We did some vegetable growing when we still lived in an apartment, but we didn't start doing all this stuff until maybe 2000 or 2001. Originally we were spending all our time on fixing the house.
DN: When you began to convert it from the traditional urban yards, full of green grass, to the style of garden we see now, what was the first step? Put another way, if my apartment in New Jersey ever sells and I buy a place out here and want to convert a grass yard into this type of garden, what should I do?
 EK: The first thing I tell people is to start small. The mistake that a lot of people make is trying to transform the entire house and yard all at once. There are all these examples of people doing these really heroic projects to try and maximize the space all at once. The easiest thing you can do if you have a yard is to build something like a small raised bed to grow a few vegetables in. The one we have is 4x8 feet made out of wood, but it could be made out of other stuff like broken concrete or whatever you have at hand. You make a box with no bottom, then you buy soil or make compost, and then start vegetable gardening because you know the soil is good.
Do you know the expression, "you don't grow plants, you grow the soil?" The first thing you really need is the right soil, and in most places the soil you'll start out with is really bad. Using a raised bed is a way to jump-start growing while you amend the existing soil, which can take years.
If you want to take over the lawn or do something more ambitious, the first step is to really grow the soil. Make compost, but most people won't be able to make enough to fertilize a whole yard so you might have to import compost. We get horse bedding material. Did you know L.A. has more horses per capita than any other large city in the country? There is tons of compost around here...
We don't believe in tilling the soil. We believe you should amend it from above. Soil has a symbiotic system of fungus and worms that work with the roots of plants. If you till it you're going to destroy that relationship. The way to build it is to add organic matter as mulch. You might have to gently break the soil up a little bit, with a tool called a broadfork, but do it gently. You definitely shouldn't till it. Tilling isn't just bad for the soil, it contributes to pollution because it releases CO2 into the atmosphere.
If you're just moving into a place, another thing to think about is the tree situation since it takes awhile for a fruit tree to mature. You may have to take out some existing trees and put in some new ones, making sure to plant them carefully so that they provide shade where you want it -- say to cool the house, while at the same time not shading out areas where you want to grow sun-loving vegetables.
Overall we're guided by permaculture, which can be a difficult thing to explain. Permaculture came out of Australia, from the work of Bill Mollison and David Holmgren and mimics nature. Rather than industrial agriculture, which has a lot of artificial inputs such as fertilizer ... with permaculture the plants work with each other in a mutually beneficial relationship.
The best example of this is the "three sisters" that the Native Americans used to plant: corn, squash and beans. The idea being that beans are nitrogen-fixing plants, they pump nitrogen into the soil to fertilize the ground for the corn and the squash. The corn grows up as a trellis for the beans. The squash serves as a mulch for the other plants. And together these three plants provide an ideal diet for humans.
DN: I noticed out front you're growing clover to nitrogen-fix the soil a little.
 EK: This sort of gardening is the opposite of American agriculture. Too often they're putting in petro-chemicals temporarily into the soil to try and grow plants. With permaculture you use nature to do that and create a beneficial feedback cycle. It also simply requires less labor.
And that's an important part of gardening from home. I mean, you have a 9 to 5 job...
DN: Or you blog from your living room...
EK: (laughs) Right, or you blog. Or worse, you garden then you have to blog about the gardening, which takes twice as long.
Anyway, in permaculture you try to use plants that thrive in your region. If you think of gardening as a whole system, such as the "three sisters," you end up with what we see here. You see those artichokes there. The nearby fennel flowers attracts the kind of insects that deal with the bad insects on the things that we eat. You try to mix things in here such as Mexican sage, which attracts birds that also eat the insects we don't want.
One of the main goals of permaculture is to require as few human inputs as possible. There's a phrase local permaculture expert David Khan taught me that I really like, "work makes work..." If you plant a grass lawn you have to mow it every week, you have to fertilize it. I just don't have time for that kind of work. I don't want that kind of work. I also don't want to pay someone else to do it.
If you work with nature rather than against her, you don't have to do as much work. Nature doesn't need humans to make it go.
DN: So let's talk about apartments for a moment. What can the apartment dwellers do?
EK: If you happen to have a sunny balcony, what I would recommend most people do is make their own self-watering containers. There are really great directions for self-watering containers on the Internet by Josh Mandel. (Writer's note: here's a cool You Tube video from Homegrown Evolution.)
A self-watering container has a reservoir of water at the bottom, and really only requires watering about once a week. Vegetables need moist soil, not soggy, and self-watering containers do that perfectly.
You can also grow herbs. You don't need a self-watering container for herbs. Just grow them in a regular pot. If you don't have a balcony that's sunny, there are community gardens where you can rent space. There's not enough of them, and that's a real problem.
Or you can forage for food. Foraging is something for people that don't have land or access to a community garden. Especially in L.A. where there are a lot of wilderness areas close by you can go out and find plenty of plants you can eat. They're quite good. There are many cultures that still forage for food. Italians still forage regularly. Armenian people forage as well.
I can literally walk two blocks away in the spring and there are fields full of mustard seeds. Dandelions, you can eat the leaves or use the flowers to make dandelion wine. There's also a group -- Fallen Fruit --that makes maps of where the public fruit trees of Silver Lake are.
There's a whole world of mushrooms to forage if you know what you are doing, but you, of course, need to be very careful. Go to the free lectures the Los Angeles Mycological Society puts on.
The book is about a lot more than gardening and foraging. It's also a home economics book. Stuff our grandparents used to do that we forgot somehow. Lots of immigrants still do this stuff, but they don't have blogs so nobody knows about it, I guess (writer's note, he was either picking on me or being self-deprecating here). There's a whole world of fermentation you can do right in your kitchen. You can ferment stuff from the farmer's market, you can make your own beer...
...the reason to do your own fermentation is you can't buy this stuff. There's a type of fermentation called lacto-fermentation, and you may have heard of probiotics. It's a type of health food that has living organisms in it. Yogurt is the most obvious example -- yogurt with active cultures in them. These yogurts are important for our health.
Our environment is too clean for our own health because we're missing these organisms from our bodies. Lacto-fermentation method can replace some of those essential organisms. Kimchi is an example of this, but most pickles you buy in the supermarket are pickled in vinegar instead of the traditional lacto-fermentation method.
People in apartments can also make wild yeast (sourdough) bread. It's important to use wild yeast...
DN: What qualifies yeast as "wild"?
EK: I'm glad you asked that because it's very simple. To make sourdough bread all you have to do is mix flour and water together and every day throw out half the mixture (or make bread with it) and add more flour. The wild yeast is contained in the flour itself, and the air in smaller concentrations. It's there naturally. It's very easy to make good bread without commercial yeast.
Bread without commercial yeast lasts longer, tastes better and some say is better for you.
DN: Talking about energy, is there anything easy one can do to take better advantage of solar energy without buying solar panels?
 EK: There's lot of fun things you can do, if you like to tinker. That's the excitement I get from these kind of projects, that I can make them myself. For example, a solar cooker. You can make one out of cardboard, aluminum foil and a black pot.
DN: I saw a woman at the bike expo in Pasadena the other week pulling an oven baking cookies with solar power on her bike. I thought that was cool.
EK: That's nice. It's amazing how easy these things work. We cook our rice in a solar cooker now and it's easier than cooking on the stove. We just throw it in the solar cooker and two hours later you have perfectly cooked rice and you can't burn it. That's the kind of thing we show how to do in the book and the kind of thing that someone in an apartment or someone who can't afford solar panels can easily do.
There's also the solar dehydrator, which we showed you earlier. It's a little more involved, it's made out of wood, but it's a lot easier than installing solar panels. Nothing against solar panels, but it's not possible for everyone. Solar cooking is for everyone. Even if you don't have a balcony in your apartment you can always use your solar cooker for a picnic.
EK: I was talking about the tragedy of modern agriculture. You and I can see the impact of our failed transportation policies. I think more and more people are beginning to see the tragedy of our agriculture policy, which is equally appalling in this country. The power of industrial monocultural agriculture, i.e. growing tons and tons of corn for corn syrup and the resulting health crisis is something people are starting to be aware of.
In our supermarkets you can get all kinds of vegetables all year round but they taste out of season all year round. And so as we come to grow more things ourselves, and you can see that this garden isn't that ambitious, it's small and modest. This is not Versailles obviously. But, just growing a few flavorful unique varieties of vegetables and fruits opens a whole new world of flavor. Especially in the winter, because the winter here is the best time to grow food in Southern California. But, we grow all kinds of food, mostly Italian styles of vegetables and they are much more powerfully flavorful then anything you can get in the supermarket. Bitterness as part of our flavor palate alone is something that's been lost in North American cuisine.
The U.S. palate has tilted towards the sweet. And when we started growing these Italian varieties we were like, 'Wow, this is so powerfully bitter.' But we eventually realized that this is a different part of the palate of food that we're missing and it's really wonderful. These bitter foods also tend to be highly nutritious. That's the real motivation for us, to have flavorful, unique food that's in season.
When you're growing food it ties you to nature. No, you don't have oranges year-round, you have it at one time of the year. You have avocados another and artichokes another. It depends on where we are in the sun's course in the heavens through the seasons. Growing food ties you to the real world rather than the virtual world ... the blogging world where you and I are for a lot of our lives.
I don't want to come across as a technophobe either because I think technology is really important and can do wonderful things. I like having a computer and blogging and all that. I think that's really important. I'm not a Luddite at all. I don't like Luddites. I don't like that rejection of technology.
The important thing is to have a balance. To know how to grow your own food. To know how to take care of chickens and that sort of thing. To know how to make beer and bread. The important thing is balance.
The transportation portion of this interview appears at Streetsblog. "The Urban Homestead" is available through Homegrown Evolution.
Photos by Damien Newton
 >> Water: The new dwindling resource. Writes Mark Clayton in the Christian Science Monitor: "Global water markets, including drinking water distribution, management, waste treatment, and agriculture are a nearly $500 billion market and growing fast, says a 2007 global investment report. But governments pushing to privatize costly-to-maintain public water systems are colliding with a global “water is a human right” movement." Earlier: Water Week.
>> L.A. River: May lose federal protections. "The city's river can't even float enough boats to qualify as a full-fledged navigable waterway, according to the Army Corps of Engineers." Earlier: June 8: A popular day for touring the L.A. River.
>> Nuclear: Not attracting investors. "Capitalists instead favor climate-protecting competitors with less cost, construction time, and financial risk. The nuclear industry claims it has no serious rivals, let alone those competitors — which, however, already outproduce nuclear power worldwide and are growing enormously faster." (via grist)
>> BioBlitz: Biodiversity, measured in the Santa Monica mountains. "More than just a species count, it aims to connect scientists who might not typically work together and to give non-scientists a firsthand look at what biodiversity -- the wealth of different life forms that exist on the planet -- is all about."
>> Coral reefs: Biodiversity, disappearing. "The culprit here is carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas that is responsible for global warming and that also is turning our oceans into an acid bath," writes Margaret Wertheim, co-creator of the Crochet Coral Reef Project, in an op-ed.
>> Debunked: Some gas saving myths. Neither filling up in the morning nor changing your air filter will improve your gas mileage.
Photo by Third Eye via Flickr
 >> L.A.'s greener than San Francisco and New York City, according to a study by think tank Brookings Institution. But Margot Roosevelt delves through the fuzzy math: "The calculations did not account for the fact that half the city's electricity comes from coal-fired power plants. Instead, Brookings used a state-wide average that included the hydroelectric and nuclear plants in Northern California. Omitted from the data are emissions from industries and commercial buildings, and from local roads apart from federal highways." Also omitted were CO2 emissions from long-distance commuters.
>> The L.A. River's getting revitalized -- and also getting tagged a lot. L.A. Times describes the graffiti as "tagging on steroids, with monikers big and bold, containing letters that often are as big as garage doors." Earlier: L.A. River, now with its own controversial mural.
>> Your own private L.A. traffic island. Guerrilla gardeners are taking over unkempt public spaces, bringing greenery to urban blights. "One of a slew of DIY gardening currents, such as permaculture (design of highly sustainable ecosystems), urban homesteading, composting and free fruit movement, guerrilla gardening is a response to dwindling green space, limited land and suspicions about food sources, say experts."
>> Go species scoping in the Santa Monica Mountains. BioBlitz 2008 starts at noon to end 24 hours later! Join scientists, naturalists, and fellow Angelenos to observe and record as many species as possible in a 4-hour-shift. Register on-site at one of the stations (PDF).
>> An organic burger-n-hot dog joint called O!Burger opens in WeHo this Saturday (via LAist).
Photo by Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times
 >> Priuses: Still popular. Toyota's announced a third plant in Japan to make batteries for hybrids.
>> The "Give your car the summer off" campaign. Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels wants Seattleites to cut back on driving by 10%. "Local businesses and museums are dangling incentives to try to get people to take the bus, ride a bike or car pool to cut down on the number of miles they travel." (via Treehugger)
>> Redefining transportation. At Brayj Against the Machine, Josef El-Brayjerino lays out some bicycle transportation policy goals for L.A. -- which includes suggestions for tweaking the L.A. municipal code to include bicycling and walking in the legal definition of transportation. (via Streetsblog LA)
>> Cleaning up the Port. The Middle Harbor facility project for the Port of Long Beach just released its environmental impact review for public comment. "The 10-year, $750-million project would combine two terminals that are too old, inefficient and dirty to meet the port's goals for pollution reduction and greater productivity."
>> The "Future of Wine." Richard Selley of Imperial College London wrote a book about the future of British wines in the face of climate change. "Given reports that climate change is already raising the alcohol content of wines (warmer temperatures mean more sugar which is converted into alcohol) it looks like the taste of climate change is a boozy one."
>> Tuna calculator. Use Environmental Working Group's handy calculator to figure out how much Albacore or light tuna you can safely enjoy in a week. (via Green Daily)
>> Honey, I shrunk the frogs. "Human disruption to habitats not only causes populations to get smaller, it also seems to cause the individuals of some species to literally shrink."
Photo by Siel
 So factory farmed meat gets a lot of bad press -- but if you're not quite sure what the problem with the unnatural meat is, 'The Simpsons' can help you out. (via The Ethicurean)
In “Apocalypse Cow,” Bart gets to know a "scrappy little misfit" of a cow called Lou when he joins 4H. Unfortunately, Lou gets sent to a feedlot -- and more fortunately, the storyline educates viewers about growth hormones, slaughterhouses, and, um, Casablanca.
For more factory farming fun, watch The Meatrix, a cute short animation feature by Sustainable Table. My favorite character's Moofius.
Need a more realistic, less cartoonish video to get you concerned about factory farming? Check out the videos from the Humane Society that got Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. in Chino, Calif., in trouble -- and precipitated the biggest beef recall in history.
 >> California's average gas price tops $4 a gallon; the national average is above $3.83 a gallon.
>> Relatedly, hybrid sales are zooming and Ford's given up hopes of becoming profitable by 2009.
>> Metro riders can rock out for free at the Viper Room on Mondays. A $5 Metro Day Pass, or weekly and monthly Metro passes will grant you free admission to the weekly 103.1 Check One... Two.
>> Metro adopts a $3.4 billion budget for the coming fiscal year. Good news: No fare increases! "Up 7.3% from current budget, the increase is largely due to increased transportation subsidies for municipal bus operators, paratransit service, Metrolink, the County of Los Angeles and cities, preparation to start new Metro Gold Line service to East Los Angeles later in 2009, and rehabilitation of older Metro Rail cars."
>> Alaska plans to sue against polar bears' new status as a threatened species. "Alaska elected officials fear a listing will cripple oil and gas development in prime polar bear habitat off the state's northern and northwestern coasts." (via grist) Earlier: Politics and polar bears.
>> Why more companies are siding with environmentalists to push for government regulation. Writes Gregory Dicum in the Economist: "Alliances between companies and activists are not as strange as they might seem. For bosses planning long-term capital investments, says Michael Lenox, an expert on corporate sustainability at Duke University, 'uncertainty is more damaging than regulation.' This puts bosses in the same boat as activists: both want regulators to hurry up and set the rules."
>> The problem with nuclear power: Debates about costs and benefits aside, nuclear power requires bullying people into accepting radioactive wastes. The latest: Washington State got sued by the Bush admin for refusing radioactive waste, and the courts ruled against the state. Meanwhile, Italy plans to build nuclear power plants again, after a 20-year break.
Photo by Gregg Moscoe
If you've been following the plight of polar bears in the L.A. Times, you might be a tad confused. Today comes an article about new fights over the bears, which were recently listed as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act. Polar bears should be listed as endangered, not just threatened, argue the enviro-groups who've filed a new lawsuit over the issue. And in the article, we hear a lot of reasons as to why -- including a U.S. Geological Survey study that predicts polar bears in Alaska could be wiped out by 2050.
Meanwhile, the L.A. Times also ran a column by conservative Jonah Goldberg yesterday. Goldberg declares polar bears are thriving and shouldn't be listed as threatened (much less endangered): Never mind that polar bears are in fact thriving -- their numbers have quadrupled in the last 50 years. Never mind that full implementation of the Kyoto protocols on greenhouse gases would save exactly one polar bear, according to Danish social scientist Bjorn Lomborg, author of the 2007 book "Cool It!"
Which is it? Let's just say Goldberg's research and reasoning are pretty shoddy. For one, Goldberg's claim that polar bear populations have quadrupled is in itself strange, since scientists agree there's no adequate worldwide census for polar bears. In fact, according to Dr. Andrew Derocher, chair of the IUCN/SSC Polar Bear Specialist Group, "there is no data at all for the 1950-60s. Nothing but guesses."
Even today, there's only a "working figure" of 20,000 to 25,000 bears, as the Arctic is "a vast and forbidding place to conduct field studies," as described by the L.A. Times reporter Kenneth R. Weiss. Science studies do, however, have firmer figures for certain areas; the western Hudson Bay polar bear population, for example, has shrunk by 22% since 1987.
In any case, the push to protect polar bears has to do more with what science tells us will happen to them and their habitat due to climate change in the future, not about what's happened to populations in the past due to other factors. Still, even in the face of scientific consensus to the contrary, Goldberg's eager to grasp at straws. To bolster his case, Goldberg cites Danish "scientist" Bjorn Lomborg, whose peers on the Danish Committees on Scientific Dishonesty issued a 17-page report concluding that Bjorn’s book displayed "systematic one-sidedness” — back in 2003. [Update: Citing procedural errors, Denmark's Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation did later annul DCSD's decision (The NYT reports: "Most of the ministry's criticisms were of the panel's methods, not its findings."), giving DCSD the option to reinvestigate, which it chose not to do. Here are links to Grist's more current critiques of Lomborg.]
I find it rather ironic that while railing against environmental "evangelism," Goldberg faithfully clings to his one-sided belief that plastic bags are better than paper ones -- though I get the sense that efforts to ban paper bags would have Goldberg touting the benefits of paper over plastic (most agree the difference is a wash). Nevermind that environmentalists are urging people not to switch to paper, but to bring their own bags.
Photo by Alexander Kutskiy / Business Wire
Today's the last day of Bike to Work Week!
 >> If your bicycle needs a post-week tuneup, check out "The Chainbreaker Bike Book," a new "seat-of-the-pants, low-budget ... do-it-yourself bike maintenance guide that keeps things simple, straightforward, and, most importantly, real," according to Keith Goetzman in Utne.
>> A bold water conservation plan's coming to L.A. The plan includes mandatory water-use restrictions on residents, changes in building codes, and waste water recycling programs. "Administration officials say the point is to act now so the city can meet increased demand through a combination of conservation and recycling. They note that Los Angeles is an arid metropolis that has grown by dipping long straws in far-flung water supplies."
>> Tokio Lounge in Hollywood's going to be reincarnated in green fashion as Ecco. The new lounge will be revamped using eco-friendly building materials and is set to reopen in July with an organic menu, LED lights, and waterless urinals.
>> Today's also Endangered Species Day. Celebrate the polar bears' newfound status as a threatened species -- though I suppose the fact that they're in danger is not actually an uplifting thought... A town called Churchill in Canada expects to see tourists flock to the town to see the polar bears while they still can. *(An earlier version of this item listed polar bears as an endangered species. In fact, the recent ruling gives the animal "threatened" status under the Endangered Species Act.)
>> Can't afford organic lingerie? Get crafty and make your own eco-lingerie set for just a few bucks.
>> It's Bike to Work Day! Pedal to work and get free bus rides, plus snacks and other goodies at the many pit stops around the city.
>> Downtown art exhibit space Pharmaka's gone green with LED lights, eco-friendly furniture and an energy-efficient air circulation system (via blogdowntown). The greening process will be shown in a new green lifestyle show on the Discovery Channel starring Adrian Grenier called Alter Eco, which appears to have copied the name of a fair trade company I like.
 >> Google Store's gone green, with organic T-shirts, hemp organizers, recycled denim pencils, and more. I'm most interested in the recycled plastic mouse in red. (via groovy green)
>> *Finally, polar bears were given recognition under the Endangered Species Act by the Bush administration yesterday, one day before the deadline set by a judge. (An earlier version of this item stated that the bears were placed on the Endangered Species list. In fact, the recent ruling gives the animal "threatened" status under the Endangered Species Act.)
>> Are you drinking genetically modified wine? ML01, a genetically modified yeast, is in some North American wines -- and won't be listed on a label despite the fact no one has throughly tested its safety. "Letting lab-produced ingredients slip into the bottle unchecked is antithetical to an ethos based in appreciation of artisan traditions, deep connections between producers and the land, and personal relationships between distributors and consumers. Until North American health organizations start regulating the labeling of GM foodstuffs, it’s all the more essential to be intimately acquainted with what you sip."
To be honest, everything I hear about endangered species sounds both depressing and far away, partly because the Bush administration meddles too often in Endangered Species Act-related decisions, and partly because I just don't see these species often enough (perhaps because they're endangered) to have formed a deep, personal attachment to them.
Just to be clear, I'm not saying I don't care about endangered species. I do -- but the caring feels very abstract and cerebral, as opposed to heart-felt. But this Friday is Endangered Species Day -- a day that'll hopefully engage urbanites like me to get involved in preserving the natural habitat for animals we've only seen in zoos.
To get the public involved, zoos all over California are holding special Endangered Species Day events and exhibits! Actually, make that zoos all over California except the L.A. Zoo, which isn't planning anything because it's working on a "Meet the Berenstain Bears!" weekend event.
We do have one local event happening in Pasadena though. The Folk Tree store in Pasadena's currently showing a group exhibition titled "Endangered Species," which runs until Saturday, May 17.
I actually found out about Endangered Species Day from a turtle-loving nonprofit with an unwieldy name: The Association for the Protection of the Environment and the Marine Turtle in Southern Baja (ASUPMATOMA -- based on its name in Spanish). "Throughout the world, and in particular, the Gulf of Mexico region, sea turtle populations have been severely destroyed by years of careless fishing and hunting practices, exploitation of eggs, rapid land development, pollution, and destruction of sea turtle nesting habitats," they wrote me in an e-mail, urging me to write about the plight of sea turtles.
Part of me wants to get involved with these sea creatures, while another part of me's overwhelmed by the sheer number of species that are in similar dire straits.
I mean, the animal populations in trouble aren't even limited to the Endangered Species list. The polar bear still hasn't made it on there, though a judge did recently rule that the Bush Administration must make a decision on the issue by tomorrow, May 15. We'll see what happens tomorrow.... (*UPDATE: The Bush administration earlier today declared the polar bear a species threatened with extinction.)
I know many environmentalists sometimes get overwhelmed by the magnitude of environmental problems we have in the world. Usually I manage OK, but when I get to thinking about endangered species, I feel a sense of helplessness that lies somewhere between depression and repression. I'm wondering if "adopting" one species that I can focus on might be helpful -- puffins, maybe, except these birdies aren't actually endangered (though they are "threatened"). What's your favorite endangered species?
 >> Free eco-themed Mother's Day e-cards from Grist. Earlier: Eco Mother's Day gifts for any budget.
>> Get your locally-grown, pesticide-free succulent arrangements from succulentla. Replace part of your lawn with them, and you'll save water for years to come. Remember: water rates are expected to go up and up ...
>> The Regional Connector project, which will link the Blue, Expo and Gold rail lines, has narrowed down the alternatives to two options: one above ground and one below. Eric Richardson of blogdowntown has the details.
>> Oil companies agreed to pay $423 million to settle MTBE contamination lawsuits, "brought by water suppliers and users in California and 19 other states over groundwater contaminated with the gasoline additive." However, six oil companies -- including Exxon -- did not agree to settle. More legal fights to come.
>> Beauty and the beak: Beauty the eagle got its beak shot off, giving her a handicap akin to having "only one chopstick to eat," according to one biologist. A team of volunteers is working to attach an artificial beak to Beauty. Earlier: Fake flipper for a turtle named Allison.
>> Woman moves to Santa Monica, de-cars, loves life. She's like me, except a half-century older. "Instead of jumping into your car to do 11 boring errands in four hours, you do one errand, or two, and it takes as long as it takes, and you only buy what you can carry, or push, in a cute little cart.... I'm here on the ground, walking past flowers, and I don't miss those cars at all."
 >> The half-cent sales tax for better transit in L.A. is a step closer to making it on the November ballot. The Metro board "asked Metro staff to report back in June with a comprehensive package of specific street and highway improvements and public transit projects that could be funded by a new transportation sales tax in Los Angeles County." Earlier: Subway to the sea: Worth a half cent sales tax hike?
>> With the promise of $213 million in federal funds, the Metro board voted to turn carpool lanes into high occupancy toll lanes. "If all goes as planned, tolls for those lanes would take effect on the 10 and 210 freeways in the San Gabriel Valley by the end of 2010." Carpoolers may still get to use the toll lanes for free; many details still have to be ironed out.
>> Massive bus service cuts averted! The Metro board decided that the proposed cuts were too severe and voted to limit cuts to 6 lines.
>> Why food prices are suddenly going up. In Grist, Tom Philpott breaks down the many reasons behind the sudden rise in food prices around the world. Item 4, which details Haiti's transformation from a food secure nation to a country of displaced farmers and hungry urban poor, is especially saddening. Support local agriculture!
>> Nalgene gets sued over Bisphenol A (BPA) in its sports bottles. The company has already said it will pull bottles containing BPA out of stores in the next few months. However, as of now, Nalgene continues to sell bottles containing BPA.
>> Penguin swims in a custom-made wetsuit. Pierre, an African penguin that was going bald, got dive gear company Oceanic Worldwide to make him a suit. "With his plumage restored, Pierre is being weaned off the suit, taking more and more dips in the buff. There are no plans to make him a matching surf board." Earlier: Fake flipper for a turtle named Allison.
Photo by Cathy Cole via Flickr
The picture isn't particularly clear, but it's photographic proof nonetheless that we've got fishies in Ballona Creek. Two steelhead trout were spotted yesterday, bringing joy to environmentalists all over L.A.
Why are two fish such a big deal? This once-natural waterway got totally paved over by the Army Corps of Engineers, basically making it a huge concrete storm water drain -- an action now generally seen as extreme, since it ruined the ecosystem around the waterway. Enviro groups have since been working to revitalize Ballona Creek into a working eco-system.
The fish serve as a sign that that work's been paying off. I heard the good news via a group email from Andy Lipkis, President of local enviro-org TreePeople: This is an indicator of success of the functioning community
forest! Well, actually, not till they are spawning every year by the
thousands...but none-the-less...a hopeful sign of what is possible.
Those lovely fish are just waiting out there to swim up stream and get
smoked--I mean--re-inhabit the watershed. And they are hanging out
next to a school that we've greened and maintained for years with
Sony's Citizen Foresters! (not that we can actually claim any credit
for these fish...but maybe they smell the trees).
Lipkis didn't actually see the fish. He heard about them from Melina Watts, Malibu Creek Watershed Coordinator, who heard about them from Steve
Williams, Conservation Biologist at the Resource Conservation District
of the Santa Monica Mountains, who apparently saw two trout at 9 am yesterday under the foot bridge just
west of the Overland Avenue overpass in Culver City and snapped the above photo.
Ballona Creek has many activist groups involved, from TreePeople to Ballona Creek Renaissance to Ballona Wetlands Land Trust. Check them out -- or check out the Ballona Creek Bike Path first hand and get a workout in!
Photo by Steve Williams
>> Kangaroo killing. In Australia, 500 'roos are going to get tranquilized then given lethal injections. Too many 'roos were eating too much grass, endangering other species. (via grist)
>> Bison slaughter. "The number of Yellowstone National Park bison killed through disease management and hunting is on track to hit an all-time high this winter, after 87 more animals were caught Friday."
>> Polar bear probe. The decision about whether or not polar bears should be on the endangered species list should have been made back in February, but wasn't. Now, the Interior Department's inspector general's looking into the delay.
>> Fireplace fines. The South Coast Air Quality Management District board voted to fine homeowners who burn wood in fireplaces on high-pollution days during winter months.
>> According to an analysis by Boston Consulting Group, the Port of L.A. could lose at least 3% of its cargo container business if it decides to require shipping companies to employ truck drivers, who currently work as contractors. Requiring such hires is part of a larger plan to clean up the ports of L.A. and Long Beach -- although the latter recently decided not to require companies to employ truck drivers.
>> The fight over California's bid to set tougher car emissions standards continues. "A bill was introduced in the House of Representatives on Thursday that would overturn the Environmental Protection Agency's decision to prevent California from limiting the amount of greenhouse gas emissions spewed by cars." Earlier: The fight for California's tougher car emissions standards.
Photo by John via Flickr
>> The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Navy's appeal on sonar restrictions, ruling that "the Navy must abide by limits on its sonar training off the Southern California because the exercises could harm dozens of species of whales and dolphins."
>> Michael Stocker, director of Ocean Conservation Research, derides the Navy's claims that only six beaked whales have ever been killed due to active sonar. His post includes video and audio examples of the Navy's attempts to greenwash its practices.
>> The Snow at Gin Flat, Calif., predicts the state's water woes. This cold spot is what scientists study to "test the premise that a warming climate will produce more rain at higher elevations -- a shift that would bring more flooding and less snowpack to fill California reservoirs in mid-summer."
>> California State Sen. Ellen M. Corbett introduced a bill to ban some perfluorochemicals (PFCs) in food packaging, like french-fry containers or pizza boxes. The two PFCs in question, PFOS and PFOA, have been linked to pregnancy problems that can include developmental complications. In addtion, PFOAs are considered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency a likely carcinogen and a chemical that induces breast tumors in animals.
>> China's biggest plastic bag maker closes shop, about a month after China banned thin plastic bags and started taxing thicker ones (via green daily). Earlier: The Plague that is the plastic bag, in photos.
>> The United Arab Emirates is planning the world's first zero-carbon city -- an especially unique endeavor considering that UAE has the world's largest per-capita ecological footprint. World Wildlife Fund will keep tabs on the eco-ness of the project.
Photo by Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times
Bought your best friend gourmet organic canine treats for Valentine's Day? Then you and your pet belong in My Pet Naturally. This eco-pet store's an animal-loving environmentalist's dream, offering the latest, cutest and greenest items your pet desires.
 Dress up your pup in an organic cotton tank with a recycled belt collar. Play catch with a recycled rubber ball. Then let Fido rest in an organic cotton bed, fluffed up with stuffing made from recycled plastic bottles.
Most importantly: There's lots of doggie treats! Pick from a huge variety of good organic pet eats with pronounceable ingredients -- or opt to go raw with fresh, refrigerated selections from local farms.
My Pet Naturally also has a natural bakery, with yummies fit for human consumption. I got a mini muffin -- and yes, I ate it. It was much less sweet than regular muffins -- and pretty yummy!
My Pet Naturally. 12001 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles. 310.477.3030. Mon.-Sat., 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Sun., noon - 5 p.m.
Looks like the Olsen Twins have really pissed off the PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) people. Due to their fur-wearing ways, the Olsen Twins now have their own section on the PETA website dubbed "Meet the Trollsen Twins." (via ZapRoot, a weekly RocketBoom-esque vlog on green pop news)
Here, Hairy-Kate and Trashley are panned in the Full House of Horrors, a video that intercuts cute footage from "Full House" with gruesome shots of the fur trade industry (below). After the video, you can "Dress Up the Trollsens," and maybe even send an e-mail to the Olsen twins encouraging them to go fur free.
To be clear, I disagree with some of PETA's messages, and I'm not totally against fur. However, I'm against fur farms, where most furry clothes come from today. Read Umbra of Grist's latest on inherited fur coats to learn more about this enviro-ethical issue.
 >> Recycle, or else wallow in your trash. Non-recyclers in Westchester County in NY will get a yellow warning sticker. A second offense means a red sticker -- and no trash pickup! Think we can get a similar program started in LA -- or at least Santa Monica?
>> Where retired Metro buses go. Old buses get auctioned off, mostly to scrap dealers. Last month, the going prices fell between $1,900 and $2,900.
>> The Super Bowl's going greenish. Plans include "planting 9,000 trees in the state, though only 3,500 of them are actually expected to survive." Those figures sound somewhat better to me than our own Million Trees LA program, though luckily for Villaraigosa, no one's really keeping a good count.
>> Polar bears: Still not considered an endangered species. "The decision whether or not to list the polar bear as a threatened species, which could require sweeping policy changes affecting oil and gas exploration, as well a fossil fuel combustion, will be delayed by as much as another month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Monday." Many scientific studies point to polar bears' grave endangerment.
Photo by ClydeHouse via Flickr
>> Animal birth control: Successfully prescribed to Hollywood pigeons, but denied to Santa Monica squirrels, about 45 of which were "trapped, euthanized and fed to hawks"! Eek! Did you know that if "county inspectors count about two to three ground squirrels visible at any one time per acre of property, they can cite a homeowner, business or municipality"? My apt complex is so getting cited -- They're cute, but we have what seems like a half dozen in a small 4-apartment complex. What will happen to Nutta?
>> Audubon Society's recruiting members from minority neighborhoods. Says John Flicker, president of the society: "Most conservation organizations are run these days by white 50-something guys like me, and I'm hoping the next generation looks different."
>> Michael Pollan's back with "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto."
"Pollan isn't just asking us to consider changing the way we eat. He's
asking us to join a movement that's 'renovating our food system in the
name of health . . . in the very broadest sense of that word.'" I plan
to read it -- right after I finally read "An Omnivore's Dilemma."
Earlier: Eating cookies while reading "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle."
>> Raw milk advocates fight back. California dairies say a new standard on raw milk would put them out of business, and sue to stop enforcement.
Photo by John X via Flickr
Bad news is funnier read all in a row:
>> On this day, Dec. 28, in 1973,
The Endangered Species Act was signed into law by President Nixon. Today, the act's constantly in the news -- because political pressures have watered it down.
>> Just last month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service admitted to being "inappropriately influenced"
by political pressure and reversed seven rulings that denied endangered
species -- including the white-tailed prairie dog (right) -- increased
protection.
>> Yesterday, the Center for Biological Diversity sued the Interior Department to get documents about allegedly politically-influenced decisions made about other endangered species.
>> Read the entire Endangered Species Act here.
Photo courtesy of U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
>> The new eco-solution: Kangaroo farts, because they don't contain methane like cow farts do. Scientists are looking into giving cows and sheep the bacteria in kangaroo tummies, or encouraging people to eat more kangaroo meat instead of beef. (via Freakonomics)
>> Walruses stampede, trample each other. Global warming shrinks the sea ice walruses rest on, creating killer stampedes whenever walruses see something scary (like a polar bear).
 >> Tibetan antelopes are getting killed for shawls. Conservationists, in an effort to prevent these antelopes from becoming extinct, are advocating for shawls made from the wool of non-endangered, domesticated Himalayan goats.
Photo by George Schaller / For The Times
 Do you suffer from solastalgia? Defined as a pining for a lost environment, Solastalgia is a global warming threat we should be concerned about, writes Clive Thompson for Wired. Apparently, many in Australia are already suffering from solastalgia:
Scores of Australians described their deep, wrenching sense of loss as they watch the landscape around them change. Familiar plants don't grow anymore. Gardens won't take. Birds are gone....
Will global warming bring about a worldwide depression? Clive writes that "In the modern, industrialized West, many of us have forgotten how deeply we rely on the stability of nature for our psychic well-being." The effects of global warming aren't as noticeable in L.A. as they seem to be in Australia yet, though. While the unexpected rainy, gloomy days threw me for a loop, rain in L.A. always throws me for a loop -- and now it's sun as usual....
We may all get pretty depressed, though, if California wines start disappearing -- which is a serious possibility. A couple of studies released last year warned that huge swaths of California's wine areas may disappear by 2050 if world temperatures continue to rise at their current rate." Let them drink Bordeaux?
Photo by Marin via Flickr
 Latest in strange human-made post-modern nature conundrums: Should we help animals cross over the 405 Freeway by building a special path to the tune of $455,000 to $1.4 million?
We're talking about widening Skirball Center Drive so coyote, deer, bobcats, and opossum can scamper over it. Because not only is the 405 not really moving cars anymore, but it's also keeping animals from traveling around by basically bisecting their habitat.
Meaning: The real problem here is the 405 Freeway. Except that's been built already, and though it's pretty much a parking lot most of the time, we can't exactly get rid of it. So now we're talking about a costly Band-Aid solution to the problem we've created.
My main question is: If you build it, will they cross? The jury seems to be out on that, as different paths created in the past have led to wildly different results.
I'm not sure why we put ourselves into making such strange decisions all the time. We keep overfeeding birds and squirrels -- so we get too many of them -- and we deal with it by spending tax dollars giving birth control to pigeons in Hollywood and to squirrels in Santa Monica. (I'd link you to the L.A. Times articles where I read about them, but for some reason this paper makes you pay to access archives, and I'm thinking maybe it's a little early for me to complain and rock the boat.)
We've even created a huge lake in the middle of the desert called the Salton Sea, basically by wasting water. But because we've destroyed wildlife habitat in lots of other places, this abnormal lake has become like an oasis for endangered species. So now we have to pick between 1) continuing to waste water while spending tons of money to desalinate the lake so this wildlife can live on, or 2) no longer pumping precious water to dry up in the desert but killing a bunch of endangered birdies in the belated conservation efforts.
All of this stuff is really messed up, and strange and sort of depressing -- but also kind of funny because they are actual serious debates we have to have now. Why did the opossum cross the freeway? That's the $1.4-million question.
Photo by asianjournalusa via Flickr
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>> The battle over the Expo line continues, with the latest being a parade of anti-at-grade crossings people during Tuesday's community meeting about the light-rail line. Steve Hymon of the Bottleneck Blog also takes a closer look at the controversies.
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