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>> Solar power project faces opposition from environmentalists because power company San Diego Gas & Electric's pushing for a 150-mile high-voltage transmission line that'll run through the middle of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. (via Grist)
>> The technology for five solar thermal power fields planned for the Mojave Desert is being tested in Israel. A company called BrightSource is behind the project, described as the world's "highest-performing, lowest-cost" sun-energy system.
>> Starting this winter, L.A. plans to seed clouds to boost rainfall. Critics call the measure desperate, pointing out that public funds may be better used for water conservation measures, as the results of seeding are unpredictable and could cause landslides.
>> Heal the Bay's L.A. River cleanup project attracted more than 2,500 volunteers, who fished out "plastic bags, foam cups, beer bottles, spray paint cans and smashed shopping carts" from the Glendale Narrows.
>> New eco-channel Planet Green gets a thumbs down from Troy Patterson at Slate.com: "Planet Green turns the entire Earth into a lifestyle accessory, often to uniquely awful effect." Troy does concede that "Some of the home-improvement shows are engaging and impressive, and a forthcoming show called Greensburg, about the reconstruction of a tornado-ravaged town in Kansas, has promise."
>> San Francisco's new Solar Energy Incentive Program is the largest municipal solar program in the U.S. Starting as soon as July 1, home and business owners will be able to get rebates up to $6,000 and $10,000, respectively. (via grist)
>> The ocean off San Clemente is getting an artificial reef made of about 125,000 tons of volcanic rock. The reef is intended to serve as the foundation for a kelp forest, which is hoped to serve as the basis for a complex marine ecosystem. The artificial reef is part of an effort to undo the damage from the nearby San Onofre nuclear plant.
>> Kleenex: Still Kleercutting. Greenpeace teams up with the Natural Resources Defense Council to step up the campaign against Kleenex-owner Kimberly-Clark, which still purchases pulp for its disposable products from destructive logging operations in North America’s Boreal Forest. The latest: A billboard displayed on the route traveled by Kimberly-Clark executives in Texas. Earlier: Kleercut campaign keeps spoofing Kleenex.
>> Wooden bicycles from around the world. "Made with whatever wood can be found, they use small wooden home-made wheels covered with discarded rubber rims. Forward movement depends on the rider pushing with their feet." (via kottke)
>> Africa's changing environment is in a slide show put together by the New Scientist: "The 'before and after' photos show glaciers receding and the effects of deforestation, but they also show how some of the damage is being reversed."
Photo courtesy of NRDC
Love Korean BBQ? Missed the Great L.A. River Cleanup? Here's your second chance -- a big clean up of the Glendale narrows section of the L.A. River's happening this Saturday morning. You're invited to join in the cleaning fun -- then nosh on Korean BBQ afterwards.
When: Saturday, June 14, 8:45 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
Where: Griffith Park Recreation Center, 3401 Riverside Dr., Los Angeles
Cost: Free. Just show up with a hat, sunscreen and drinking water.
In addition to cleaning up the river, the event's intended to bring together an ethnically and culturally diverse group of volunteers "for a day of hands-on environmental stewardship and cross-cultural connection," according to Heal the Bay's press release. The Glendale Narrows is a community hub, Heal the Bay says: "Only if all communities work together will we be able to restore and revitalize California’s natural settings."
The NAACP, Pacific American Volunteer Assn., and Anahuak Soccer Assn. have all signed on! More than 2,000 people are expected to participate -- including L.A. City Council president Eric Garcetti and leaders from the involved organizations.
Everyone -- of any experience level -- is invited. Rub elbows with your neighbors and maybe pick up a few words in another language (clean-up instructions will be provided in English, Spanish, and Korean) during the BBQ.
Photo of Glendale Narrows by Siel
 Gov. Schwarzenegger has declared a drought, and L.A.'s about to get mandatory water use restrictions. On the upside, lots of eco-themed water-related events are happening around town to help you adjust by finding smart ways to curb your water habit.
Avoid higher water utility prices and get a bit more self sufficient by taking the "Introduction to Landscape Rainwater Harvesting" with Joe Linton this weekend. The workshop'll give you an overview of L.A. water issues, take you on a tour of the eco-village's own storm water harvesting landscape features, and get you directly involved in building a terraced swale to detain and infiltrate storm water.
The workshop will take place at L.A. Eco-Village, 117 Bimini Place, Los Angeles this Saturday, June 14, from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Make a reservation by contacting (213) 738-1254 or crsp@igc.org, then show up with the $35 workshop fee and your own brown bag lunch.
For a less hands-on experience, attend Sustainable Business Council's panel discussion, titled "Water Wise: Get into the Flow." This event will connect water conservation to money -- not just saving money on your water bill, but on making money as an entrepreneur. The 5-person panel (plus moderator) is made up of business people working in the water conservation sector.
The panel takes place at Livingreen, 10000 Culver Blvd., Culver City, on Tuesday, June 17, 7 p.m.-10 p.m. [Update: This event's been postponed. Check the SBC website for new details.] Cover's $20 -- a tax-deductible donation that includes food and drinks. RSVP online.
Photo by Third Eye via Flickr
 >> 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.
>> Get a green gift for dad on Father's Day, with some help from Grist's eco-friendly gift guide.
>> Order local, organic groceries online. Michelle Slatalla writes about a growing number of online retailers connecting consumers to local farms. Spud.com delivers to the L.A. area -- but "local" here's defined by a 500-mile radius. (via Lifehacker)
>> The problems with a car culture mentality -- as described in a 1947 article in Time magazine: "this peculiar state of mind had not only sucked thousands of American oil wells dry, stripped the rubber groves of Malaya, produced the world's most inhuman industry and its most recalcitrant labor union, but had filled U.S. streets with so many automobiles that it was almost impossible to drive one." (via kottke)
>> Minivans: Not doing well. These soccer mom vehicle sales are sinking, along with the sales of trucks, SUVs, and other huge gas guzzlers.
>> L.A. looks into recycling its wastewater,
what with the state drought and all. The success of Orange County's
"toilet-to-tap" project could also help propel L.A.'s water recycling
project -- though it sounds like it'll be a while before we approve,
build, and start running an L.A. plant.
 I've covered some very unexpected recycling programs on this blog, ranging from "upcycling" juice pouches to "artcycling" produce stickers. Now here comes another recycling opportunity that'll be beloved by anyone who switched to a Brita filter to reduce plastic waste from all those one-use water bottles. The Take Back the Filter campaign wants your old Brita filters!
The filters won't actually be recycled into new filters or other new products. Instead, they will be used as a visual showcase of sorts in order to persuade Clorox, owner of the Brita Products Co. in the U.S., to provide a recycling option for consumers who use their products. After all, Europeans are able to recycle their filters. According to the Take Back the Filter campaign website, "the original European Brita GmbH company has created a take-back recycling program for its filter cartridges."
 So far, the campaign's attracted many supporters -- including the Bay area chapter of Sierra Club, which wrote a letter to Clorox (PDF) urging a filter recycling program. Beth Terry of Fake Plastic Fish, who initiated the campaign, even dressed up as a Brita filter to participate in the popular Bay to Breakers event in San Francisco.
There is actually a way for you to reuse at least part of your Brita filter, as this Instructables article -- "How to refill a 'disposable' Brita brand water pitcher filter with activated carbon" -- points out. The process isn't exactly easy, however. "All that you will need is an old cartridge, some activated carbon, a polyethylene plug, a sharp utility knife or Xacto knife," reads the beginning of the article, as if most households have activated carbon laying around. Excepting the old cartridge, I have none of those things, much less the optional 1/2" drill motor and 1/2" drill bit.
So for now, I'll be sending my used Brita filters to the Take Back the Filter campaign. You can mail them to Take Back The Filter, 5245 College Avenue, Box #815, Oakland, CA 94618.
And if you feel so moved, sign the "Take Back the Filter" petition -- and maybe even write a letter to Clorox executives. Filter buyers are, after all, Clorox's repeat customers. Let your consumer demands be known.
Image and photo courtesy of Take Back the Filter
 Don't be fooled by the "private street" signs; many Malibu beaches are publicly owned, as urban nature activist Jenny Price often points out. If you're afraid to venture alone into the notoriously public-unfriendly city -- which by the way is also trying to restrict people from camping in public parks -- The Los Angeles Urban Rangers can help.
The Rangers -- a collective of artists, writers, architects and urban designers who explore L.A. and work to help others do likewise -- are back with the Summer 2008 Malibu Public Beaches Safaris -- free educational tours that will show you exactly what beaches are there for your surfing, swimming and sunbathing pleasure -- and how to find, park, walk, picnic and play there.
 When: Pick from one of five safaris in west and east Malibu:
- East Malibu: Sat., June 14, 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m., Sun., July 27, 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Sun., Aug 3, 3 p.m.-6:30 p.m.
- West Malibu: Sun., June 15, 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m., Sat., Aug 2, 3 p.m.-6:30 p.m.
Cost: Free with RSVP by e-mailing info@laurbanrangers.org with tour date, name and number of people.
Can't make time for a Safari? You can still explore Malibu beaches on your own with this handy Malibu Public Beaches guide (PDF) provided by the Rangers. Enjoy the beaches that belong to you!
Photo and image courtesy of LAUR
Check out the yummy catch from our own beaches! In a guerrilla education effort, Surfrider Foundation collected the detritus from our beaches and packaged them up as the "Catch of the Day," then displayed them at farmers markets (via Treehugger). Above are "Condom Strips" from Newport Beach, below are "Styrofoam Bites" from Long Beach.
Malibu, true to its efforts to keep the public from actually enjoying public beaches, gets a "Private Beach Mix":
Venice Beach gets "Butts-n-Bits." Stop smoking, beachgoers!
You can watch a little video clip of the Surfrider Booth at the Hermosa Beach farmers market here.
In other Surfrider news: Quicksilver's made some 100% organic board shorts dubbed "Slightly Choppy" to benefit the nonprofit. How much of the $59.50 per pair goes to Surfrider? The press release I received said "a portion," so I asked for more info -- to find out that each pair will net Surfrider just a buck. I get the feeling that amount won't be specified on the tags, but now you know. The shorts are available in Quicksilver stores now, and will be available on Quicksilver's website in about 2 weeks.
Earlier: L.A. beaches get cleaner -- due to drought
Photos courtesy of osocio.org
>> The fight over the Expo line, continued. Steve Hymon writes about his chat with Rick Thorpe, chief executive of the Expo Line Construction Authority, who provides a counterpoint to Damien Goodmon's concerns that some at-grade crossings are unsafe. "If the project must build over- or under-crossings, [Thorpe] said the line would likely be delayed at least two years, presuming money could be found to build those structures."
>> The fight over the L.A.-to-S.F. bullet train. Union Pacific railroad says it doesn't want to share its rail lines with the proposed 200-mph bullet train rail line -- about which voters will vote in November. "Critics question why the California High Speed Rail Authority didn't negotiate a deal long ago with Union Pacific."
>> Schwarzenegger proclaimed California is in a drought and "issued an executive order intended to speed transfers of water to areas experiencing the most severe shortages, help local water districts boost conservation efforts, identify risks to the state's water supply and assist farmers." Earlier: LADWP's "Drought Busters" plan.
>> How to plant a green roof. Re-Nest has an illustrated explanation, thanks to a Park Slope resident who showed New Yorkers the process.
>> Organic wines, explained and reviewed by Roz Cummins of Grist -- who ends her article with a yummy recipe for Syllabub, a rich, wine-flavored dessert.
>> Seven endangered California condors got lead poisoning in the last month, which has U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials in "crisis mode." A state ban on hunting with lead bullets in condor habitat goes into effect July 1.
Image courtesy of metro.net
>> "Skyrocketing gasoline prices force changes," notes the L.A. Times. One change: "GM closing 4 truck and SUV plants in North America." That move will cut the production of SUVs by about 35%.
>> The Hollywood Bowl needs bigger sidewalks leading up to it and more frequent trains running post-shows, Steve Hymon notes in a post titled "How to prevent people from taking mass transit, Part 1" on the Bottleneck Blog. Interestingly, drivers seem to have an even worse deal, with 2-hour commutes that force them to leave shows early before the best songs.
>> Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's commission will vote on the "Drought Busters" plan today, putting in tougher regulations and imposing fines for new and existing rules. The proposed rules:
- No hosing down sidewalks or driveways
- Automated sprinkler use limited to 15 minutes per day
- No lawn watering (except drip irrigation) between 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. or when it rains
- Double water-usage fines for residential customers; quadruple for businesses and apartment building owners
The DWP wants the L.A. City Council to ratify this plan within weeks; until then, about a dozen DWP inspectors would issue warnings, but not fines. If the above rules don't reduce water consumption, DWP could move to Phase II of the plan, banning irrigation four days a week.
>> The U.S. Senate's started debating the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act. Many don't expect the legislation to pass, including Alexis Madrigal at Wired who calls the debate "largely symbolic."
>> Six green baby books, reviewed by Katharine Wroth at Grist. "Healthy Child Healthy World," which I reviewed here, gets top marks along with "Raising Baby Green."
Photo by David McNew / Getty Images
The plastic-bottle raft Junk set sail from Long Beach yesterday, and is now making its way to Hawaii. If you weren't there to see it off from the Long Beach Aquarium, watch this informative 4-minute video recap of the well-attended event. Then avoid disposable plastics like the plague!
 Junk -- a raft made of 15,000 plastic bottles, a repurposed old Cessna 310 airplane, and other odds and ends -- set sail from Long Beach today to make its 6-week trip to Hawaii.
The trip, put together by the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, is intended to to raise awareness about the devastation wreaked on our oceans by our one-use plastic habit. We have a "Pacific Garbage Patch" in the Pacific that takes up an area twice the size of the U.S., as Anna Cummins of the AMRF wrote about a couple weeks ago.
A big crowd showed up to bid adieu to the intrepid sailors, Marcus Eriksen (right, holding up a sample of the "plastic soup" from the "Pacific Garbage Patch") and Joel Paschal. Many local enviro orgs, including Heal the Bay and Surfrider Foundation, came to commend the sailors' efforts and wish them luck. Students from Santa Monica High School presented the crew with a braided plastic bag rope.
Follow the journey online via the JUNK blog, which will be updated regularly with info and images during the trip.
Long Beach's ocean water itself could use some de-plasticking and a general cleanup. Lots of plastic bottles, potato chip bags and other debris floated around Junk raft's starting point.
Photos by Siel
>> 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
 Nowhere would a plastic bag monster be so popular as at a Heal the Bay party. Earlier tonight, Heal the Bay -- a nonprofit dedicated to cleaning up SoCal beaches -- threw its 17th Annual Bring Back the Beach Benefit Dinner party.
And people were lining up to take pictures with the plastic bag monster, who became a bit of a celebrity!
The event brought out a big crowd to the Barker Hanger at the Santa Monica Airport on a beautiful, if a little windy, day. I randomly met Jack Sahl, director of environment and resource sustainability at
Southern California Edison, an eco-initiatives person at Warner Brothers, then ran into the usual westside eco-peeps like Andy Lipkis of TreePeople. 
 Everything from a guitar signed by Maroon 5 to a Ford Escape Hybrid was auctioned off while people tucked in "an organic and sustainable menu" catered by Patina
Restaurant Group while sipping on local beers and "sustainable" but
not organic certified wine from Kunde Estate Winery. Amy Smart, Julia Louis-Dreyfus (left), and Ingo Rademacher all took part in the ceremonies.
In general, the event itself was very eco -- aside from all the driving people did to get there (I received a free parking pass but no biking instructions; in the end I eco-cabbed it). Heal the Beach's little brochure for the dinner -- printed with soy based inks on 100% post-consumer recycled paper processed chlorine free -- bragged that the event used neither single-use serviceware nor bottled water.
 Strangely, each gift bag given to attendees contained a plastic (#1) bottle of water -- something Anna Cummins, also at the party, pointed out to me. To be fair, the stuff isn't just plain water -- it's organic certified "Bone Water," (right) meaning that the concoction also includes evaporated cane juice and other juices, oils, and flavors -- as well as calcium and other "nutrients" that make the "water" taste a lot like a less-sweet but still synthetic Gatorade.
Heal the Bay's dinner brochure included a plastic warning educational page of sorts, which said this about #1 plastic: "Unfortunately, studies indicate that with repeated use, PET containers may release di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, an endocrine-disrupting compound and probable human carcinogen." 
Granted, the info mainly advises against reuse of #1 plastic bottles, but in general, Heal the Bay is no fan of plastic. I mean, most disposable water bottles are made of #1 plastic, which Heal the Bay bragged about avoiding -- outside the gift bags. Plus the nonprofit's leading the fight against plastic bags.
Of course, Heal the Bay has to make a lot of compromises -- something I wrote about when the L.A. County Board of Supervisors' decision on plastic bags came down. Bone Water wasn't even the only plastic bottle issue of the night. Heal the Money must've also gotten money from FIJI water -- because that company got a page in the dinner brochure.
The entire evening was full of conundrums such as these. The Escape Hybrid -- auctioned off for $30,000+ going directly to Heal the Bay -- has better mileage than other SUVs, but it's still an SUV made by un-eco Ford. Both the Paul Mitchell and Murad products included in the gift bags have some eco-properties -- but are preserved using parabens. Even the gift bags themselves are reusable totes -- but appear to be made of pesticide-intensive conventional cotton.
I'm not saying Heal the Bay was wrong to accept these sponsorships or products, necessarily. I'm just pointing out the quandaries to say I don't envy the jobs of the people who work there. Sure, I really do have a bone to pick with this Bone Water thing -- but every environmentalist has her pet peeve, and every little compromise the nonprofit makes must bring forth a cacophony of complaints --
Junk -- a raft made with 15,000 plastic bottles -- is ready to set sail! Last week, Anna Cummins wrote about the Junk voyage's effort to call attention to the frightening plastic pollution in the oceans -- and now you're invited to the bon voyage party:
When: Sunday, June 1, 2 p.m. - 3 p.m.
Where: Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific, 100 Aquarium Way, Long Beach
Meet Dr. Marcus Eriksen and Joel Paschal -- both of Algalita Marine Research Foundation -- before they set sail on their 6-week journey from Long Beach to Hawaii. Then follow their progress on the Junk blog!
 L.A. tap water's won critics' taste tests, and tastes better than a lot of bottled water, IMHO. But for those who're convinced that bottled water tasted better than tap, a new to-go reusable water bottle's on the market that promises to make "ordinary tap water taste like bottled water."
The Fit & Fresh Liv Pure Bottle tries to change the taste of tap water via its filter, which reduces chlorine by 50%. That reduction probably won't be enough for the chlorine-phobic folk who install filters even on their shower heads, but it may be satisfactory for some who really feel their water palate's chlorine-sensitive.
Made of #4 plastic (LDPE), the Fit & Fresh Liv Pure Bottle is BPA-free. Each filter can handle 75 gallons of water -- equivalent to 500 regular-sized disposable water bottles. Replacement filters can be bought where the bottles are sold: Linens ‘n Things, K-Mart and online.
So if you drink filtered water at home, but tend to buy bottled water too to drink while on the go, Fit & Fresh Liv Pure Bottle might help you cut back on your plastic consumption.
Of course, as with Brita filters, the filters themselves are not recyclable. There's actually a movement afoot to get Brita to take back and recycle its filters. Apparently, the original European Brita company has a take-back recycling program for used filters; the Clorox-owned Brita Products Co. in the U.S. does not. Maybe both Brita and Fit & Fresh will be persuaded to think about the entire life cycles of their products soon. More on that later.
 >> Exxon's really, really good at squeezing money out of its gas stations. "Major integrated U.S. oil companies, which produce crude oil, own refineries and sell gasoline, have been reaping billions of dollars in profit over the last two years, but they are still working to extract every penny they can from the marketing end of the business."
>> ExxonMobil really, really doesn't want to take action on climate change. According to Co-op America, ExxonMobil "sent its investment relations people to major investors nationwide to convince them to vote against resolutions urging Exxon to take action on climate change." ExxonMobil's annual shareholders' meeting happens May 28.
>> You're probably familiar with the EnergyStar logo, but what about the WaterSense label? This partnership program sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency makes it easier to identify water-efficient products. "The EPA has claimed that if every home in the US switched to WaterSense labeled fixtures, we would save 60 billion gallons of water a year," says Joel Bittle in Low Impact Living.
>> Eco-kitchen remodeling must be the in thing right now. In addition to the recent Wall Street Journal how-to guide of sorts, here's Chow's guide to building the ultimate green kitchen.
>> Today's the last day of World Vegetarian Week! Eat a PB&J sandwich in celebration -- or get some veggie burgers for the BBQs tomorrow.
Photo by Jeremy Stanley via Flickr
 >> Green kitchen remodeling, explained and dissected by Gwendolyn Bounds in the Wall Street Journal. "When the sawdust finally settled -- just this week, in fact -- the $83,119 renovation cost for my 300-square-foot kitchen was about $26,000 less than the average upscale, 200-square-foot kitchen remodel last year, according to Remodeling Magazine." (via Jetson Green)
>> Easy-Off Oven Cleaner's really, really toxic, so here's how to clean your oven greenly. Get your step-by-step instructions on Lime.com.
>> Dump a computer in a landfill, pay $400 in fines. The state Department of Toxic Substances Control is cracking down on people illegally dumping e-waste and other hazardous materials in the landfill. Take the junk to your nearest e-waste or hazardous household waste facilities instead.
>> Two different eco-designers have come up with umbrella stands that water plants with residue rainwater. Which do you think is cuter?
>> The high cost of the virtual water trade. Virtual water = "the water supplies that make possible the world trade in commodities, especially food." "The world's biggest supplier of virtual water is, or was until a couple of years ago, Australia. It exported 70 cubic kilometres of virtual water, in the form of fruit and crops, a year. That's 70 billion tonnes, if you can imagine that better. Then came drought." Earlier: Roses are red and water-intensive.
Photo by Betsy via Flickr
 The good news: Our beaches are cleaner and healthier! The bad news: They're cleaner and healthier because we're in a drought! That means less rain -- which means less urban runoff and less ocean pollution.
That's the latest news from enviro-nonprofit Heal the Bay's 18th Annual Beach Report Card released earlier today. The Report Card monitors the water quality from more than 375 California locations year-round (517 locations in dry weather from April to October) -- then grades them on an A to F scale based on the risk of adverse health effects to beachgoers.
Los Angeles County still has the lowest beach water quality in the state -- for the third year in a row. However, our water quality still improved considerably from last year. Plus, our stats are a little skewed by the fact that we collect our samples directly in front of flowing storm drains and creeks, where water tends to be dirtier. Most other counties haven't made the switch to this more accurate sampling method -- something Heal the Bay is pushing to change in the future.
In any case, only five L.A. County beaches are named and shamed on Heal the Bay's "Top 10 Beach Bummers" this year, down from seven last year. Yippee! Here's the list:
1. Avalon Harbor Beach on Catalina Island (Los Angeles County)
2. Santa Monica Municipal Pier (Los Angeles County)
3. Poche Beach (Orange County)
4. North Beach Doheny (Orange County)
5. Marie Canyon Storm Drain at Puerco Beach (Los Angeles County)
6. Cabrillo Beach harborside (Los Angeles County)
7. City of Long Beach -- multiple locations (Los Angeles County)
8. Campbell Cove State Park Beach (Sonoma County)
9. Clam Beach County Park near Strawberry Creek (Humboldt County)
10. Pismo Beach Pier (San Luis Obispo County)
Read the full report here (PDF). Happy surfing...
 On the same day Anna Cummins wrote about the crazy "huge bowl of dilute plastic soup" in the Pacific, guess what we were doing in SoCal? Dumping thousands of plastic ducks into the ocean.
The thoughtless dumping was actually for a good cause: The 16th Annual Duck-A-Thon, a fundraiser for Community Care Health Centers. But as Patt Morrison writes in L.A. Unleashed: "In our part of the Pacific Ocean, there's six times more plastic than plankton -- six times. Along the North Pacific shores, a hundred thousand sea mammals are killed every year from gobbling plastics that they thought were edible. The plastic poisoning of the oceans isn't getting better, and the once-amusing spectacle of tides full of yellow rubber ducks isn't helping."
Maybe Anna's crew will run into some of these duckies on her Junk trip next month.
What I'm wondering right now is whether or not these duckies contained scary phthalates, as most rubber duckies do. Yes, the "California Toxic Toys Bill" banned phthalates from children's toys sold in California, but that law doesn't go into effect until January 2009. Phthalates are "endocrine disruptors linked to problems of the reproductive system, including decreased sperm motility and concentration in men and genital abnormalities in baby boys," according to the environmental nonprofit Environmental Working Group.
I have a call in to the Duck-A-Thon people to find out more. In the meantime: Don't want plastic duckies unceremoniously dumped into our oceans? Here's Duck-A-Thon's contact info.
Photo from Duck-a-Thon.org
 >> 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
A guest post from Anna Cummins (photo at right), education advisor of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation.
 The average Emerald City reader has likely heard of the infamous "Pacific Garbage Patch," that mythical swath of debris in the Pacific, the size of Texas. Or was it two Texases or wait, twice the size of the moon?
Having recently returned from a month-long research trip through this massive marine landfill, I'll clear up a few misconceptions:
• The garbage does indeed exist. HOWEVER it is not a "patch" of garbage, nor a trash island. It's more like a huge bowl of dilute plastic soup, from California to Japan.
• We can't clean it up, net it away, or sieve it out. It's an area twice the size of the United States, and the debris is too spread out. Imagine a handful of plastic cornflakes sprinkled over a football field. Now imagine 9 million football fields in the Pacific Ocean.
12 years ago, Captain Charles Moore accidentally "discovered" the plastic debris debacle in the North Pacific while sailing an infrequently traveled route from Hawaii to Los Angeles. Stunned by the endless river of plastic junk he found -– toothbrushes, bottle caps, wrappers, fragments –- Moore decided to return with research tools and scientific sampling methods, to better understand what he saw.
In 1999, Moore et al. published the groundbreaking study, 4,200 miles across the Pacific, collecting surface samples the entire way.
What we found this year: the problem has gotten much, much worse. Though our samples are still being processed, Captain Moore guesstimates a fivefold increase in 10 years, bumping plastic to plankton ratios up to 30:1.
And still, we tear through plastic bags and bottles like they're going out of style...
Actually, we'd love to see disposable plastics go out of style. So to bring public attention to the junk in our ocean, we're sailing from Long Beach to Hawaii -- on Junk (photo below).
For the last few months, Dr. Marcus Eriksen, Joel Paschal and myself have been creating Junk -– a raft made of 15,000 plastic bottles, an old Cessna 310 airplane, and other assorted junk, to sail from Long Beach to Hawaii.
Marcus and Joel will set sail on June 1 from the Long Beach Aquarium, carrying hundreds of individual messages about plastic debris, to be delivered to D.C. legislators next winter. I'll be charting their daily progress from land, keeping up the blog, and praying for gentle, steady winds.
Come on board! To support our mission, write your message in a bottle here. And to see history in the making -- the first ever plastic bottle boat cross the Pacific -- come on down for the June 1 launch party, from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Long Beach Aquarium.
Follow the journey at the JUNK blog. And for information, e-mail me at annacummins@gmail.com.
Top photo by Joel Paschal; bottom photo by Peter Bennett
 Missed the Great L.A. River Clean Up yesterday? Too bad -- but now that volunteers have prettied things up for you, it's the perfect time to take a grand tour of our famous but relatively unknown river. On June 8, you can join a bunch of other Angelenos to check out the L.A. River -- by bike or by car!
Be one of 2,000+ cyclists taking part in The Los Angeles River Ride on June 8, organized by the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition. Riders at all levels are welcome; you can pick from 100-, 70-, 50-, 10-mile rides -- or a Kids' Ride.
There'll be music, food, prizes -- and like pretty much every big event happening in L.A. these days, an Eco Expo. Register to ride for $49 ($39 for LACBC members). The Kids' Ride costs just $15.
Think it's too hot to bike? Then take a car-caravan tour of the L.A. River with the nonprofit Friends of the L.A. River on June 8, from 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. See current and planned river restoration sites, including the Sepulveda Basin in the Valley, the Glendale Narrows across from Griffith Park, the historic Arroyo Seco confluence, the Los Angeles State Historic Park (a.k.a. the Cornfield), and the heart of downtown. At each spot you'll learn about the river's important role in the city's past, present and future.
Sign up by contacting FoLAR at mail@folar.org or (323) 223-0585. The tour costs $25 for adults ($20 for FoLAR members); children under 18 and dogs are free.
Photo by Siel
 Tired of being sprayed by sprinklers? If the sight of puddles on sidewalks in our drought-prone state makes you cringe, you'll be glad to know Santa Monica's passed some new landscaping laws. On Earth Day last month, the Santa Monica City Council passed an ordinance for new building construction that not only limits turf-grass lawns but also prohibits putting sprinklers within 18 inches of concrete sidewalks.
That's right. New buildings -- including single family homes -- must limit their turf-grass lawns to just 20% or less of the total landscaped area. According to Santa Monica Council member Kevin McKeown, "residential lawns suck water at a rate that makes imposing low-flow showers in apartment buildings almost a joke."
The new landscaping rules -- which are part of a larger revision to the city's Green Building Design code -- are scheduled to go into effect on May 22.
Unfortunately, existing overwatered lawns in your 'hood likely won't be affected; the ordinance applies only to new or significantly remodeled buildings. Still, edible gardening, drought-resistant landscaping and local, organic succulent plant companies will likely get much, much more love in the years to come. And cactus shopping looks like it'll get more popular too.
Below is an excerpt of the ordinance that refers to landscaping rules. You also can read the text of the entire ordinance, or the staff recommendations to the City Council that informed the ordinance.
Relatedly: If you missed Steve Lopez's column about how one Glendale family planted an eco-friendly garden -- and risked jail time, read it now. Prior to issuance of a building permit, landscaping and irrigation plans shall be submitted for review and approval in a manner prescribed by this Code. No Certificate of Occupancy nor final building permit shall be issued until the landscaping and irrigation system has been installed and demonstrated to operate in full compliance with this Code.
(a) The design and installation of all projects must conform to the current edition of Guidelines for the Design & Construction of Water-Efficient Irrigation Systems in the City of Santa Monica issued by the Director of Environmental and Public Works Management (EPWM). These Guidelines shall reflect and effectuate the purpose of this Subpart B and shall include, but not be limited to consideration of the following elements: quality assurance, design requirements, and installation requirements. The Guidelines are intended to reduce the amount of potable water used for landscape irrigation in the City and to ensure that the potable water that is used for landscape irrigation is used efficiently and effectively.
(b) The maximum area permitted for turfgrass shall be twenty percent of the total landscaped area on the site. The landscaped area shall exclude building footprints and impermeable hardscapes, but shall include the parkway if any. Higher percentages may be permitted when turfgrass is an essential component of the development approved in writing by the Director of EPWM. Plants used in non-turf areas, rated as having high water needs for Region 3 in the current edition of WUCOLS shall be counted as turfgrass for this calculation. Alternative documentation of water use may be presented for plants not listed in WUCOLS.
(c) Plants listed in the current Invasive Plant Inventory for the southwest region by the California Invasive Plant Council are not permitted..
(d) No sprinkler irrigation shall be permitted to be located within eighteen inches of any impermeable hardscape unless the hardscape is designed and constructed to drain entirely to landscaping.
(e) Irrigation systems must be designed and installed in such a manner that a precipitation rate of 0.75 inches is not exceeded in any portion of the landscape.
(f) Fountains, ponds or other decorative water features, excluding swimming pools or spas, shall have a footprint of less than 25 square feet in area. Larger water features shall be prohibited unless they are approved in writing by the Director of EPWM. All allowed water features shall use a water recirculation system. All water sprayed into the air from allowed water features must remain within the water feature and shall not be allowed to spray or run onto surrounding landscape or hardscape areas.
(g) All newly planted trees shall be planted in permeable soil.
Photo by Esther Perez via Flickr
 >> 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.
 >> "Accidentally" take more car lanes out of service. Eric Richardson of blogdowntown notes that traffic gets around fine on 6th St., despite the fact that a lane has been taken up by a transformer for several weeks. "If the city's content to let the lane sit blocked for weeks at a time, one has to question whether it's really so necessary for traffic after all."
>> Ditch the bottled water habit already. Colin Beavin, No Impact Man, talks about Elizabeth Royte's "Bottlemania," a soon to be published book about our drinking water. Writes Royte: "I come away from my investigations with at least one certainty: not all tap water is perfect. But it is the devil we know, the devil we have standing to negotiate with and improve. Bottled water companies don't answer to the public, they answer to shareholders." Earlier: Bottle up.
>> Make an ambitious urban bicycle plan a reality. New York city plans to "make it possible for riders to traverse Manhattan via dedicated bike lanes and circumnavigate the island along the waterfront. Sheltered bicycle parking and thousands of new public bike racks are already in place." L.A.'s a little behind.
>> Try NOT eating corn -- corn-based additives, that is. In Whole Life Times, Katherine Pryor keeps a journal of her three days off corn, a diet "which pretty much excludes all the mysterious multisyllabic ingredients on the back of most processed foods. It also excludes all those “acids”: ascorbic, citric, lactic, malic or otherwise."
>> Grow and buy basil from the block. "More and more New Yorkers ... are raising fruits and vegetables, and not just to feed their families but to sell to people on their block." If urban farmers can make a go of it in that crowded city, we can surely do it here in L.A. (h/t to reader Mercy)
Photo by Eric Richardson, blogdowntown.com
 >> Similar to the Brita + Nalgene's FilterForGood campaign, the filter company has teamed up with Cindy Crawford to launch Thirsty For Change. Cindy wants you to bring your own reusable bottle -- including a Sigg bottle of her own design, from which all proceeds will go toward Children’s Safe Drinking Water, a program that seeks to provide clean drinking water to impoverished children around the world.
>> Visiting the San Diego Zoo or Monterey Bay Aquarium? Both spots now have eco-friendly plush stuffed animals to take home as souvenirs. Get your panda or polar bear, with a soy exterior and kapok (a sustainable rain forest crop) stuffing.
>> Enviro-conscious pescatarians: Here's an interview with Taras Grescoe, author of "Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood." I'm happy to know my farmers' market mussels appear to've been a good choice.
>> Sugar-cane ethanol can harm rainforests and encourage unfair labor, say economics, environment, and fair labor experts in letters to the New York Times after the newspaper ran a column praising sugar-cane ethanol.
>> Room 367, an eco-biz networking event for twenty- and thirtysomethings, happens tomorrow night at the A&D Museum. RSVP now to socialize over drinks and appetizers with like-minded young environmentalists.
>> Public Metro meetings about the subway to the sea and other traffic-busting alternatives for the Westside begin today. Be there, or plan to be at one of the other three upcoming meetings.
 >> High-occupancy toll lanes are the way to go, say Roger Snoble, MTA's chief executive, and Doug Failing, a Caltrans district director. Earlier: Heated anti-HOT lane arguments don't add up.
>> Debating the future of L.A. transportation. Read the five-part debate between USC professor Peter Gordon and the Transit Coalition’s Bart Reed -- with a grain of salt, as both men make false claims on occasion. Reed, for example, claims that the HOT lanes will force carpoolers into adjacent lanes -- despite the fact that carpoolers may be able to use HOT lanes for free. (Concrete decisions haven't been made yet.) Gordon's arguments are often just bizarre, with his own conjecturing being the only "proof" for his assertions: "As more people drive, they will have more range and more option | |
