Green-LA.com News Stories

Renewable Energy at the Tipping Point

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 10:37:54 -0700

No longer a mere suggestion of what might be, renewable energy is hitting a tipping point, with far-reaching implications. For the first time, understanding the scale and patterns of renewable energy development has become essential to any full analysis of trends that will shape the global energy economy and the health of the planet. That is the story told by a new report that the Worldwatch Institute helped research and write: the Renewables Global Status Report 2010. Produced by the REN21 network of governments, NGOs, and industry associations, the report paints a remarkable picture of a booming new economic sector that has powered its way through a deep global recession, emerging stronger than ever. Buoyed by hundreds of new government energy policies, accelerating private investment, and myriad technology advances over the past five years, renewable energy is breaking into the mainstream of energy markets. Over the past two years, the United States and Europe have both added more power capacity from renewables than from coal, gas, and nuclear combined, according to the report. Worldwide, renewables accounted for one-third of the new generating capacity added. Renewable energy, including hydropower, now provides 18 percent of total net electricity generation worldwide. Meanwhile, biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel are making inroads in the transportation fuels market and are now equal to about 5 percent of world gasoline production. And in China, more than 150 million people heat at least some of their water using solar hot water systems. The economic weight of the renewable energy sector is now large enough to attract many of the world's largest and most powerful companies, from GE and Siemens to unlikely players such as Samsung and Google. Renewable energy investment of $150 billion worldwide in 2009 was the equivalent of nearly 40 percent of annual investment in the upstream oil and gas industry, which topped $380 billion. Changes in government policy are responsible for most of these advances. In 2009 alone, 10 national and state governments enacted policies giving renewable power generation access to the grid at prices set by policymakers, bringing the number of governments with such policies to 70. Altogether, the number of countries with policies to encourage renewable energy has increased from 55 in 2005 to 100 in 2010. One of the forces motivating new renewable energy policies is the desire to create new industries and jobs. Employment in the renewables sector now numbers in the hundreds of thousands in several countries. In Germany, which has led renewable energy development for more than a decade, more than 300,000 people were employed in renewables industries in 2009. This figure almost equals the number of jobs in the country's largest manufacturing sector: automobiles. The changing geography of renewable energy is another indicator that we are entering a new era, with the growing geographic diversity boosting confidence that renewables are no longer vulnerable to political shifts in just a few countries. It is also clear that leadership is shifting decisively from Europe to Asia, with China, India, and South Korea among the countries that have stepped up their commitments to renewable energy. This transition reflects a growing recognition within Asia itself that these oil-short countries have much to gain from the development of renewable energy in economic, environmental, and security terms. For the world as a whole, this is a momentous development, since Asian nations now lead the growth in carbon emissions. Given East Asia's dominance of low-cost global manufacturing, the region's commitment to renewable energy will almost certainly drive down the price of many renewable energy devices in the coming years. Renewable energy is also beginning to make a dent in emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. In Germany, renewables displaced 109 million tons of greenhouse gases in 2009 - equivalent to 12 percent of the country's total - helping to reduce domestic emissions 29 percent from the 1990 level. At a time when the world's energy headlines are dominated by an oil-stained Gulf of Mexico and failure of the U.S. Senate to act on climate change, renewable energy is a rare good news story. The momentum that renewables have gained in a relatively short time indicates that with modest policy changes, a very different energy system could begin to emerge over the next decade. Our congratulations to Worldwatch Senior Fellows Janet Sawin and Eric Martinot, who co-directed the Renewables Global Status Report 2010. They and their many contributors from around the globe have provided a surprisingly clear picture of an energy economy in motion. The optimistic picture they paint offers inspiration to those who despair of the energy headlines in recent months. Christopher Flavin is President of the Worldwatch Institute, an environmental research organization based in Washington, D.C. by Juli Diamond worldwatch.org.

The Dangers of BBQ

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 09:48:22 -0700

Yes, barbeque lovers - there is a danger associated with barbequed meats. Barbequed meats play a role in causing cancer. The dangers lie in the way the processed slaughtered animal's flesh cooks over the flame. Basically, when juices cook in meat (dead animal flesh), "Hetero-cyclic Amines" (HA's) form. The hotter the flame and the more well done the meat, the HA's form. On top of this, referring to HA formation, when drippings hit the heat source, "Poly-cyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons" (PAH) form and rise with the smoke, and are deposited on the so-called food (meat, animal flesh). Both compounds (HA's and PAH) have caused cancer in animal studies, according to James Felton of the molecular biology section at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. Barbecuing is very dangerous when you consider all of the elements of this activity. I have already expounded on hetero-cyclic amines and poly-cyclic aromatic hydrocarbons supra, but what about the fluid used for barbeque grill fires? The stuff is actually fuel! Really! Yes, the same stuff used in lighters and in automobiles. How intelligent is it to be cooking slaughtered animal flesh, usually the remains from some pig (pork), cow (beef), or fowl (chicken), all the while using petroleum to keep the flame lit? You have large slabs of meat on a grill like you're some ancient caveman, and in addition, you used petroleum fuel to ignite the flame. People are so unconscious today that most don't even take the time to read the writing on the large can of lighter fluid, oops, I mean "charcoal flame fluid." Consider the language on a can of Wizard brand charcoal lighter; it clearly states: "Taste the food! Not the fuel!" It clearly lets you know you are using fuel in the process of barbecuing your flesh, I mean 'meat.' But can you really taste the food without tasting the fuel? Next, consider this clear-cut warning on the can: "Danger - Harmful or fatal if swallowed!" Now wait a minute! You are being warned that if you swallow or ingest this stuff you could possibly die, but you're going to turn around and use it to light a barbeque grill (the flame)? You are squeezing this stuff on to charcoal briquettes that in turn is burned. This stuff converts into smoke and rises - into your meat! And we wonder why so many people are dying from cancer these days. People are outright unconsciously suicidal in the name of having a good time. The second warning on a can of Wizard brand charcoal lighter is the following: "CAUTION: combustible mixture!" The word 'combustible' means 'to catch fire and burn quickly.' This is exactly what petroleum fluid (gas) does. How can you use something combustible to cook your food? You can't be in your right mind and do this. The third warning on a can of Wizard brand charcoal lighter is: "DANGER: contains petroleum distillates." Now what do you think petroleum distillates is? Can you say: "distilled petroleum" or "distilled gas"? This is what you are using to replay or reenact the role of the savage brute caveman. To hell with Wizard brand charcoal lighter, you might as well go to the nearest local gas station and get you some Chevron, 76, or Mobile Oil gasoline to light up the charcoal briquettes in your barbeque grill. It would actually be cheaper than buying a can of Wizard charcoal fuel. Did you know there are adverse side effects from using Wizard brand charcoal lighter fluid? These adverse side effects include: headaches, dizziness, nausea, and unconsciousness. The manufacturers of 'Wizard' themselves admit all of this if you research. They don't hide anything. Barbecuing is as American as baseball and apple pie. However, most wanna-be cavemen and cavewomen, oops, I'm sorry! I meant to say "barbecuers," don't have a clue of the real history and origins of barbecuing or why we barbeque in the first place. Our love of barbequing was created as the result of a rich industrialist who wanted to get rid of his waste and make money from disposing of his waste at the same time. Carmaker Henry Ford can be credited with igniting America's passion for outdoor cooking. In the 1920's, Ford was determined to find a use for the growing piles of wood scraps from the production of his Model T's. He learned of a process for converting the wood scraps into charcoal briquettes and soon built a charcoal plant known as "Ford Charcoal." Ford's relative, E.G. Kingsford selected Ford's site of operations. Later, Ford decided to hide his involvement with the charcoal plant and renamed the plant, "Kingsford Charcoal," the same name you see on the bag of charcoal briquettes to this very day. Ford took disposable leftovers (wood scraps) that would have cost him thousands of dollars to dispose of and instead converted the waste into a usable product: charcoal briquettes. Very ingenious indeed! NOTE: Please don't confuse activated charcoal (carbon) with charcoal briquettes. They are not the same and charcoal briquettes are harmful if swallowed. Barbequed meats are dangerous! They are greatly implicated in colon and rectal cancers - cancers indicative of and endemic to African-Americans, a people who generally and collectively eat their meats cooked 'well done' considered to White Americans collectively who do not. The more well done or cooked the flesh or meat, the greater the chances for the development of cancer. Caucasians generally ordered and ate their meats 'rare' and many of them still do, which is a good choice for them seeing as how others order and eat their meats 'well done' and suffer at disproportionate rates for colon and rectal cancers considering their national population numbers. Lastly, for all of you out there who are into barbequing soy patties and franks, the process of barbequing mock meats over an open flame is just as dangerous as if you were barbequing animal flesh (slabs of pork and/or beef ribs, links, chicken legs, breasts, and wings, etc). And you have to know it's unhealthy to cook mock meats on the same grill as real meat. If you have to share the same grill for both meat and mock or faux meat, cook the mock or faux meat first. In closing, I know barbecuing will not cease in the United States. I know this. It's too much a part of our culture. What would Summer, Memorial Day, and July 4th be without barbequing? So the purpose of this article was to simply give information. You can't do better until you know better. Thank you for reading! This article is compliments of Dherbs.Com and Djehuty Ma'at-Ra.

Stop the Sneak Attack on GMO Labeling!

Sun, 25 Apr 2010 23:41:12 -0700

If the U.S. government has its way, the powerful intergovernmental group Codex may soon make it impossible to label food "GMO-free" for any country in the world. On May 3rd, 2010 Obama officials from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) will travel to a special meeting to propose that Codex reject common sense labeling laws regarding GMO food products. Stand up for your right to know what's in your food and stop this sneak attack on GMO labeling, please sign below:

Sign the petition!! It's in your hands.

Watch the videos!

The Health Dangers of Genetically Modified Foods

We Are Change Manitoba: Label GMO Foods

Educate yourself and take action!

Villaraigosa, City Hall and DWP 2010 Debacle

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 00:12:15 -0700

In the past 31 days, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has taken one of the most tumultuous rides in the annals of municipal power politics. On the subject of the DWP rate hike, Al Gore weighed in by satellite, City Controller Wendy Greuel wrongly declared the city would go broke in May, the mayor called for a partial government shutdown and the city's credit rating and reputation took a very public beating. Yet City Hall watchers cannot agree on what the drama is really all about. Is it a capitulation to DWP union chief Brian D'Arcy, who for years fought against going green but now purportedly sees rate hikes paired with green initiatives as the best way to amass greater political power? Is it the first unsteady effort by a party-boy mayor who has shown little interest in the workings of city departments to now finally get tough fiscally by seeking a sacrifice from residents? Or is it none of the above? One thing is clear, whatever their intentions, the mayor and his key advisers � Austin Beutner, Jeff Carr, Jay Carson and Matt Szabo � won a prize they almost certainly did not seek: intense public scrutiny of the Department of Water and Power monopoly, its long and failing saga to attract a top-flight general manager, and its union leader, D'Arcy, who has showered City Hall elected leaders with campaign cash. The utility wanted a rate increase of up to 28 percent that would have hit homeowners and small businesses hard, largely to fund unspecified "renewable energy" projects that are still well down the road. Instead, the secretive DWP is right where it doesn't want to be, under a public microscope. Villaraigosa and Greuel, who took major campaign funds from D'Arcy's union, are quietly trying to deflect criticism that they caused the city's credit downgrading this month by credit-rating service Moody's. Greuel had declared that L.A. would run out of money on May 5, only to be forced to quickly retract her claim. Villaraigosa had warned that L.A. could face bankruptcy, and days ago ordered a plan to shut government two days a week, then quickly changed his tune and insisted that things weren't nearly so bad. The chaotic proceedings, in which the Los Angeles City Council was hardly uninvolved, set off a round of mocking newspaper editorials in other cities. The council temporarily backed away from a utility rate increase and then approved one Wednesday, April 14, which takes effect July 1. "We have heard plenty" from angry, recession-slammed Angelenos, one in eight of whom are unemployed � a fact that has often gone unmentioned during the feud, notes City Councilman Dennis Zine. In the past few days, former mayor Richard Riordan has told Rick Orlov of the Los Angeles Daily News that the City Council needs to create a bankruptcy plan in case City Hall's current $212 million general-fund deficit worsens; former DWP commissioner Nick Patsaouras filed a suit several days ago against the cash-rich DWP to force it to hand over $73.5 million in surplus money it promised months ago to give to the city's maxed-out general fund; and the L.A. City Council has taken steps toward enacting a police-hiring freeze and forcing the DWP to open its books. "Yes, it's all interrelated, deeply, deeply interrelated," says City Councilman Bernard Parks, chairman of the council's Budget Committee. "That's a sobering thing." Parks, who, as the former L.A. chief of police, oversaw a sizable budget, is one of only five City Council members widely seen as capable of grasping the vast citywide budget and complex fiscal issues. He has frequently joined with Zine to warn the rest of the City Council that the city employs thousands of workers it cannot afford. Parks and Zine have not garnered much response to their views, until recently. Instead, the City Council and Villaraigosa have continually underestimated the severity of the economic downturn in each approved budget since 2007. Under Villaraigosa, in fact, the city's employee count has grown by more than 3,000 to roughly 49,000 government workers. The situation has left L.A. with a worsening "structural" deficit that makes City Hall increasingly reliant on the DWP's practice of collecting more money than it spends, then sending a fat chunk of that money to the city's deficit-ridden general fund each year. Those transfers of cash, which once amounted to 5 percent of DWP annual revenues, now stand at 8 percent. The increasing amounts act as something like a drug, making City Hall more reliant on the utility monopoly, even as Parks concedes that elected leaders have grown more and more afraid to upset D'Arcy and his aggressive union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). Now, in the wake of the past several weeks' controversies, and led by Jan Perry and others, the council is considering seeking voters' help at the ballot box to wrest some of the DWP's autonomy and rein in the city utility's growing role as a political kingmaker. David Abel, publisher of the Planning Report newsletter and a longtime City Hall watcher, summed up the views of many disgusted residents by invoking the name of former city controller Laura Chick, who, though seen as a grandstander by her critics, gained a reputation for playing it straight with the public. Abel wrote in an e-mail to L.A. Weekly: "L.A. city voters and those dependent on city services, disgusted by the mayor and DWP's 'bush league' threats, the electricity rate surcharge's lack of substance and transparency, and the theatrical dueling with City Council this past week, are understandably upset with talk of 'imminent bankruptcy' and the reality of ballooning deficits next year." Abel continues, "Needed immediately to restore public trust � a fiscal truth-teller. Laura Chick, where are you?" Following is a time line of the past month of events in L.A.'s fiscal crisis: � In early March, Villaraigosa set off an intense debate by pushing for a surprisingly steep DWP hike of up to 28 percent, citing the pricey future cost of his as-yet-unformed plan to invest in some type of renewable energy. � The mayor persuaded his political appointees on the DWP Board of Commissioners to approve the hikes. � As public outcry grew, Villaraigosa shifted his emphasis from green energy to warn instead that unless the City Council backed his DWP hikes, the city could face bankruptcy. � Furious at being whipsawed, the City Council exercised its considerable powers, ordering that the DWP rate-hike plan come before it for a formal vote. � On March 23, Villaraigosa turned up the political pressure on the council, persuading former vice president Gore to appear via satellite to urge L.A. residents to embrace a special DWP surcharge � a move that backfired politically. � With DWP General Manager David Freeman away on what appeared, at first, to be merely an ill-timed vacation, his underling Raman Raj claimed that the DWP was in poor fiscal shape and would not send the long-promised $73.5 million to the city treasury � unless the City Council approved the rate hike. � On March 26, Miguel Santana, the city's recently hired top fiscal officer, upon whom Villaraigosa had heavily relied for cogent budget advice, left to enter an alcohol-rehab program after getting arrested for a DUI � while driving a city car. � On March 30, in a tight vote, the City Council ignored the growing community fury and approved an immediate rate hike of 4.5 percent for residents and 5 percent to 6 percent for most businesses, laying the groundwork for three much higher utility hikes planned by Villaraigosa later. � In a late-night pissing match on March 31, Villaraigosa's appointees on the DWP board unanimously rejected the City Council hike as insufficient, backing a slightly bigger, 5.7 percent increase. In a game of brinkmanship so strange that TV news reporters actually showed up for a utility debate, the council vetoed the DWP's slightly higher increase. At midnight, the city missed its April 1 legal deadline to enact a springtime rate increase, thus losing millions of dollars. � On April 5, City Controller Greuel, previously criticized for getting $250,000 in campaign help from the DWP union, run by labor boss D'Arcy, made national headlines by announcing � and days later retracting � that L.A. would go broke May 5. � On April 6, the mayor made national headlines by ordering city officials to devise a plan for shuttering city government two days a week. � Widely slammed for that, Villaraigosa two days later announced a "surprise" turnabout: The city had taken in an unexpected $30 million in extra property- and other taxes, making a shutdown of government unnecessary. � Greuel announced that she, too, had a new plan: auditing the DWP's books, something she has promised since 2009. The amateur-hour feel to the past month has fueled extensive rumors and anger, and not just among the public. Parks says it is fairly "widely assumed" among leaders inside City Hall that outgoing DWP chief Freeman, repeatedly criticized for misreading the public mood on costly green initiatives such as last year's failed solar initiative, Measure B, was told by Villaraigosa's team to overstay his vacation so the mayor's advisers could use their greater political savvy to push through the DWP rate hikes. If that was the plan, it failed, with both Parks and Zine suggesting that Villaraigosa's handpicked advisers Beutner, Carr, Carson and Szabo share very little municipal policy expertise between them. Budget expert Jan Perry, one of few council members who stands up to Villaraigosa, has also been openly unimpressed by Szabo and others on the mayor's team, who are essentially political spokesmen. "When the mayor said he wanted to implement a city shutdown on April 12, and he set that as the effective date, he hadn't spoken to any of us," says Zine, who put aside time between a funeral and a workshop he hosts on coping with foreclosure to explain these antics. "The mayor created a belief, a strong belief, that the right hand and left hand do not know what they are doing. That's not how the second largest city in the nation should be run." Carr is a local minister whom Villaraigosa hired to run his still-unproven $20 million�a-year "antigang" program. Carr quickly won a promotion to become the mayor's chief of staff, "something he knows nothing about," Zine says. Yet Carr must now somehow wrangle powerful city department heads to move in the same direction. Former DWP commissioner Patsaouras is a fierce critic of the flashy four advisers and decries the loss of Santana, who was arrested just when the budget crisis and DWP brawl were approaching a crescendo. "You have this piece of shit Jay Carson telling the L.A. Times that all the mayor wants is a $2.50-per-month utility charge, which was an outright lie" that dramatically understated the true hike, Patsaouras says of Carson, former spokesman for both Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton. "Then the mayor comes back from Washington but cancels a press conference to explain himself. With the mayor and his aides giving a different reason and a different number each time, the public got outraged. The council was ready to go along with it, but then they got angry phone calls up the kazoo!" The mayor's office calls it "ridiculous" that some question the depth of Villaraigosa's bench, noting that many among his broader team worked for Tom Bradley and Richard Riordan. Now, with the mayor's advisers looking something like a gang that can't shoot straight, Beutner's name has surfaced in speculation over Villaraigosa's possible choice to replace Freeman as chief of the DWP. If chosen, he would be the utility's fourth boss under Villaraigosa, who forced out his friend environmentalist David Nahai. Nahai's controversial forced departure several months ago, in the wake of the mayor's major ballot-box failure on Measure B in 2009, set off widespread speculation that Nahai had displeased DWP union chief D'Arcy by failing to embrace the solar plan. That plan was a brainchild of D'Arcy's and Villaraigosa's. It would have greatly increased the size and power of D'Arcy's union. During the current turmoil, D'Arcy actually tried to offer a compromise to end the quibbling but was ignored. Nevertheless, "The truth is, the IBEW holds all the cards," says Parks, because its power is openly feared by elected leaders for the campaign cash it wields. At the same time, the DWP's management team deftly uses secrecy to exert influence over L.A. ratepayers and the City Council. "The pattern for DWP management has been to come in at the very last minute and say they must have a rate increase, and withhold facts, such as hiding how much money they really have in all kinds of small pockets," says Parks. He angrily cites findings by PA Consulting Group, whose recent report on the utility's finances shows, he says, that the DWP is sitting on a $450 million "cash-flow reserve," when for decades $150 million was considered sufficient. "The DWP is playing hide-the-ball" so it can demand rate increases, Parks says. The prospect of mayoral insider Beutner running the DWP � and, like Nahai, lacking any experience running a public utility or big-city department � troubles some. Wall Street whiz Beutner is best known for his work advising the U.S. Treasury Department on ways to help Russian rabbit farmers find new loan sources. He co-founded Evercore Partners and served on the board of directors of the huge American Media firm, owner of the National Enquirer. Says Patsaouras: "These people are getting the mayor into trouble. Beutner? Wall Street investment bankers go in a room, have martinis and steak and make a deal � and that is fine. But when you have public money and public agencies, there is a process, whether you like it or not." But beyond the unease and rumors, serious economic issues remain that could imperil the city government and hurt core city services. Economist John Husing, an expert on the recession and foreclosure crisis still gripping the Inland Empire, says Los Angeles elected leaders who are celebrating about "finding" $30 million in unexpected extra property and other taxes last week "clearly, fundamentally do not understand what this region is facing" for the next several years. Parks agrees, saying, "That $30 million we 'found'? This is a blip. This is not a positive trend line of revenue coming to the city." But only five City Council members are considered well-versed on the L.A. budget; besides Parks and Zine, the others are Valley representative Greig Smith, South Los Angeles and downtown representative Perry and Hollywood representative and City Council President Eric Garcetti. The lack of similarly deep budget knowledge among others on the council leaves unclear whether the City Council really intends to cut back on the size of government. So far, the city has laid off just 400, roughly, of the estimated 4,000 workers it has threatened with job losses. And it's not clear that city leaders know how to end their chronic practice of approving permanent new costs paid for with one-time revenues or hoped-for revenues. "We in the city have done nothing to change our practice of living from windfall to windfall," says Parks, who questions whether his colleagues can change. Critics of how City Hall does the public's business, such as Patsaouras, say one problem is the sharp rise in city hiring under Villaraigosa. One former city fiscal analyst, who asked not to be named, says Karen Sisson, the city administrative officer who preceded Santana, "was trying her damndest to tell the mayor you cannot keep adding and adding and adding police officers. But he was obsessed. When Karen left, nobody wanted what was once a great job, because the word was out: The mayor isn't listening." The swelling payroll has been fueled not only by Villaraigosa's dogged vow to add more police, but also by dramatic growth in the political bureaucracy, including the mayor's personal staff, which has grown to 173. Riordan, by contrast, employed 114. City Council members have funded their own huge personal staffs of 15 to 25 people per office as well, at a cost of about $1 million to $1.5 million per council member, not to mention the eight free cars and free gas each council member enjoys. Yet as the Weekly determined in its February 2009 cover story "Los Angeles on $300,000 a Year: Why next week's City Council 'coronation' will cost you more than money," some City Council members pay little attention to what they spend. Lieutenant-governor candidate City Councilwoman Janice Hahn, for example, is viewed by some of her colleagues as having little understanding of fiscal issues. When the San Pedro�area councilwoman was asked in 2009 how much she spends on her personal staff, she significantly underguessed, estimating her cost at $1 million. (She was in fact spending $1.32 million.) This week, the City Council's Budget Committee began looking at different financial guesstimates � the expected city treasury revenues for the upcoming months. But as blogger Ron Kaye noted, some on the council still behaved as if no crisis confronted them. As Kaye wrote, the Budget Committee also had on its agenda a proposal by Hollywood-area City Councilman Tom LaBonge to sell a costly Seagrave fire engine for just $1 to Los Bomberos � a nonprofit group of firefighters that, in partnership with others, helps mentor firefighter trainees and candidates. "So maybe things aren't as bad as they look," wrote Kaye. "Or perhaps LaBonge's rose-tinted glasses have him living in a separate reality." By Jill Stewart / LA Weekly

Currumbin Rock Transformed with Flower Power During Swell

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 11:47:00 -0700

Lynne Adams has found a solution to the ugly issue of waste, especially plastic bottles. With her PET bottle flower concept, children are being prompted to look at everyday waste with a creative eye. This is an exciting way for children to reconsider the environmental message: reuse, reduce and recycle. The workshops, held at the Currumbin Primary School, were an opportunity for both learning and fun; not only for the children, but for teachers and volunteers as well. The workshops were designed to stimulate visual awareness and provide a variety of experiences. With the sculpture installed at the Swell Sculpture Festival, the children will stand with their families and share their experience of participation. They will talk of their sense of achievement and involvement in promoting environmental responsibility. Importantly, they will have ownership of the part they played in creating a major sculpture at Swell. Special thanks to all involved, we appreciate the support from Visy Recycling, Sparkling Windows, Currumbin Primary School and our Swell team. So go out there get creative and make a difference. Learn ways on how to go green: http://green-la.com/portal/index.php?topic=waystohelp

Rise Above Plastics

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 12:25:25 -0700

Take the Plastics Pledge There is a section of the Pacific Ocean twice the size of the continental United States called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Within it, 100 million tons of plastic swirl in a vortex of currents. There is so much plastic in the water that it outnumbers zooplankton by six to one! This plastic ends up in the stomachs of marine birds and animals. In fact, one million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals die globally each year due to ingestion of or entanglement in plastics. Plastic is forever, with virtually every piece of petroleum based plastic ever made still in existence. That's why it's so critical to our oceans and beaches that we dramatically reduce our use of plastics, especially single-use plastics, starting today. You can make a difference for our world's oceans, waves and beaches -- pledge to rise above plastics today. Ways to combat plastic pollution. http://riseaboveplastics.org/ http://motionographer.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/laika_surfrider_riseaboveplastics.mov

UNEP - GRID-Arendal - Environmental Knowledge for Change

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:25:56 -0800

GRID-Arendal is a collaborating centre of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Established in 1989 by the Government of Norway as a Norwegian Foundation, our mission is to communicate environmental information to policy-makers and facilitate environmental decision-making for change. We are located in Arendal, Southern Norway, with outposted offices in Ottawa and Stockholm. GRID-Arendal is an official United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) collaborating centre, supporting informed decision making and awareness-raising through: * Environmental information management and assessment * Capacity building services * Outreach and communication tools, methodologies and products As UNEP's Key Polar Centre, we are involved with initiatives in the Polar Regions, and increasingly, we are broadening our focus on sustainable development of the oceans and coasts elsewhere in the world. Our staff consists of a diverse team of international professionals. Through a dynamic portfolio of projects, we partner with various organizations to facilitate free access to and exchange of information in support of decision making and to promote a sustainable future. Our Mission Our mission is to provide environmental information, communications and capacity building services for information management and assessment. Our Vision We aspire to be a polar centre of excellence for the United Nations and a leading centre for marine environment issues and global environmental information. Our Values As a UNEP affiliate and partner, we espouse core values that resonate with UNEP's mission. Our core values are: * Integrity * Professionalism * Respect for diversity * Environmental commitment. As a non-profit foundation with a public mission, we uphold the highest standards of integrity and professionalism. We believe that a commitment to our environment and best practices defines the nature of our work and activities. At the workplace, we respect diversity and gender equality, and our policies reflect this engagement. http://www.grida.no/

Edgar Wayburn dies at 103; longtime Sierra Club president helped double U.S. parkland

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:07:18 -0800

The physician turned conservationist was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his efforts in preserving open spaces in California, Alaska and elsewhere. Edgar Wayburn, a San Francisco physician and longtime president of the Sierra Club who was credited with protecting more parks and wilderness areas than any other American, has died. He was 103. Wayburn died Friday at his home in San Francisco of natural causes, said his daughter, Cynthia. He was the impetus for the establishment of Redwood National Park and pushed to create the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Point Reyes National Seashore and the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, among others. "Edgar Wayburn has helped to preserve the most breathtaking examples of the American landscape. He has saved more of our wilderness than any other person alive," President Clinton said in 1999 when he presented Wayburn with the country's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. "He wasn't a paid professional conservationist," Bruce Hamilton, deputy executive director of the Sierra Club, told The Times on Sunday. He called Wayburn a "citizen conservationist" who used a combination of passion, perseverance and moral persuasion to preserve lands for future generations. In 2006, as Wayburn prepared to celebrate his 100th birthday, he tried to put his environmental career in perspective. "At that time we didn't have much dedication of land compared to what we have today. There was a great deal that hadn't been done. So the opportunities were there for doing more," he told The Times. But "people are having a much harder time today to accomplish similar things." Wayburn was born Sept. 17, 1906, in Macon, Ga. He graduated from the University of Georgia in 1926 and from Harvard Medical School in 1930. He moved to California to start his medical career and returned after four years in the Army Air Forces during World War II. "San Francisco, I thought, was the place to be," he told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2006. "It was California." Cynthia Wayburn said her father started traveling to California "when he was a very little boy" with his mother, who was from California. He joined the Sierra Club in 1939 so he could go on the group's burro trips into the Sierra. In 1946, he met Peggy Elliott. They went hiking on Mt. Tamalpais, just north of San Francisco, for their first date and married in 1947. She too became an environmentalist. "On all my adventures, Peggy was with me," Wayburn told the Chronicle in 2006. They first visited Alaska in 1967, scouting locations for new national parks. In 1980, President Carter signed the National Interest Lands Conservation Act, creating 10 national parks. Wayburn "was there at every meeting. He was there when the decisions were made. He was there when the president signed the law. Look, the guy doubled the size of the park system, he doubled the size of the wild and scenic rivers system, he doubled the size of the wilderness system," Hamilton told The Times in 2006. "It's mind-boggling." Wayburn was awarded the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism in 1995. "Without Dr. Wayburn's leadership and his imagination, the Bay Area would be quite a different place," Rep. Nancy Pelosi told Sierra magazine in 1999. "Visually, recreationally, culturally -- in every way -- Dr. Wayburn made a tremendous difference." Wayburn, who also taught at Stanford and UC San Francisco, retired from his medical practice in 1983, his daughter said. He was named honorary Sierra Club president in 1993. "Whenever we encroach on the natural world, we crop the boundaries of our own existence as humans," he wrote in his 2004 book "Your Land and Mine: Evolution of a Conservationist." In addition to his daughter Cynthia, he is survived by daughters Diana and Laurie, son William and three grandchildren. Peggy Wayburn died in 2002. By Keith Thursby

"Cash for Caulkers" HOMESTAR Program to Help U.S. Businesses and Homeowners

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:07:56 -0800

U.S. President Barack Obama yesterday laid out the details of his new HOMESTAR program, nicknamed "Cash for Caulkers," which would provide on-the-spot government rebates to homeowners who make their homes more energy-efficient by installing new windows, doors, insulation and other materials from an approved list. Obama, who previewed the program during his first State of the Union address in January, urged Congress to adopt the program, saying it would revitalize the U.S. construction industry, help small businesses, and support U.S. manufacturing as well as reducing energy consumption, lessening our dependence on fossil fuels and lowering utility bills for many Americans. "So these are companies ready to take on new customers . . . workers eager to do new installations and renovations; factories ready to produce new building supplies. All we've got to do is create the incentives to make it happen," Obama said during his remarks at Savannah Technical College in Georgia, where he also noted that the construction industry is currently struggling with unemployment of nearly 25 percent. "Here's how it would work," Obama said. "We'd identify the kinds of building supplies and systems that would save folks energy over time. And here's one of the best things about energy efficiency . . . a lot of these materials are made right here in America. "If a homeowner decides to do work on his or her house -- to put in new windows, to replace a heating unit, to insulate an attic, to redo a roof -- the homeowner would be eligible for a rebate from the store or the contractor for 50 percent of the cost of each upgrade up to $1,500," he said. "Now, if you decided to retrofit your whole house to greatly reduce your energy use, you'd be eligible for a rebate of up to $3,000. "Now, these are big incentives," Obama continued. "And you'd get these rebates instantly from the hardware store or the contractor. So if you went to Lowe's or Home Depot or wherever you went, right there when you paid at the cash register you'd get that money. You wouldn't have to mail in a long form, wait for a check to arrive months later." The new program would resemble both the "Energy Star" program that promotes the purchase of energy-efficient appliances and last year's "Cash for Clunkers" program, which was designed to boost auto sales and increase fuel efficiency on U.S. roads by providing an economic incentive for consumers to replace old, low-mileage vehicles with new, fuel-efficient models. The program is expected to cost about $6 billion, which would provide economic incentives, in the form of instant cash rebates, for as many as 3 million homeowners to do energy-saving renovations. But don't rush down to Home Depot just yet. The proposal is still working its way through Congress, which must authorize funding before the program can be set up and any money can change hands. By Larry West Links: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/fact-sheet-homestar-energy-efficiency-retrofit-program

Rooftop gardens

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 09:59:06 -0800

Urban restaurants are raising the roof (literally) to put garden-fresh eats on your plate. Folks used to say that all you need to grow a garden is a little patch of dirt to call your own. Turns out it�s even simpler: In the city, all you need is a rooftop. Taking advantage of unused space and maximum sunlight, Chicago restaurants are moving their mini-farming operations a story or two above ground. Here�s what�s sprouting up on four local rooftops, plus a look at what else each restaurant does to complement green growing practices. Browntrout Chef Sean Sanders opened Browntrout, his 2-week-old North Center restaurant, with lofty ambitions. �I have a goal, five years from now, of being the greenest restaurant in Chicago,� he says. And he�s not just talking the talk. Sanders, who studied botany at the College of DuPage before becoming a chef, opened the restaurant with a rooftop garden already underway. Come winter, he has designs on hydroponic growing in the basement. In the ground: Lots of herbs, arugula, early girl and heirloom tomatoes (growing now); grapes, gooseberries, raspberries, blueberries, summer squash, zucchini, cucumbers and a fig tree (coming soon). On your plate: Parsley, thyme and chervil from the garden get tossed with morels, ramps and a mix of crimini and oyster mushrooms and Le Petit Dejeuner cheese in a napoleon ($10) layered with potato gaufrettes. More green practices: During construction, the restaurant relied on existing elements whenever possible instead of gutting the place. Sanders also used low-VOC paint and installed energy efficient dryers in the bathrooms. He�s phasing in green cleaning products too. Tallulah Raised in Iowa with sweet corn swaying in the backyard breeze, Tallulah chef Troy Graves has vegetable gardening in his blood. Since last spring, he�s been continuing the family tradition (albeit on a much smaller scale) on this Lincoln Square eatery�s sunny rooftop. �Bringing in tomatoes when they�re still warm from the sun, there�s something really beautiful about that,� he says. In the ground: Heirloom tomatoes such as green zebras and Cherokee purples (growing now); yellow squash and baby root vegetables such as carrots, beets and turnips (to be harvested and replanted throughout the summer). On your plate: Baby beets ($8), served with the greens intact and sauteed with shallots, garlic, bacon and blue cheese, will hit tables in mid-July. When it�s heirloom time in July and August, look for a simple tomato salad with balsamic glaze ($10). More green practices: Graves and his staff tend a plot in the Chicago Avenue Community Garden and donate veggies grown there to the surrounding community. Tallulah�s sister restaurant, Eve, also has signed up to work with Growing Power, a Milwaukee-based company that picks up organic food scraps for composting. Uncommon Ground on Devon The 640 square feet of soil atop Uncommon Ground�s roof are more than a garden. According to the Midwest Organic Services Association, Inc., it�s a certified organic rooftop farm�the first in the city. �Farm� in this case simply means food-growing, and UG farm director Natalie Pfister has been growing veggies there since the garden opened in July. In the ground: Tomatoes, arugula, radishes, carrots, onions and lots and lots of peas. Looking ahead, expect cucumbers and beans (mid-summer), melons and eggplant (late August) and squash and pumpkins (October). On your plate: Look for garden-grown sprouts and arugula in the restaurant�s sunshine salad ($7) and spring salad ($8) and fresh radishes in a grilled asparagus appetizer ($9). Later this summer, preparations of trout and pork loin will incorporate cucumbers and green beans. More green practices: Five solar panels heat 75 percent of the restaurant�s hot water, and the winged residents of four rooftop beehives supply the restaurant with honey (and pollinate the garden). Many of the restaurant�s paper goods, including toilet paper, paper towels and to-go containers, are recyclable. Carnivale Chef Mark Mendez estimates the kitchen at this 35,000-square-foot Warehouse District Nuevo Latino spot uses 500 pounds of heirloom tomatoes a week, so it's unlikely Carnivale's garden, which takes up about a quarter of the building's roof, will ever contribute a significant amount of tomatoes to the kitchen. That hasn't stopped him and sous chef David Dworshak (the green thumb behind the operation, Mendez says) from planting a garden for the second year in a row. In the ground: Pineapple sage, oregano, basil, mint, arugula, red romaine lettuce, Peruvian chili peppers and heirloom tomatoes. On your plate: Last weekend, Mendez featured a salad of arugula from the rooftop garden with strawberries from Michigan�s Mick Klug Farms, radishes from Indian�s Green Acres Farm and goat cheese from Capriole, also in Indiana. More green practices: The restaurant has stopped serving bottled water, recycles a fair amount of paper and plastic, and is looking into starting a compost heap. Lisa Arnett, Lisa Balde, Matt McGuire and M. Kathleen Pratt, Metromix producers.