Santa Monica, California located in Los Angeles County is a popular eco-friendly coastal destination for families, couples, tourists and Southern California beachgoers.
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We all have our favorite air travel gripe; tiny plane seats, lenthy lines, tired kids. Well, if your biggest complaint was the amount of plastic water bottles sold, or the difficulty of bringing your own water with the liquid requirements, traveling to or from San Francisco just got a little more tolerable. SFO has installed free water stations throughout the airport. Remember water fountains? Sort of like that, only better.
Learn more at Food and Water Watch.
Photo:JunCTionS vis Flickr
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Take a minute to visit the Wall Street Journal and vote in today’s poll on whether or not plastic bags should be banned. The accompanying article talks about the numerous cities in California that have banned bags, and whether this city-by-city approach is working. The poll is running today only, so make your voice heard! Take the poll at Wall Street Journal (the poll is half-way down the page).
There’s good news for beach goers in Venice. A new project is set to improve your beach water quality. A City of Los Angeles Proposition O Clean Water Bond-funded 14 million dollar project is about to happen in your back yard. This month, the Penmar Water Quality Improvement Project begins construction. The overall goal is to reduce pollutants in stormwater runoff from the Rose Avenue storm drain. Right now, that drain goes straight to the ocean, but after the project is completed, the runoff will be diverted to Hyperian Wastewater Plant for treatment. Aging infrastructure will also be rehabilitated.
Photo Dr EG via Flickr
This post was guest-written by Aaron Kind, our education specialist at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium. Aaron runs our Aquarium’s lecture series. Here, he writes about an innovative new addition to that program.
Being a talented artist, whose works have hung on my mother’s refrigerator and graced a few bathroom stall walls, I was quite excited to host the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium’s first Artist Night. The event was meant to reach out to the local artists in the community, and by keeping the RSVP list to a minimum the Aquarium had plenty of room for the artists to set up. The event received some unexpected advertising; Traffic Queen and Shortcuts author Kajon Cermak of KCRW announced the night on her radio program and The Santa Monica Observer generously devoted an entire page in color to our Artists’ Night flyer.
The Aquarium’s local species were the models for the night; moray eels, octopus, sharks and moon jellies took center stage for the evening’s festivities. Photographers, painters and even a couple of digital sculptors attended the two-hour event. For the first hour, the Aquarium lights were dimmed to help photographers reduce glare from the tanks for their shots. For the second hour, the lights were brought back up and sea stars, sea urchins and other denizens of the deep were placed in bins so painters and sketchers could get an up close look. A little bit of 60’s beachy rock ‘n’ roll set the mood for the artists and models alike. After talking with the participants (the ones without the fins) the Aquarium staff is planning to set another artist night in approximately three months.
“Tonight is about artists hanging out with other artists,” one woman was overheard saying, and we were excited to offer this great community with a venue to do just that. For further information on upcoming events, visit the Aquarium section on this site. Also, join us on Facebook to view pictures from the night.
On an overcast Tuesday morning, a crowd of 300 volunteers came out to clean the beach at Santa Monica Pier alongside their Los Angeles Dodgers heroes. Nearly every volunteer was dressed in Dodger gear and some came three hours early to meet Matt Kemp, Rafael Furcal, Steve Garvey, Fernando Valenzeula, Derrel Thomas, Sweet Lou Johnson, Shawn Green, Gabe Kapler, Tony Gwynn Jr. and Jay Gibbons. Despite the drizzle, everyone had a great time picking up trash, getting autographs and listening to the players tell stories of their exploits on the diamond.
The Dodgers visit, courtesy of team exec Howard Sunkin and owner Frank McCourt, marked a stop on a public service caravan around L.A. before the men in blue take off for spring training and the grapefruit league at Camelback Ranch in Glendale, Ariz. Howard introduced me to the players on the team bus and I felt a heckuva lot more nervous than I do testifying at city council. When Steve Garvey and Fernando came off the bus, I felt like I was in a time machine transported to my days as a teenager obsessed with the outcome of all 162 games on the schedule. After posing for a “team photo” right next to Fernando, I gathered up the nerve to tell the Dodger legend that I was there to watch him pitch as a 19-year-old call up in the September of 1980. Ever stoic, Valenzuela shook my hand and said nothing.
Then we walked across the sand to the sea of blue of Dodger fans in front of a standing microphone. I walked alongside former slugger Shawn Green and asked him some small-talk question about what he was up to now in the O.C. He answered politely. I always was a big Greenie fan. Star center fielder Matt Kemp took the long way to mic because he didn’t want to get his new black Nike kicks sandy. He soon got over that. Of course, Charlie Steiner emceed the event. Steiner remarked “it was a beautiful day for a ballgame” despite the gloomy drizzle. He introduced the entire Dodger lineup and then welcomed S.M. Mayor Richard Bloom and me. That’s right, I got an intro from Charlie Steiner. How cool is that!
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The environmental movement appeals to people of all ages, from all walks of life. We each have important and very personal reasons for protecting the world around us.
But young people, in particular, are poised to become the new face of the environment. As they grow older and begin to inherit the earth, with all of its majestic open spaces as well as all of its pollution problems, more and more teenagers and other young people are embracing environmental activism as their legacy.
One of the coolest examples of the connection between teenagers and the environment is a group called Teens Turning Green. It’s a youth-led initiative that brings environmental education and awareness to young people throughout the country.
And we’re not just talking about environmental science. Teens Turning Green focuses on environmentally friendly lifestyles, including making smart purchases, avoiding chemicals in makeup and other products, and other important habits. One of their biggest campaigns has been against lead in lipstick, called Lips Against Lead.
Teens Turning Green is having a free environmental summit in LA on Feb. 26. If you’re interested, or know someone who might be, visit teensturninggreen.org.
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That is, if Ethan Gauthier is any indication. The Sierra Madre teenager just won first prize in his school’s science fair for a project he called Runaway Runoff.
Basically, he took 4 samples of garden soil and added inorganic fertilizers to 3 of them. Then he added water, and measured the amount of nitrates and phosphates coming off of each sample.
The project is a brilliantly simple way to illustrate the impacts gardeners can have on the ocean. When inorganic fertilizers are added to gardens, those same phosphates and nitrates run off your yard, into the stormdrain system, and into the ocean.
Nitrates and phosphates are a huge source of harmful algal blooms in freshwater bodies like Malibu Creek. They contribute to dead zones by encouraging the overgrowth of algae. That algae blocks sunlight, inhibiting the growth of other plants and animals. And when it dies and decomposes, it sucks up all of the oxygen in the water.
Ethan’s answer? It’s even more simple. Follow the directions on your fertilizer packages, and don’t over-fertilize. Heal the Bay will take that one step further and suggest you use organic fertilizers, like compost, rather than chemical-based fertilizers.
Read more about Ethan’s project at Sierra Madre Patch.
The City of Santa Monica just launched its first door-to-door collection program for hazardous waste. If you live in Santa Monica and have residential hazardous waste, you can call and schedule a pick-up at your front door.
The program collects paint, used batteries, motor oil, computer monitors and other household hazardous waste, and transports it to the appropriate recycling facility. It’s actually a budget cutting move for the City, which is eliminating the hazardous waste collection at City Yards Monday through Friday. You can still drop off hazardous waste at City Yards, but only on Saturday.
This is expected to save the City about $100,000 over the course of the pilot program.
When hazardous waste like batteries and old electronics are put in the trash, they end up in landfills where they can leach dangerous chemicals into the earth and our groundwater supplies. Things like lead and mercury from electronics, battery acid, and motor oil need to be collected safely and broken down by professionals.
Some of the components can be recycled, and the others are disposed of safely.
If you are a resident of Santa Monica and would like to schedule a pick-up, call (800) HHW-PKUP (449-7587) or e-mail atyourdoor@wm.com. You’ll get a collection kit in the mail, and detailed instructions on how to package your household waste as well as a specific collection day. On that specific day, you just have to leave your packaged waste on your doorstep and it will be picked up.
Kudos to Santa Monica for taking a stand against hazardous waste!
Update: The Santa Monica Office of Sustainabilty and the Environment also has a permenant drop-off facility that is open the first Saturday of every month.
If you’re interested in volunteering at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium, make sure to get your Volunteer Application in by Monday, Feb 7. Training begins March 1.
Inspiring others to appreciate the amazing creatures that live in the Santa Monica Bay is what being a volunteer at the Aquarium is all about. Whether you work with students attending a marine biology field trip, or talk with visitors from around the world during our public hours, volunteering at the Aquarium is an opportunity to educate about the importance of being stewards of the marine environment.
The Aquarium’s next quarterly volunteer training session – a mandatory six-part course that equips volunteers with the knowledge needed to inform and educate about the habitats and the inhabitants of the Santa Monica Bay – begins March 1st.
Whether you’re in high school, a retiree, or somewhere in between, as a volunteer you will be joining a dynamic, diverse group of individuals from all walks of life. All our volunteers share a passion for the ocean – and love to share what they know about the ocean with Aquarium visitors.
Learn more about volunteering at the aquarium and fill out a Volunteer Application today.
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The City of Calabasas joined the rapidly growing group of cities and municipalities fighting against plastic bag litter by enacting a ban on single-use plastic bags on February 2, 2011.
Like the recent bans in Santa Monica, and LA County, the ban will prohibit supermarkets, large pharmacies and convenience food marts from distributing plastic bags. Paper bags can be sold for 10¢ each, as long as they are made of at least 40% recycled material.
As in other bans, exceptions are made for restaurants selling take-out food and drink.
The rising tide of cities that are enacting their own bans against plastic bags gives all of us in the environmental community hope. Every day we hear of new cities, countries and counties around the world banning plastic bags.
While the fight is far from over, Calabasas’ brave decision last night brings us one step closer to a world free from plastic bags.
Read more about the decision at kpcc.org.