Happy 40th Earth Day! It seems as if the enormous 20th anniversary celebration was just yesterday, but that’s what happens when you get old. For Heal the Bay, Earth Day used to mean Earth Month, but now the festivities occur mid-March to mid-May. Heal the Bay staff and volunteers will deliver at least 79 educational talks and lead over 112 beach cleanups over the period.
Read more» (Spouting Off Blog at WordPress)
By now everyone has seen the devastating havoc wreaked by the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland And I’m not just talking about the impacts on the careers of TV journalists trying to pronounce the Icelandic tongue-twister of a volcano. The eruption cloud has shut down air travel in Europe and has led to massive speculation on the climate impacts of the spewing ash and sulfur dioxide.
Read more» (Spouting Off Blog at WordPress)
Assemblymember Julia Brownley’s bill to ban single-use bags, AB 1998, passed out of the Natural Resources Committee on a 6-3 vote Monday. If the Heal the Bay-sponsored bill is signed into law, California retailers (grocery, drug and convenience stores) would phase out the use of single-use plastic, bioplastic and paper bags by 2012.
Read more» (Spouting Off Blog at WordPress)
I’ve spent the last 10 days with my son Zack on the traditional high school junior rite of passage: the college roadie. Personally, I only applied to one school. Ever. I’m a Bruin – born at the hospital, bachelors, masters, doctorate and a current lecturer. I’ve gone nowhere in life. Literally.
Read more» (Spouting Off Blog at WordPress)
So the Obama administration has proposed to open the Atlantic coast from Delaware to northern Florida for offshore oil exploration. That’s up to 167 million acres of ocean floor. And now that the pesky polar ice cap is melting away, the entire northern slope of Alaska can open for business, up to 130 million acres.
Read more» (Spouting Off Blog at WordPress)
Good things come to those who wait. Unless you’re a fish.
Last week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s office finally allowed the State Water Board to release a modified once-through-cooling power plant policy. The governor’s office held the policy hostage for months while every major power generator in the state lobbied heavily to weaken the last draft. What a surprise. The power brokers won. They should at least say “Thanks for the fish” like the dolphins in the “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.”
Read more» (Spouting Off Blog at WordPress)
I always thought that a species was endangered if the organism’s population plummeted to a fraction of historic levels. In California, the scourge of DDT and PCBs led to the listing of the California Brown Pelican on the federal endangered species list. With listing comes additional protection. Recently, the Brown Pelican recovered enough to be taken off the list.
Read more» (Spouting Off Blog at WordPress)
The California Assembly approved on Monday a sweeping ban on smoking
at state parks and beaches. Sen. Oropeza’s SB4 is part of the Clean Seas
Coalition package of bills to combat the marine debris crisis. Major
props go to the Surfrider Foundation for its successful efforts as the
sponsor of the bill. Cigarette butts are the No. 1 item found in the
sand on Coastal Cleanup Day and at Heal the Bay’s other beach cleanups.
Despite the fact that Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Long Beach and Malibu
have banned smoking on the beach, butts remain a big problem.
Read more» (Spouting Off Blog at WordPress)
With April right around the corner, the official beach monitoring season is upon us. Under AB 411, all heavily visited beaches near a potential pollution source statewide must be monitored once a week from April to the end of October. The monitoring program provides critical information to better inform the public of the potential health risks of swimming at potentially polluted beaches.
Read more» (Spouting Off Blog at WordPress)
The so-called apology from the owners of the Hump, posted on their website, speaks for itself:
”The charge against the restaurant is true: The Hump served whale meat to customers looking to eat what in Japan is widely served as a delicacy … We sincerely apologize. We pledge to work hard to re-earn the trust of the public and respect of our customers.”
Read more» (Spouting Off Blog at WordPress)