Sorry about the blog blackout, but I just got back from a family vacation to Alaska. My first trip to the land of Denali, fjords and tundra didn’t disappoint. I’ve dreamed of going to Alaska since my fifth-grade report on Seward’s Folly.
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We’re rounding third and headed for home. After pulling out all the
stops (and clichés) by “trashing our friends” and sharing the joys of
the natural history of “The Majestic Plastic Bag”
(200,000 views and counting of the Jeremy Irons voiceover homage to
Attenborough), AB 1998 needs 21 votes in the Senate to pass. A simple
majority.
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The Aspen Institute and the National Geographic Society kicked off the 2010 Aspen Environment Forum Sunday night with a lively discussion of the Gulf disaster. The timing of the forum, which always focuses on climate and renewable energy issues, has definitely cast an air of pessimism here.
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We at Heal the Bay hate Paul the octopus. That may seem strange to hear from a group dedicated to the protection of marine life.
The English import, Octopus vulgaris, made his spot-on World Cup picks in a German aquarium. His prognostication prowess demonstrated that either: a) maybe the subtlety and majesty of the so-called beautiful game isn’t that tough to master; or b) Paul knows a helluva lot more about soccer than any announcer on ESPN.
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The Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board held a two-day marathon meeting at the end of last week. I’ve been attending board hearings for nearly a quarter century, well over 150 overall. The Thursday hearing had to be the most screwed-up session I’ve ever attended, and I’m now convinced that this is the most anti-environmental board since the Gov. Deukmejian days. Heal the Bay had seven different items in front of the Regional Board over the session, which took place at the Ventura County government building and then Glendale City Hall.
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Wednesday was a rewarding whirlwind: An extraordinary afternoon in the Compton Creek, a stimulating evening roundtable at the Skirball, and an after-hours meal in Venice.
A few weeks ago, the federal Environmental Protection Agency reached out to Heal the Bay to let us know that chief Lisa Jackson would be visiting the L.A. area and that she wanted to visit Compton Creek.
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My brother Jonathan Gold, the food writer, will moderate a panel Wednesday night on sustainable seafood at the Skirball Center. Zocalo is putting on the free event. The other panelists will be renowned seafood chef Michael Cimarusti, from Providence, and Logan Kock, the chief buyer and seafood encyclopedia from Santa Monica Seafood.
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The city of Malibu cut the ribbon Monday on its new million-dollar runoff treatment facility in unique fashion. Mayor Zuma Jay — Jefferson Wagner — paddled through the waves along with surfing icon Laird Hamilton to help launch the new plant, directly adjacent to Paradise Cove pier. More than 100 people joined the festivities to celebrate clean water at the beach often known as Parasite Cove because of its chronically poor water quality.
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Today, in a study bought and paid for by the American Chemistry Council (ACC), earth-shattering findings were released to the public. Unwashed reusable bags can be contaminated with a variety of bacterial pathogens, including Salmonella. Bag bacteria counts are especially high when you allow meat and chicken to incubate in the trunk of a car where temperatures can get nice and toasty. I wonder how much the ACC paid for this ground-breaking research to point out the obvious.
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Los Angeles Public Works Commissioner Paula Daniels and I have just finished teaching a class in leadership in water management at the UCLA Institute of the Environment. The class resulted from a generous gift by the Annenberg Foundation to UCLA to honor the memory of Heal the Bay’s founding president, Dorothy Green.
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