After a 35-year legal battle, Huntington Beach activists have won the right to restore the Bolsa Chica salt marsh.
December 2004 | News
Fresh Air for Holiday Gift Lists
I love giving and receiving gifts. But not as much as I love breathing.
And if everyone in the world suddenly adopted the consumption habits of the average American mall mob in December, it would take us less than the 12 days of Christmas to gift-wrap our way to total environmental disaster.
To allow aspirating gift-givers like me the opportunity to offset Santa’s busy band of resource-hogging elves, the L.A.-based environmental nonprofit TreePeople offers the gift that keeps on giving...air. For a $25 donation, TreePeople will plant a tree in honor of your friend, coworker or family member, sending the recipient a “beautiful, personalized” holiday card announcing your eco-conscious benevolence. For a contribution of $75, you could even present your Hummer-owning neighbor with his very own five-tree grove. And for those of you for whom saving the earth fails to warm your cold Grinch hearts, the TreePeople’s dedication program is tax deductible. To dedicate a tree, call 818.753.TREE or visit www.treepeople.org. — Eliza Thomas
Miracle for the Marsh
After decades of wetland degradation and abuse, restoration on the Bolsa Chica salt marsh in Huntington Beach is underway. Pelicans, herons, egrets, fish, migratory and marine birds will watch as rehabilitation begins on 584 of the roughly 1200-acres of wetland. The $65 million project, set to complete in 2008, includes work on a large tidal basin and new inlet plus the removal of an oil field to help restore the tidal wetlands eco-system.
Before the development and pollution of the 20th century, the Bolsa Chica was a healthy wetland. But as construction of dikes, roads, houses and an oilfield infringed on the fragile ecosystem, habitat and species diversity sharply declined, leading to severe wetland loss. In 1976, a group of Huntington Beach citizens, motivated by the wetland devastation, formed a preservation group, the Amigos de Bolsa Chica. Later joined by the Bolsa Chica Land Trust, a group devoted to preserving the surrounding mesas, the activists endured a heroic legal battle that stretched over 30 years.
Recently, friends of the Bolsa Chica wetlands celebrated the fruits of their extended labor. At the project’s groundbreaking ceremony, State Controller and Commission Chair Steve Wesley proclaimed, “Today marks an important milestone for California’s environment — the start of the largest wetlands restoration project in southern California history. This groundbreaking means victory in the 35-year battle to preserve this precious resource.”
To support the restoration efforts as a volunteer, visit www.amigosdebolsachica.org. — Jennifer Gay Summers
DA by Day, Yogini by Night
You know yoga has gone mainstream when you can buy a mat at Target. For further happy indication of yoga’s irrepressible popularity, head downtown to the LA County Criminal Justice Center on one of three afternoons that city employees break out the sweats, straps and blocks to turn an office meeting room into a yoga studio.
As reported in the Sept/Oct issue of LA Yoga, one of the deputy district attorneys has been leading fellow DAs, public defenders, clerks, judges and court staffers in lunch hour sun salutations, warrior poses and downward facing dog ever since completing the Yoga Works teacher training over two years ago. Speaking anonymously to a reporter to protect their identities (apparently, court officials can’t publicly disclose their yogosity), student after student praised the benefits of yoga as an antidote to the tension of the work environment. “We are in battle for a living,” one attorney asserted. “It is nice to have something in the day that is the opposite of battle.” — ET
Toxic Avengers
In late October the City of Los Angeles, in conjunction with several advocacy groups, filed a lawsuit against the US Department of Energy (DOE) in response to the department’s abandonment of clean up efforts at Rocketdyne’s Santa Susanna Field Laboratory (SSFL). SSFL, located a scant 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, is home to 10 decommissioned nuclear reactors. Breaking with EPA standards, the DOE has ceased cleanup operations of the Superfund site and has instead recommended the tainted land be used for residential housing. The city has decided to step in to prevent this impending atrocity.
The potential hazards surrounding the SSFL are downright scary. According to a press release from the LA City Attorney’s office, in 1959 one of the site’s reactors experienced a “partial meltdown” that may have released more radioactive material than the infamous Three Mile Island meltdown of 1979. “What’s left today is a toxic sword of Damocles hanging over the lives of innocent Southern California residents,” accused Joel Reynolds, senior attorney for the prosecution, at a recent press conference.
In 1995, the EPA made the regrettable mistake of passing cleanup responsibilities to the DOE. Since then, the DOE has fallen far short of the agreed EPA cleanup standards, letting contaminated land and groundwater remain untreated. The City Attorney’s press release states that upon review, the EPA found the site unsafe for residential use, “and that the only acceptable use would be day hikes with limitations on picnicking.” Yet the DOE still recommends building homes over SSFL.
In 2003, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Cal) implored the EPA to resume overseeing the cleanup, but it seems her request fell on deaf ears. It is now up to the City of Los Angeles and the involved activist groups to fight not only for the health and safety of LA residents, but for citizens nationwide. If the Bush administration and the DOE are allowed to renege on their commitment to the SSFL site, it could set a dangerous precedent for DOE cleanup projects in communities across the country. — Dennis Carey
At Home Energy Vampires
As if chunky milk wasn’t bad enough, cleaning out refrigerator leftovers just got a whole lot grosser. According to the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE), it is becoming increasingly common for households to harbor multiple refrigerators. After all, who wants to have to hike all the way to the kitchen for a cold drink? And the fridge is not the only energy-guzzler proliferating in American homes; so too are plasma TV sets and multi-head shower systems.
But this year, fuel-happy suburbanites might have to face the consequences of their comfort. Rising energy prices are predicted to hit the fan this winter — pummeling upper and lower class Americans alike. Home heating-oil prices have gone up a sobering 60 percent, while the cost of propane, the fuel of rural and lower-income families, has increased by 30 percent.
The good news is this: costly energy prices incite Americans to seek out more efficient lifestyles on their own. No one’s expecting miracles, but the elimination of redundant “plug-ins” could go a long way. For instance, who knew that leaving a cell phone charger plugged in leaks energy unnecessarily? Likewise, VCRs, stereos and computers continue to extract energy as long as they are connected to an outlet.
Our advice? Well, first of all — a smaller house is ideal. That way, a cold drink is never far away and you needn’t ever worry about heating unused rooms. But if that isn’t practical for you right now, try keeping as few appliances plugged in as possible. And on days when you can’t see your breath (which, by the way, is nearly every day in Southern California), dress appropriately for the temperature of your home. Who says you need to be able to wear a tank top indoors all winter long? For further tips on how to reduce home energy consumption, visit www.energystar.gov. — Andi McDaniel
Mmm Mmm Hemp
It’s official. As of September 28, the people of the United States are now allowed to eat hemp. They just aren’t allowed to grow it.
Three years ago, the DEA issued a rule banning hemp food products, making all waffles, cereals and energy bars containing the omega 3-rich seeds and oils illegal. Hemp advocates fought back, and on February 6, 2004, a panel of three judges in the Ninth Circuit Court ruled that the DEA “ignored the specific congressional exemption in the Controlled Substances Act that excludes hemp fiber, seed and oil from control along with poppy seeds.” The amount of THC in hemp products is about the same as the amount of opium in poppy seeds. With the DEA’s failure to appeal by the September 28 deadline, the ruling stands.
Now that the legal allowances for hemp have been defined, the next step is to create awareness of the difference between industrial cannabis and cannabis grown for drug use. The plant variety that every other Western country permits to be grown as hemp contains very low levels of THC — 5-10 parts per million vs. the 3-20 parts per hundred in cannabis grown for recreation. According to Adam Eidinger of the Hemp Industries Association, that difference is as significant as the distinction between “a German Shepherd and a Chihuahua.” Eidinger is emphatic, “I want to make it clear that hemp has nothing to do with marijuana.”
Some states have granted farmers permits to grow hemp, but without permission from the federal government, these fields remain fallow. Even though several California companies currently import and use hemp, at present the only permits to grow cannabis in the state are relegated to the variety used for medical marijuana, leading farmers to miss out on what has become an increasingly profitable crop (recent reports show hemp food sales are up 66.3 percent in the last year, while hemp-based cosmetics have increased by 12 percent). To show your support for the full normalization and legalization of an industrial hemp free market, visit www.votehemp.org. — Kellie Mattia
Debbie Does the Rainforest?
While Americans get their puritanical panties in a bunch over a little primetime nipple baring, our Northern European brothers and sisters are getting all the action. As reported recently by Grist Magazine, “the award for Scandalous Naked Activist of the Year, if there were one, would have to go to the Norwegian nonprofit organization Fuck for Forest.” Run by a couple of fetching hippie 20-somethings with two things on their mind, fuckforforest.com is a $15 a month paid-subscription website that is saving the rainforest “one money shot at a time.”
While getting naked for a cause is nothing new, bumping like bunnies to preserve the hills and glens in which those fuzzy bunnies do their business is a novel approach to environmental activism. Not surprisingly, the bold move has garnered its intrepid originators significant media attention and, most importantly, more than 50,000 rainforest-bound American dollars since its inception less than a year ago. And considering that the online porn industry is anticipated to generate between $5 and $7 billion per year by 2005, if more randy activists with rubbers to burn claimed their own piece of the pornographic pie, only god knows how many rubber trees would be saved.
But, unfortunately for our humping tree huggers, it seems the famed progressive Scandinavian tolerance only stretches so far. “We do not want to be associated in any way with this type of industry,” says a spokesperson for the Dutch branch of the World Wildlife Fund of their reluctance to accept money from Fuck for Forest. But Tommy Holm Ellingsen, one of the Web site’s founders (and stars), isn’t concerned about finding a home for the dollars his misadventures have raised. The Rainforest Foundation Norway, while publicly decrying his scandalous methods, has privately planned to accept a considerable donation, and Ellingsen claims he’s in contact with potential grantees in Brazil and America. “Society is so upside-down,” lamented the porn activist. “In Norway, we have this prime minister defending war, and at the same time putting sex down as something bad.” — ET
EPA Hires Families to Expose Themselves
Presumably to many a lab rat’s relief, the EPA’s new study on the adverse effects of pesticides and other chemicals will be conducted on actual human children. The purpose of the “Children’s Environmental Exposure Research Study,” so (inappropriately) called CHEERS, is to determine how and to what extent children come in contact with pesticides and other chemicals in their homes. Data will allow chemical regulations to reflect more accurate information about actual exposure levels.
The study will take place in Duval County Florida, and will include researchers from the EPA, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, and Florida’s Duval County Health Department. CHEERS researchers will focus on families whose homes are likely to be heavily polluted with pesticides, and will periodically spray those homes up to six times over the two year research period. In return for being such good sports, participants will receive up to $970.
The study is likely to utilize mostly low-income individuals, which is reason enough for raised eyebrows. But critics are also outraged at the supposedly “unbiased” involvement of the American Chemistry Council (ACC), one of CHEERS’ main funders ($2.1 of the overall $9 million dollar project). The EPA and the ACC claim the source of funding will not influence the results. — AM
![[Send]](http://wholelifetimes.com/sendlink/send.gif){kind=small}
Recommend this page to a friend
Top Ten pages recommended to friends:
