I spent last Saturday right here in Torrance at my favorite place in town, the Madrona Marsh – even if I did spend it in the parking lot standing behind a table for the South Bay Environmental Services Center. But I got to walk across the Marsh on my way in and I got to see Tracy Drake, the Nature Center Manager and dynamo – and a woman who I adore.
I’ve got more photos (in the Greenius blog’s new slideshow app) and additional coverage for you after the jump….
That’s your friendly, neighborhood Creative Greenius volunteering his time for the South Bay Environmental Services Center at the 2009 Torrance Environmental Fair. I’ll be back again this year, at Madrona Marsh on Saturday, March 27 from 10am t0 3pm talking about ways to save energy, save water, save money and cut your greenhouse gas emissions.
Check out the roster of speakers and presentations after the jump.
Continue reading ➞ Meet the Greenius @ the Torrance Environmental Fair this Saturday
On Monday I wrote about how some of my friends on the Hermosa Beach City Council had ignored citizen requests that they stop using disposable Arrowhead plastic water bottles as their source of drinking water at City Council meetings. We had told them they were not only wasting money, water and resources – they were also setting a bad public example on television and on the web where their meetings are broadcast.
Continue reading ➞ Citizens Filter Hermosa Beach City Council Water to Stop Waste & Force Change
Your Greenius got great news from downtown Los Angeles on Friday when my pal, Todd Diapola called me from outside the Kenny Hahn Hall of Administration to report that he and the other representatives of the South Bay Bicycle Coalition, of which I am a proud founding member, had just been told our SBBC was getting the big, fat $240,000 grant we had applied for.
Considering that our volunteer group had scrambled and worked our asses off at a whirling dervish pace to get all the paperwork and lobbying done by the deadline, it was especially sweet news for us.
Some of my friends on the Hermosa Beach City Council don’t believe that drinking water out of a new, disposable plastic water bottle at every Council meeting does any harm – so they crack open a new bottle of water at every meeting to quench their thirst. Despite being asked for months now to bring their own reuseable water bottles and to filter their drinking water from the tap, the Hermosa Beach City Council doesn’t believe the example they set every two weeks at their televised meetings matters very much… And they don’t see what this has to do with sustainability.
Here’s a little video that will enlighten them to the facts:
If you think those of us fighting climate change are going to go easy on the guilty criminals who destroy our atmosphere for profit… Think again.
In an era when most elected officials offer no substance and no positive vision for our future, DiVirgilio is downright JFK-like in his view of what must be done:
“But now is not the time to narrow the vision for our own future, to diminish our expectations for the better days ahead or to downsize the ambitions for our children’s quality of life.
Now is the time to step up and seize the opportunities available to those who act on new realities before they become mainstream trends. Now is the time to use the stimulus, grant and foundation money available to those who lead before the map is even drawn.
Now is also the time to act because we are standing at another threshold, the threshold of climate-change tipping points that may diminish the future prospects and possibilities for young and old alike.”
So we choose to go carbon neutral, not because it is easy, but because it is our best possible future, and the best path to preserving the small-town beach community and culture we all cherish and want to pass on to the generations who follow.
More Act On CO2 videos from the Brits after the jump
Your friendly neighborhood Greenius wrote seven months ago about the chemical problems in the City of Torrance, known throughout the South Bay as ToxicTown (when it isn’t going under its new official designation as a Blighted Community), but not a single person on the City Council, in City Government or connected with the city in any way cares enough about this issue to address it. They have been silent and impotent regarding the over 157 schools and hospitals located within a five mile radius of the JCI Jones “high risk” chemical plant here in Torrance.
That’s why my friends at Greenpeace are doing the civic work for them and offering this terrific Public Forum next Sunday, March 21, at the George Nakano Theatre right across the parking lot from City Hall. Maybe Mayor TowTruck will amble on over and learn something. After all, Frank Scotto is running unopposed in the next election so it’s not as if he’s busy campaigning and doesn’t have the free time.
Fortunately, my pal, Jenny Binstock, from Greenpeace has put together a terrific program including Diane Moss from Congresswoman Harman’s office, who will be there to introduce the subject and some great panelists. I’ll be in the audience and I hope you’ll join me to learn what no one connected to the City of ToxicTown has the guts to tell its citizens – including self-appointed “Environmental Champion” Councilman, Cliff Numark.
Check out the flier with all the details after the jump
Continue reading ➞ ToxicTown Torrance to Hold Public Forum on Chemical Threat
Courtesy of YouTube and the Hermosa Beach City website, and converted and enlarged through the magic of Greenius, we bring you this exclusive look at the Carbon Neutral ClueTrain leaving the Hermosa Beach station this week. Local mainstream media missed this story completely but fortunately for them this on-line record will exist for them to use as research. So will the reporting that the new Patch.com news group will be providing.
The story actually began last week during Hermosa Beach Mayor’s State of the City address where Mayor Michael DiVirgilio spoke about the Carbon Neutral City concept:
Mayor DiVirgilio was right back at it Monday night at the Hermosa Beach Green Task Force meeting, speaking enthusiastically on behalf of the idea:
Join us after the jump to see your friendly neighborhood Greenius and my Fratelli Verde, Robert Fortunato, following the Mayor with our own remarks.
Creative Greenius 