The sensationally sustainable Sona Kalapura is bringing the Big Green Bus to Manhattan Beach on August 2 and August 3.
The Greenius will be there both days to help support Manhattan Beach’s efforts and get to hang with some of the greenest, smartest and most environmentally hip people I know anywhere.
Bravo to Greenpeace for once again cutting to the heart of the matter and showing us the right way to deal with the oil industry today.
I admire and respect Greenpeace for actions like these which show more smarts and more courage than anyone in our government does.
While our national elected leaders fiddle, delay and obstruct as the planet heads for hell and high water, environmental activists like these Creative Greenius types who belong to Greenpeace are our last best hope for doing the right thing.
Last week the Redondo Beach City Council missed a chance to show some creativity or courage when they decided to punt on engaging with AES Southland over the company’s future plans for the big, gray, hulking concrete monolith looming over Harbor Drive and the 52 acres of prime coastal real estate the power plant takes up.
Councilman Bill Brand was unsuccessful in requesting that the City investigate a rezoning of the land to phase out its industrial use, with no other member of the Council being willing to even second a motion to vote on it.
Councilman Pat Aust reflected the fear factor filling the hearts of his fellow motionless colleagues when he was quoted warning, “It’s not the time to be picking a fight with the bigger bully on the block.”
I don’t need to tell you how tight money is today. The economy may technically be “in recovery,” but everyone I know has been spending less, cancelling services, delaying big purchases and taking another staycation. Even the banks are playing it frugal, extending little credit and approving few loans.
So the new and innovative AB 811 — property assessed clean energy bond program — scheduled to roll out this month, looked like a godsend with its easy-to-get loans for property owners to fund energy improvements, including solar photovoltaic (PV) systems to generate renewable green power, for example.
I’ve been writing about this program since 2008, just a few months after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the bill. I’ve attended conferences across the state, learning the details, and writing about the progress of the first cities and counties to make loans to their citizens, and giving presentations locally to update the South Bay.
After listening to politicians and want-to-be politicians toot their own horns about how they are Redondo Beach environmental champions, I went out into the field to track down the truth. It wasn’t hard to find.
All I had to do was drive to Neighborhood Grinds on Artesia Boulevard on Thursday afternoon.
I went there to check out the real “green” in the form of locally grown organic produce from Tanaka Farms in Irvine and to find out what boxes of fruits and vegetables were doing inside a hip coffeehouse in North Redondo.
Neighbors on the 500 block of Avenue D were surprised Monday morning to see TV news vans lining their street and a full contingent of reporters, politicians, corporate CEOs and Southern California Edison officials gathering in the driveway of homeowners Scott and Liz Keran.
Thanks to an invitation from Diane Moss, Congresswoman Jane Harman’s Environmental Deputy, I was there too, to witness something that’s already happened at my house and 999,999 others in Southern California. We were all there to see the Edison service representative remove the old, analog electric meter with its mechanical dial that spins and replace it with a brand new digital smart meter with its electronic readout.
First off, a big heartfelt “Thanks!” to City Councilman, Bill Brand, for helping to make my column of last Tuesday #1 in the popularity rankings.
I mentioned Brand in one of my column’s 13 paragraphs and it prompted him to do something he’s never done before – actually respond to my environmental concerns, with a column of his own.
Full disclosure – I’ve met Bill in person at least half a dozen times at different events in the South Bay over the past few years and each and every time I’ve spoken with him he’s introduced himself to me and tells me, “Nice to meet you.” Clearly my shy and retiring personality makes me quickly forgettable.
My column last week on Fourth of July fireworks and their environmental impact had an explosive impact of its own, as my back-and-forth with a right wing blogger in the comments section helped make it the most popular article on Hermosa Beach | Patch for five straight days.
The truth is, the one-day-a-year environmental problems caused by Independence Day fireworks is a miniscule issue compared to the damage we cause every day using fossil fuels to power our transportation, as well as electricity and heat.
But a larger issue emerged from the reaction to my fireworks article, and my tough stance on those who practice a deadly business-as-usual approach to climate change at the expense of our younger generations and the future.
The address on my California drivers license has said Redondo Beach since 1993 and when I travel anywhere in the world it’s the city of Redondo Beach they see listed as my hometown on my passport. I’ve been proud to be identified as a Redondo resident for over 17 years now and I readily sing the praises of Redondo Beach and the people who live and work here.
But one thing I never talk or write about is how sustainable a city Redondo Beach is, or how much the city and its citizens care about the environment. I haven’t written about those things because they’re simply not part of Redondo’s consciousness.
My column last week on the environmental shortcomings of the Riviera Village Summer Festival garnered zero comments online and no feedback to me personally. I wasn’t surprised, since green issues seem to be on the back burner in Redondo Beach, allowed to simmer and heat while we ignore them and pay attention elsewhere.
Hermosa Beach doesn’t do Fourth of July fireworks as part of its annual Independence Day tradition. That’s way too conventional for a city that features an annual drinking and hurling competition right on the beach, and its own version of a bacchanalian Mardi Gras on the Strand, complete with Michael Jackson impersonation performances.
Besides, who needs to blow up $115,000 worth of disposable income, like Torrance does at its Wilson Park extravaganza, when you’ve got rich neighbors in Redondo who will fork the bill for not one, but two 9 p.m. fireworks shows, one from a barge off the pier and the other from the Seaside Lagoon?
Both shows are easily visible from Hermosa Beach, as well as the skyborne pyrotechnics from Marina Del Rey and even Santa Monica.
Creative Greenius 