Greenius Shredding & Recycling Dream Come True!

Categories environment, green education, recycling, Sustainability1 Comment on Greenius Shredding & Recycling Dream Come True!
16 file cartons full of paper to be shredded!

It’s true.  I’ve been dreaming of this day for several years now and I’ve got to say I feel even better than I thought I would.  I’m downright giddy in fact.

I just got rid of 14 cartons of old paper files and 8 cartons of old VHS tapes, reclaimed all that space in my attic and my garage and didn’t have one scrap of any of it go into a landfill.  Yee ha!

Your friendly neighborhood Greenius is a fastidious filer and I have every financial record and work related project file archived going back to 1979 – which amounted to storage box after storage box jammed full of papers in files filling my attic and garage. 

For years now I’ve been wanting to have a shredder truck come to my house so I could get rid of all but the last 7 years worth of records, but I’ve been too cheap to actually make the call and dig into my wallet to pay for the truck to show up at my door and securely shred then recycle all that shredded paper.  I knew that one day I’d get lucky enough to participate in a free community shredding day and get rid of all those files for nothing.  But for one reason or another I kept missing out on the chance when it came.

So when I found out that on Saturday, October 8, my city of Redondo Beach would have free document shredding by Iron Mountain Shredding Company, with no limit of how many boxes I could have shredded, I knew I had hit the jackpot and my heart lept with joy as I did the happy dance around my garage.

Continue reading ➞ Greenius Shredding & Recycling Dream Come True!

Moving Planet South Bay Shaping Up To Be Spectacular!

Categories environmentLeave a Comment on Moving Planet South Bay Shaping Up To Be Spectacular!

What, pray tell, has the Greenius been up to?  No posts on Creative Greenius, no new columns on Patch.  What gives with that? Did he go to DC to get arrested with the rest of the 350 gang?  Fraid not, friends.  I’ve been busy working to get the South Bay Bicycle Master Plan passed in the seven cities it covers and helping to get the Vitality City Livability Plan passed in Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach.  And for the past couple of months I’ve been combining that passion with my organizing work for 350 and this year’s Moving Planet event on September 24 and the result is Moving Planet South Bay.  We’ve got over 35 different organizations, groups, businesses and local cities partnering with us and putting on incredible demos, workshops and displays on how we’re going to make our communities more bikeable, more walkable and more livable.  Check it out and then join us in Manhattan Beach – You’re going to love it!

Dude! What Part of Fires, Flood, Drought & Record Temps Didn’t You Understand?

Categories carbon producers, climate change, environment, Environmental Politics, fossil fuels, SustainabilityLeave a Comment on Dude! What Part of Fires, Flood, Drought & Record Temps Didn’t You Understand?

You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet. That’s What Happens When YOU’RE the Jackass driving 140 Miles An Hour Totally Toasted

Good old now dead Jackass, Ryan Dunn, never provided me with a single ounce of entertainment, but he has handily provided me with an apt metaphor for all his fellow Jackasses who keep talking smack and moron-level nonsense about global warming and climate change being a hoax.

So he’s got that going for him now.

If we’re not the climate equivalent of a Jackass who already has 23 tickets and still gets drunk off his ass and drives 140 miles an hour and crashes and burns well then, I don’t know who is.

According to court records, Dunn had at least 23 driving infractions over the last 13 years from six different counties, among them citations for speeding and careless driving, driving an unregistered vehicle, driving without a license, two parking-related transgressions and a criminal mischief-damage to property citation.

Continue reading ➞ Dude! What Part of Fires, Flood, Drought & Record Temps Didn’t You Understand?

Traveling Through Time, Exploring the String Theory and Hugging the Giant Sequoias

Categories climate change, environment, Environmental Politics, fossil fuels, green vacations, national parks, renewable energy, solar power, Sustainability1 Comment on Traveling Through Time, Exploring the String Theory and Hugging the Giant Sequoias

I took an unexpected trip in the WABAC Machine last week while I was on vacation with the lovely and talented Debra just outside Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Park here in America’s most beautiful state, California.

We like to rent a house in the town of Three Rivers when we go up there and we’ve always found different, very cool places to stay on Vacation Rental By Owner (vrbo.com). The house we stayed in this trip was perfect. It was a craftsman-built one-bedroom with every amenity. Private. Quiet. On 13 acres and just a 15 minute drive from the Park’s southern entrance.

There was a nice selection of books, especially guides to the flora and fauna of the High Sierras. We also found magazines (Utne Reader anyone?) CDs and Blueray DVD movies and documentaries.

I pulled an old issue of Sierra (the magazine of the Sierra Club) from July/August 1997. It was there because the cover story was “Among the Ancients, Giant Sequoias of the Sierra” Another article headline that made the cover, “Is Al Gore Our Great Green Hope?”

Wow… 14 years ago doesn’t seem like a million years ago, but damn if it wasn’t.

Vice President, Al Gore, talking about the need to take immediate action on global warming and failing to convince the President or any Republicans that he knew what the hell he was talking about.

Indeed as it turned out he knew far more than the President or any member of Congress did on the subject but none of them cared because Gore’s personality and persona didn’t work on TV.  I’ve always said that it’s a curse to be truly intelligent in the USA and nobody in American politics ever fails when they attack the smartest person in the room for having too damn much intelligence and not enough common man “I want to have a beer with that dude” appeal.

Al Gore is one reason I like to believe in my own favorite version of the String Theory of particle physics – multiple alternative universes occurring simultaneously is the way I like to grok it.

Continue reading ➞ Traveling Through Time, Exploring the String Theory and Hugging the Giant Sequoias

Free Earth Day Movie Friday, April 22, in Manhattan Beach

Categories carbon producers, citizen volunteer, climate change, environment, environmental legislation, fossil fuels, Sustainability1 Comment on Free Earth Day Movie Friday, April 22, in Manhattan Beach

From my great friends, Carolyn Miller and Transition South Bay L.A. and Sona Kalapura and the green city of Manhattan Beach

If you don’t know how damaging  plastics are to our environment here are two free showings on Earth Day 2011 – Friday, April 22 – of the movie BAG IT that will enlighten you and make you angry.  Angry is good when it comes to more petroleum based products that we have shoved down our throats until they choke our landfills and oceans.  The Greenius says, Ban Plastic Bags!  Then force the manufacturers of those bags to clean up the mess they’ve made all over the planet.

CicLaVia is Back This Sunday & We’ll Be Rolling Against Coal!

Categories Bicycles, carbon producers, citizen volunteer, climate change, environment, fossil fuels, Sustainability1 Comment on CicLaVia is Back This Sunday & We’ll Be Rolling Against Coal!

How’d you like to enjoy 7-and-a-half miles of L.A. streets free of motorized vehicles and open only to bicyclists and pedestrians? Stroll, play, talk, celebrate -do whatever you want on the public street without sucking up gas fumes or fearing for your life from drunk drivers, texting drivers, drivers eating or putting on makeup or just plain dangerous behind the wheel lunatics.

That’s exactly the scene you’re going to get this Sunday, April 10 from 10am to 3pm at the second ever L.A. CicLaVia where public streets from Boyle Heights to Downtown, MacArthur Park to East Hollywood will be shut down to traffic and open to you and me emission free.

My favorite part of this next CicLaVia is the Bike Parade coming from my friends at Greenpeace and Sierra Club which they’re calling ROLL AGAINST COAL.  In case you didn’t know, the City of Los Angeles still gets 40% of its electricity from coal-fired power plants, the dirtiest polluters and greenhouse gassers on the planet. It’s long been time to kick coal out of L.A.’s power supply and that’s exactly what Greenpeace and Sierra Club have in mind with their BEYOND COAL CAMPAIGN.

Sunday’s bike parade is part of that campaign and designed to call more attention to it. Not only will those Rolling AGainst Coal have a traveling good time together as we bike parade throughout the event, but we’ll be busting out the Creative Greenius with the decoration of our bicycles and the visual aides and props we also sport to raise awareness about the city’s addiction to coal and the life-saving difference Los Angeles could make if it fully commits to the green vision for a clean energy future!  Get all the details you need after the jump.

Continue reading ➞ CicLaVia is Back This Sunday & We’ll Be Rolling Against Coal!

Why You Shouldn’t Give A Shit About the Federal Budget Deficit

Categories carbon producers, climate change, environment, environmental legislation, Environmental Politics, fossil fuels, green education2 Comments on Why You Shouldn’t Give A Shit About the Federal Budget Deficit

If you’re worried about leaving our kids and grand kids a great big fat bill they’re going to have to pay for because of our multi-trillion dollar federal budget deficit, then stop worrying.  Those numbers don’t mean squat and they won’t be a problem for our future generations.  During my 53 years on the planet we’ve had deficits and we’ve had surpluses and it hasn’t meant a damn bit of difference to the kids or their parents.

It’s only made a difference to professional politicians who regularly wave the bloody shirt of deficits to try and scare the public and get them to spend less money on the poor, the sick, the disenfranchised and especially the environment while we simultaneously splurge like drunks in Vegas on phony wars, shameless subsidies for the dirty fossil fuel industries and tax breaks for rich people and big business.

But what do you expect from people in the political field whose business model is to constantly have their begging hand out while they ceaselessly hit you up for “campaign donations” so they can get elected and re-elected and then have their staff people do all the work while they themselves keep on fundraising.  If you want to take financial advice from people of that ilk then you deserve to get conned and jacked.

But if you’d like a simple explanation of why you should just laugh at the fear of deficits then read on after the break for today’s enlightenment, courtesy of a commenter on Gawker.com

Continue reading ➞ Why You Shouldn’t Give A Shit About the Federal Budget Deficit

3 More Reasons I’m Happy I Dumped the Democrats

Categories carbon producers, climate change, environment, environmental legislation, Environmental Politics, fossil fuels, Killer CoalLeave a Comment on 3 More Reasons I’m Happy I Dumped the Democrats

When I quit the Democratic party last summer the last straw for me was their total FAIL to take a stand and do anything about climate change.  Watching their spineless jellyfish routine in the face of the unified madman approach the Republicans employed was cringe worthy to say the least.

The piss poor performance of California’s Assembly and Senate Democrats to deal with our state’s budget issues only made me feel more certain of my decision.  And my personal experience working with certain Democrats at the local level helped convince me that they weren’t worthy of my loyalty or support any longer.  They probably never were.

I was a registered Democrat from the time I turned 18 in 1975 until the summer of 2010. It was always an easy choice because the Republicans were so clearly the party of phonies, hypocrites and mean-spirited, self-centered, big business boot-licking, environment-hating pollution-lovers.

Continue reading ➞ 3 More Reasons I’m Happy I Dumped the Democrats

Meet A Leader In Today’s Death Wish Congress

Categories carbon producers, climate change, election, environment, environmental legislation, Environmental Politics, fossil fuels, Killer Coal, politicsLeave a Comment on Meet A Leader In Today’s Death Wish Congress

According to yesterday’s Environment and Energy Daily (subscription required):
“Senator John Barrasso continued his campaign yesterday to stop the Obama administration from incorporating climate change into federal plans and policies, taking aim at an interagency report released in October that proposed ways for the federal government to respond to increased frequency of severe weather events and other effects of global warming.”

Barrasso, a rightwing whack job from Wyoming, introduced a bill (S. 228) that would bar the federal government from implementing any law or regulation related to climate change, whether it has to do with cutting industrial greenhouse gas emissions or not.

That might make some Bizarro Planet sense if Barrasso was just an ignorant dolt who didn’t have any education and knew nothing about science – but he can’t cop to that.  Dude was a physician before becoming the Senator from one of America’s dirtiest coal producing states.

What kind of doctor looks at the overwhelming weight of scientific evidence of rapidly accelerating global warming and then decides we should pass a law keeping the feds from doing anything about it? I’m betting the kind who had his fingers crossed when he took the pledge to “first do no harm.”  The kind who still probably recommends cigarette smoking to his patients to help them calm their nerves and improve their health.

The kind who doesn’t have the balls to just come out and say, “Look, my state is the number one coal producing state in the USA and I am not going to do anything to stop the world’s #1 source of climate changing greenhouse gases from doing whatever the hell they want to in order to keep their profits and payoffs spewing.  If we’ve got to sacrifice the future generations to make that happen then so be it.”