Greenpeace Los Angeles Kicking Ass on Chemical Risks

Categories campaign, citizen volunteer, environmental legislation, Environmental Politics, toxic chemicalsLeave a Comment on Greenpeace Los Angeles Kicking Ass on Chemical Risks

While every elected official I know in the Los Angeles area has been silent and invisible on the issue of chemical plant security over the past year, our true heroes at Greenpeace Los Angeles have been kicking ass and taking names when it comes to keeping this issue on the front burner, informing the public and calling for the necessary action.  Chemical plants using poison gases and other lethal toxic compounds surround our highest population areas here in So. Cal and put us all at risk.  They could easily switch to safer alternatives but won’t do so unless they are forced by law.

My pal, Jenny Binstock, one of L.A.’s tireless environmental champions has been relentlessly pursuing this issue and was featured in a Greenpeace video from just two weeks ago talking to regular folks at the farmers market.  All she’s trying to do is prevent a toxic nightmare right here in our own backyard… Check it out:

If that doesn’t move you to take some action of your own, listen to what this nursing student has to say about how the local medical community would be able to handle a medical emergency in the L.A. area if we had a chemical disaster:

If you’re ready to take some action – and nothing will happen unless you do – we need you to tell your Senators to prevent a toxic nightmare in your community by co-sponsoring and voting for the the Secure Water Facilities Act (S. 3598) and the Secure Chemical Facilities Act (S. 3599).

It wouldn’t hurt if our local council members and mayors in the South Bay spoke out about this issue too, but don’t hold your breath… Or maybe you better.

Greenius on Patch.com: Keep Your Hands Off Hermosa’s Recycling, Trash

Categories environmentLeave a Comment on Greenius on Patch.com: Keep Your Hands Off Hermosa’s Recycling, Trash

It’s a sad comment on our society that we have a permanent homeless population of people who live on the streets, reduced to scrounging their way through trash bins and dumpsters each day to survive.

Many of them have serious disabilities of one kind or another, or addictions, or have simply fallen through the people-sized holes in the safety net we all hope catches any of us if we slip off the high wire we balance on.

Like the man says, “there but for the grace of God go I,” and it is with no small measure of compassion that I approach the subject of whether it’s right or wrong for homeless people to take the cans and bottles from a homeowner’s or the city’s recycle bins.

READ THE REST OF THE STORY ON HERMOSA BEACH PATCH.COM

Greenius on Patch.com: Having Coffee with the Man of Power

Categories environmentLeave a Comment on Greenius on Patch.com: Having Coffee with the Man of Power

Eric Pendergraft and I have already been using Redondo Beach Patch.com to engage in a good conversation about the AES power plant in town after I wrote a column a few weeks back. I asked him to turn the Harbor Drive facility into a utility scale solar power plant, and he then thoughtfully replied with his own column explaining why that wasn’t possible.

I really appreciated the approach he took and the fact that he didn’t get hung up on either protocol — as the President of AES Southland he certainly could have easily ignored me — or on the fact that I had disparaging things to say about the look of the power plant and its carbon footprint.

Last week, he took me up on my offer to buy him a cup of coffee at the location of his choice, and we met for a face-to-face conversation at Catalina Coffee Company.

READ THE REST OF THE STORY ON PATCH.COM

Greenius on Patch.com: Let’s Give Some LUV to the Electric Cars Tooling Around Redondo

Categories environmentLeave a Comment on Greenius on Patch.com: Let’s Give Some LUV to the Electric Cars Tooling Around Redondo

I’ve got to admit I came to this column about short-range, slow-speed Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEVs) with a negative bias.

I’m a strong proponent of full speed electric vehicles and I’ve been growing increasingly excited about the new plug-in Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt coming to market later this year.

So I just couldn’t get too worked up about the South Bay Cities Council of Government’s “LUV” (Local Use Vehicle) test program of neighborhood electric vehicles that are restricted to a 25 mile per hour top speed, could only be driven on streets with a maximum 35 mph speed limit, and came with no air bags or other advanced safety features.

When the first cars in the LUV program were introduced at last year’s Riviera Village Summer Festival, I was one of the volunteers showing the cars off to the public, answering questions about them and signing up potential test drivers.

READ THE REST OF THE STORY ON REDONDO BEACH PATCH.COM

Greenius on Patch.com: Carbon Neutral City’s Friday Night Secrets Revealed!

Categories environmentLeave a Comment on Greenius on Patch.com: Carbon Neutral City’s Friday Night Secrets Revealed!

This is the first time I can write about any of what’s gone on at the Hermosa Beach Carbon Neutral City committee meetings, which I’ve actively participated in as a committee member since the first weekly meeting on a Friday night in April.

Since then our ad hoc group has gotten together in a nondescript conference room to kick off our weekends with two-to-three hours of exciting reports, discussions, updates and brainstorming. No one knows how to have a wildly wonky word workout like we do.

Four months later, not only are we still at it on Friday nights, but also on other nights, we’ve added subcommittee assignments.

Because I write this column for Patch as well as my own Creative Greenius blog, I’ve agreed to keep what I see and hear in our Carbon Neutral City committee meetings confidential and not write about them.

READ THE REST OF THE STORY ON HERMOSA BEACH PATCH.COM

Don’t Think of it as “Global Warming,” Think of it as Destroying our Atmosphere and Altering the Delicate Balance of Nature

Categories climate change, environment, fossil fuels, green education, SustainabilityLeave a Comment on Don’t Think of it as “Global Warming,” Think of it as Destroying our Atmosphere and Altering the Delicate Balance of Nature

I first saw this video produced by Dr. James Powell, the Executive Director of the National Physical Science Consortium on Joe Romm’s Climate Progress site last week.

Do yourself a favor and take 10 minutes to watch and grok this simple and easy to understand climate change lesson.  Memorize the information as if you were going to be tested in school on it.  Then use this knowledge to help explain reality to your friends and associates who have been duped and conned by the dirty energy industry into believing this is some kind of hoax.

It’s no surprise that the coal, oil and gas industries want us to keep using their dirty, unsafe fuels of the past which are running out and which are spewing pollution and deteriorating our atmosphere while they cook us inside the greenhouse.

But what is surprising is how many people we know and interact with argue against their own best interests and argue against a rapid transition to the clean safe fuels of our future which will never run out and which protect our health, our environment and our younger generations best chance for peace and prosperity.

So many lizard brains and scared little sheep among us in addition to the industry mercenaries and the always loudly heard defiantly ignorant.  They will surely be our damnation unless we find a way to reach and teach them before it’s too late.  The odds are that we’re already too late by a couple of years now at least and each passing day puts us another 24 hours behind.

But I’m still not ready to cash in my chips yet and start partying like it’s 1999. And I’m still up for the greatest fight between good and evil, between ignorance and enlightenment, between liars and truth tellers that ever played out here on good old planet earth.

Because in the Kingdom of the Lizard Brains the Autodidact with the high school diploma is King.

The Big Green Bus is Coming to Manhattan Beach!

Categories citizen volunteer, climate change, energy efficiency, environment, green education, recycling, renewable energy, Saving Energy, SustainabilityLeave a Comment on The Big Green Bus is Coming to Manhattan Beach!

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.

Greenpeace Shutting Down BP Stations in the UK

Categories carbon producers, citizen volunteer, climate change, environment, fossil fuels, SustainabilityLeave a Comment on Greenpeace Shutting Down BP Stations in the UK

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.

Greenius on Patch.com: Dear AES: Here’s A Better Idea for Your Next 100 Years in Redondo Beach

Categories environmentLeave a Comment on Greenius on Patch.com: Dear AES: Here’s A Better Idea for Your Next 100 Years in Redondo Beach

The 1940s era prison-like exterior of this part of the AES power plant would be transformed into a innovative model for clean, renewable energy production in the South Bay if Patch columnist Joe Galliani's vision is realized

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.”

Read the rest of the story on Redondo Beach Patch.com