When my good friend and former CBS EcoMedia colleague, Taylor, heard Larry Mantle on today’s live broadcast of KPCC’s Film Week mention, “Joe from Redondo Beach” and the documentary “Inconvenient Truth,” she texted to ask if that was me.
Yup. It was.
So was this back in 2008.
So cool to have the historical record to show who said what, when.
I got the price of gas wrong, but nailed the rest of it.
According to the Homeland Security Department the biggest lesson of the 9-11 terrorist attacks was
That became America’s mantra because we missed so many clues, hints and pieces of evidence that should have driven us to the kind of preemptive action that stops disaster – or at least prepares people for it.
Because people did NOT speak out when they saw suspicious, dangerous and threatening behavior, we did not connect the dots or see what was coming ahead of time – except for that infamous memo, “Bin Laden Determined To Strike in US.”
Today, here in the South Bay of Los Angeles where I live, we have all the dots you’d ever need to connect the crisis level of global warming to the urgent action needed locally. But instead of First Responders we have No Responders.
I’ve lived in my house in Torrance, California for 23 years now. Been in L.A. since I was 19 years old in 1976, back when then Governor Brown was telling us that we were “living in an era of diminished expectations.” He always was so ahead of the curve…
Like I say, I live in Torrance, home of the exploding Exxon Mobil refinery where our Air Quality Management District just gave the refinery operators exemptions to exceed pollution limits while they restart the aging climate wrecker back up.
I was at the meeting where they cut the deal and I had this to say about that:
Continue reading ➞ Give Me A #BreakFreeLA & Then Give Me 100% Renewables RIGHT NOW
I was in Carson California last month at their City Council meeting to speak on behalf of the resolution I asked them to pass to approve participating in a feasibility study on community choice aggregation (CCA).
Carson was the sixth city to have our resolution on their agenda, the five others having already passed it. Like in each of the other cities, someone in Carson, this time the City Manager, had the same question for me,
“I understand all the CCA program stuff you’re telling us about Joe, but what I don’t get is what’s in it for YOU?”
That’s what someone always asks when I pitch them our South Bay Clean Power initiative, especially when they find out I’m doing this work full time. They want to know who is paying me.
When you work pro bono, turn down all job and consulting offers on the issue, and say “no,” to $18,000 a month gigs offered you by people in this growing field, people get real suspicious and uneasy.
I gave the Carson City Manager what has now become my standard reply.
My pals at Greenpeace, spearheaded by my sister from another mother, Jenny Binstock, produced the video above to warn folks like me, who live in ToxicTown Torrance, that we’re not really safe from the danger that surrounds us all over the South Bay and throughout all of Los Angeles. Luckily we have Greenpeace on the case to do the job that our own Mayor and City Council just aren’t courageous or visionary enough to do.
Mayor Frank Scotto and my friend, Councilman Cliff Numark, should be the ones informing us of this danger and they should be the ones inviting Retired LA fire captain Ed Shlegel to talk to our citizens about the importance of chemical security legislation and the ways we could all be made safer in our homes, in our schools and in our businesses. They should be the ones urging you to contact US Senator Boxer to tell her to schedule a vote on the Secure Water Facilities Act before the August Recess.
But they’re not and they’re unlikely to ever show that kind of leadership. They’ve never shown the willingness or the balls to take on for profit businesses who foul our skies, pollute our air and poison our lands. They seem to think that short term financial gain and tax dollars are worth the long-term health and safety risks that come with these dirty businesses. I’m afraid to report that their idea of sustainability applies only to their own terms in office.
So it’s up to Jenny Binstock and Greenpeace – and me and you to show the courage, the vision and the balls. Click here to find out everything you need to know to take action
Here’s Boxer’s phone number: 202-224-3553. Tell her you won’t vote for her in a few months unless she does the right thing right now.
Tell her that after her failure to get us a climate bill that you’ve lost faith in her ability to deliver on ANY of her promises and that you don’t care if she loses her job or not. That’s what I told the staffer who answered her phone.
Exxon keeps on funding groups that keep us from cracking down on the greenhouse gases and CO2 Exxon pumps into the atmosphere every day. Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson may not care about the future of his own children or any of the children of Exxon employees, but is it okay with you if he sells your kids out for more money too? Just wondering, parents…
The clock is ticking and the earth is warming. I want Exxon and their huge carbon footprint out of Torrance, the town I live in, because I don’t want their climate crimes to continue overheating our planet, changing our climate and ruining the future of our children and their children after them. I salute and support Greenpeace for caring about the generations that Exxon has written off as collateral damage.
Of course, Tillerson of Exxon isn’t alone in his climate crimes…
I sure hope you’re strapped and ready to roll for the Greenius Decade because ready or not, it’s already begun and I guarantee you it will not be like any other decade you’ve ever experienced or even previsualized. The Greenius Decade will be all now and totally happening. The Greenius Decade is ready to discover the limits of the possible by venturing a little way past them into the impossible.
Continue reading ➞ It’s 2010 – Are YOU Ready for The Greenius Decade?
How do you like me now South Bay spewers of greenhouse gases? Yeah, I’m talking to you Exxon/Mobil mercenaries who work at the Torrance refinery and you amoral assassins who get your blood money from the Chevron refinery in El Segundo.
I told you there was a new sheriff in town and that your days in my community were numbered. Did you think I was kidding?
Now the EPA is about to smack both of you upside the head – and these are only the opening smacks you both have coming. Good thing you wear those hardhats. Maybe you should have spread some of your slush fund bribe money around to the schools and libraries in Washington DC where the EPA holds it meetings instead of trying to buy your love here from desperate parents and city councils in the South Bay.
Here they are, folks, the very Hot List of Global Warming’s Worst Merchants of Death. The for-profit companies who put the money they rake in from burning fossil fuels ahead of the safety, welfare and well being of your kids, of your parents, of your grandparents and of everyone you hold near and dear.
They know exactly what lethal damage their products and their manufacture are responsible for, but the money always comes first for these contract killers – unless of course you’re asking them to pay the bill for that damage.
So let’s take a look, straight from our friends at the California Air Resources Board*, at the Top Emitters of Greenhouse Gases in California, for 2008. I’ve specially highlighted the three out of ten that are within just 10 miles of my home.
1. Chevron Refinery, Richmond: 4,792,052 metric tons
2. Shell Oil Refinery, Martinez: 4,570,475 metric tons
It gets even better for those of us working to bring CO2 levels back down to 350 parts per million as you’ll see after the jump with exclusive video you’ll only see here first on Creative Greenius
Creative Greenius 