This Story Has Legs, er, Arms …

The pressure to blog on Heal the Bay’s biggest star is overwhelming.  I spend way too many hours each week blabbing on about TMDLs, toxicity levels, water recycling, you name it, in a bid to engage jaded and overwhelmed members of the media. But the public has spoken – they love critters.
Because the eight-armed vandal [...]

Tapped Out

The Los Angeles Times recently profiled a new bottled water business in New York called Tap’d NY.  The company is just getting going, having sold about 50,000 bottles of water at a $1.50 a pop. The twist? The water comes from the tap, pumped directly from a New York City main.
Given that the water costs [...]

‘Cove’ of Death

The Sundance award-winning eco-documentary “The Cove” has justifiably been making some waves in the media.  I was lucky enough to go to a screening this week that was attended by the director, former National Geographic photographer Louie Psihoyos. The documentary chronicles a film crew catching the Japanese fishing village of Taiji in the act of [...]

Sacramento Blows It

As I opened up what’s left of the L.A. Times this morning, I couldn’t help but feel sick to my stomach. I almost lost my Captain Crunch after seeing photos of smiling legislators celebrating  a budget that offers meaningless “reform” concessions to state Sen. Abel Maldonado and  result in so much pain for so many [...]

Rethinking Our Future

Last Sunday on the Santa Monica Promenade, the students from Santa Monica High School’s Team Marine unveiled their opus to the global marine debris crisis: REthink.  The 7′ x 21′ art installation contains 34,727 bottle caps and includes a wide variety of marine life species made of the plastic tops. Think of a Rose Parade [...]

Flunking Out on Beach Testing

The state budget crisis has, sadly, led to cuts in worthy government-funded programs across California.  One of the latest victims is the state’s beach monitoring program, which measures water quality at hundreds of sites along the California coastline. Collected water samples constitute the cornerstone of Heal the Bay’s Beach Report Card, and more importantly, the [...]

Water Crisis in 60 Seconds

Last Friday afternoon, state Sen. Fran Pavley hosted a Natural Resources and Water Committee hearing at Santa Monica College, accompanied by state Sen. John Benoit and Assemblymember Bob Blumenfield.  The theme of the hearing was “improving water conservation and management in Southern California.”  Speakers included Lester Snow, director of the Department of Water Resources, and [...]

Bait Ball Spectacle at the SM Pier

Over the last two days, there has been a massive school of bait fish, mostly anchovies, around the end of the Santa Monica Pier.  After getting amazing video and photos e-mailed to me, I finally decided to play hooky and check it out around sunset on Tuesday. 
The biological phenomenon was incredible.  The ocean was literally [...]

Jeremy’s Spoken

I have finally met my match. I’ve finally found someone more cynical than I am about the state of the environment and specifically our oceans – Jeremy Jackson, the world-renowned marine biologist.
Jackson, a lanky man with a ponytail and a head of red hair of an interesting hue, made two addresses at UCLA last week [...]

Life in the Time of Cholera

The cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe has no end in sight.  The numbers are stunning.  Some 60,000 people infected and more than 3,100 deaths caused by one of the most preventable environmental diseases on the face of the planet.  Cholera has spread to other African nations, including South Africa, Zambia and Malawi.  Not only is the [...]