tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68270146861375602842008-11-04T13:15:26.069-08:00"We probably could have saved ourselves, but were too damned lazy to try very hard..." Kurt VonnegutBonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18034233725947733044noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6827014686137560284.post-25040920931749816962008-11-03T12:15:00.001-08:002008-11-04T13:15:26.088-08:00

Just spent an hour in the garden gathering my very last tomatoes, zuccini and green beans of the season. (Yes, it is November but remember this is Los Angeles!)  Our gardening efforts over the past few years have been a great learning experience--about seasons, soil and our particular micro-climate. Now I see it all as just a warmup to some major changes I hope to make, probably starting with the

Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18034233725947733044noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6827014686137560284.post-20420949612779417112008-07-10T10:39:00.000-07:002008-07-10T11:04:37.869-07:00

The famously conservative oilman T. Boone Pickens has launched an exciting and promising campaign to reduce America's dependency on foreign oil. His plan is spelled out in the video below and his website is smart, straightforward and to the point. This bears some watching.

Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18034233725947733044noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6827014686137560284.post-55370616338438400082008-03-27T10:43:00.000-07:002008-03-27T12:29:46.320-07:00

I can't even imagine someone throwing a cell phone into the trash (although I have heard there was some very lucrative dumpster diving around the time of the first iPhone release!) but that's just me. (What other mother do you know who would post a sign by the trash "Recycle or Die"?) There are lots of issues with this little act: the average cell phone user is urged and enticed to upgrade their

Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18034233725947733044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6827014686137560284.post-58756913957209314122008-03-07T18:39:00.000-08:002008-03-10T19:15:57.888-07:00

Imagine yourself independently wealthy. You buy yourself a yacht. You love the open seas. You become passionate about sailing and your life revolves around planning trips to exotic places. Then something happens that changes your world. Such is the story of Charles Moore, heir to an oil fortune, now environmental activist and founder of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation. After designing

Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18034233725947733044noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6827014686137560284.post-69796643180602597072008-02-20T12:12:00.000-08:002008-04-07T20:07:23.040-07:00

It was about a year ago that I came upon an article that gave me pause: over 70,000 people were marching in the streets of Mexico City over the skyrocketing costs of tortillas! Redolent of the 1789 Parisian bread riots, this protest was over a 700% increase in the price of corn since 1994. Tortillas serve as the main protein staple of the Mexican diet, particularly for the poor. While most

Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18034233725947733044noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6827014686137560284.post-16283104756868411632008-02-08T13:46:00.000-08:002008-02-08T16:52:10.738-08:00

There were a lot of comments to my last post (many thanks) and since only some are offered in the Comments section I would like to share some good points with you. "Those of us who try to avoid using plastic or paper bags at the grocery store, walk or bike whenever possible, recycle paper, cardboard, plastic and food items that can be mulched, sometimes feel as if it is hopeless because of the

Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18034233725947733044noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6827014686137560284.post-13839781769475187032008-01-30T20:59:00.000-08:002008-01-30T23:36:07.426-08:00

I haven't posted for a while. I have had a tsunami of thoughts, emotions and ideas, and somehow I couldn't find a way to put something coherent in this place that I have dedicated to getting better informed about what is happening and what we need to do. Literally, I have been troubled by the resistance from my own family. I am trying to understand why they think I am under some spell! So let's

Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18034233725947733044noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6827014686137560284.post-11335375889452693412007-11-28T16:10:00.000-08:002007-11-28T16:15:03.759-08:00

Check out this short video of Bill Moyers interviewing the originator of Catalog Choice. The problem is worse than I ever dreamed but the solution proposed is more wise and far-reaching than I had realized.

Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18034233725947733044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6827014686137560284.post-48413805265638975962007-11-12T13:14:00.000-08:002007-11-12T19:10:10.701-08:00

Some of you may recognize this Google map of Marina del Rey in Southern California. It has a blue overlay to demonstrate what would happen with a 5 meter rise in sea levels. According to the advocacy group Architecture 2030, Home Depot is planting 300,000 trees in cities across the US to help absorb carbon dioxide emissions... The CO2 emissions from only one medium-sized (500 MW) coal-fired

Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18034233725947733044noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6827014686137560284.post-85599114316267232792007-11-09T12:54:00.000-08:002007-11-09T16:05:41.392-08:00

John Coleman, the founder of the Weather Channel made the news rounds when he wrote an article the other day: "It is the greatest scam in history. I am amazed, appalled and highly offended by it. Global Warming; It is a SCAM. Some dastardly scientists with environmental and political motives manipulated long term scientific data to create an illusion of rapid global warming."In short, global

Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18034233725947733044noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6827014686137560284.post-90610488660503687972007-11-07T14:33:00.000-08:002007-11-07T14:55:31.593-08:00

It's that season again and the mailbox is filling with oh so many offerings of this sale and that, cajoling, enticing me to buy soon and early and get free shipping and get a free one if I only send one. I won't harangue you about how many trees were consumed in creating these catalogs or how much carbon is being spewed into the air just delivering them to every American mailbox. But has it

Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18034233725947733044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6827014686137560284.post-59689239353375249322007-10-21T13:33:00.000-07:002007-10-21T13:59:32.156-07:00

Many of you probably are familiar with the term "tipping point", coined by Malcolm Gladwell in his book of the same name. As he describes it, "The word 'Tipping Point'... comes from the world of epidemiology. It's the name given to that moment in an epidemic when a virus reaches critical mass. It's the boiling point. It's the moment on the graph when the line starts to shoot straight upwards.

Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18034233725947733044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6827014686137560284.post-87022255853000402602007-10-15T13:52:00.000-07:002007-10-15T15:07:58.006-07:00

Buying carbon offsets, or donating to alternative energy research has become a frequently suggested way to give "payback" for personal pollution. Say you want to fly to the east coast for a wedding--you can calculate what your carbon output is here then go here to decide where to purchase your favorite offset if you so choose. Obviously, there is a big market developing in this field. I

Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18034233725947733044noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6827014686137560284.post-91659221993424891382007-07-04T09:46:00.000-07:002007-07-04T09:48:54.017-07:00

Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18034233725947733044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6827014686137560284.post-34445679858323861092007-06-29T16:20:00.000-07:002007-06-29T16:23:31.879-07:00

Al Gore's latest email request. The 7.7.07 Live Earth Pledge: I PLEDGE: 1. To demand that my country join an international treaty within the next 2 years that cuts global warming pollution by 90% in developed countries and by more than half worldwide in time for the next generation to inherit a healthy earth; 2. To take personal action to help solve the climate crisis by reducing my own CO2

Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18034233725947733044noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6827014686137560284.post-61386408288102502312007-06-29T12:01:00.000-07:002008-01-07T10:16:24.806-08:00

My earlier postings about plastics in the ocean have had family and friends alike question the extent to which this condition is real or am I just exaggerating. A plastic-filled area of the Pacific Ocean the size of the United States? That's ridiculous! Nobody would let that happen. The oceans get some junk dropped into them now and again but...come on, now. As individuals, and I include

Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18034233725947733044noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6827014686137560284.post-30191061201430787272007-06-23T11:19:00.000-07:002007-06-23T11:22:41.040-07:00

Wow, it looks like Mayor Newsom is one of my readers! It takes real guts to make this kind of move!

Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18034233725947733044noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6827014686137560284.post-52581039484929960662007-06-14T20:52:00.000-07:002007-06-21T15:24:01.661-07:00

Personal action is a very satisfying thing. Yet it is frustrating as well. When practiced it has the effect of making you hyper-aware of certain things. It may sound silly but I have a visceral reaction now when a store clerk starts bagging my groceries in plastic, then again in a paper and plastic bag. I nearly shriek out when I discover my son's friend just threw his soda can into the trash. I

Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18034233725947733044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6827014686137560284.post-4630447549998757162007-06-12T09:31:00.000-07:002007-06-12T09:32:06.396-07:00

Charles Moore, the marine debris expert with the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, and the gentleman interviewed in the film excerpts available on www.messageinthewaves.com has produced updated findings on this "island" of plastics in the ocean. The North Pacific Gyre, an area northwest of Hawaii where two currents meet originally was composed of an eastern and a western lobe of plastic

Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18034233725947733044noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6827014686137560284.post-3901446805930720332007-06-10T13:09:00.000-07:002007-06-10T15:20:36.587-07:00

Author's note: This post was originally written for our family blog in February 2006. Not much has changed since then, although I have added some additional information. Bottle caps and other plastic objects are visible inside the decomposed carcass of this Laysan albatross on Kure Atoll. Photo from www.mindfully.org We have an ongoing debate here at home regarding the "taste" of tap vs.

Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18034233725947733044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6827014686137560284.post-87159780166587049192007-06-09T20:07:00.000-07:002007-06-10T12:38:35.368-07:00

I don't want to tell anyone about global warming these days (I mean hardly anyone). Most of us know about it. Rupert Murdock, of all people, has recently pledged to make his company News Corp. carbon neutral by 2010! The behemoth Walmart Corp. is pushing CFL light bulbs (compact fluorescent bulbs, which use about 75 per cent less electricity than incandescent bulbs*). Good Grief, Charlie Brown!

Bonniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18034233725947733044noreply@blogger.com3