June 2007 Archives

There's word of a three-day festival and campout starting July 7 to raise funds and create awareness for Joshua Tree National Park and the desert ecosystem. The Clean Air, Clear Stars Festival is the inaugural event.

It will take place at Pappy & Harriet's in Pioneertown. The concert is being sponsored by Vacancy Records, KCRW and others. It stems from a group of LA-based independent musicians and their friends who share a deep love for their favorite desert hideaway. All proceeds will benefit Global Inheritance.

The festival falls on the anniversary of the last year's massive Sawtooth fire. The groups want to bring attention to the effects of climate change and air pollution on desert ecosystems.

If you're wondering how to survive, combat or live through global warming, David de Rothschild has 77 ideas for you. The British adventurer has written the companion book to the Live Earth concert coming up on July 7, and it hits stores and Amazon.com today.

The tips include everything from adopting a glacier to using bamboo flooring to bathing together. When I recently spoke to David over the tele, I told him that I had a good laugh over some of his tips. He said that's what he was hoping for.

"There's so much doom and gloom and all the negative stuff -- polar bears dying and coral reefs dying -- and I think sometimes despair can turn off people from doing anything at all," he said.

Rothschild, 28, has a website geared toward getting kids and teens outdoors. He said the tips in his first-ever book were in the works when he approached the Live Earth folks with the idea of it being a companion to the concert.

"It’s been a lot of fun, you just learn so much, I’m full of facts now, in fact I've become an annoying person," he joked.

De Rothschild said all his royalties will go to the Alliance for Climate Protection.

As for de Rothschild, who's trekked over the Antarctic, Arctic and Greenland, No. 32 is his favorite tip. It's Get Lost in Nature. "When is the last time we went out for a hike or a swim in the stream and reconnected with the thing we are trying to protect?" David describes himself as a nature nut. "I love the natural world and I feel more alive outside than sitting inside."

What seems to be an interesting talk, especially if you are into "C.S.I," happens Wednesday night in Redlands.

Dr. Alexis Gray, a consultant for the coroner's division of the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department, will talk about biological anthropology and how that can play an improtant role in forensic science. Biological anthropology is the study of human biological variation thorugh space and time. I'm sure she'll explain more.

The 7:30 p.m. talk is at the San Bernardino County Museum and it's free.

Luckily, the weekend should be a little cooler in the Inland region ...

So if you're out and about in your garden this weekend, remember that western Riverside County water agencies have launched a campaign asking residents to water only after dusk and limit it to 15 minutes, four times a week. The request comes as the region is in an extreme drought. A couple of readers called today to ask why residents are being asked to conserve when new homes that will need water are being approved around them. Interesting question.

On Saturday night, you can join in on the planet party at the San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands. Chris Clarke, an astronomer, said the first-quarter moon will bring stunning views of mountains and craters. Saturn will reveal its grand set of rings and Venus will show off a very plump crescent. Hmmm! And the grand-daddy of them all, Jupiter, will appear even slightly bigger than normal.

And then there's Incredible Bulk Event Saturday at UCR for students and the neighborhood. But officials said any Riverside resident can take their unwanted couch there.

And a few more tid-bits: It's the final weekend of the Lavender Festival in Cherry Valley. And if you're heading to Joshua Tree National Park, some campgrounds have closed for the hot summer season.

Today is National Dump the Pump day as I reported in a blog entry last week. And so my fellow blogger, Phil Pitchford, a.k.a. the commuting blogger, took up the challenge of finding me a route to the Morongo Casino Resort and Spa where I have to cover today's Riverside County Water Symposium. We wanted to see just what would happen if I dumped the pump.

So here's what Phil found out, after spending a couple of hours getting intimately acquainted with bus schedules all over western Riverside County:

1. I would walk from the Press-Enterprise office in downtown Riverside to the nearby Metrolink station to pick up a 7:26 a.m. bus to the Moreno Valley Mall. There I'd have to wait 50 minutes to get another bus (maybe I could get a little shopping in).

2. That bus would take me to Sun Lakes Boulevard in Banning in another 45 minutes or so.

3. Then I would have to wait about 40 minutes, not sure what I would do there, before grabbing my final bus and arriving at Morongo by 10:37 a.m.

By that time, I would miss the talk on global warming and water supply by one of the best-known experts in the subject, William Patzert from JPL. And I would miss the state's top water man, Lester Snow, who will give an update on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a key source of water for our region.

Since I can't miss those, I will put the pedal to the metal and drive through the Badlands to get to my destination. Plus, taking the bus would consume most of my day - a six-hour bus ride in total! It wouldn't give me enough time to cover the event, write it and make my pesky deadline. Perhaps one day it won't be such a challenge to use public transit.

If anyone found a way to dump the pump, let us know!

Not to ramble on about Live Earth, the upcoming global warming concert on July 7th, but there's an interesting Inland connection. Surfing through the concert's website the other day, I noticed a familiar logo. Turns out the company hosting the website is right here in Romoland of all places, down toward Temecula.

I wrote a story about the company, Affordable Internet Services Online Inc., a year and a half ago because it is completely powered by solar panels. Since then, the Wall Street Journal and other publications have had stories on the family-run business.

Phil Nail, the dad in the business, says Live Earth folks came to them. "We did no solicitation whatsoever," he said. "They said, 'We know that you're solar-powered and environmentally friendly, we want you to do this' and we said 'OK fine, you twisted our arm.'" Nail said they are expecting 500 million hits to the Live Earth website during its existence, expected to last about three months. "It's giving us worldwide exposure," he said.

When Al Gore, etc., first announced a concert to be held on 7-7-07 on all seven continents to bring attention to global warming, I'm sure I was not the only one to think about the Antarctica. After all, the continent is in the depths of winter then. Nothing gets in, nothing gets out. Everybody knows that, or so I thought.

So after Gore was turned down in a request to fly a band there, scientists at the British Antarctic Survey's Rothera Research station offered up their indie-rock house band. Known as Nunatak, the five-piece band is part of a science team investigating climate change and evolutional biology on the Antarctic Peninsula.

The band includes a marine biologist who plays the sax and a meteorologist who is also a drummer. And the lead singer is an electronics engineer. Nunatak will be joining the likes of Madonna, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Police and several other top acts as part of the July 7th Live Earth concert expected to be watched live or via TV or the Internet by 2 billion people.

The band's name, Nunatak, comes from a Greenlandic word meaning an exposed summit of a ridge mountain or peak (not covered with snow) within an ice field or glacier. The stunning features occur in the most remote beautiful yet fragile and threatened environments on our planet.

How fitting!

With all the strange happenings going on over at UC Riverside, it might be time to talk trash. But I'm talking about real trash.

A so-called Incredible Bulk Event is happening this Saturday at a UCR parking lot. It's the first of its kind specifically targeting students with unwanted items that are too big to take home or too costly to store over the summer. Things like furniture, refrigerators, mattresses, and e-waste such as computer hardware and cell phones will be accepted free of charge.

Nancy Melendez, executive director of Keep Riverside Clean and Beautiful, said while the event is geared toward students and neighborhood residents, citizens of the city of Riverside won't be turned away.

The event, however, is not accepting household hazardous waste, such as batteries, antifreeze, oil or paint. But this is a good reminder to let Inland residents know where to take those items. Check Riverside County and San Bernardino County Web sites for that.

The event this Saturday will take place at UCR parking lot 24 off Canyon Crest Drive between University and Linden avenues from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The weather should cool down oh so slightly this weekend...

And if you are looking for something to do, get ready to take in the aroma. There's a big lavender festival in Ojai this weekend but you can check out one right here in the Inland region, and it's organic! The Highland Springs Resort and 123 Farms are sponsoring their third annual event in Cherry Valley. I went last year and it was a small but fun festival. They had great food, too. Brownies, teas and chicken salad all infused with lavender.

Saturn and its rings will be the highlight of the night Saturday when the Astronomical Society of the Desert will holds its next monthly public star party in the mountains above Palm Desert.

And starting Saturday, it's Park at Dark at the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park near Escondido. The summer safari adventure continues through Sept. 3, with the gates open until 8 p.m.

Go out and have some fun!

The bad news first.
Members of the nation's best-known birding group, National Audubon Society, are expected to announce today what they say is a startling decline of the country's most common and beloved bird species. The group did an analysis combining four decades of data from the nation’s largest bird population surveys. It will be interesting to see which bird species are listed. UPDATE: In California, the analysis found that northern pintail, horned lark and loggerhead shrike topped the list with declines between 96 and 75 percent. Click here for more information.

Here in the Inland region, we recently found out about scores of red-tailed hawks and other raptors that were being killed, allegedly by pigeon aficionados. One person who was arrested in the federal case denied the charges.

On the good news front, a bald eagle chick that fell from a nest in the San Jacinto Mountains is on the road to recovery. And a pair of endangered light-footed clapper rails laid eggs for the first time in the history of the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park near Escondido. The eggs resulted in six chicks. The species reached a low of 142 pairs in 1984 but there are now 400 pairs as a result of a concerted effort to help the species.

Also, at the Wild Animal Park earlier this month, an endangered Hawaiian 'akepa (ah-KE-pa ) hatched. The flock the chick will join is scheduled to be released into a new management area in August on the slopes Mauna Kea Volcano on the big island of Hawaii. For now, it's eating bee larvae, cricket, meal worm guts and hard-boiled eggs. Yum!

We have our first dispatch from a University of Redlands student who is on a trip to Austria to learn about environmental policy, visit a solar village and a glacier that is quickly melting.

Go down to the April 29th blog entry under comments to view the dispatch from Matthew Dunn and what he learned about a biomass plant and wind energy in Austria.

Just as some are getting ready to dump the pump next Thursday for whatever reason -- be it a statement on the environment or the high price of gasoline these days -- federal lawmakers are also getting into the act.

They say they want to pass energy legislation before the Fourth of July holiday requiring automakers to increase fuel economy standards from a fleet average of 27.5 miles per gallon to 35 MPG by 2020. That won't be soon enough for my next car purchase. And is that increase even enough? Transportation is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to global warming.

You can have your say next Thursday in the National Dump the Pump Day. You can do your pump dump, so to speak, by riding public transit. Here's are some links to public transit companies in Riverside County and in San Bernardino County.

As for me, I'm planning to go out to the Morongo Casino Resort and Spa for Riverside County's annual Water Symposium. Hmmm. I'll have to figure out if I can get there without my car. Maybe our commuting blogger can help me come up with something.

Let us know if you decide to partake in next week's pump avoidance.

Two couples, two weddings, two completely different approaches.

The Sultan of Brunei's daughter clutched a bouquet of diamond-studded flowers, and she and her new hubby sat beneath a gold-leaf canopy at the head of the hall in the 1,700-room palace before they cruised through town in a gold Rolls-Royce. One can only imagine how much that cost!

Chris Marr and Cat Lee walked to their wedding in Scotland, exchanged recycled rings, used homegrown flowers that were later composted, and sent out invitations made from elephant dung. OK, so maybe the last one is a going a little too far.

In this day and age, even if you aren't an activist so-to-speak, what's the appropriate way to celebrate even if you are a princess --- the real kind or the just-in-your-own-head kind?

What might raise some eyebrows is that the Sultan's daughter, Princess Majeedah Nuurul Bulqiah, holds a master's degree in environmental development from King's College in London. And she works as a senior officer in the department of environment, parks and recreation. But she's also a princess, the real kind, and from a family steeped in history, tradition and culture.

The Scottish couple, meanwhile, asked guests to contribute to the building of the couple's planned eco-friendly home rather than buy wedding presents. And for the honeymoon? That's a tour of Scotland in a biodiesel camper van followed by two months of conservation work to offset the carbon emissions from their wedding.

For the rest of us average citizens, sensible tips on eco-friendly weddings or for that matter, any celebration, can be found at National Geographic's Green Guide.

In case you missed it, Quebec became Canada's first province to impose a carbon tax to raise funds to fight global warming. This major event happened last week, but there was not a lot of attention paid to it by major US papers, so I thought I'd bring it to people's attention. Maybe we can blame Paris Hilton?

Anyhow, the move comes a couple of weeks after a Los Angeles Times editorial called the carbon tax the best, cheapest and most efficient way to combat cataclysmic climate change. Even former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan is a supporter of the carbon tax, according to the editorial.

In Quebec, the tax, beginning this fall, will raise about $200 million a year to pay for energy-saving initiatives such as improvements to public transit. Oil companies will be hardest hit. The tax will amount to 0.8 cents on every liter of gas sold in Quebec, and 0.9 cents on each liter of diesel fuel. There are about 3.8 liters to every gallon, fyi.

Quebec's Natural Resources Minister Claude Bechard said he hopes the petroleum industry will pay the tax without passing on the cost to drivers when they fill up their cars at the pump. But petroleum industry spokesman Carol Montreuil said there is no guarantee of that. Bechard followed up a few days later saying the Quebec government would like a justification it in writing every time oil companies increase gasoline prices in the province.

Should California follow Quebec's lead? So far, the state has focused more on a so-called cap-and-trade program rather than a tax.

Leave it to Boulder, Colorado, to pass the nation's first municipal carbon tax. And nationally, a California congressman recently introduced the idea of a carbon tax in a bill called Save our Climate Act.

Anyone with thoughts?

It's a collection of empty house lots and cafes, hardy and eccentric characters that include a mouthy Hungarian revolutionist, a nudist and a cancer survivor who buzzes around in a golf cart while smoking. And they all exist beside a sea on the verge of ecological collapse in our own back yard.

"Plagues and Pleasures of the Salton Sea," a documentary on the desert lake and its inhabitants and narrated by John Waters, will be shown in a limited engagement, starting today, at the Camelot Theatres in Palm Springs.

Palm Springs, after all, was where the sea's champion, Sonny Bono, was mayor. While he became the lake's biggest champion, a federal effort named in his honor after he died never really took off. Now the state of California has a multi-billion dollar restoration plan but whether the lawmakers will fund it is another question.

The documentary focuses on the hardy souls who live their days out by the desert lake. Some are angry the salty sea has not been fixed; others have given up. But as one of them said, "The people who live out here are very forgiving; they have to be to live this way."

Click here to read a Press-Enterprise story on the filmmakers themselves.

Lots o' fun things to do this weekend ...

It's the area most of us know as a way to the top of Mount Baldy. Get your hands dirty, so to speak, on Sunday by helping to clean up San Antonio Creek. Actually, volunteers should bring gloves. The local chapter of the Sierra Club is hosting the event. Outing leader Mary Ann Ruiz says the Memorial Day Weekend leaves the area scarred with trash and graffiti. Make sure to call her or e-mail here to register for the event by clicking the link above. It's being held in conjunction with the last weekend of National River Cleanup Week.

And for those looking to learn a new outdoors skill or to sharpen what you already know, the outdoor school for the REI in Rancho Cucamonga is up and running. Go to this link, and click Los Angeles. There, you can check out all the activities you want to learn -- anything from kayaking to hiking to bike maintenance. By clicking on the activity it will show dates for the Rancho Cucamonga store. And the prices look quite reasonable.

And if you are in the Escondido area this weekend, you might just be able to get a glimpse of a trio of 6-month-old Sumatran tiger cubs that recently made their public debut at the Wild Animal Park. Sumatran tigers are extremely rare and endangered. They are the first litter of tigers to be born at the park in 14 years. The youngsters are rotating their time on exhibit with several of the park's adult tigers, so they are typically viewable by the public on a couple days a week.

How was life in California in the 1800s? Quite a bit different than now I suspect. No IPods, that's for sure. But there must have been a wealth of species that today are on the brink of extinction. The San Bernardino County Museum will hold guided tours on Saturday of the historic Yucaipa Adobe in, you guessed it, Yucaipa. Visitors can do chores, like candle-dipping, rug-beating and making adobe bricks. Children can also make fresh butter, make a broom and wash clothes the old-fashioned way. Let's hope they know the modern way!

This started out as an entirely different subject. I'll explain later. The Inland region, which has a strong but small core of environmental groups, can add another one to the list -- Proposition Earth.

Based in Running Springs, the group's mission is to turn everyone, especially low-income families, onto solar power and energy-efficient appliances and light bulbs. The move would lessen the dependence on coal-generated electricity, one of the largest contributors to global warming. Sarah Mills said the group is small for now, but she'd like to start in the Inland region and spread as far out as possible.

"Global warming became a huge passion of mine and I definitely feel I need to make a difference," she said.

Mills, 26, has an interior design background and she's worked for an animal wildlife rescue in Venice. She said she filed the non-profit papers for Proposition Earth in September. I had checked in with Mills this morning because she was listed on a press release that said environmental groups were going to push the San Bernardino County supervisors yesterday at their board meeting to consider adopting a climate change action plan. Anyhow, Mills said she couldn't get into the meeting because the guard told her that she had to be there at the beginning of the meeting, and she had arrived at noon.

The supervisors, meanwhile, voted to make it tougher for nonprofits to buy tax-delinquent land, a move they have long used to turn over to the federal government like the U.S. Bureau of Land Management or National Park Service for preservation.

Anyone with thoughts on that one?

It's World Environment Day today, but it's not so much a celebration these days.

The commemoration by the United Nations is to meant to stimulate global awareness of the environment. This year's theme is "Melting Ice -- a Hot Topic?" It's in support of yet another designation, International Polar Year, meant to focus on the effects that climate change is having on polar ecosystems and communities.

The U.S. Department of Interior is considering placing polar bears on the nation's list of threatened and endangered species after lawyers in Joshua Tree filed a petition. At the same time, the environmental groups are voicing concerns over a proposal by the Interior Department to open up more than 83 million acres of Alaskan ocean waters to oil and gas drilling. The areas includes the Chukchi and Beaufort seas, which support nearly one-fifth of the world's polar bear population. The oil and gas drilling is expected to being July 1 unless Congress modifies it. Environmental and native groups, along with Alaskan whalers, are expected to press their case tomorrow with reporters.

As for World Environment Day, Norway is the host country this year and the country will have a series of events to commemorate the day.

The event comes on the heels of yesterday's release of a United Nation's report that says up to 40 percent of the world's population could be affected by melting glaciers through rising sea levels, flooding and dwindling supplies of water for drinking and farming.

The airport that most of us go to, when we can't get a flight out of Ontario, is making a change for the better.

Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today is honoring Los Angeles International Airport for its commitment to remove loads of mercury from the airport's main energy-generating hub.

Apparently, mercury flowmeters at the airport's utilities plant include 2,200 pounds of mercury or the same amount of mercury in 1 million household fever thermometers. That's a lot.

And just a reminder, since everyone's talking about switching to more energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs, that they too have small amounts of mercury encased in them. So like household thermometers, they should not be tossed in the garbage. They should be properly disposed of as household hazardous waste.

By December, the airport will replace the flowmeters with mercury-free electronic transmitters to measure the flow of liquid or gas at the plant. The mercury doesn't escape into the atmosphere but has that potential if the flowmeters are not disposed of properly. The main idea behind the move is simply to stop using mercury in the process of generating power and taking it out of the environment at large, said Francisco Arcuate, an EPA spokesman.

Now, if LAX can only do something about waiting on the curb for a shuttle or pick-up without having to breathe in all the fumes of the passing cars!