Environmental Issues and Protection

Orange County Register Wildfire Coverage Has a Huge Hole in It: Media Watchdog

Orange County fire officials recently held a press conference to go over their strategies and, more importantly, warn the public about an ever-earlier fire season. The Orange County Register covered this, as it did Southern California's recent wildfires, but a media watchdog saw a huge hole in the c ... More >>

[MOVED UP in Case You Missed It:] Arman Sadeghi Spreads Earth Day All Green Message: Recycle Electronics the Right Way

This post that published Friday morning has been moved up for Earth Day and in case you missed it while our site was down.ORIGINAL POST, APRIL 19, 8:16 A.M.: Earth Day is Monday for you and I, but every day is Earth Day for Arman Sadeghi.He founded and runs Tustin's All Green Electronic Recycling, w ... More >>

Orange County Register Flambéed for Fawning Over Frickin' Fracking

A media watchdog is barking about a recent Orange County Register editorial on an industry-friendly study boosting fracking, the controversial oil drilling technique critics fear causes earthquakes and groundwater contamination.

Matt Damon's 'Promised Land' Is a Fracking Film

Gus Van Sant directs Damon and John Krasinski's (and Dave Eggers') message as the message

Gary DeLong, Climate Change Denying Hopeful for Congress, Logrolled by Bill Clinton at UCI

Last night's The Colbert Report featured another partisan logrolling clip that makes that Comedy Central program and The Daily Show so priceless, with a Fox News pundit-blonde and anchors Brit Hume and Chris Wallace repeating that day's GOP talking point: that Mitt Romney appeared to be a "plausible ... More >>

Santa Margarita Water District Sued Over its Lead Role in Mojave Groundwater Project

Environmental groups are suing Orange County's second largest retail water district over plans to pump water Mojave Desert groundwater. Santa Margarita Water District, which serves more than 155,000 residents and businesses in Mission Viejo, Coto de Caza, Las Flores, Ladera Ranch, Talega and its hom ... More >>

If You Think It's Hot in Santa Ana and Long Beach Now, Just Wait Until 2050

It's getting hot in here, so take off all your non-essential items of clothing.According to a new UCLA climate study, average temperatures are going to rise in Santa Ana and Long Beach by nearly four degrees.But you still have time to stock up on sunscreen.

As Orange County Register Denies Climate Change, Media Matters for America Burns

We here at the World Weekly HQ have our platters full when it comes to passing along racism, immigrant bashing and let-them-eat-caking in the pages (virtual and otherwise) of the Orange County Register. So, it's been up to Media Matters for America, a progressive national watchdog, to chronicle the ... More >>

Port of Long Beach Pact Allowing Truckers to Police Clean Trucks Program Draws Judge's Rebuke

​The Long Beach Harbor Commission illegally violated state environmental law when it weakened its truck cleanup program without first performing the required environmental review, a federal judge has ruled. Finding in favor of the Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which ... More >>

The Inconvenient Truth Underlying Al Gore's Snowball Fight With Matt Drudge and Bill O'Reilly

​The killer snowstorms socking much of the country are providing pundits on the right all the ammunition they need to mow down poor ol' Al Gore. Mr. Inconvenient Truth was called out last week by Bill O'Reilly, who wanted to know, if global warming exists, "Why has southern New York turned into t ... More >>

[UPDATED] Rohrabacher, Calvert and Campbell Support Bad-Air Bills, NRDC Says

​UPDATED, JAN. 28, 11:04 A.M: Representative Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn), who authored House Resolution 97, backed by Rohrabacher, Calvert and Campbell, issued this response to claims the bill supports polluters over the health of citizens: "The NRDC's connection between greenhouse gasses and ... More >>

Go Green Auto Rally is a Different Kind of Event for the Home of the Grand Prix

​Long Beach is home to an annual grand prix that has high-performance race cars zooming through city streets.But this weekend, a different kind of racing event starts in the LBC and follows a 100-mile course that ends in Malibu, one that does not necessarily reward its drivers for speed.

Getting into Green Homes Takes Less Green

​It ain't easy being green housing.Two highly publicized Orange County homes built with recycled or Earth-friendly materials and packed with energy-efficient appliances and many more green features are languishing on the market. A couple weeks ago, a home in Costa Mesa with the nation's highest ra ... More >>

Inaugural CleanTech OC Conference Should Have Been Better Attended

​If attendees took anything other than swag away from the inaugural CleanTech OC Conference & Expo in Irvine Monday, it was this: the green revolution is back, baby. After a red hot 2008, the clean technology industry was battered for a spell by the recession, but banks are back to lending, ve ... More >>

Hella This, NorCal: OC Beats You in Creation of Green Businesses

​When it comes to the creation of green businesses, those BART-riding, granola-gnawing, patchouli-oiling earth muffins in Northern California have nothing on Orange Countians.According to the Environmental Defense Fund's map of California's Green Economy, Orange County's 275 green companies ar ... More >>

You Weren't Imagining It: This July Was One of the Coldest

​If you feel like Orange County's June gloom only turned into July gloomier, you're right. The OC Register reported that, according to the National Weather Service, last July "was one of the coldest on record for coastal California." Fullerton's high temperature, for example, averaged around 79 de ... More >>

Poll: Californians Bullish on Green Technologies Despite Recession

​A recent statewide poll shows a majority of California voters support the state's landmark 2006 law that requires reducing greenhouse gas emissions and imposing fees on companies that emit these gases if most of the money collected is returned to state residents.The breakdown in the poll conducte ... More >>

New UCI Research Will Have You Looking at Earthquakes and Lawns Differently

UC Irvine researchers have discovered new ways to look at earthquakes and your front lawn. No, not how shakers rip up your green playground. We're talking one study that dispels notions about how experts estimate the potential for the next so-called "Big One," and a second that disproves the idea th ... More >>

OC Environmentalists Celebrate Momentous Decisions

Ancestor walks take on new meaning after efforts to carve a toll road through Pahne failed.​Holiday celebrating started early for local environmental groups.On Friday, a diverse coalition of allies marked the one-year anniversary of a U.S. Department of Commerce decision that effectively stopped t ... More >>

The County is Orange But Many Jobs Are Green

​Most of our legislators dispute climate-change science, many of our residents drive big gas guzzlers and the environmentalism of many of our "environmentalists" does not extend beyond their own communities.And yet, Orange County is a national leader when it comes to green jobs, according to new d ... More >>

Global Warming Activists as Inescapable as Global Warming this Weekend

​Last week, we posted about the Global Climate Change Day of Action event taking place at Irvine Regional Park tomorrow. There'll be bells tolling, bikes biking, and a bunch of people forming a "350" for an aerial camera.But there are a bunch more of these shindigs tomorrow all over the world, inc ... More >>

Clothes Lines: a Green Solution That's Been Clotheslined

​They are an old-fashioned device that could save household energy as well as machine-damaed and worn-out clothing. Unfortunately, they are also banned in several U.S. communities. Just try installing a clothes line in Irvine or any Orange County gated community and see what happens. T ... More >>

Surfrider, Other Enviros Agree: Go Green By Having Fewer Kids

Doh! The carbon footprint just got bigger.​Based on the huzzahs the Surfrider Foundation posted on its Facebook account, the San Clemente-based clean-ocean advocates are apparently down with notion that having fewer children is a more effective way of going green than changing lightbulbs, driving ... More >>

UPDATE: Organic Food "No Better Than Conventional," Study Finds

​As reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition yesterday, the British-commissioned survey, which took its findings from 55 studies made in the past 50 years, claims that eating organic food "will make no important difference to a person's overall health".According to Alan Dangour, one ... More >>

Global Warming Denier Rohrabacher Froths On

Photo by Jack GouldRohrabacher, frothing in November.The way Scott Harper begins his story proves that he had correctly identified the speaker he was covering."U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher was in a froth . . ." Anyone who has witnessed the Mouth That Rohrabachered whip up the party faithful at GOP ele ... More >>

Vespas Bring Musicians, Global Warming Message to Sutra

Singer-songwriters Jason Reeves, Brendan James and Amber Rubarth, who today began a two-week ride up the California coast on Vespas to raise awareness of global warming, make a stop at 7 p.m. Friday at Sutra Lounge, 1870 Harbor Blvd., Costa Mesa. "It seems like back in the late '60s and early ... More >>

Nixon Library Museum Store is Green With Ennui

The private Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace Foundation (not to be confused with the public Richard Nixon Library and Museum) has really gotten into the spirit of Earth Day. The foundation is directing shoppers to its cash cow, the museum store, with an email blast that states:Celebrate Earth ... More >>

As State OK's Tough Global Warming Rules Should Diesel Be Next?

As expected, the state this afternoon put teeth in its landmark regulations enacted in 2006 to combat global warming, adopting the nation's most comprehensive plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Such emissions must be cut 30 percent by 2020. But that is not enough for the editorial board ... More >>

UCI Scientist Helps Add More Culprits to the Global Warming List

Anyone worth Al Gore's salt knows that cars, factories and farting cows contribute to global warming, but an international study that includes the research of a UC Irvine scientist has found drought and deforestation can also help fuel the pesky phenomenon and should be included in future climate pa ... More >>

Wildfires Just a Sneak Preview?

Ted Soqui shot this in Yorba Linda the weekend past. See his amazing slideshow here. Now that the fires have been contained, heroes have been identified, firefighting techniques have been blasted, causes have been zeroed in on, and our Last Action Hero Governor has likened the disaster to one of th ... More >>

Irvine Starbucks Climate Crisis Discussion Today

Just came over the wire: At 2 p.m. today, the Starbucks Coffee at 3995 Alton Pkwy. in Irvine is hosting a "National Day of Discussion" on the issue of "climate crisis" in support of a new Paramount/National Geographic-sponsored film, Arctic Tale. Filmmakers Adam Ravetch and Sarah Robertson, as wel ... More >>

Rohrabacher's Appalling Flatulence

In case you missed it, you can find video of Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Surfin') speculating about the effects of dinosaur flatulence here. And no, booze was not involved in the congressman's ramblings. Probing the effects of dinosaur farting is just something Rohrabacher sees as part of his officia ... More >>

Arnold Cuts Some Gas

We keep waiting for Arnold Schwarzenegger to show his true colors, especially with the media reports over the weekend indicating that while the country may swing left in the next election, California may swing back to the right. Surely, then, Schwarzenegger is just biding his time, waiting for more ... More >>

The Memory Hole Goes Green

Having previously suppressed, ignored, and dishonestly redacted scientific reports that proved politically inconvenient, the Bush administration has taken the next logical step. The Environment News Service reports: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is closing its Headquarters Library ... More >>

Something Stinks

You know how the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Environmental Protection Agency announced recently they are joining forces to clean up stinky Aliso Creek (finally), which spews its filth into South Laguna's Aliso Beach? Yeah, when have we heard that before? Oh, yeah, eight years ago. Anyway, you'd ... More >>

Baby, It's Warm Outside

The Inconvenient Truth is on its way to becoming the box-office champeen of documentaries (pound sand, Michael Moore!). Orders are already brisk for the DVDs that won't be out until November. However, because Truth starred Satan's spawn Al Gore, there's a good chance many holy rollers skipped it and ... More >>

Troubled Waters

Normally, when a major clean-up effort for a polluted site is announced-- an effort which will bring to bear the resources of both the local and federal government-- environmentalists are happy. But this is Orange County, where the eco-friendly have often seen their green hopes fade to grey (and ... More >>

Shake n' Bake

It's been funny--not funny ha-ha--sitting here on the sidelines watching the changing global-warming debate. While the international scientific community for years has piled voluminous report atop voluminous report detailing that global warming is real, producing all sorts of climatic problems and e ... More >>

Footprints (Sands of Time Not Included)

In his 1838 poem A Psalm of Life, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (once America's most popular poet, now an item on every high school's forced-feeding menu), wrote We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time Yeah, well, maybe... But what is certain is ... More >>

Good Timing, Bad Air

The Orange County Register reports this morning that the Irvine-based Beckman Foundation has donated $20 million to the City of Hope in Duarte, to help finance cancer research. The Foundation has an excellent sense of timing– because, as every other newspaper in the state is reporting this mor ... More >>

Change in the air?

This is certainly a refreshing development, although the participation of a gubernatorial candidate smacks of political posturing. NEW REPORT ON COMPANIES IN CALIFORNIA, ELSEWHERE TO FIND WIDE DISPARITY IN CLIMATE CHANGE RESPONSES; INVESTORS WILL PUSH POOR-PERFORMING FIRMS TO SHAPE UP NEWS ADVISOR ... More >>

Toll Road Rage

Not So Easy Being Green

Toll Road Rage: Green(back) Alignment

Not So Easy Being Green

Its Snot Unusual

Im George W. Bush, and I Approve This Destruction

Earth Daddy

Denis Hayes organized the first Earth Day, and all he got was this lousy planet

We Respond to Register Letters!

In the Sewage Pipeline

Anti-dumping bill picks up steam

Hellooooooo, Mr. Wilson!

Enviros give pro-development supervisor the kid-glove treatment

Poop Chute

County agency will ask EPA to renew ocean-dumping permit

A River Runs Beneath It

Santa Ana River toll road elevates eco-fears