Environmental Issues and Protection

Save San Onofre Coalition Files 2 Lawsuits to Stop Foothill/Eastern (241) Toll Road Extension

The Save San Onofre coalition filed two lawsuits in San Diego Superior Court Wednesday aimed at stopping what it considers the first five-mile segment of a 16-mile toll road that would ultimately cut through a south Orange County park and up against a northern San Diego County beach.The complaints a ... More >>

Coastal Commission Raised Questions of Poseidon Honesty Years Ago

Poseidon Resources Inc., the company hoping to build a $1 billion desalination plant on Huntington Beach Shores, left out vital information when applying for a permit for its Carlsbad facility in 2007. That's according to California Coastal Commission (CCC) documents obtained by the Weekly which say ... More >>

Urban Ocean Festival

Aquarium of the Pacific

Green Technology Makes OC Register See Red

Media Matters for America, the progressive watchdog counterpart to Accuracy in Media, takes issue with an Orange County Register editorial that uses the financial woes of nearly dead electric car company Fisker Automotive to argue against government investment in green technology: "Despite the incre ... More >>

TrashARTist Challenge

Muzeo

Climate Change Strategies Not Working Quickly Enough: UCI's Steve Davis and Fellow Scientists

UC Irvine Earth system scientist Steven J. Davis has an inconvenient truth he'd like to share: we have to make "a fundamental and disruptive overhaul of the global energy system" to eradicate harmful carbon dioxide emissions right now. A paper in tomorrow's Environmental Research Letters by Davis a ... More >>

Sobering Times for Pill Poppers: "Generation Rx," National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day

Prescription drug abuse by South County teens has been a hot topic lately thanks to the documentary Behind the Orange Curtain making its world premiere May 2 at the Newport Beach Film Festival and, due to a sell out, getting a second showing May 3 in the huge Big Newport theater.That makes a couple ... More >>

Orange County Register Columnist Committed Libel, Climate Scientist Says

​A climate scientist has fired back at an Orange County Register columnist who suggested he could be at the center of another ClimateGate.Michael Mann, director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center, Tweeted that a March 2 Orange Punch blog post by Mark Landsbaum--in which the columnist wr ... More >>

Santa Ana Sucker Legal Allies Finalized

​Just to be clear, the Santa Ana sucker is NOT a skinny young thing who works Harbor Boulevard. Or, more accurately, the Santa Ana sucker for the purposes of this post is not a tireless working gal/guy.The Santa Ana sucker referenced here is the algae-eating fish whose Santa Ana River habitat prot ... More >>

Goold's Gold Exposes an Inconvenient Truth About Global-Warming Opportunities

​In An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore told you about the consequences from global warming.In Goold's Gold, Jonathan Goold tells you about the opportunities from global warming.You can see the documentary, which was directed and produced by Orange Coast College English instructor Tucker Capps, for fr ... More >>

Five Songs for Earth Day

​ Today marks the forty-first anniversary of Earth Day. As the brainchild of Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson, the observation first held in the United States on April 22nd, 1970 was conceived as a 'teach-in' meant to inspire awareness and action on issues critical to the health of the enviro ... More >>

UCI Law Student-Run Conference Looks at Climate Justice

​UC Irvine law students are holding a first-ever, all-day conference today on climate justice. "A3 [Assemble. Advocate.Act]: A Conference on Climate Justice" examines "the social injustices faced by vulnerable populations who are disproportionately affected by climate change," according to organ ... More >>

Radiation Detected in Japan's Tap Water and Anaheim's Air

​If you don't want to be exposed to radiation, don't drink the water in Japan.Or . . . gulp . . . breathe the air in Anaheim. The Japanese government says today elevated levels of radioactive iodine from a crippled nuclear plant we ... More >>

Always a Cover-Up at Wal-Mart. Always

Kathrine Shimaji, the whistleblower who caught Foothill Ranch Wal-Mart employees illegally dumping hazardous waste, wants to know why the Orange County district attorney's office didn't prosecute the higher-ups

Priest Blesses Surf City Waves Sunday

​One day at band camp, this kid was shredding at Bolsa Chica when he slipped off his board and yelled, "Jesus Christ." So, it is not without precedence that a priest from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange will wade into the waters near Huntington Beach Pier Sunday morning to bless the waves.

EPA Takes a Dump on Cruise Ships, Cleans Coast

Flickr User Bruce Tuten​Twenty million fewer gallons of sewage will taint the 1,624 mile California coastline starting next year. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday that it will ban all large cruise ships and other commercial vessels from discharging sewage withi ... More >>

Move Over, Earth Day: It's Vegan Earth Day

UPDATE: A new study shows vegans and vegetarian have more empathy--for humans and animals--than meat-eaters do . . . ​The trees have been planted, the trails have been cleared and the beaches have been de-syringed as another season of springtime Earth Day festivities have passed. But a "Vegan Eart ... More >>

Raw

Hotel Maya

Earth Week

Discovery Science Center

RV Parks and Campgrounds Association Favors Regulation ... of Other Businesses

Not Debbie Sipe​The California Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds, which represents owners of recreational parks and campgrounds, has come out in favor of government regulation.That is, government regulation of the businesses that sell certain products used at RV parks and campgrounds, not th ... More >>

State Crushing Beverage Recycling Program?

​You know things are bad in Sacramento when the programs making California money are on the verge of collapse.Take the state's state-of-the-art beverage container recycling program, which could be getting crushed like a used soda can.

ENC Green Building Tour

Environmental Nature Center

OC Green Guide Goes National

Don't it make Casey Cochran's Orange County green?Casey Cochran created the online OC Green Guide in 2006 so he could keep track of eco-friendly eateries, stores, events and news for his own eco-friendly purposes. Now, it's part of a nationwide network for all. Green Guide Network, ... More >>

Wax On, Wax Off: Surfrider Foundation Builds Green

Surfrider.org​The buildings of Surfrider's global headquarters in San Clemente make up just one more demonstration of their commitment to preserving our coastal environment. The U.S Green Building Council (USGBC), an organization with a strict rating system for design and construction, awarded Sur ... More >>

Meat Free Monday Goes Mainstream

Of course, by 'mainstream' I mean that celebrities are now endorsing the campaign. Paul, Stella and Mary McCartney today launched a new website, Meat Free Monday, which encourages everyone to, yes, you guessed it, give up meat on Mondays. Other famous names weighing in include Kevin Spacey, Sheryl C ... More >>

2 Things to Keep in Mind as Earth Day Approaches

Earth Day is Wednesday, and besides spending part of that day in Irvine with Magic Johnson, here are some things to keep in mind as that day nears:*The California League of Conservation Voters warns that the state's Republican leadership is trying to exploit the budget crisis to roll back key enviro ... More >>

Annual Earth Day Celebration

Ocean Institute

X [Prize] Marks the Spot for UC Irvine Students

  "The Capacitor Challenge" video above by UC Irvine students Kyle Good and Bryan Le was this morning crowned the winner of the X Prize Foundation's "What's Your Crazy Green Idea?" competition, which comes with a $25,000 check. "We're so excited to be the winners of the Crazy G ... More >>

Tour de Orange

OC Wildlife and Beach Tour

No. 1 on the Palin/Hewitt/Colbert Threat Down: (Polar) Bears!

Sarah Palin invigorated the conservative base with her surprisingly poised speech to GOP delegates last night, kicking new life into what had been a ho-hum convention previously “highlighed” by the Dead Man Talking triad (George W. Bush, Fred Thompson and Joe Lieberman). Clockwork's favorite sce ... More >>

Colonel of Wisdom

This toll road debate is starting to feel like Clue—who's going to kill the project? Was it Colonel Magness, in the media, with cold, hard facts? Col. Thomas Magness wrote a little letter the Transportation Corridor Agencies didn't like. The letter disclosed that the TCA's preferred, certified a ... More >>

Burning Up

You're Getting Warmer

OC Dumpster Diving

New York-based website www.Freegan.info hopes to become the craigslist of dumpster diving by providing a forum for refuse eaters all over the country to meet and share tips. With listings of the best places to forage for free discarded goodies in cities all over the country (only a few so far, mos ... More >>

Toll Road Rage

Hey, Porter! New firm cashes in on bad toll-road PR

Let justice roll down...

"Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an overflowing stream." That passage from the Book of Amos (5:24) is the sort of thing lawyers working for nonprofit organizations repeat to themselves before marching off to court to fight the good fight. Of course, it may not be what the la ... More >>

Ear Splitters

A federal judge has temporarily forbidden the Navy from using high-intensity sonar in war-game exercises off the coast of Hawaii, ruling that environmental groups had provided "considerable convincing scientific evidence that the Navy's use of ... sonar can kill, injure, and disturb many species, in ... More >>

Popcorn and Greenhouse Gases (non Al Gore edition)

Hot on the heels of last night's Orange County Film Society's premier of Chris Paine's Who Killed the Electric Car?– a documentary that makes the "compelling case: that oil companies, automakers, lawmakers, consumers and the media killed a workable solution to air pollution, global warming, so ... More >>

No Mo Moiso

Grassroots campaign aims to stop homebuilder from invading OCs last protected wilderness area

Spy the Friendly Skies

Their Ocean

Can wealthy developers and business execs do for the environment what grassroots activists havent?

Tunnel Vision

All that stands in the way of Bill Vardoulis tunnel dream is the Irvine Co.

MTBE Lies I Told You

An apology by Will Swaim

Its April 19

Today is Earth Day, Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday

Ken Maddox, We Hardly Knew Ye

Green With Anger

One mans campaign to save a wetland

HBs Secret Santa

Ed Lairdplanning commissioner, paint maker, bank investor, political bankroller

Alien Toxins

Area 51's sci-fi folklore masks a truly spooks reality

School Haze

Edison High awaits cleanup of nearby dumpsite

Fill 'Er Up

Even Jesus wouldn't try Irvine water district's plan to turn crap into tap