Nature and the Environment

[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.

[VIDEO:] Sea Lion Tangled in Fishing Line Rescued From Oil Platform Off Surf City

A call from a contractor on an oil platform off Huntington Beach led a rescue team from the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach to free a sea lion entangled in fishing line.Video of Saturday's rescue by Orange County's only licensed marine mammal facility follows on the next page.

Praying Mantis Devours Multiple Moths at Close Range of Children in Silverado Canyon!

Last Saturday night, I donned my rustic attire and joined thirteen random people in the darkness of Silverado Canyon to play music and stare at bugs on a bed sheet. We found a comfortable spot between two sycamore trees along Maple Springs Road, beyond the national forest gate. Our fearless leader w ... More >>

Blue Whales Stage Shows Off Dana Point

There's been an uptick in blue whale sightings off the Orange County coast the past couple days, according to a popular excursion company.Sunday, passengers aboard some Dana Wharf Sportsfishing boats, which depart out of Dana Point Harbor, counted 14 sightings of blue whales.Four have been reported ... More >>

Sea Otters Get Coastal Commission Assist as Shellfish Groups Take Aim

Environmental and mammal-protection groups are hailing a recent California Coastal Commission vote they say will allow sea otters to swim freely and legally in Southern California waters.This is the result of the commission deciding unanimously last week that a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposa ... More >>

Jack Hanna Into the Wild Live!

Carpenter Center

Save the Humans In 'Big Miracle'!

It's the actors who need rescue in this trapped-whale saga

Hungarian Officials Discover 10,000 Dead Songbirds In A Truck Believed To Be Destined For Italian Restaurants

​As Americans get ready to eat one big bird tomorrow, there's a story that Hungarian officials recently found a cache of 10,000 dead songbirds that smugglers tried to get into the country by truck. The destination for the very tiny meals is believed to be northern Italy, where exotic birds are a d ... More >>

Biologist Accuses Inland Water Districts of Spooking Populace Over Expanded Santa Ana Sucker Habitat

​Inland water districts are using unfounded claims, invented projections and a "staged sham" hearing to spread fears to the populace about the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) having designated a portion of the Santa Ana River as a "critical habitat" for a little fish known as the Santa Ana su ... More >>

A Whale of a Tale at the Bowers Museum

'Scrimshaw: The Art and Craft of the American Whaler' shows the beauty that can come from destruction

[UPDATED with Hunting Season Open:] Coyotes Knock Down Woman, Snatch Her Yorkie

​UPDATE, JULY 29, 8:01 P.M.: To butcher they lyrics sung by the late, great Warren Zevon, "Send hunters, guns and money--hah! Dad get me out of this."Following Tuesday morning's attack that knocked down a 64-year-old Laguna Woods woman and ended the life of her 12-year-old Yorkie, the City Council ... 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 >>

Coyote Sightings, Pet Attacks Prompt Warning

Monday morning, the Westminster Police Department received a report of another in a spate of recent coyote attacks, with a pet cat losing its life in the 6600 block of Bestel Avenue.As a result, the force is warning about increased coyote activity and the need to keep beloved house pets close.

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 >>

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 >>

Death: It's Not Just for Adult Sea Lions

​Dozens of sick and starving sea lion pups are washing up on Southern California shores. Many have not survived. Meanwhile, researchers have cast a wider net for causes of adult sea lion cancer deaths.

With Giant Squid Still Out There, Marinara Sales Must Be Through the Roof

​Remember that post a couple weeks ago about shiploads of giant squids plying our local waters? And how this had revived the sportsfishing business during what's usually its offseason? And how much I crave giant calamari with a side of marinara right now? Well, they're still out there. The squid, ... 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 >>

OC's Brown Pelicans No Longer Endangered. Oh, Really?

UCI Biology Department A brown pelican acts all pelecanus occidentalis-y along our coast. ​A neighbor of yours is getting either an assist or a death sentence from the federal government. Where's your teabagger now, brown pelican?

UPDATED: The Irvine Co. Gift That Keeps on Giving

UPDATED WITH PHOTOS FROM THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS MEETING . . . Photo by Keith MayCounty Supervisor Bill Campbell, whose district includes the Irvine Co. land in question, is amused by a speaker at Tuesday's board meeting in Santa Ana.​He's got a gift. Donald Bren, the secretive, aging multi-billi ... More >>

Duh-Dunt. Duh-Dunt. Duht-Duht-Duht-Duht-Duht-Duht . . .

The Aquarium of the Pacific in the Long Beach is the only aquarium in the contiguous United States to have a tiger shark on exhibit--and they couldn't be prouder. The 5-foot baby is being studied as tiger sharks are often feared as the second-most dangerous shark in the ocean. They're also among the ... More >>

Shark Summer: Here We Go Again?

You'll be forgiven if you take a fleeting glance at the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific's latest tourist-season promotion and feel deja vu all over again. After all, posters with teeth-blaring maneaters and a "Shark Summer" logo with an ominous fin replacing the "a" in shark do evoke memories of ... More >>

Marine Wildlife Cruises

Ocean Institute

Up Clse and Personal

Encounters with Whales

Playing Hive and Seek With the Backyard Beekeepers

[Hey, You!] Breaking the Circle of Life

International Polar Year Speaker

Bill Cooper

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

And the Wet Envelope Goes to ...

If you're burning $2,000 for a VIP table at Surfer Magazine's 36th annual Surfer Poll and Video Awards ceremony Tuesday night at the Grove of Anaheim, at least you can feel warmed that you are helping two worthy causes. Proceeds from VIP table sales at the annual, invite-only event that honors the ... More >>

Bread and Butterfly

Eat-A-Bug Weekend

The Aquarium of The Pacific's Newest Attractions

Yesterday was a perfect day in sunny, beautiful Long Beach to go swimming with the fishes at the Aquarium of the Pacific. Well, I didn’t go swimming personally, but I could have. Swimming in the shark tank is just one of the new attractions offered by the aquarium to celebrate its tenth anniversar ... More >>

Bee Gone

Häagen-Dazs Help 
the Honey Bees

Bouncy, Trouncy, Flouncy, Pouncy

‘Tigers—Tracking a Legend’

Bird Is the Word

Todd Davis celebrates the sky rat

Needing a Bigger Boat

Shark Week

Holy Stalactites, Batman!

Bat Walk

Dance of the Penguin

That whole talking animal genre? Let's be done with it

TV is Stupid

"More bars in more places. That's what people have come to expect from Cingular." Bullshit. That's what my parents have come to expect from ME. Shame on Cingular for appealing to alcoholics. Sorry, but I just hate commercials these days. If it's not ambiguous word usage, it's terrifying paranoia- ... 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 >>

Babar-ians at the Gate

We write about elephants, you write us letters!

Dumbo and Dumber

Handlers give circus Elephants the bullhook

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 >>

Uncommonly Effective Cougar Repellant

The 241 toll road is exceeding all expectations for its ability to exterminate wildlife. As Scott Giffin revealed back in 1994 (Kill The Cougar, 6.10.04), toll roads through key animal habitat make for more roadkill than the Basra Turnpike. Yesterday's Register supported this observation when Erin ... More >>

Of Pork and Ken

Local congressman likes toll roads, money, blowjobs

Patty the Bunny

The Dutch army, a Thai named Bunny and the greatness of the Wild Rabbit