Culture and Coexistence into the Great Unknown
A documentary film, “Dogtown Redemption,” delves inside the lives of West Oakland’s poor and homeless recyclers. While California must deal with its urban poverty problem, and rogue recyclers steal from recycling funds, overall the state’s Bottle Bill has significantly reduced waste.
The State Department has issued a flawed environmental review of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that ignores its far-reaching impacts on climate and our environment. Tar Sands Action Southern California has prepared a commentary on behalf of 40 groups to be submitted to the State Department demanding a comprehensive reassessment of the significant and irreversible impacts on the environment not taken into account in the draft report released on March 1st. Make your comment by April 22nd!
The Earth has a voice. And the fact that any native people have survived on the planet should be a clue that there’s a way that does not include money and politics. We have survived by our relationship with natural force. Water is sacred. Air is sacred. If the tar sands isn’t stopped, we are going to have a whole new set of problems.
Cadiz Inc.’s potentially lucrative groundwater mining proposal for the Mojave Desert intends to water lawns and pools for suburban Southern California at the expense of taxpayers and ultimately the desert ecosystem. The company could realize $1 billion to $2 billion in revenue over the plan’s 50-year life. Opponents say public resources are being used for private profit.
Wesleyan University academics argue “unnatural” forests, resulting from fire suppression policies, deplete water supplies and should be cut back. We disagree.
Southern California’s new Sustainable Communities Strategy plan posits that as a region, we have to grow up, not out. That doesn’t mean Hong Kong skyscrapers, but more apartments near light-rail stations and vibrant mixed-use areas like the ones in downtown Pasadena.
We must view the fragility of the planet, the disaster of our resource addiction, the warming of the earth’s atmosphere as an immune response to our daily environmental mis-stepping, a call for a re-conceptualization of our cities. We must demand a retrofitting of our urban environments to live together more efficiently, giving credence to community, allowing space for the open wild in us and them.