Environment

Here Is the Background to SeaWorld’s Orca ‘Nakai’ Who Just Died of Infection

August 9, 2022 by Source


Here is the report on Nakai  By Cara Wilson-Granat

Prisoner #7: Nakai

Sweet-natured Nakai was born on September 1, 2001. His claim to fame is that he was the very first orca to be conceived through artificial insemination.

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Miramar Air Show Fuels the Climate Crisis – Boycott It!

August 9, 2022 by Source

By Gary Butterfield

As the visible effects of climate change resound throughout the earth, it becomes increasingly important that all of us do our part to responsibly reduce our carbon footprints.  This is especially true in San Diego, since our oceans and our coasts are at high risk of damage by climate change.

San Diegans are asked to modify our behaviors to lessen our carbon usage; we must demand the same commitment from our institutions.  Many local municipalities are revealing actions to help implement a meaningful Climate Action Plan to secure a Zero Carbon Future for their citizens.  So far none of these plans address the military’s contribution to the climate crisis!

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August 2022 Events From the Ocean Beach Green Center

August 1, 2022 by Source

All events are online and free unless stated otherwise.

Every Saturday 10:30 am. Climate Mobilization Coalition Zoom Meeting 20th and 27th. 

August 18 Thurs.  5 pm PICNIC and Learn About “Door of Hope”; The Ocean Beach Historical Society invites you to bring a PICNIC to this FREE Special Event and Learn About “Door of Hope”, Thurs. Aug, 18, 2022 at 5 pm, at Collier Park West (At Greene St. & Soto St., San Diego, CA 92107) Bring your own picnic Food & gear.

August 18th Thursday 4:30pm – 7:30pm Summer Social! a reading by Daniele Horton – Earth’s Climate Heroes.

August 20th Saturday 11 am – 1pm San Diego Fixit Clinic in Lemon Grove E

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San Diegan Launches App to Provide Mapping Tool for Plastic Pollution on Beaches

July 15, 2022 by Source

By Ashley Mackin-Solomon / La Jolla Light / July 14, 2022

After a childhood in La Jolla and an education at La Jolla High School that left him with an appreciation for the ocean, self-proclaimed “ocean guy” Carl Nettleton has spent most of his adult life working to protect it.

Most recently, his company OpenOceans Global launched an app July 10 that enables users to report accumulations of plastic debris on beaches and get that information to organizations that are working to address the problem.

Users of OpenOceans’ online map and survey (openoceans.org/trash-survey) can mark the location of a plastic-fouled beach,

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OB Dog Beach Had the Most Trash Removed During Surfrider’s ‘Morning After’ Clean-Up

July 8, 2022 by Source

Ocean Beach’s Dog Beach was the top site of trash removal during this year’s Surfrider “Morning After” clean-up — compared to all other sites in the annual ritual on July. 735 pounds were removed from OB Dog Beach.

The second site with the most trash was Fiesta Island with 450 pounds. The OB Pier clean-up found 143 pounds.

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Why Neil Gorsuch’s Mother Would Be So Proud of the Destruction His Supreme Court Has Wrought

July 7, 2022 by Source

Anne Gorsuch’s brief, troubled tenure as EPA administrator had to have influenced the outlook of her then impressionable 16-year-old son.

By David Helvarg / Common Dreams / July 7, 2022

Last week the U.S. Supreme Court, in its latest rollback of precedent and law voted 6-3 to strip the EPA of its ability—under the Clean Air—to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants during a global heat wave and expanding climate emergency. While Chief Justice Roberts wrote the majority opinion, Justice Neil Gorsuch,

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You’re Not Allowed to Have the Best Sunscreens in the World

July 6, 2022 by Source

Newer, better UV-blocking agents have been in use in other countries for years. Why can’t we have them here?

By Amanda Mull / The Atlantic / July 2022

At 36, I am just old enough to remember when sunscreen wasn’t a big deal. My mom, despite being among the palest people alive, does not remember bringing it on our earliest vacations, or hearing any mention of sun protection by our pediatrician. …

The preponderance of babies in rashguards and bucket hats that you now see at the beach shows how much has changed, and how quickly.

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California Passes Nation’s Toughest Plastic Reduction Bill

July 6, 2022 by Source

By Joseph Winters / Grist- Reader Supported News / July 5, 2022

California lawmakers declared a momentous victory against plastic pollution on Thursday when Governor Gavin Newsom approved a far-reaching bill to reduce plastic production, signing it into law just hours before a looming deadline.

The Plastic Pollution Producer Responsibility Act, widely considered the “strongest” plastic reduction policy in the nation, requires a 25 percent reduction of single-use plastic packaging and foodware — both by weight and by the number of items — within the next 10 years. The bill zoomed through the California Legislature this week, passing the state Assembly by 66 to 1 on Wednesday evening before clearing the Senate without opposition on Thursday morning.

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July 2022 Events From the Ocean Beach Green Center

July 5, 2022 by Source

All events are online and free unless stated otherwise.

Every Saturday 10:30 am. Climate Mobilization Coalition Zoom Meeting July 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th,

Pride Events this month

June 17th – September 7th “The Buses Are Coming.”

July 6th Wednesday 6:30 pm -8 pm Stop TEPCO

July 8th Friday 7:30 pm – 10 pm Movie Night with DxE San Diego

July 9th Saturday 10 am- 12 pm Open Garden Day at Ocean Beach Community Garden

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Surfrider and Partners Host ‘Morning After Mess’ Cleanups at OB Pier and OB Dog Park – Plus Other Sites – Tuesday, July 5

July 1, 2022 by Source

Surfrider volunteers will be hosting its “Morning After Mess” Beach Cleanup at the Ocean Beach Pier on Tuesday, July 5. Another partner group will host the clean-up at OB’s Dog Park. The clean-ups will be from 8 to 11 am.

They’re part of a series Surfrider and its partners are hosting throughout the county, which are held each year to help tackle the mess. These cleanups are open to the public; registration is live at Surfrider San Diego’s website.

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‘We’ll Miss the OB Pier Fireworks … But Maybe It’s Time to Move On’

June 30, 2022 by Frank Gormlie

We’ll certainly miss the OB Pier fireworks, which has been cancelled again for the third year in a row. Watching those blazing white sparkles flow off the pier into the ocean were a sight worth remembering. And holding your child up so they could see the colorful explosions illuminating the night sky over OB is a memory worth cherishing.

This year we’ve been told that the pier cannot handle trucks and other weight-causing activity.

But, you know, maybe it is time to move on. Something different. Did you see how Imperial Beach this July 4th is replacing its fireworks with a high-tech drone show?

Here in OB, we need to accept the reality.

The reality is that pyrotechnics from and over the Ocean Beach Pier cannot continue – for two main reasons:

Now, there are alternatives — see inside. In the meantime …

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Reader Rant: Kensington Pepper Trees Fall Victim to a City That ‘Removes More Trees In a Year Than It Plants’

June 15, 2022 by Source

Add Kensington Pepper Trees to Newport Ave. Palms, Liberty Station Eucalyptus, OB’s Torrey Pines, Normal Heights Tree Topping in Ward Canyon, etc

By Maggie McCann

Policy schmolicy. Or so said the judge.

The Kensington pepper trees’ day in court was merely for show. The judge had already made up his mind before the trial started, but let the show go on, albeit with his constant interruptions and arguments overshadowing anything that our attorney could say.

In the end, His Honor decided that the City does not have to follow Council Policy 900-19, the Public Tree Protection Policy, because he called it an “unfunded mandate.” He also made some noise about there being no case law to say that an official Council policy, for which a hearing was held, a vote taken, and the policy entered into the City’s Big Book of Policy Stuff, has the weight of an ordinance.

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Getting to Know Your Ocean Beach Weeds — No, Not That Kind — The Kind in Your Garden

June 14, 2022 by Source

This article was originally posted on the OB Rag on October 3, 2012

by Jill Richardson

With my big front yard swale project out of the way, I’m getting started on the backyard. The backyard intimidates me. It’s huge, full of bermudagrass, and parts of it are covered in chips of paint from the construction that’s gone on here over the past year or so. I’ve been having conversations in bad Spanglish with Jorge the painter about why we don’t want paint in our soil.

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June 2022 Events From the Ocean Beach Green Center

June 6, 2022 by Source

All events are online and free unless stated otherwise.

Every Saturday 10:30 am. Climate Mobilization Coalition Zoom Meeting June 4th, 11th, 18th and 25th.
June: Join Solidarity Farm SD at their free Summer Farmer Training
June 8th Wednesday 9 am – 12 pm Connecting Housing and Energy: I
June 8th Wednesday 12 pm – 2 pm Stop Sempra from Fracking Our Future and Polluting Our Communities!

June 8th Wednesday 6 pm – 7 pm Expanding EV Infrastructure

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50 Year Old Nuke Plant Bites the Dust

June 3, 2022 by Michael Steinberg

By Michael Steinberg / Black Rain Press

On May 20 Michigan newspaper The Holland Sentinel reported,”Pallisades Nuclear Plant Shuts Down 10 Days Early.”

The plant was scheduled to close for good on May 31, but, The Sentinel reported, plant owners “made a conservative decision” to pull the plug 10 days early due to “control rod seal” problem.

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Expanding Nuclear Power to Fight Climate Change Would Be Insanity

May 17, 2022 by Source

by Sarah Mosko/ Times of San Diego / May 17, 2022

Former nuclear regulatory top dogs from the United States, France, Germany and Great Britain recently issued a joint statement opposing expansion of nuclear power as a strategy to combat climate change. Why? There’s not a single good reason to build new nuclear plants.

Here are ten solid reasons not to.

1. Nuclear is too slow. The new generation of proposed commercial nuclear plants, so called Advanced and Small Modular Reactors, is decades away in designing and building.

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Navy Pushed to Clean Up ‘The Fiery Marsh’ of Coronado Where Hazardous Waste Still Leaks Into San Diego Bay

May 5, 2022 by Source

State of California Pushes Navy to Act 30 Years After Pledge to Clean Burnoff Site

By J.W. August, freelance journalist

May 5, 2022 (San Diego) – It’s aptly described as “The Fiery Marsh,” covering 95 acres on the southwest side of Naval Air Station North Island. The “fiery” part of the name refers to six pits in the marshy areas of the island that were used to burn off chemicals used on the Navy base.

A letter sent in February by the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control board’s Executive Officer, David Gibson, to the Commanding Officer at North Island, Captain Dwight Clemons, asks the Navy“ to initiate a formal dispute process in response to the environmental and water quality concerns at the “Fiery Marsh.”

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Biden’s Nuclear Boondoggle Threatens to Unravel Decades of Progress

May 3, 2022 by Michael Steinberg


By Michael Steinberg
The names and faces and political parties in power may change, but the shill game remains the same: waste incredible fortunes on dangerous discredited boondoggles.

Nuclear power came into being as a reaction to the public’s horror after the US’s use of nuclear bombs to devastate Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In reaction to this the government instituted the “Atoms for Peace program, most notably encouraging electric companies to build large nuclear power plants with huge subsidies that would produce electricity promised to be “too cheap to meter.”

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May 2022 Events From the Ocean Beach Green Center

May 2, 2022 by Source

All events are online and free unless stated otherwise.

Every Saturday at 10:30 am. Climate Mobilization Coalition Zoom Meeting May 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th.

May 12th Thursday 6 pm – 7 pm Raising Backyard Chickens Workshop

May 12th Thursday 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm BLOC POWER: Making America’s Cities Smarter, Greener & Healthier

May 14th Saturday 9:30 am – 11:30 pm Backyard Composting Basic Workshop

May 16th Monday 5 pm – 7 pm Political Discourse: How We Use the Terms Fascism and Socialism Event by League of Women Voters

May 18th Wednesday 3 pm Transit Town Hall Sponsored by the Green New Deal

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The City Is Caught In Another Lie About the Point Loma Palm Trees : The FAA Did Not Mandate Their Cutting Down

April 28, 2022 by Staff

By Geoff Page

In a previous OB Rag piece about the Newport palms, “The City of San Diego and its Forester Misrepresented ‘Immediate Safety Hazard’ in Effort to Remove Point Loma Palm Trees,” the subheading was “Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire.”

That subheading was there because it had been proven that the forester’s and city official’s claims that the FAA was calling the shots was exposed as a lie. The piece even included a cartoon graphic showing a man running with his rear end on fire.

They lied again but it is not so funny anymore because five trees are gone forever. The action was based on the same lie the forester and the city tried before, including the FAA in this. Suspicious that the city was lying again,

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Earth Day Is a Joke

April 22, 2022 by Frank Gormlie

San Diegans have been celebrating “Earth Day” since 1970. What has it gotten us? A large festival in Balboa Park where goer’s leave a mountain of non-biodegradable trash.

It’s a nice day where we celebrate our home base, giving credit to this incredible life form that allows us to live, breathe and flourish. We buy shirts with slogans like “Protect Your Mother” and brands offer discounts and run campaigns for limited edition Earth Day products celebrating nature, animals, and Earth of course.

It’s a nice gesture to the home that has given us everything, without question.

But this day is a joke. It’s too much of a nice, “cute” kind of thing. It’s a celebration of our minuscule efforts in the grand scheme to take care of it.

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Greta Thunberg: ‘Act As If the House Is on Fire – Because It Is.’

April 22, 2022 by Source

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Mr. President, Nukes Are Not ‘Clean’ Energy

April 21, 2022 by Source

In arguably one of the worse decisions of the Biden administration, the Energy Department announced Tuesday, April 19, that it was launching a program to provide up to $6 billion in grants to U.S. nuclear plants to help them keep operating.

All in the name of “clean energy.”

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a statement:

“U.S. nuclear power plants contribute more than half of our carbon-free electricity, and President Biden is committed to keeping these plants active to reach our clean energy goals.”

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UCSD Scientists Create ‘World’s First Biodegradable Shoe’

April 21, 2022 by Source

By Emerson Dameron / UCSD News Center / Apr 21, 2022

Stephen Mayfield, a molecular biology professor at UC San Diego, now has a stake in the business of footwear alongside partners Michael Burkart and Robert Pomeroy from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. After six years of research and experimentation, these professors are launching the world’s first biodegradable shoe through the company Blueview, of which Mayfield also serves as CEO.

What began as a project to turn algae into fuel shifted into a quest to develop high-performance biodegradable polyurethane foams, which are used as shoe soles.

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Russian Attacks and Ukraine’s Nuclear Plants

April 4, 2022 by Michael Steinberg

By Michael Steinberg / Black Rain Press

Nuclear Shutdown News chronicles the decline and fall of the nuclear power industry in the US and beyond, and highlights the efforts of those who are working for a nuclear free world.

Russian Attacks on Ukraine Nuclear Plants Continue

As Russia’s war against Ukraine enters a second month, so too has its game of chicken against Ukraine’s nuclear facilities. One of the first actions of the February action was the Russian Army’s takeover of the devastated Chernobyl nuclear power station, as detailed in last month’s edition.

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April 2022 Events From the Ocean Beach Green Center

April 1, 2022 by Source

All events are online and free unless stated otherwise.

Every Saturday 10:30 am. Climate Mobilization Coalition Zoom Meeting. April 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd, and 30th.

April 6th Wednesday 5:30 pm – 7 pm Public Surveillance vs. Personal Privacy
April 7th Thursday 1 pm – 2 pm Achieving Green Infrastructure in San Diego
April 9th Saturday 10:30 am – 12 pm JOIN US FOR A DAY OF ACTON. Event by Climate Mobilization Coalition

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The Widder Curry: ‘I Have Family in Australia Where They’re Having a Once-in-500 Year Storm’

March 2, 2022 by Judi Curry

A Grandmother’s Concern

By Judi Curry

Too often we hear about something third or fourth hand, and although we feel sorry for the involved people, we let it pass until the next crisis hits. Many of us know individuals that come from Ukraine that are losing their very foundation of life.

But today I am faced with a problem even closer to home.

Many of you may know that I have a granddaughter and two great-grandchildren that are in Australia.

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March 2022 Events From the Ocean Beach Green Center

March 1, 2022 by Source

All events are online and free unless stated otherwise.

EarthFair is coming Sunday April 24th Our annual EarthFair in Balboa Park is the largest free annual environmental fair in the world. Each year, the EarthFair draws around 50,000 visitors looking for ways to live a more sustainable life and support a clean, healthy, prosperous environment – and have a great day in the park!

*** Every Saturday 10:30 am. Climate Mobilization Coalition Zoom Meeting. March 5th, 12th, 19th and 26th.
*** March 3rd Thursday 3 pm The State of Biodiversity 2022
*** March 4th Friday 4:30 pm – 6 pm Join the movement to push UCSD to address the climate crisis
*** March 4th Friday 7 pm – 8 pm Sierra Talks – Strength From Nature Event by Sierra Club
*** March 5th Saturday 10 am – 11:30 pm Community Mobility Roadmap Southeastern San Diego

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War in Ukraine Threatens Nuke Plants

March 1, 2022 by Michael Steinberg

By Michael Steinberg / Black Rain Press

Nuclear Shutdown News chronicles the decline and fall of the nuclear power industry, in the US and beyond, and highlights the efforts of those working to create a nuclear free world.

On February 26 the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that “Russian forces have taken control of” the Chernobyl nuclear plant site of the 1986 nuclear catastrophe, when the now former Soviet Union owned and operated the facility.

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February 2022 Events From the Ocean Beach Green Center

February 1, 2022 by Source

All events are online and free unless stated otherwise.

February 9th Wednesday 5:30 to 7 pm “Teaching about Diversity and the Controversy Over Critical Race Theory”

February 10th Thursday 4 pm – 5 pm San Diego Building Electrification Coalition monthly meeting.

February 10th Thursday 5:30 pm Smokescreen: Debunking Wildfire Myths to Save Our Forests and Our Climate.

February 10th Thursday 6 pm – 7:30 pm Transportation Equity Forum Event by SD350

February 12th Saturday 4:30 pm – 8 pm Fundraiser for WILDCOAST

COME INSIDE for all details and links.

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