Category: Environment

by Bill McKibben / 350.org / October 11, 2010

How do you say ‘thank you’ 7,347 times?

People got to work yesterday in at least that many places around the world — the planet has never seen anything quite that widespread. Or quite that beautiful.

I hope you’ll take a few minutes to visit 350.org to look through some of the thousands of pictures that we have managed to sort through so far:

by Olive Guy

What about the olives I asked? No one knew what to say. Our front yard has two large olive trees, each with weighted down branches, full of black and green oval fruit – and every shade in between. In fact, one large branch was so heavy, it cracked and dangled close to the ground. Both trees had begun to shed its fruit – that ancient delicacy.

I wanted to harvest the dozens, no hundreds of olives that were ripening and wasting their lives by falling to the hard earth below, where they would become mashed down with everything else. But no one else in the house either liked olives that much or knew what to do with them.

MANY SAN DIEGO EVENTS – LISTED INSIDE

From the 350.org website:
Dear World,

It’s been a tough year: in North America, oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico; in Asia some of the highest temperatures ever recorded; in the Arctic, the fastest melting of sea ice ever seen; in Latin America, record rainfalls washing away whole mountainsides.

So we’re having a party.

Circle 10/10/10 on your calendar. That’s the date.

Here is the agenda for the OB Planning Board meeting for Wednesday, October 6, 2010. The meeting will be held at the OB Rec Center at Santa Monica and Ebers, and begins at 6pm.

(Go inside to read the agenda.)

It was a rainy and humid day when we packed up and headed for Big Sur last Thursday. Patty had never driven the famous Highway 1 – Pacific Coast Highway (PCH), nor had she ever seen Big Sur, and had never been to Hearst Castle. And I aimed to change all that. With camping tent, propane stove, food for 4 days and 2 plastic chairs, we packed up the PT Cruiser and headed out of town with a big sigh – ‘finally’- !

Editor: Despite the following being nine months old, we thought we’d share it.

By Frank Schaeffer

Before he’d served even one year President Obama lost the support of the easily distracted left and engendered the white hot rage of the hate-filled right. But some of us, from all walks of life and ideological backgrounds — including this white, straight, 57-year-old, former religious right wing agitator, now progressive writer and (given my background as the son of a famous evangelical leader) this unlikely Obama supporter — are sticking with our President.

Why?– because he is succeeding.

Reader Rant by Anonymous Health Nut

This is why when I see all those pink ribbons on the ads that are geared towards “the cure’ for breast cancer, I go ballistic! We do not need another drug to fight a disease that kills and disfigures a person’s body and life. We need to clean up the crap in our air, water and food supply. Bottom line is greed is causing breast cancer; the greed of corporations who have no consciousness regarding clean food air and water.

The OB Rag has received word that Councilman Kevin Faulconer is hosting a news conference tomorrow morning – September 24th – at Sunset Cliffs to unveil the new, City-installed wooden benches. The conference/ unveiling is at 11:45 a.m. on Sunset Cliffs Boulevard between Froude and Guizot streets.

A Gulf Breeze couple is riding across America in support of the families who are victims of the Gulf Coast Oil Spill. Feeling an obligation to help, Roger and Vicki Grooters of Gulf Breeze embarked Friday, Sept. 10 on a cross-country ride. Roger is riding his bicycle from Ocean Beach in San Diego, Calif., to Jacksonville – a distance of approximately 3,200 miles.

Controversy has surrounded potential management plans for the Children’s Pool at Casa Beach since seals formed a rookery on its shores more than a decade ago. One of the most recent attempts at regulating interactions between humans and seals has been hiring a park ranger using private funds secured by District 1 City Councilwoman Sherri Lightner’s office.

Randy Hawley, who became the city of San Diego’s first park ranger in 1989, interrupted his retirement to supervise the area as a provisional employee while the city searches for a full-time ranger.

Democrats are in trouble come November. If current polling is any indication, Republicans have a good chance of reclaiming a majority in the House of Representatives and perhaps even the Senate (though the Senate is a less likely prospect). That’s not because people are wildly excited about Republicans. In fact, a recent poll shows that registered voters rate the GOP’s performance as worse than the Democrats’. But the enthusiasm gap between the parties gives the GOP an advantage; a nine-point advantage among likely voters, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll .

by Jim Grant

Ocean Beach is known for being Ocean friendly and aware of the community and environment. And the association between the two. Surf Rider Paddle Out’s…Beach Clean Up’s and the like are very common in Ocean Beach. People come from all over San Diego to watch the sunset ……From Dog Beach to Ladera Street, the Cliffs and Beach is packed with people coming to enjoy the sunset.