Environment

Yesterday, it was the Counter Culture. Today, it’s…Friday, January 14, 2011 and it’s all about us.

Est. 1964 Re-Incarnated by Popular Demand

This is the original, 60’s, counter culture, LA Free Press. Today’s Best Alternative View & Our Old Hippie Headlines, Too! A Head Trip for Smart Minds.

Been There. Done That.

Now, A Chance to Get it Right.

Published by One p.m. (PST)

January 10 – 14, 2011

The Gathering of the Tribes

A discussion of the rise in the Human Consciousness Movement.

More to Come by 1 pm (PST)

Yesterday, it was the Counter Culture. Today, it’s…
Thursday, November 25, 2010 and it’s all about us.

Est. 1964 Re-Incarnated by Public Demand

This is the original, 60’s, counter culture, LA Free Press. Today’s Best Alternative View & Our Old Hippie Headlines, Too! A Head Trip for Smart Minds.

The Counter Culture is all about us! It’s a statement with a two-fold meaning that explains why what was once imagined may now become our better reality.

Published by One p.m. (PST)

Series 17 – Day 3 of 3

Ecology. Who Cares?

(In addition to our postings here, please check out Peter Bergman’s blog ===>)

IS Coal Coming Clean?

The latest studies and find research on energy issues, coal and clean coal technologies say that:

*Emissions since 1970 – even with triple the amount of coal being used now – have 37% LESS sulfur dioxide,  12.9% LESS nitrogen oxides, and 88.5% LESS particulates!

*Coal can meet domestic electricity demand for more than 200 years at the current rate of consumption… and how it’s helping America promote greater energy security.

*Cleaner coal helps working families save money on electricity bills, provides more money for child care, food and other family essentials.

Learn more about these and other exciting developments at… http://www.americaspower.org/

Is Coal Really Dirty?

Top Ten Reasons Clean Coal is Dirty

#1: “Clean” Coal Increases Rates of Disease

The United States burns more than a billion tons of coal each year – that’s 20 pounds of coal for every person in the country, every day.

According to the American Lung Association, 24,000 people a year die prematurely because of pollution from coal-fired power plants. And every year 38,000 heart attacks, 12,000 hospital admissions and an additional 550,000 asthma attacks result from power plant pollution.

#2: “Clean” Coal Kills Jobs

Despite coal industry claims that coal mining creates lots of jobs, the truth is that coal mining employment has been declining for decades, due to increased use of machinery instead of manpower.

In West Virginia alone, coal mining employment has plummeted from 126,000 miners in 1948 (who produced 168 million tons of coal), to just 15,000 miners employed in 2005 (who, with the help of machinery, produced 128 million tons of coal).

#3: Burning “Clean” Coal Emits Mercury

Coal-fired power plants are the largest source of human-generated mercury pollution in the U.S. Mercury emissions from electrical generation continues to rise.

Mercury in mothers’ blood and breast milk can interfere with the development of babies’ brains and neurological systems and can lead to learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder, problems with coordination, lowered IQ and even mental retardation.

Read more…

Going Beyond Coal – A Student Movement Going in the Right Direction

Contributing Writers Rosalie Murphy and Megan Scott

Despite a tumultuous national election cycle and an impending divided Congress, college students refuse to surrender their dedication to protecting the planet and fighting for a clean energy future.

Campuses Beyond Coal, a division of the Sierra Student Coalition, is a key player in organizing this concern into productive efforts. While the prime mission is to ensure that the campus on which a Chapter is located moves ‘beyond coal’ as its energy source, so, too, is there a determination to have their adjacent community take up the cause.

Here in Los Angeles, the University of Southern California (USC) and LA City College (LACC) have had active Campuses Beyond Coal groups.  They, like the other Chapters, not only have been working to free their campuses from any dependence on coal, they have been actively advocating for a coal-free city.  A recent compatriot of the cause is the Los Angeles Valley College.   One concern of them all is the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, as nearly 40% of the electricity with which it powers the city and , therefore, the campuses in it, comes from coal.

On November 16th, these chapters, and more than fifty others, participated in a National Day of Action to demand bold clean energy leadership from all levels of government.  As an artistic instillation of their vision for a future fueled by renewable energy sources, chapters nationwide displayed more than 6,000 signed and hand-folded pinwheels.  These will be collected and shipped to Washington, D.C. for a similar show of solidarity at the National Mall at the end of this month.

As a participant in this National Day of Action,  the chapter at USC also collected pinwheels, and then strung them between trees in the campus’s Alumni Park.  Afterwards, Alex Talishinsky, a USC undergrad and Beyond Coal member, said “We wanted to highlight how much fantastic renewable energy potential there is in Southern California – we have abundant renewable resources right here. We don’t need dirty and dangerous coal power, and we’re calling on our university, city and national leaders to recognize that.”

To that end, for a second time, USC students formally met with their university officials.  “The administrators we spoke with share a lot of our goals, and the campus Sustainability Office has done a lot of great work,” said Carrell Hambrick, the campus’s Beyond Coal Grassroots Coordinator.  Last year, the office of the university president sent a letter to LA City Council, endorsing the mayor’s commitment to a coal-free city in the next decade. However, Hambrick wants to see her campus undertake ambitious, concrete clean energy goals for itself:

“We talked for almost two hours about possibilities to drastically improve efficiency and even generate solar power on campus. The administrators asked us to draft a proposal for an energy task force, which we’ve done, and we hope it’ll lead to substantial changes on campus.  USC is a globally renowned school and we should be on the forefront of energy innovation, too.”

As for the LA City College Chapter, they, too,  displayed the air-powered pinwheels they collected and also called on their Administration, demonstrating the unity, power and purpose of this national campaign:
“We’re out here to ask the administration to commit to a coal free future on campus at LACC and to demonstrate our support for moving the entire city off of coal as soon as possible,” said Carlos Hernandez, President of the Beyond Coal Campaign at LACC.  “The [LA City College] District has already taken steps in the right direction to becoming a leader among sustainable schools with initiatives like green buildings and some small-scale renewable energy projects, but in reality, as long as a large portion of our power comes from coal, we are still dependent on dirty, old technology.” Likewise, these students want their school to be “a national leader, not just in academics, but in solving the world’s energy challenges.”

“We have a choice as to how long Read more…

The Los Angeles Free Press Makes its First Major Contribution to the Ecology Movement
(41 Years Ago!)

41 Years ago, Ron Cobb was the in-house political cartoonist for the Los Angeles Free Press and is now recognized as one of the finest from that era.  Here, though, may be one of his most enduring and impactful contributions – the Earth Day Symbol.

Derived from both the thoughts of Environment and Organism it was first published, as seen here, on the Front Page of the Los Angeles Free Press.

The Symbol was later placed on a green and white striped background, featured in Time Magazine, and flown as a flag at the initial Earth Day Events.   Since then, it is estimated to have been seen by no less than 100 million people!

Ecology Symbol, Los Angeles Free Press, 1969