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Monday, July 19, 2010
Photos from Newport Bay Field Trip
Check out the photos from the latest field trip! We had a wonderful time exploring Upper Newport Bay and the Peter and Mary Muth Center.
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Sunday, July 11, 2010
Next EcoLink Field Trip: Muth Center at Upper Newport Bay
This coming Sunday July 18th is our next field trip. We will be exploring the Peter and Mary Muth Center at Newport Bay - http://www.newportbay.org/muthover.htm
This will be a great, simple little field trip exploring the nature center, the marsh and the small native gardens. Meet the EcoLink crew at 2pm in the parking lot of the Ralphs in Marina Pacifica in Long Beach and we will carpool on down there. Contact Chris Ward for more info: crward947@hotmail.com
This will be a great, simple little field trip exploring the nature center, the marsh and the small native gardens. Meet the EcoLink crew at 2pm in the parking lot of the Ralphs in Marina Pacifica in Long Beach and we will carpool on down there. Contact Chris Ward for more info: crward947@hotmail.com
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Help Keep Austin Weird
Just back from Tejas. A few days in San Antonio, bookended by 2 days in Austin.
For openers, The Alamo is much improved, no longer overwhelmed by postmodern junk, restored to some simulacrum of integrity. Good curation-signage teaches history w/o pain.
Re-enactors in authentic looking Mexican Army duds with all due accoutrements; silliest hats you ever saw. "Evolution of the Bowie knife" and so on. Good stuff. Bit heavy on the shrine aspect, but how could it possibly be Texas otherwise?
Revelation awaited us at the Austin Museum of Art; shocking visualizations of American Consumption of tobacco, of plastic bottles, of prison uniforms and mens' lives, of mammary implants and womens' lives.
Amazing, mind-blowing art by Chris Jordan. Art simultaneously beautiful and horrific.
Google him. Buy the book. Fly to Austin just to visit the Art Museum, carbon footprint be damned.
For openers, The Alamo is much improved, no longer overwhelmed by postmodern junk, restored to some simulacrum of integrity. Good curation-signage teaches history w/o pain.
Re-enactors in authentic looking Mexican Army duds with all due accoutrements; silliest hats you ever saw. "Evolution of the Bowie knife" and so on. Good stuff. Bit heavy on the shrine aspect, but how could it possibly be Texas otherwise?
Revelation awaited us at the Austin Museum of Art; shocking visualizations of American Consumption of tobacco, of plastic bottles, of prison uniforms and mens' lives, of mammary implants and womens' lives.
Amazing, mind-blowing art by Chris Jordan. Art simultaneously beautiful and horrific.
Google him. Buy the book. Fly to Austin just to visit the Art Museum, carbon footprint be damned.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
EcoLink June Meeting Minutes
Minutes
June 24th , 2010
The meeting was called to order by Taylor Parker at 7:15 p.m.
In attendance –
Kerry Martin, Taylor Parker, Joe Weinstein, Patricia Sidoti, Dorothy Kemmeny
Introduction
General Discussion of BP Oil Spill
El Dorado Nature Center – Kerry Martin
Discussion of the Nature Center and their stream restoration. The stream and the entire walk are now open.
longbeach.gov/naturecenter/
LB Green Party – Dorothy Kemmeny
Discussion of the LB Greens
Los Cerritos Wetlands Stewardship Program – Taylor Parker
Discussion of community-based restoration that has begun.
lcwetlands.org
Friends of Colorado Lagoon-Taylor Parker
Discussion of restoration and closing of FOCL’s education program.
coloradolagoon.org
EcoLink-- Taylor Parker
ecolinklongbeach.blogspot.com
Action Items:
-Taylor: Organize field trip for May to Nix Nature Center in Muth Nature Center on June 18th
Next Meeting: July 22 , 2010
June 24th , 2010
The meeting was called to order by Taylor Parker at 7:15 p.m.
In attendance –
Kerry Martin, Taylor Parker, Joe Weinstein, Patricia Sidoti, Dorothy Kemmeny
Introduction
General Discussion of BP Oil Spill
El Dorado Nature Center – Kerry Martin
Discussion of the Nature Center and their stream restoration. The stream and the entire walk are now open.
longbeach.gov/naturecenter/
LB Green Party – Dorothy Kemmeny
Discussion of the LB Greens
Los Cerritos Wetlands Stewardship Program – Taylor Parker
Discussion of community-based restoration that has begun.
lcwetlands.org
Friends of Colorado Lagoon-Taylor Parker
Discussion of restoration and closing of FOCL’s education program.
coloradolagoon.org
EcoLink-- Taylor Parker
ecolinklongbeach.blogspot.com
Action Items:
-Taylor: Organize field trip for May to Nix Nature Center in Muth Nature Center on June 18th
Next Meeting: July 22 , 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Field Trip to Nix Nature Center!
We had the largest EcoLink group to date visit the Nix Nature Center this past Sunday! We were led on a lovely tour by two of the Laguna Canyon Foundation's brilliant naturalists through the immaculate coastal sage scrub in the Little Sycamore Canyon. The following photos were provided by Patricia (thanks Patricia).
While we didn't see the incredibly rare Laguna Beach Dudleya (Dudleya stolonifera), we did see many beautiful Chalk Dudleya creeping out of the rocks......
Thursday, June 24, 2010
HOME
The single most amazing film I have ever seen.
It is an hour and a half. Watch it through the end no matter how hard it may be to do so. You'll understand once you watch it. You were going to watch a silly Romantic Comedy anyway, why not spend the same amount of time with this. It is as if the Planet Earth documentary and The Inconvenient Truth had a love-child and that off-spring learned how to speak like Obama. I watched a TED Talk by Yann Arthus-Bertrand last night and looked up this film. His project is spectacular - showing our Home in all of its majesty and giving us the product of his genius free to the world. Please watch this.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Responding to the Gulf Tragedy
Oil is still flowing from the ocean floor in the Gulf of Mexico. It started on April 20th and hasn’t so much as paused since. That is five weeks of continuous flow that has totaled somewhere between 18 million and 40 million gallons according to the LA Times Blog. The latest attempt to stop the flow is proving doubtful. The San Francisco Chronicle is saying: “It will take 7 years for the oil deposit below the Deepwater Horizon well to empty if left alone. On Saturday, BP acknowledged it may abandon its best chance so far to cork the well: the 'top kill.'” In the paper today: the government has been quietly investigating criminal charges against BP.
Charging BP with criminal charges is, of course, necessary. It is difficult to describe the tragedy as anything but criminal. Attributing criminal blame to BP seems reasonable and placing the cost of cleanup on their shoulders is also reasonable. But the blame is shared by the government at many levels who work with these oil organizations and also by us consumers who have been voting our complacency with our wallets as we continue to purchase petroleum-based products without question or complaint. In short, the blame for the extensive pollution, the impending die-off of myriad species, the horrible concoction of dispersant and crude that burns skin on contact, the travesty that will plague the wetland and marine life in that area (and beyond) for decades (if not longer) is all of ours, it is the system of consumption that has a life of its own. We all contribute to it, allow it and benefit from it and there is no easy way out of this system.
That doesn’t leave us as a species in a comfortable situation though. We are responsible for immense death and we can’t help it, not easily at least. We cannot just stop our role or we will have to give up, well, most everything. Everything that is not individually or community grown agriculture requires intensive use of oil, many medical supplies are plastic, all transportation (even walking – the comfy soles of your shoes are petroleum related somehow) is crude-oil linked. Food, health and transportation, not to mention entertainment, are much of what sustains us and they are oil-related. Life is oil-related.
Sadness, indignation, helplessness are the emotions I know I feel when thinking about this system. The Gulf situation is but a dramatic manifestation of this system and it is difficult to find a proper response— maybe because there isn’t just one. The poet Robert Bly suggests we grieve, that an appropriate response to all loss is appropriate grief. Bill McKibben suggests action. The Dalai Lama suggests meditation, kindness and lightness. Grief, action, meditation, kindness and lightness; I want these mindsets to replace the emotions I’m currently feeling and I am committing myself toward that replacement.
Articulating these mindsets means giving a foundation to respond appropriately from. Practically, it means spending time with people and places (especially nature) that you love, being creative with your community engagement, volunteering with local organizations that have positive and righteous missions, being very mindful of your consumption and how you choose to spend your money (which is voting for what you believe in), sitting quietly with your thoughts about your place in the world, smiling and smiling with others.
It was suggested at the last EcoLink meeting that the reason it has been five weeks and still no progress in repairing the flow is that BP didn’t want to lose their well completely, that they wanted to do all things possible to retain their investment in that expensive well. That is reprehensible. Tuesday, June 1st, is the start of a four month hurricane season that is expected to be busy. That is frightening. With such deliberate evil actions on the part of man and destructive natural forces that promise to exacerbate those actions, it is difficult to imagine focusing your mindset toward the positive, toward a response that involves, among many other things, smiling. But, as a close mentor of mine has repeatedly expressed, the future has always seemed bleak to every generation on the planet yet it still continues.
Charging BP with criminal charges is, of course, necessary. It is difficult to describe the tragedy as anything but criminal. Attributing criminal blame to BP seems reasonable and placing the cost of cleanup on their shoulders is also reasonable. But the blame is shared by the government at many levels who work with these oil organizations and also by us consumers who have been voting our complacency with our wallets as we continue to purchase petroleum-based products without question or complaint. In short, the blame for the extensive pollution, the impending die-off of myriad species, the horrible concoction of dispersant and crude that burns skin on contact, the travesty that will plague the wetland and marine life in that area (and beyond) for decades (if not longer) is all of ours, it is the system of consumption that has a life of its own. We all contribute to it, allow it and benefit from it and there is no easy way out of this system.
That doesn’t leave us as a species in a comfortable situation though. We are responsible for immense death and we can’t help it, not easily at least. We cannot just stop our role or we will have to give up, well, most everything. Everything that is not individually or community grown agriculture requires intensive use of oil, many medical supplies are plastic, all transportation (even walking – the comfy soles of your shoes are petroleum related somehow) is crude-oil linked. Food, health and transportation, not to mention entertainment, are much of what sustains us and they are oil-related. Life is oil-related.
Sadness, indignation, helplessness are the emotions I know I feel when thinking about this system. The Gulf situation is but a dramatic manifestation of this system and it is difficult to find a proper response— maybe because there isn’t just one. The poet Robert Bly suggests we grieve, that an appropriate response to all loss is appropriate grief. Bill McKibben suggests action. The Dalai Lama suggests meditation, kindness and lightness. Grief, action, meditation, kindness and lightness; I want these mindsets to replace the emotions I’m currently feeling and I am committing myself toward that replacement.
Articulating these mindsets means giving a foundation to respond appropriately from. Practically, it means spending time with people and places (especially nature) that you love, being creative with your community engagement, volunteering with local organizations that have positive and righteous missions, being very mindful of your consumption and how you choose to spend your money (which is voting for what you believe in), sitting quietly with your thoughts about your place in the world, smiling and smiling with others.
It was suggested at the last EcoLink meeting that the reason it has been five weeks and still no progress in repairing the flow is that BP didn’t want to lose their well completely, that they wanted to do all things possible to retain their investment in that expensive well. That is reprehensible. Tuesday, June 1st, is the start of a four month hurricane season that is expected to be busy. That is frightening. With such deliberate evil actions on the part of man and destructive natural forces that promise to exacerbate those actions, it is difficult to imagine focusing your mindset toward the positive, toward a response that involves, among many other things, smiling. But, as a close mentor of mine has repeatedly expressed, the future has always seemed bleak to every generation on the planet yet it still continues.
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