USA

Aloha!

- Agasel 1 Comment

pictureThey say, “Everyone who visits Hawaii wants to live there.”  A good reason to move: free access for residents to Hanauma Bay, a blue jewel in the eye of every snorkeler and scuba diver.

Located in Oahu, near Waikiki, Hanauma Bay was declared a protected marine life conservation area and underwater park in 1967. The bay floor is actually the crater of an ancient volcano that flooded when the exterior wall collapsed and the ocean rushed in.  Because of the physical makeup, the water is almost always calm — except for the kids (and adults) who scream excitedly when coming upon sealife.  Visitors are almost never disappointed, being able to swim amongst fish, some the size of their heads!

All first-time visitors watch a video before heading to the beach.  The presentation highlights a few conservation points, such as:

  • don’t feed or touch the sealife, or coral
  • don’t chase the fish
  • don’t walk on the coral reef
  • use the restroom before you swim

The number of daily visitors is limited, in order to preserve this natural sea park.  So, people are encouraged to arrive early (it’s open by 7a.m.).  The educational site for Hanuama bay can be found here.

International Volleyball

- Adam Clare

from laweekly.com Along the increasingly militarized USA-Mexico border some people are having fun. They play an volleyball using the wall that defines the border as the net! It attracts spectators and a good time is had by all.

All this activity finally brings down the hammer of the border patrol, and a jeep shows up to separate us. The officer is friendly but firm. He’s just come on shift and has no idea we’ve been playing volleyball over the fence for the past hour.

“Really?”

He tells us that a daredevil launched himself across the border in a cannon a while back, but that ours was, in fact, the first-ever game of international border volleyball.

“And it worked over that tall fence?”

“Yup,” we say. “We’re up for one more round if you want to play.”

“No, man,” the officer says. “I’m on duty.”

California Sues Car Companies for Health Damage

- Adam Clare

thanks yahooThis is big news! Maybe this will have the same impact that suing tobacco companies had. The state charges that car companies have damaged people’s health because of the emissions of their products.

“California filed a global warming lawsuit on Wednesday against Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp., Toyota Motor Corp. and three other automakers, charging that greenhouse gases from their vehicles have cost the state millions of dollars.

State Attorney General Bill Lockyer said the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Northern California was the first of its kind to seek to hold manufacturers liable for the damages caused by their vehicles’ emissions.

The lawsuit also names Chrysler Motors Corp., the U.S. arm of Germany’s DaimlerChrysler AG, and the North American units of Japan’s Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. Ltd..

The lawsuit charges that vehicle emissions have contributed significantly to global warming and harmed the resources, infrastructure and environmental health of the most populous state in the United States.”

Golden (Gate) Power

- Adam Clare 1 Comment

In the USA municipalities are doing exactly what the Bush administration despises – trying to use sustainable energy. San Francisco is one such city that is trying to be kind to the environment and they have a really cool idea of using tidal power under the Golden Gate Bridge.

They are investing $150,000 in a feasibility study to use tidal waves to power upwards of 40,000 homes! Officials note the obvious connection between current energy use and climate change and proclaim this project to be a needed step in the development of their city.

“Ultimately, city officials hope that turbines below the bridge will capture tidal energy from the powerful flow that circulates in and out of the mouth of the bay and generate as much as 38 megawatts of power, or enough to power 38,000 homes.

The tides at the Golden Gate offer one of the best locations on the western coast of North America to generate that power, according to a study released this summer by the Electric Power Research Institute and backed by the city’s public utilities agency.”

Judge Rejects Bush

- Cam Proctor

In a lawsuit filed last year, the Sierra Club and other conservation group sued the U.S. Forest Service over its plans for managing the 328,000-acre Giant Sequoia National Monument preserve, home to two-thirds of the world’s largest trees. U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer sided with the state attorney general to halt further logging in the national monument created by President Clinton in 2000.

The plan would have allowed up to 7.5 million board feet of timber — enough to fill 1,500 logging trucks — to be removed each year from the preserve, the plaintiffs said. The Forest Service was disappointed with Breyer’s ruling and may appeal, said spokesman Matt Mathes. The Forest Service’s wonky science approved the removal of small diameter trees (not the 100+ year old trees) to “save” the older trees from fire. Green (young) trees are usually better at repelling fire since they are young and relatively water logged and most fires start from old underbrush. Removing the underbrush would prevent dangerous fires, but not worth a profitable venture.

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