Seen in: Twentynine Palms, CA
Climate zone: arid desert climate
Official lawn name: Roadrunner Dunes Golf Course
Note to owner: Do not give way to the Mojave! Sprinkle it! Green it! Squash the dusty bastard!
(photo: Michael R. Swigart via Flickr)
I looked for a bicycle stand and found the above nothingness.
Where: Whole Foods Market, Pasadena, CA. “The largest Whole Foods Market west of the Rockies”, according to a company press release. It also states that “this new 2 story, 76,770 square foot store will be the next evolution of Whole Foods Market, designed to exceed its customers’ expectations (…)”
Sounds great.
These are the options for customers who arrive by bike:
1) Park in spot pictured above.
2) Park at (usually already taken) bus stop sign, thereby half blocking the sidewalk.
3) Park at cunningly hidden sub-standard bike stand 137 steps away from the front door, next to the parking garage entrance. If you can’t see it at first – look harder. Look BEHIND THE TRASHCAN. Happy shopping!
(photo: Backhouse Images)
This is the nicest sign we’ve seen in a long time. Our reporter snapped this pic a few days ago in Burbank, CA. Ikea started charging money for their plastic bags in the US in March 2007. In the UK, the company managed to reduce plastic bag consumption at their check-outs by 95 percent.
Today, the L.A. Times printed an editorial that is in favor of governments putting a fee on plastic sacs – which is currently illegal in California, due to an idiotic bill passed in 2006 (AB 2449) that was meant to promote in-store recycling. As long as that weird provision is not repealed, discouraging customers from using disposable bags is up to the stores. Go, Ikea!
Read why plastic bags are worse than you ever thought here and here (PDF from Healthebay.org). And here:
A recent staff report for the L.A. County Board of Supervisors (PDF) about carryout bags in L.A. County mentions the hidden costs of plastic bags for consumers. The average shopper makes the store spend $18 per year to provide him with free plastic bags. And the store will make sure to get those $18 back via increased product prices. In other words, we all pay 18 bucks per year for this nation’s bad bagging habit. What a mess.
(photo: Backhouse Images)
The issue: Suspiciously naive reporting about the most decadent, noisy and annoying way some Americans spend their spare time – driving off-road recreational vehicles
Seen in: Today’s L.A. Times; headline “Kicking Up Sand”
Tag line: “Side-by-side, UTV, MUV . . . whatever the name, they’re fun.”
What’s missing: The sentence “Burning gas for fun is wrong, you morons!”
The obvious explanation for the omission: Some evil off-road driver spiked staff writer Susan Carpenter’s drink on deadline day. And her editor’s, too…
We hope Ms Carpenter will get better soon.
Also, we recommend some reading material from the Sierra Club to speed up the recovery.
ORVs (off-road vehicles) emit large amounts of pollution, including carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and carcinogens such as benzene. The small, inefficient two-stroke engines of some of these machines spew out as much as 30 percent of their fuel unburned – polluting the soils, air, and water of our National Forests, National Parks, and other public lands.
(…)
Off-road vehicles are allowed on 93% of the 264 million acres managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Although ORV users represent only a small percentage of the total number of people recreating on public lands – they are having a disproportionately large and harmful impact. Since the roar of motors can be heard by people and wildlife miles away, these vehicles can ruin the experience for those who choose to experience the outdoors without motorized vehicles.
(photo: Backhouse Images)
BREAKING NEWS – The Ecomorons Greenwashing award for the month of December goes to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) and their Holiday Light Festival. Congratulations!
What is the Light Festival?
The annual event consists of multiple displays made of light bulbs and LEDs that mainly depict local landmarks, such as Griffith Observatory, City Hall and the Los Angeles aqueduct. For almost six weeks during the holiday season these illuminate a one-mile stretch of Crystal Springs Drive at the base of Griffith Park.
Why do the organizers get an award?
For giving a whole new meaning to the term “green”, which they very creatively used on the Light Festival website in this context:
To demonstrate our commitment to a “greener” LA, the Holiday Light Festival will be a pedestrian only event from November 21 through November 25.
So the LADWP made the Festival pedestrian-friendly on 5 out of 40 nights?
Yepp. And their thoughtful commitment extends even further. The LADWP managed to have bicyclists banned from Crystal Springs Drive – a public road – for the duration of the event. (Cyclists were allowed one sneak preview on a solitary night before the official opening of the Festival.)
How much greener can you get?
A lot. The LADWP also encouraged Angelenos to view the displays from their slowly moving cars, edging along in bumper-to-bumper traffic and clogging up the whole neighborhood.
Sounds great! How did the LADWP achieve that?
By making walking as unpleasant as possible. Pedestrians had to hike next to the event-related traffic jam, on the opposite side of the street from the lights displays. Again, we would like to thank the LADWP for making this Holiday season greener then ever.
Was there an Honorable Mention in the Greenwashing Award for December?
Yeah, the LADWP snatched that one up, too, for providing us with the following info about the above mentioned Light Festival on the Festival website:
This festival symbolizes LADWP’s proud history and shared legacy of service to the people of the city.
Now, the jury couldn’t find anyone with the ability to explain what a “shared legacy of service” is. But we are all the more certain about the meaning of the phrase “proud history”. And the proud history of the LADWP conjures up the image of the dusty bed of Owens Lake (dry due to historic LADWP activities instigated in the early 20th century by William Mulholland, who got his own celebratory display at December’s event). Pondering LADWP history, we also vaguely remember that the complete destruction of the Mono Lake ecosystem (courtesy of the water diversions of the LADWP) could only be stopped via court order. We congratulate the LADWP to its proud history as well as to its Honorable Mention!
O.k. – just one more: the Special Additional Greenwashing Commendation for December goes to…
…the LADWP! They owe their unprecedented winning streak to one further unique feature on their company website: a rather curious article about Mulholland’s life and achievements, which neither mentions his questionable methods of acquiring water rights in the Owens Valley, nor his collapsed St. Francis Dam that caused 450 deaths and the end of his career in the year 1928.
For more rants about the Holiday Light Festival, see IlluminateLA, here and here. And an op-ed piece by L.J. Williamson in the L.A. Times.
(photos: “Going Green” by Melissa Acedera – check out her photo blog Melle Music; “LADWP Arch” by Chester Paul Sgroi; “God Bless America” by Raphael Mazor via Flickr)
The original post was modified on January 4, 2008. For aesthetic reasons the original arch/traffic jam image was replaced by the one you can see now.