» Environmentalism & Politics

Funny ad for Surfrider

kris — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 17:09:57 +0000

In case you haven’t seen this already, here’s a funny ad for Surfrider.

Guide to Ocean Friendly Seafood

kris — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 15:52:05 +0000

Not all seafood is good for you. In fact, some seafood can actually be bad for you and the environment. Here’s a cool guide that tells you how eco-friendly your favorite type of seafood is. The guide also indicates whether there is a health advisory for each species. Pretty nifty.

Link

3rd Annual Surfrider Paddle for Clean Water

kris — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 18:40:28 +0000

Surfrider is having their 3rd Annual Paddle for Clean Water this Sunday. If you’re wondering exactly what a "Paddle Out" is:

A “Paddle Out” is a public rally where citizens concerned about the state of our coasts and ocean gather on a specific beach to make public presentations and take action. Some of those attending will paddle surfboards, kayaks, etc, into the nearby water to form a “circle of solidarity” in a showing of commitment to turn around the trend of degradation. The event is not only for those willing and able to paddle – it is open to everyone who shares our concerns for the coast and ocean.

It’s basically a media event, to garner attention and support for a worthy cause. The focus of this year’s paddle out is to highlight the findings of Surfrider’s annual State of the Beach Report. Presumably, even if you can’t make it to the official rally, you can do your part by spreading the word where ever you decide to paddle out.

Altered Oceans: latimes.com’s disturbing report on the state of the ocean

kris — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 22:29:11 +0000

latimes.com has a five-part series, called Altered Oceans, on the various ways that we’re damaging the ocean. It’s got some disturbing photos, videos, and graphics. Seriously, you should check it out.

Link

Thanks, 70percent.org

More on the WaveHub project

kris — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 16:39:45 +0000

Some folks from A1surf report that on
a recent trip to the north coast of Cornwall (England), they asked local surf shop owners and surfers what they thought of the impending Wave Hub project.

They were surprised to discover that most people didn’t know anything about the project or it’s potential to degrade the quality of surf in the area. (This news flies in the fact of our initial post on this issue.)

Here’s a page with some info for the locals in Cornwall – it includes a brief form to submit an objection to the Wave Hub project.

The deadline for making an objection to the Secretary of State is Aug 11, 2006.

Study finds 1.5M people per year get sick from Cali beaches

kris — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 11:00:28 +0000

The LA Times reports that an environmental economist at UCLA, in partnership with Stanford University, recently published a study concluding that each year 1.5 million people get sick from visiting California beaches. The study goes so far as to estimate that all those illnesses cost the economy up to $414 million annually.

“Researchers estimated that healthcare costs for beach pollution illnesses ranged from $21 million to $414 million. Those estimates included not only direct losses, such as lost time at work, costs for medical treatment or doctor visits, but also hypothetical costs that beachgoers would be willing to pay to avoid getting sick.”

Usually when economists set out to model the cost of something, it’s because they’ve got some sort of agenda. In this case the agenda appears to be justifying the cost of cleaning up the beaches, so people won’t miss work because they get sick from going to the beach.

Surfers hate it when there’s a water quality advisory at their favorite spot. When the waves are really good, we often roll the dice and paddle out in spite of the risk of contracting some sort of gnarly illness. It’d be great if this study prompts lawmakers to pass legislation that’s designed to promote cleaner beaches, so we can surf without the worry. Realistically, however, that will probably take a while, so in the meantime we should all do our part to keep the water clean.

http://www.earth911.org is a decent place to check the water quality at your local beach and also has information on what you can do to keep the water clean.

The Happy Planet Index

kris — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 21:01:31 +0000

I hate to be the one to break this to you, but according to the New Economics Foundation, a self-proclaimed "think and do tank", if you live in the U.S., then you’re one of the most unhappy people on the planet. Grab a tissue and choke back your tears for a minute while I explain.

The NEF recently published a report called the Happy Planet Index (HPI), The HPI attempts to gage the overall happiness of a country by comparing the average life expectancy of its people to the country’s environmental impact on the planet, so countries where people consume very little and live long lives have a higher HPI than countries where people live as long, but consume more. The HPI rankings have Vanuatu (HPI=68.2) as the happiest country on Earth with Colombia coming in second. The U.S. (HPI=28.8) is pretty far down the list, well below most of the countries in Central America, the Middle East and Africa, which are often thought to be the third world. You gotta love it when economists set out to model something like happiness.

It’s worth mentioning the fact that scientists have actually found that animals tend to live longer the less they eat, so the HPI makes a lot of sense. Thus far I haven’t found any mention of this scientific research in the NEF’s report.

The HPI is clearly subjective and doesn’t account for things like oppressive political regimes, war, lack of surfable waves, or anything else that might make people unhappy. So far it has received a lot of constructive criticism from the media. Despite it’s numerous flaws the HPI is an interesting idea to consider and should serve as a solid foundation for further research on the topic. I doubt people will read the HPI rankings and move to Pakistan, but hopefully it puts a bug in people’s ears and makes them think about how much their own sense of happiness depends on their daily level of consumption.

Now, wipe those snot bubbles from your nose and pack your bags because we’ve got a little research project of our own. Someone’s gotta check out the waves in all those happy countries, so we can bring the HPI down to earth.

Surfers vs Environmentalists

kris — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 06:44:37 +0000

Most surfers typically support green initiatives that promote environmental sustainability, but evidently not when it comes at the cost of smaller waves. Surfers in the south of England (Cornwall) are fighting the construction of a wave energy farm on the grounds that it will reduce the power of the waves by more than 10% along a 20 mile stretch of beach.

Who would’ve ever thought that surfers would be battling environmentalists for waves? I wonder if the environmentalists are telling the surfers not to worry because the waves will be getting bigger as a result of the increase in violent weather that global warming is allegedly causing.

If the wave energy farm gets built and it puts a significant dent in the surf, then there’ll probably be a good opportunity for companies that know how to make waves. Imagine if the energy generated by the wave energy farm were actually used to make waves in a wave pool. That’d be too much.

Honestly, this is a precarious situation for the global surfing community. It’s a textbook case of NIMBY and it’ll be interesting to see the final outcome.

Here’s a link to the article http://www.globalsurfnews.com/news.asp?Id_news=22550

UPDATE: Not all surfers are protesting the WaveHub project. A group called Surfers Against Sewage would rather the waves be a little bit smaller if it means the water will be cleaner.

Save Trestles . . . !

kris — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 23:20:18 +0000

According to NPR, the Natural Resources committe of San Deigo’s City Council unanimously approved a resolution, drafted by the Surfrider Foundation, that opposes the construction of a toll road through San Onofre State Park, home to one of San Diego’s finest surf breaks. Environmentalists say that building the road according to the current plan would disrupt the flow of sediment from San Mateo creek and affect the quality of the waves at Trestles, which breaks at the mouth of the creek. Surfers are rallying to prevent the toll road from being built as many regard Trestles as one of the most high-performance waves on the planet because of it’s shape.

Now, I’m not saying that commuters don’t need more roads, if it will actually help to ease the flow of traffic. But, I don’t think the only way to unclog traffic is to clog the creek and mush up the waves. If we put some bright minds to work, then I’m sure we can find a way to make everyone happy. It might end up costing a little extra, so we’ll just have to sort out exactly who should pay the price.

If you’re sympathetic to preserving one of our nation’s natural treasures, then you should do what you can to help the cause. It’s actually fairly easy to send a letter to government officials. Just go to www.savetrestles.org and click the Take Action link. You should see a link to a Contact Government Officials page, where you’ll find email addresses to all those fatcat politicians as well as a link to download a copy of a letter that’s already been written. You just have to put your name on it and attach it to an email. Instead of sending a separate email to each government official, you can probably just write "To whom it may concern" or "Dear Fatcat" and send that same letter in a single email cc’ing all the fatcats.

While you’re at it, send an email to your friends to drum up awareness. Awareness is key.

Aloha, Mr. Bush.

kris — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 00:56:53 +0000

On June 15, in a majestic display of compassionate conservatism, George Bush used his executive authority to create the world’s largest marine wildlife sanctuary by declaring a chain of ten islands and their surrounding waters a national monument. Roughly the same size as the State of California, the new reserve covers 140,000 square miles of ocean, including an archipelago that stretches 1,400 miles north-west of the main Hawaiian Islands. The archipelago includes roughly 4,500 square miles of coral reef and is inhabited by about 7,000 species. By declaring it a national monument, the entire area will be protected from fishing and oil drilling.

According to The Economist the marine sanctuary would normally have been created under the National Marine Sanctuaries Act of 1972. Conservationists were having trouble creating the reserve under the NMSA, so G-Dub stepped up and knocked the ball out of the park for them. Somebody, give the man a cookie . . . he earned it.

You can check out some video footage of the sanctuary at National Geographic’s site. I’ll bet there are some nice waves out there. Anyone know if it’s against the law to surf a national monument?