The week that was, 11/29/2009-12/5/2009
"Untroubled waters," 1931, from "Behold the day: The color block prints of Frances Gearhart" at the Pasadena Museum of California Art. Click on the image for more prints by Gearhart, a link to the gallery and the curator's essay on the show, which runs through January 31st. Listing via Deborah Netburn at latimes.com.
“The dinosaurs didn’t know it was coming. We do. … Scientists might think that the right information in the right place is enough to move people to moral action, but that’s a logical mistake.” — philosopher Kathleen Dean Moore, “Water — Do we have any moral obligation to the future?” WaterWired, December 4, 2009…
Earth and us
This week WaterWired posted a lecture by philosopher Kathleen Dean Moore in which Moore asks the question that sticks in the caw of any environmentalist:
How can we be aware of impending cataclysm and still be doing so little, if anything, to lessen the impacts of climate change?
“We know that immediate action by us is the thing that can change the direction of this asteroid,” she says, “But that knowledge hasn’t moved us to action … So the question I would ask is: What’s missing?”
According to Moore, the ever louder warnings of scientists aren’t enough. We need to actively decide that it’s wrong to wreck the world.
To hear the whole lecture, click here. As enticement, WaterWired also has Jon Stewart on “Climategate.”
This posting has been updated. The headline has been changed and the Stewart link added.
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The Dry Garden: ‘Sustainable Landscaping for Dummies’
The idea that suburban gardens might be “sustainable” came late to Southern California. Modern Los Angeles was sold on the promise that anything grows. Exotic plants were status symbols. Sunshine was constant, and the only worry about water was finding plants best suited to go next to the swimming pool. More than a century later, the fantasy style is out. Sustainable is in. There’s only one problem. What does sustainable mean?
Landscape architect Owen Dell has cut through the eco-babble to offer not just a definition, but also a how-to book. The Santa Barbara-based author of “Sustainable Landscaping for Dummies,” published by Wiley this year, begins by defining sustainability.
Click here to keep reading this week’s Dry Garden column in the Los Angeles Times.…
Flower report
As a particularly handsome crop of fall roses finish and the thick, almost sickening gardenia-notes fade from blossoms drying on the coyote bushes, throughout December, South Africans plants will dominate the flowering cycle in the Californian mediterranean garden. Jade and aloe are entering their winter flourishes, while the bird of paradise remains at constant attention.
Among California natives, be they false starts or early bloomers, some manzanitas are already decked out with delicate bell-shaped flowers and the earliest of the ceanothuses are covered with their signature cobalt blue blossoms. From the Mediterranean, lavender that has been left to adapt to local rainfall cycles will be verging on a vivid fall bloom, with salvia officinalis already in flower.
If you haven’t scattered your wildflower seeds yet, get out in front of the rains this weekend to …
Rain likely
We in Los Angeles can live in hope that forecasts of rain by Monday are true. To follow the rain, click here. For the best explanation of what the recent State Water Project guarantee of only 5% of normal deliveries for 2010 means, go to Peter Gleick’s column in the San Francisco Chronicle. It’s not as bad as it sounds, he says, but we must prepare for another dry year. For a graphic of reservoir conditions as California enters its rainy season, click here. NOAA image updated 12/06/09, 5.45pm PST.…
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