Solar pilot, without impact report, proposed for Owens Valley
Nearly a century after Los Angeles drained Owens Lake by diverting its water to the Los Angeles Aqueduct, the city now hopes to generate solar energy on the dusty salt flats it left behind, reports Phil Wilson in the Los Angeles Times.
The Department of Water and Power’s board of commissioners Tuesday unanimously approved a renewable energy pilot project that would cover 616 acres of lake bed with solar arrays — a possible precursor to a mammoth solar farm that could cover thousands of acres.
To keep reading, click here.…
Gag me with a high rise
Las Vegas City Center. Photo: Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times. Click on the image to be taken to the story.
AS the US heads to Copenhagen without any clear plan to combat the effects of climate change on water, one of the areas predicted to be worst hit by global warming, Las Vegas, Nevada, is opening “CityCenter.”
In a preview so unctuous that it would embarrass an ad agency, the Los Angeles Times travel section writes, “Even in Las Vegas, a town not given to architectural subtleties, CityCenter looms large. The 67-acre, $8.5-billion, 18-million-square-foot ‘city within a city’ combines size and flourish with environmental consciousness.”
What?…
High good, low bad: Mead in November
Water strategy for climate change
One only need read James G. Workman’s op-ed in today’s Los Angeles Times to deduce what we aren’t doing about water in advance of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen next week.
Rather than wait for hell to freeze over and heaven to melt, the US Environmental Protection Agency has got out in front of politicians with this presentation on what’s happening to our climate in the meantime, its impact on our fresh water supply and what we should be doing as a matter of urgency.
Read it carefully before confidently taking the quiz, or, as I did, read it carefully the second time before re-taking the quiz.
This posting was updated at 7.10pm, 11/30/2009. The Workman reference and link were added.…
Western datebook: Meet, learn, shop
For those staying out of the malls and in the know, here are a few good events for the upcoming week:
Tuesday December 1:
Public meeting on the proposed Los Angeles Low Impact Development Ordinance
Plant Information with Frank McDonough, Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden
LA River Revitalization Corporation meeting, via LA Creek Freak
Friday December 4:
Winter Cactus and Succulent Show and Sale, Fullerton Arboretum
Saturday December 5:
Go Wild Native Plant Sale, Malibu Creek Watershed Council / Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains, Topanga Ranch
Plant Identification, Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, Arcadia
California Friendly Landscape Workshop, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Harbor City
Garden Tour, Water Conservation Garden at Cuyamaca College, El Cajon
California Native Plant Society, Los Angeles and Santa Monica Chapter, Field trip and habitat restoration, Cold Creek Preserve
For more events …
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