Recently in Environment
Where We Are:
That the Los Angeles region is pretty dense already is the counter-intuitive finding of a new Census Bureau report.
LA as Subject:
Wildflowers once blanketed hillsides and plains throughout the Los Angeles area where strip malls, suburban homes, and industrial warehouses prevail today.
LA as Subject:
Spreading giants imported from Australia, Moreton Bay fig trees have become a cherished part of Southern California's arboreal heritage.
Where We Are:
The Sahara mustard -- a fast-growing invasive weed -- has begun to crowd out desert wildflowers. Ecologies and economies are at risk.
West Is Eden:
We all know what happened to New England cod and, before that, the great whales. The oceans are not what they used to be.
Commentary:
The Interior Department says Southern California can expect to get a lot less water out of the Colorado River in the next 50 years.
LA as Subject:
Southern Californians have long maintained a complicated relationship with the Santa Ana River, accepting its life-giving water but fearing its wrath.
Where We Are:
Less outdoor lighting is the goal of a new county ordinance and the aim of those who see darker night skies as benefiting both people and wildlife.
Where We Are:
Light and air are substances in the Los Angeles basin, as material as the mountains that frame our horizon. What goes up in the air of L.A. stays there - the minimum is three days - and its presence both harms and delights us.
Commentary:
A tiny threatened fish wins in court against 12 Southern California water agencies.
Where We Are:
Waking up to a passing electrical storm leads to an encounter with ephemeral nature and persistent memory.
Commentary:
Donald Trump calls the San Gorgonio Pass windmills "like a sad person's version of Disneyland."
Where We Are:
The downtown stadium gets a coat of "greenwash." AEG gets a pass. And CEQA gets sacked.
Where We Are:
September is the cruelest month, suggesting autumn but delivering a month of hot days. You can buy relief or remember when the basin bred its own air conditioning.
LA as Subject:
An extensive system of creeks, arroyos, and other watercourses once crisscrossed Los Angeles. Today, most of L.A.'s streams have been paved over, buried and converted into storm drains, or eliminated from the landscape altogether.
Environment:
A group of high-powered environmental organizations has filed suit to send the Cadiz water project back to the drawing board.
Environment:
Does this weekend's swarm of earthquakes mean the Big One is coming? Yes... but not in the way you might think.
Environment:
The EPA's proposed limits on airborne soot could save 25,000 lives a year -- but making them slightly stronger could save 12,000 more.
LA as Subject:
In 1896, Griffith J. Griffith gave Los Angeles 3,015 acres to create "a place of recreation and rest for the masses." Today, Griffith Park is nearly five times the size of New York's Central Park.
Environment:
A new interactive map charts vulnerability to climate change in the state, and the results are bad news for Los Angeles, the Low Desert, and the San Joaquin Valley.
SoCal Focus is a daily blog about the people, places and issues in and around Southern California.
I Am Los Angeles: Strings of Success
Sasha is content just to be living his life on his own terms, doing something he thoroughly enjoys: building and playing guitars.
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