Huge Victory for Glendale, for California, and for the Global Environment! Glendale City Council Does the Right Thing!

This is huge news! I'm so proud to have been part of the group that worked to get the city of Glendale to investigate building out clean energy instead of expanding a polluting fossil-fuel- buring electricity power plant. Real praise should be directed at Dan Brotman, an adjunct professor of economics at Glendale College, for organizing hundreds of concerned citizens to rally against the original GWP plan to greatly expand the Grayson plant.

Cities all over the world must do more than their fair share if we are to get ahead of climate change and bend the curve on CO2 release. This, of course, will mean not only a better global environment, but also a cleaner, healthier atmosphere to breathe locally. This was a victory for my children's lungs!

Now, how do we get Glendale College to take these issues seriously enough to help GWP and Glendale by installing many megawatts of solar panels on the parking lots and on our buildings?

http://www.latimes.com/socal/glendale-news-press/news/tn-gnp-me-grayson-eir-20180411-story.html

GCC Podcast: Professor Rachel Ridgeway on Marie Tharp and the Theory of Plate Tectonics

My colleague, Rachel Ridgeway, produced an excellent and marvelously concise podcast on how one woman was essential to the development of the theory that explains the distribution of mountains, volcanoes, and earthquakes. It's well worth the three minutes of your time:

https://soundcloud.com/user-295774952/prof-ridgeway-on-marie-tharp

Podcast: Putting Young Career Women in Their (Own) Place: Bungalow Courts in 1920s and 1930s Southern California

Last week, I recorded a podcast about Bungalow Courts in Southern California. These cute little houses turn out to have a uniquely gendered history. In human geography we think of the visible world around us as the result of both culture and environment. These little houses are a great example of that in that they were built to embrace the warm Southern California weather, but also to reflect a whole range of cultural values, including those about where a woman should live.

You can here the podcast here: https://soundcloud.com/user-295774952/mike-reed-woman-history-month?in=user-295774952/sets/woman-history-month

“The cultural landscape is fashioned from a natural landscape by a cultural group. Culture is the agent, the natural area is the medium, the cultural landscape is the result."  Carl O. Sauer

Good News on the Environment For a Change: Plastics-Free Grocery Store Aisle Debuts in the Netherlands

Good News on the Environment For a Change: Plastics-Free Grocery Store Aisle Debuts in the Netherlands!

Read the text and watch the video:
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/28/europe/ekoplaza-plastic-free-supermarket-aisle/index.html

This kind of effort is long overdue. Our streets, rivers, and oceans are filling up with both large and microscopic piece of plastic and there is really no reason for it to continue except for our unwillingness to pay a little more at the grocery store to do better.

Polymers, the building blocks of plastics, can be made from plant materials (corn, sugar, soybeans, etc.) and these plastics are biodegradeable. We can't keep hoping that everyone will recycle all their plastic. We just need to design systems that are sustainable no matter how the average person behaves. These "plastics" will just biodegrade when people toss them on the street or they flow into rivers. I look forward to the day when it's virtually impossible for anyone to litter with plastics!

MAGA? Manifest Infamy

This one speaks for itself. Study it closely and reflect on America's  leadership in the world over the last 70 years, for better or worse. This information, from Gallup, makes it clear that we have lost much of our moral authority worldwide.

Southern California Burns - Satellite Imagery Makes It Clear That Santa Ana Winds Are to Blame

The wind in Southern California usually comes from the northwest. Coming off of the cool  California Current in the Pacific Ocean, we often see cool, even foggy conditions. But when the winds change direction because of high pressure out in the high deserts everything changes.

Fire updates as of 12/6/17: http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-southern-california-wildfires-live-updates-htmlstory.html

American Exceptionalism at Its Worst, Again - Pain and Unhappiness in the Greatest Country on Earth

The Washington Post reports today on an analysis of social science survey data that shows that Americans not only continue to report falling levels of life satisfaction but that they also report significantly more pain than most people in the world.

Sadly, it's very difficult to quickly change cultural norms of this sort. Moreover, the less happy we are, the more likely we seem to be to vote for politicians that only make things worse for the average person.

For example, what are the chances, do you think, that the huge tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy just passed by Congress, will lead to calls for cuts in the social safety net (Medicaire, Medicaid, Social Security)? What effects on our overall society are we likely to see from more pain and suffering among the poorest, if these wealthy politicians manage to cut our public services?

Of course, it's interesting that the other English-speaking countries fair nearly as poorly on these measures. This despite their more extensive social safety net. Maybe there's just something about our culture that makes us miserable?

An individual can't quickly change culture, but he can change his own behavior and values. Moreover, just as interesting as the simplification of such data into country averages is the fact that there is a very wide range of responses in such data. Individuals can and do choose to value something other than hard work, shopping, sports, cars, etc. We are free to choose to value family, exercise, relaxation, nature, shared experiences, art, creativity, music, health food, peace, justice, religion, and anything else that makes us happy and takes away our pain. After all, even in the U.S., where 34% reported pain in the last month, that means that 66% did not. Still, maybe we should all move to Switzerland or the Czech Republic?