Hello everyone and happy hump day!

We have a little Take Action request from the great SurfRider non-profit organization. This one is asking for petitions to make sure the EPA is enforcing the requirement of the best technology being used by these companies to not harm the oceans. Visit the link below to get signed up and add on to our voice.

This is what Coastal Playground is all about, keeping beaches clean and safe for our future generations.



Every day, across the US, older power plants suck in and kill ocean life and disrupt the delicate ecological balance of our coastal and ocean environment through a process commonly called “once-through cooling.” This process is outdated and these older power plants can retrofit with newer technology that re-circulates the water necessary to cool the generators. Re-circulating cooling systems are commonplace on newer power plants and should be standard equipment on every power plant in the country.
The Clean Water Act mandates that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) require all power plants in the country use the “best technology available” to avoid killing ocean life. For years, EPA failed to draft rules to enforce the protection of our precious marine life until the environmental community finally forced them to take action through several lawsuits. Unfortunately, the EPA is once again attempting to avoid their duty and is considering a new rule that leaves enforcement up to the states. THAT’S NOT RIGHT! In fact, that’s what EPA has been doing since the Clean Water Act was passed nearly 40 years ago. IT HASN’T WORKED BEFORE – AND IT WON’T WORK NOW!!
Please join Surfrider Foundation and numerous other organizations in telling EPA to fully enforce the Clean Water Act by telling the electric generating industry to update their antiquated power plants with technology that re-circulates cooling water and eliminates the unnecessary death of our precious marine life.
Nearly forty years of avoiding their duty is over. It’s well past time for EPA to enforce the laws that protect our wonderful and precious marine wildlife!

http://action.surfrider.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4401

What level of importance is environmentalism in your house?

For the last few months, I've been giving it a jab to make myself as sustainable and environmentally friendly as one can in a 1 bedroom 1 bath apartment in Tustin. Granted that i don't even own the actual structure, I can't really make much modification, or else I would have tried installing some solar panels already.

Well, it seems that the White House doesn't really take environmentalism as much of a priority. Below is an article I came across in regards to the Obama Administrations appeasements on its eco policy. Check out the article for yourself and comment back here on the different things you do to help the Earth :)

 

Mr. Babbitt’s Protest

Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt declared in a speech last week that President Obama’s failure to mount a persuasive counterattack to the Republicans’ “radical” assault on the country’s environmental safeguards amounts to a “form of appeasement.”

 

It is rare for someone of Mr. Babbitt’s stature to use such caustic language about a sitting president from his own party. But he was reflecting growing concern — which we share — that the president and his top aides have decided for political reasons to back away from the fight. In recent months the White House has been far too quiet on the problem of climate change, and its once-promising efforts to regulate industrial pollution, toxic coal ash and mountaintop mining are flagging.

Mr. Babbitt’s main complaint involved Mr. Obama’s failure to do more to conserve open space and protect sensitive areas threatened by imminent development. He was particularly dismayed by the White House’s acceptance of a Republican budget rider — pushed by the oil and gas industry — undercutting the Interior Department’s authority to identify and set aside valuable public lands for future designation as permanent wilderness.
Mr. Babbitt said Mr. Obama still represented “the best, and likely only, hope for meaningful progress” on energy and the environment, and we must hope, as he does, that the president’s temporizing is merely temporary. Even bigger fights lie ahead. The administration has proposed to limit power plant emissions of toxic pollutants like mercury and impose new rules governing power plant emissions of greenhouse gases. Any retreat from these pledges would be disastrous.
Mr. Babbitt also said President Obama should emulate President Bill Clinton, Mr. Babbitt’s old boss, who faced similar opposition after the 1994 Republican revolution but came roaring back. After wavering for a while, he seized the lead on conservation issues and threatened to veto all anti-environmental legislation. The public supported him; the Republicans retreated. It is sound advice.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/13/opinion/13mon3.html?_r=1

Report: If We Don't Stop Destroying Our Oceans, We'll See "Mass Extinction" of Marine Life

Pollution and global warming are pushing the world's oceans to the brink of a mass extinction of marine life unseen for tens of millions of years, a consortium of scientists warned Monday.

Dying coral reefs, biodiversity ravaged by invasive species, expanding open-water "dead zones," toxic algae blooms, the massive depletion of big fish stocks -- all are accelerating, they said in a report compiled during an April meeting in Oxford of 27 of the world's top ocean experts.

Sponsored by the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO), the review of recent science found that ocean health has declined further and faster than dire forecasts only a few years ago.

These symptoms, moreover, could be the harbinger of wider disruptions in the interlocking web of biological and chemical interactions that scientists now call the Earth system.

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/620571/report:_if_we_don't_stop_destroying_our_oceans,_we'll_see_"mass_extinction"_of_marine_life/#paragraph4

A love for beer and a love for surf? And environmentalism!

Check out this video on a surfboard made out of empty beer cans!

Cote’s Cube: The Recycled Beer Can Surfboard

Rich Morrison and TWS' Chris Coté and the recycled beer can surfboard. Photo: Kueny

Oh no, not the wetlands!

So as I've been pointing out all this talk on how the highlands and other ecosystems affect the oceans, here we have an article that is chronicling the loss of wetlands in Louisiana. One thing that the wetlands provide assistance in keeping the oceans healthy is by absorbing and preventing farm nutrients, waste and other run offs from reaching the coasts.

One of many more reasons coming up on why we should be moving to a more sustainable and eco-friendly society.

http://www.nola.com/environment/index.ssf/2011/06/louisiana_is_losing_a_football.html

 

 

The Evolution of the Wetsuit

Good day CP Family!

For those bodyboarders and surfers out there, the greatest thing to come around since sliced bread has to be the wetsuit. It's total beach fasion and signature style, keeping you nice and comfy against cold, salty waters. Well, now, it looks like Billabong has upped the ante by creating a wet suit with a built in flotation device. Really RAD (shout out to you Adrian) stuff here. Check out the video below and if you got the funds, go cop one for  yourself. Now you can really enjoy some extreme surf! Just remember to pull that string!

http://www.surfline.com/video/events-and-promotions/the-wetsuit-that-will-forever-change-big-wave-surfing_56388

THE BAG MONSTER!!!

I came across this great site that is dedicated to bringing awareness on single-use plastic bags. The site outlines facts regarding the bags and marine debris that affects marine animals. It also provides a way to follow the Bag Monster across his journey to raise awareness of this type of pollution.

They have just recently come under a law suit brought on by the 3 largest plastic bag manufacturers. So CP family, I urge you to check out their site, campaign and help end plastic bag usage and pollution. And hopefully you've all gone out and bought a re-usable grocery bag to help. If you haven't already, you're missing out! The bags can hold up to 2 or 3 times what a plastic bag can hold. Believe me, it makes carrying groceries in a lot easier!

http://www.bagmonster.com/

The Tragic Effects occuring in the Gulf Coast

 Not only are the Gulf Coast residents still trying to restore their habitats, well being and jobs due to the aftermath of the oil spills that occured last year, they also have the huge effects of the farming that occurs in the midwest. This article details those issues and how we sitll have a long way to go in creating a sustainability that does not affect our oceans. This also points out to how all the ecosystems are tied in to one another and that the highlands need to be protected just as much as the coasts. 





A dead zone -- already the size of the state of New Jersey -- is growing in the Gulf of Mexico, fueled by nutrient runoff from the swollen Mississippi River.
This year, with floodwaters from the Birds Point levee breach and the Morganza and Bonnet Carret spillways spreading over farmland and other residential areas, the river is collecting tremendous amounts of fertilizer and pesticides. This is contributing to what scientists say may become the largest dead zone ever, and posing a serious threat to already taxed marine life.
During the rainy season, fertilizer, animal waste, sewage and car exhaust wash into the Mississippi and the Atchafalaya rivers, flow south and empty into the mouth of the Gulf.
Nitrogen and phosphorous from farm runoff and animal waste are especially toxic to ocean life. They act as natural fertilizers, feeding harmful algae and causing it to bloom wildly. As bacteria consume these blooms, they suck oxygen from the water, depleting the ocean's oxygen reserves. Scientists call this oxygen depletion hypoxia.
"We're expecting probably the largest-ever amount of hypoxia," said Nancy Rabalais, a marine scientist and executive director of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium. "That's the the prediction based on the amount of nitrogen coming down the river."
A surge of fresh water creates a layering effect in the seawater, which compounds the problem. The freshwater sits above the heavier saltwater, acting as a cap that prevents oxygen from reaching the deeper water levels.
"The bottom layer of the ocean gets so low in oxygen that sea life has to swim away and vacate the area, and if they can't get away, they suffocate," said Matt Rota, science and water policy director for the Gulf Restoration Network.
Flooding could cause further injury to fisheries in the northern Gulf of Mexico, already reeling from last year's oil spill, Rabalais said. Dead zones alter the habitat for crab, shrimp, fish and lobster, often forcing them to shallow areas. This includes catchable seafood, like shrimp and snapper, which are vital to the area's fisheries.
"A lot of the Louisiana shrimp fisheries use smaller vessels," Rabalais said. "With the price of fuel and the distance they have to go, they might opt not to go offshore."
Possibly the largest source of nutrients comes from farms in Illinois, Iowa, Ohio and southwest Minnesota, where drainage tiles -- plastic pipes that crisscross underground - - drain the once-wet soil, making it arable, and dry enough for corn and soybean crops. But these pipes also flush nitrogen fertilizer into tributaries, which lead to rivers and eventually the Gulf.
In fact, research shows that the most heavily tile-drained areas of North America also contribute the largest source of nitrates to the Gulf of Mexico, which add to the dead zone, according to Mark David, a professor of biogeochemistry from the University of Illinois.
David is researching options for reducing nitrate levels. They include valves and beds of woodchips inside the tiles, as well as restoring wetlands, which filter pollution naturally.
It's not the farmers' fault, David said, but there's little incentive for farmers to reduce their nitrate output. "There's a fundamental problem in the whole system if we really want to reduce nitrate and phosphorous loss from the system. Everything's been voluntary up to this point, and that hasn't gotten us anywhere."


http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2011/05/the-gulf-of-mexico-has.html
Story by Jenny Marder

Defending Sea Turtles and the Beach!

This is one of the reasons we must move away from Oil. Already there is an abundance of alternative fuels and ways of processing the items that we need for our daily lives. Let's take action and protect the sea creatures and keep our beaches safe!

Double Trouble for Sea Turtles

Last year's devastating Deepwater Horizon disaster was a serious blow for sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico. But the catastrophe for the sea turtles hasn’t ended yet.

Already this year, more than 340 dead sea turtles have washed ashore on the Gulf Coast -- more than three times the annual average -- and the death toll is likely to be much higher. Signs point to shrimp fishing as a likely cause for the spike in deaths -- perhaps combined with the lingering effects of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Yet the government has not taken action to save these animals struggling to survive. Defenders and our conservation partners have launched a lifesaving lawsuit to protect sea turtles, but federal officials need to hear from you.

Take action now: Urge the National Marine Fisheries Service to enforce lifesaving protections for threatened and endangered sea turtles in the Gulf.

Last Day to Speak out Loud!

This is a huge issue that needs to be addressed so we're hoping everyone has gone on and clicked to help voice their opinions that fossil fuels are a step back towards sustainability. If you haven't already done so, scroll down and click the petition. Let's hope Hillary Clinton doesn't sell out on this one.

The United States may be about to let oil giant TransCanada build 1,702 miles of pipeline -- they call it “Keystone XL” -- to funnel highly toxic tar sands from Alberta, Canada, all the way to refineries in Texas and Louisiana.

The only person standing between TransCanada and its plan to corrupt the American Midwest and vulnerable Gulf Coast in the name of oil profits is Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who can either approve or deny the Presidential Permit needed to cross the US-Canada border.

Today is the very last day for public comments on the project. Please click here to sign the petition now, opposing the pipeline.

Keystone XL would endanger pristine areas of Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, and Louisiana -- as well as the Ogallala Aquifer, the largest source of water for drinking and crop irrigation in the country.

TransCanada claims the pipeline will be safe, but they said that last time, too.

When TransCanada was hammering through approval for their first pipeline, they swore the pipeline would only leak “every seven to eleven years” -- but its pumping stations have had 12 spills in just the last year. Last Friday, the U.S. Department of Transportation had to order TransCanada to shut down the pipeline because of ongoing safety concerns.

Right now, oil companies are pulling out all the stops to urge Secretary Clinton to permit this disastrous new tar sands pipeline.

Fight back against TransCanada and protect American health and safety. Public opposition is the only way to convince Secretary Clinton to stop the pipeline, so please sign the Sierra Club’s Change.org petition today:

http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-a-new-oil-pipeline-across-the-midwest-deadline-june-6

Thanks for taking action,

- Patrick and the Change.org team