>> Learn about sustainable design and architecture at Sustainable 20|10 – 20 people, 10 slides, “an inspiring evening of twenty people presenting ten images of innovative sustainable design and architecture.” The event begins Thurs., Feb. 25 at 7 pm at SPF:a Gallery, 8609 Washington Blvd., Culver City. RSVP to will@aialosangeles.org.

>> Join the last Malibu Public Beaches Safaris by The Los Angeles Urban Rangers! On Sat. Feb. 27, the rangers will offer three FREE 1.5-hour mini-safaris, taking off at 11 am, 1 pm, and 3 pm. You don’t even need to sign up — Just show up at the public beach accessway between 22140-22126 Pacific Coast Highway (~.5 mis west of Carbon Canyon Rd. and ~1 mi. east of Malibu pier). Rain cancels the safaris. Earlier: Malibu Public Beach Safaris: Why activists should chill on the beach this summer.

>> L.A. Council President Eric Garcetti wants you to join him for a Day of Beautification in Echo Park. Meet on Sat., Feb. 27 at the Walgreen’s parking lot in Echo Park (northwest corner of Sunset Boulevard and Echo Park Avenue) at 8:45 am, nibble on refreshments and get instructions, then clean up the hood for 2 hours.

>> Take a crash course on Small-Space Food Gardening with gardening expert Darren Butler, who’ll teach you how to grow food even if you don’t have a garden plot. The day-long class happens Sat., Feb. 27 from 8:45 am – 4:30 pm. Cost: $100, or $85 if you pay before Feb. 19. Earlier: Fresh Food From Small Spaces – Balcony gardens, simplified.

>> Cut back on your water bill by taking Greywater 101 with Leigh Jerrard, founder of California Greywater Corps, who’ll show you how to reuse waste water from bathtubs, showers, bathroom sinks and laundry for landscape irrigation. The lesson begins Sat., Feb. 27 from 2 pm – 4 pm on the east side; RSVP to Julie at contactgbf@gmail.com for the exact address. Cost: $25.

>> Planning a green wedding? The FREE Champagne & Cupcakes Eco-Bridal Trunk Show presented by Copper Willow Paper Studio will feature eco-friendly wedding vendors and resources, green wedding and event experts, creative tutorials and demos, dessert and hors d’oeuvres tasting, and hourly prizes and giveaways. Be there Mon., March 1 from 4 pm – 8 pm at Copper Willow Paper Studio & Collection, 8530 Washington Blvd., Culver City. RSVP required to info@copperwillow.com or 310.836.6004. Earlier: Copper Willow – Gorgeous green letterpress holiday cards from Culver City. Earlier: Soi-Meme: Eco-weddings made economical.

>> See eco-celebs at Global Green USA’s 7th Annual Pre-Oscar Party. Famous actors attend, and famous musicians perform, at this annual eco-event and fundraiser — but would-be attendees should be warned that last year, the party got so full ticket holders had to stand in line for hours to get in. Perhaps they’ll be better organized this year. The party begins Wed., March 3 at 8 pm at Avalon Hollywood, 1735 Vine St., Los Angeles. Cost: $75.

>> The Green LA Coalition’s put together a workshop on Energy Efficiency Retrofit Programs: Community Benefits, Workforce Opportunities & Challenges (PDF). Learn about everything from broader environmental implications of retrofits to direct benefits for building owners and apartment renters on Thurs., March 4, 9 am to noon at The California Endowment, 1000 N. Alameda, Los Angeles. RSVP to szabanal@greenlacoalition.org by Feb. 26.

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So you’ve been BYO-ing your own reusable bag to the grocery store for years. And you’ve heard a lot about how disposable bags could get disposed of real soon, thanks to anti-one-use-bag laws-to-be in California. And you’re wondering if your BYO-ing ways will become every Angeleno’s 2010 New Year’s resolution.

Ha ha!

Okay — The situation’s not THAT bad. We’ve got many allies on our side, and A Day Without a Bag in the works. Plus, the move to ban plastic bags isn’t simply an environmental one in SoCal, considering the fact that our tourist dollars depend on clean-looking, not-too-plasticky beaches. But despite pretty widespread support for a plastic bag ban, these bans are a hard time coming.

Why? The plastic bag industry, which has been killing marine life with its products for years, is marketing itself as an endangered species in need of environmental protection.

That’s right — The plastic industry’s renamed itself the “Save the Plastic Bag” coalition. And it’s arguing that the California Environmental Quality Act — which requires environmental impact reports for projects and plans that may harm the environment — applies to plastic bag bans! The industry’s saying that cities and counties must be required to conduct time-consuiming environmental impact study to see if banning plastic bags could be bad for the environment. Mark Gold, President of environmental nonprofit Heal the Bay, wrote about this crazy irony back in January:

If you were to believe the letter [from the plastic industry] that reads as if it came straight out of Lewis Carroll, banning plastic bags will lead to major climate change and deforestation impacts.

Thank God the plastic industry is trying to save us from global warming….

Surely, this is the definition of insanity. Also, the precedent of being forced to complete an EIR on every ordinance or zoning change is beyond horrifying, and would lead to a perpetual state of inertia in local government.

Sadly, the plastic industry’s been quite successful at using environmental laws to stall plastic bag bans. Remember how Manhattan Beach voted to ban these bags back in July 2008? That city got sued, so the ban’s still not in effect. L.A. County voted in not-even-that-threatening voluntary reductions, to be followed up by a bag ban if agreed-upon reductions don’t happen by July 2010 — and got sued by the plastic bag industry. Santa Monica started working on an ordinance for a ban in Feb. 2008 — then decided in Jan. 2009 to hold off on passing a ban because the plastic bag industry threatened to sue.

The one city that hasn’t gotten sued is Malibu, whose plastic bag ban went into effect Oct. 2008. Why no lawsuit? Who knows? “It’s very bizarre,” said Kirsten James of Heal the Bay earlier this week, “but it’s good news that they slipped through the cracks.”

So what happens now? Kirsten James says that local counties and cities are trying to work together on joint Environmental Impact Reports to cut costs. The hope is that L.A. County will be able to complete its EIR by spring, before the automatic ban trigger kicks in, thereby throwing off the plastic industry’s lawsuit.

And hopefully, the City of L.A. will see a ban soon too. The Los Angeles City Council actually voted to ban plastic bags by Jan. 1, 2010 if a statewide user-fee on plastic or paper bags has not been established by that time. No state law’s been passed, which means a city-wide ban should become reality — except the a ban doesn’t automatically kick in Jan. 1. The City Council now needs to pass an ordinance to adopt a city-wide policy banning plastic bags — which isn’t likely happen before Jan. 1, according to Kirsten James. This means Angelenos need to put pressure on the City Council to pass that ordinance ASAP.

On the state level, my own state assemblymember Julia Brownley introduced AB68, which, if passed, would put a 25 cent fee on paper and plastic bags, with the revenue going to local governments to help clean up trash and litter. Kirsten James says the bill’s stuck in its first house at the moment, but hope remains: “The budget is an excuse for a lot of things in the last year … but we see this as a potential revenue generator.”

Want the city to pass a bag ban ASAP? Write your councilmembers asking for the ordinance they promised. Want the state to tax the bag? Heal the Bay’s Trashed site has a handy letter supporting AB68 you can send to the California Legislature.

Earlier: Bring your own bag: How to BYOB in easy eco-style

Photo by Envirowoman

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>> State parks will stay open, but most will have “reduced hours of operation and maintenance levels,” reports The L.A. Times. Also, “The park system faces a larger budget cut of $22 million next year.”

>> Construction begins on Malibu Legacy Park, a private/public partnership that’ll create a central park for the city as well as function “like an environmental cleaning machine to reduce pollution impacts and improve water quality in Malibu Creek, Malibu Lagoon and the world-famous Surfrider Beach.” (via ecosalon)

>> Report roadkill via the California Roadkill Observation System. According to The Sierra Club’s The Green Life:

The project, developed at UC Davis, aims to increase understanding of how roads affect ecosystems, and is part of an emerging field called ‘road ecology.’ We already know that cars kill large numbers of animals every year; the project’s aim is to get more detailed information about where roadkill occurs most often, and which animals tend to fall victim.

The roadkill photo gallery‘s rather gruesome.

>> L.A. Times profiles the East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, “part of a new generation of urban, blue-collar environmentalists” tackling the disproportionately bad environmental pollution in their working class neighborhoods.

Photo of Montana de Oro State Park by docentjoyce

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California state parks have been getting some much needed attention lately — if for rather downer reasons — but Angelenos have yet more public playgrounds to be taking advantage of: Beautiful Malibu public beaches.

Many Angelenos don’t even know we’ve got 27 miles of public beaches in Malibu — much less taken advantage of them. Thanks in part to unfriendly Malibu homeowners and public beach funding issues, these gorgeous beaches can be tough to find for newbies.

That’s why a group of activists who call themselves Los Angeles Urban Rangers have taken it upon themselves to take Angelenos out on Malibu Public Beach Safaris — to introduce people to the beaches they own, and to engage them with the many issues and fights over private-public spaces happening in the L.A. area. The Safari’s are free, thanks to grant funding.

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>> The closing reception for “Topography, Light and Magic” by conservation photographer Robert McGinley will feature a speech about land and resource conservation by eco-actor Ed Begley, Jr. Plus, proceeds from the exhibit benefit Heal the Bay and Santa Monica Baykeeper. Be there tomorrow, Friday, July 31 from 7 – 9 pm at Blue Seven Gallery, 3129 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica. RSVP to Ali Sivak at 323.936.1447 or ali@caapr.com.

>> Friday must be gallery night. The opening reception for “Land Sea Air“ will feature “three installations that reflect the land, sea and air of Huntington Beach presented by artists Robert Wysocki, Peter Segerstrom, and the Cypress College Contemporary Art & Technology Seminar” — whose students have created “a large inflatable Pterodactyl (her name is Prana) that changes color based the quality of air outside of the museum,” according to Ed Giardina. Be at the Huntington Beach Art Center, 538 Main St., Huntington Beach on Friday, July 31 from 7 pm to 9 pm. The exhibit will be on view until September 06, 2009.

>> Curious about Colony Collapse Disorder? Go to a fundraiser for and a sneak peek of the documentary film The Vanishing of the Bees, where you’ll see clips from the film, hear a Q&A with filmmakers George Langworthy and Maryam Henein, and maybe bid in a silent auction. All that happens Fri., July 31 at 7 pm at G2 Gallery, 1503 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice  Cost: $10 donation.

>> Don’t forget about Fallen Fruit’s 4th annual Public Fruit Jam on Sunday, Aug 2, 10 am – 1 pm at Machine Project in Echo Park.

>> Sign up for the next series of Green Living Workshops with Sustainable Works. The 6-week workshops meet once a week to cover many aspects of green living. Pick from Sunday (starting Aug. 23), Tuesday (starting Aug. 25) or Wednesday (starting Aug. 26) classes, both offered in Santa Monica locations. Cost: $25 for Santa Monica residents; $50 L.A. residents.

>> Also sign up for the Malibu Public Beaches Safaris and take back the beach! The free events happen on Saturdays and Sundays in August.

>> Bike advocates: Don’t miss the 4th Street Bike Blvd Campaign Meeting! Help make 4th St. a real Bike Blvd. by participating on Thurs., Aug. 6 from 6:30 pm – 8 pm at Shatto Park, 3191 W 4th St., Los Angeles.

>> Drink pinot responsibly if you drive your plug-in electric car to Plug-ins, Pinots and Progress, Plug In America’s annual fundraiser. You’ll see rare plug-in electric vehicles, enter auctions for cool items, nibble on organic yummies, drink wine, and just party with other eco-thinking folks. The event happens Sun., Aug. 9 from 4 pm – 8 pm at Thomas Fogarty Winery, 19501 Skyline Blvd., Woodside. Tickets start at $120.

Image via Heal the Bay

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