News Blog

Forget financial speculation over video games. Financial futures based on water prices began trading last year. Allowing investors to bet and profit on the price of water in California. Here's a short introduction to these water futures.

Who would think it? Ocean desalination intersecting with affordable housing?- Yet it has, in a little known state government agency called the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee (CDLAC).

If you live in the city of Los Angeles, you have 5 commissioners to the LADWP Commission and 5 representatives appointed to the master wholesaler, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD), all appointed by the Mayor. Some other cities have their own water departments and are members of MWD, as are many water agencies. Each city/agency has appointees to MWD, however you can run for seats on the local water district/agency that you get your water from. Here’s my story.

Today, as California governments at all levels sell water rights to private investors, governments run the risk of replacing the exploitive railroad and oil barons who dominated California politics for a century or more with water barons. Driven by climate change and population growth, the price of blue gold (water) is rising as the price of black gold (oil) falls.

The 2-night Inspiring Connections Outdoors Film Festival will take place February 20th and 21st beginning at 7PM Eastern Time (6PM Central/5PM Mountain/4PM Pacific) and can be watched on a  smart TV or computer on Youtube Premieres.The program will feature a range of exciting, touching, and, importantly, diverse films centered on the outdoors. 

Sometimes an issue drives a member to take action. A campaign is what we call a collection of members acting together on an issue. Here we outline the three principles of a campaign and tell you how to get started in being involved with one, forming your own, or learning to help others with theirs.

You can help decide the direction of the nation’s largest grassroots environmental organization by voting in the Sierra Club’s annual board of directors election. National Board members are elected for three-year terms. Read more to see who we've endorsed and how to cast your ballot.

February is Black History Month, and we take this moment to celebrate the contributions of Black leaders to the Sierra Club’s Angeles Chapter. The following members have received Chapter leadership awards, which we highlight here.

In honor of Rosa Parks' historic act of resistance—refusing to give up her seat on a bus—sparking the Civil Rights Movement, Transit Equity Day is an opportunity to raise awareness of the rights of all people to accessible, affordable public transit that runs on clean/renewable energy. 

How owls the size of small bean cans help activists protect coastal land from illegal development.  

The early (Winter) birder get the bird. Winter brings thousands of migratory birds to SoCal. Here are a few species birding enthusiasts and conservation activists should look out for.

Multiple choice question: If you are an ambitious Capitalist and you want to build a natural gas or coal-fired power plant, where will you build it? You may choose more than one answer: 1.) Beverly Hills, 2.) behind Mar-a-Lago, 3.) Native American land, 4.) across the street from Trump Tower, 5.) South Los Angeles, 6.) next to a public housing project, 7.) Malibu, 8.) East Los Angeles, 9.) Griffith Park, 10.) nowhere on this planet.

An open letter to the Angeles Chapter community about health and safety this holiday season.

After a two decade long battle, Bill AB1426 permanently protects San Onofre State Beach from road development.

The Sierra Club Angeles Chapter welcomes Kimberly Orbe as the new Conservation Program Manager on staff at the Angeles Chapter office. Kim will be working with the Conservation Committee as well as the other regional groups and entities to help increase the effectiveness of the chapter. She brings years of experience working with diverse communities and grassroots organizations through an equity and social justice lens and is eager to engage in more local environmental issues. 

This week we submitted a letter with over 80 other organizations, including labor unions, public health advocates, faith institutions, community based organizations and environmental justice allies to tell the agency to prohibit any new and existing drilling within 2,500 feet of a home, playground, hospital, or school.

On September 25, 2020, the Sierra Club lost one of its legendary leaders. Emil Lawton passed away at the age of 97 after a long and fruitful life, much of it centered around the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club.

The Anthropocene is generally considered to be the geologic age where humankind is the dominant force upon the surface of the planet. Let’s talk about how the Angeles Chapter is bringing leadership and sanity to this moment. 

When it comes to public health, one easily believes that community wellness takes priority over anything else. However, as we have covered in previous publications, that does not always hold true. As more officials in the public sector are being forced into transparency from ongoing scrutiny, we continue to see motivations behind their actions as self-serving. What happens when exploitation of public utilities is labeled as the “best interest” for the city? The City of Montebello is still attempting to answer that question.