News Blog

Presented by Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Programs, Sierra Club Angeles Chapter, Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce and Newport Beach Arts Commission, the Youth Ocean Art exhibit calls for the care of our friends in the oceans.  

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. 

Announcing a new series for our Website and Southern Sierran - Understanding Native Species, How to enjoy them, and How to protect them.

The Angeles Chapter’s own Jane Simpson received the Oliver Kehrlein Award for service to the Sierra Club’s Outings Program at the annual National Sierra Club Awards Ceremony on September 9th.

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.

In the 2020 election, voters will determine whether we act on climate change before it’s too late. Sierra Club Independent Action will tap into our trusted brand, grassroots structure, and 3.8 million supporters to tackle the most urgent task before us: defeating Donald Trump. Will you join us?

In this time of change, we are all being asked to do more philosophy. The fires raging across the state are devastating life for some. 'How should we live' becomes a very immediate problem if your home is destroyed. In our cities as well, Covid changes the landscape. There's more outdoor dining, and less commuting. There are more deaths, our medical system is adapting and innovating. For millions of us, living in polluted air is a more urgent crisis than ever before.

Motivations to Contribute is a new series oriented towards understanding our volunteers and members both for inspiration and to enhance cooperation and coordination among current members while encouraging new volunteers to join us.

As former chair of the Huntington Beach Planning Commission, I presided over 40 hours of Poseidon’s hearings.  I offer four reasons why the Regional Water Board should reject the project at Friday’s meeting, and a suggestion.

This is part of an ongoing series of articles by the Angeles Chapter Communications Committee to help readers understand how important decisions are made in California - how agencies and boards function, why they exist and how to interact with them. We look forward to your comments and suggestions regarding other agencies you, the reader, would like to learn more about. Here is an introduction to regional water boards and the California Coastal Commission and interview with Commissioner Penny Elia.

On July 15th, for my birthday, I set my alarm to wake up at 3am, even though the day ahead was a marathon of zoom calls. My partner and I left the house at 3:30, and by 4am we were parked on the Mt. Wilson Observatory road, gazing north east and marvelling at the comet NEOWISE.

Calling all shutterbugs! If you have not already, make sure to check out the July ‘20 Issue of Focal Points Magazine -- Premium photography of our natural world presented by the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club Camera Committee.

Plastic microbeads in 2015. Plastic bags in 2016. Plastic straws in 2018. Banning plastic goods that are constructed without consideration for how they will be reused or recovered is a powerful tool Zero Waste activists have used for years. While these sweeping bans can be incredibly effective, they are useless against one of today’s fastest-growing sources of waste: Personal Protective Equipment.

As Sierra Club members we have all become familiar with zombie development projects that never seem to die, and that we need to stop.  One of the longest-running of these projects is the proposed Poseidon Huntington Beach desalination plant.  This boondoggle has been in the works for twenty years, and the Sierra Club along with a large coalition of environmental and community groups has continually worked to stop this destructive project. But like most zombies, this project just keeps going and now we need your help to stop it for good.

How can you still impact environmental issues and exercise civic responsibilities during the pandemic.

Sierra Club outings leader Bill Vanderberg has been leading youth wilderness programs for over 20 years. His program Building Bridges to the Outdoors (BBTO) provides immersive nature experiences for local high schoolers in Los Angeles. I sat down with Bill to talk about why BBTO is so important. Here’s what he explained to me.

The Wildland Urban Wildfire Committee (WUWC) -- Sierra Club Angeles Chapter’s newest committee – was officially approved Sunday, June 28, 2020, and will be dedicated to addressing the risks associated with building in the Wildland-Urban Interface/Intermix (WUI) and influencing policies to reduce those dangers while protecting the environment.

This past month was difficult and uncomfortable; I’m not going to lie. As the pandemic continues to rage through our communities, George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis, and the pain of 450 years of racism in this country was laid bare for all of us to grapple with. At the Angeles Chapter, we are taking time to figure out what it means to be the Sierra Club in this particular moment. With so much important work ahead and begun this month, I find myself increasingly grateful that trails are open, and so as always, I close this column with a story of the mountains.

The multiracial, multigender, multigenerational protestors filling our streets and the highways and by-ways across the world offer a glimmer of hope that this time may truly lead to a path ending systemic racism.  We have an opportunity to listen to the heartfelt words of so many, to demand that our public servants take action, and to take a few small steps toward dismantling a culture that has for too long denied our fellow humans the privileges and opportunities enjoyed by a few.  Some steps we can take: