Banquet promises cut-loose party for Chapter members
Pull out your environmentally friendly décolletage, your super-macho tight jeans, and a throw-caution-to-the-wind attitude and come party with the Sierra Club at the annual Chapter Awards Banquet.
Passages
Muir Dawson, 1922-2005
Muir Dawson, one of the Angeles Chapter's longest-term members and a staunch supporter of the Chapter History Committee, passed away in February.
Renewables impractical? Tell that to the rest of the world
Many energy companies, as well as the Bush administration, are very fond of telling us that renewable energy may be an option...20 or 40 years from now. Much of the rest of the world, however, is not adhering to this timetable. Wind power already supplies 5 percent of Europe's residential electricity demand, and wind and solar energy generating capacity worldwide are skyrocketing.
Europe
Nuclear power: Industry's rabbit in the hat
The Bush administration's refusal to deal with global warming seems inexplicable. Rising oceans and temperatures, after all, do not selectively spare Republicans, Texans, or oil executives.
But they are not baffled, puzzled, or stymied. They are simply keeping quiet about their plans. These originate in the 2001 President's Task Force on Energy (the one whose records Cheney still hasn't released to Congress).
Forest campaign intensifies as final management plans near
Sierra Club Regional Representative
Our local national forests, so often taken for granted, are in trouble. As people build more and more houses, businesses, and roads around and even on the forests, wildlife and their habitat continue to decline. Increasing numbers of motorcycles in the back country and commercial demands to slice the forests with highways, power lines, and even hydroelectric dams complete the picture of forests in crisis.
Puerto Rico named newest Club Chapter
The Sierra Club's national Board of Directors chartered the Club's newest chapter on Feb. 19.
Puerto Rican Sierra Club members formally petitioned the board to become the first newly chartered chapter in more than 10 years. Puerto Rico will be the Club's first Spanish-speaking chapter.
Pedal, pedal, shred, shred
The Mt. Abel (Cerro Noroeste) Bike-n-Ski trip has appeared in the Schedule of Activities for several years in a row, but for various reasons (mostly due to lack of snow) it has not gone on for some time. With over 40 inches of rain in the valleys and many feet of snow in the local mountains this year, Mt. Abel was in its prime with wonderful spring skiing conditions. The Feb.
Electricity in California: dirty secrets and clean innovations
What really happens when you turn on your air conditioner on a hot July afternoon? Do you know where your electricity comes from? How dirty (or clean) is it really? Considering that electricity production is one of our biggest sources of air pollution and a major cause of climate change, you ought to know the answers to these questions by heart.
Author dives into the Sespe River
The Sespe Wild: Southern California's Last Free River, by Bradley John Monsma, University of Nevada Press, $24.95
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Bradley John Monsma's excellent, well-researched The Sespe Wild covers a range of topics centered on the natural history of the Sespe but also including Chumash rock art sites, the industrialization of the Sespe's southeastern fringes by oil and gas production and the controversies about Sespe dams.
