CoastWatcher

Never heard of an organic surfboard?  No wonder, because until now no such thing existed.  However, due to the efforts and work of Homeblown Surfboards, surfers around the world may soon have access to all plant based material surfboards that are every bit as strong and maneuverable as traditional chemical based toxic and polluting surfboards.  Homeblown is associated with the amazing Eden Project in Cornwall, United Kingdom.  For more information go visit Homeblown Surfboards and Eden Project.

BHP Billiton always felt that with the support of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger they could overcome the enormous weight of public opposition and unacceptable environmental impacts associated with their scheme to build a giant floating industrial city/LNG terminal offshore of Malibu.

Now BHP really has something to worry about.  As described in the National Nine News (MSN) in Australia, some of America’s leading actors and celebrities are joining together to protect the California coast from BHP’s liquid natural gas folly.

Joining Pierce Brosnan are Tom Hanks, Barbra Striesand, Charlize Theron, Cher,  Danny DeVito, Rhea Perlman, Sting, Dick Van Dyke, Jane Seymour, Dylan McDermott, Martin Sheen, James Brolin, Kenny G, Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen, Cindy Crawford, Daryl Hannah, Ed Harris and many others.  The list grows daily.

Even Australian Olivia Newton-John, a longtime environmental activist and Malibu resident, has joined the fight.

While BHP has vowed to continue their effort to bring an LNG terminal to Malibu, the prospect of that actually happening appears to grow dimmer at every turn.

Next month California State Lands Commission will begin public hearings on the myriad of devastating environmental impacts associated with the plan.  Then in 2007 the California Coastal Commission will likely begin their deliberations of the development, which if the project makes it that far, will likely feature hearings with thousands of opponents….
In the meantime, check out Coastal Advocates website and Pierce Brosnan’s website and the website of the Environmental Defense Center and Join The Fight!

“It would be worthwhile to remind profiteers … that in California, harbors built in public waters are public trust entities and that the Coastal Act was specifically enacted by California voters to prevent the rich from stealing what belongs to us all.”
-Mark Massara, Director
Sierra Club Coastal Programs
In yet another story regarding the trend among California marinas to cater to wealthier and ever bigger boat owners, The Log, “SoCal’s #1 Boating & Fishing Newspaper” examines the adverse impacts associated with ever more boat owners with ever bigger boats chasing too few dock slips.
Read about berthing battles here.

“The visitor crossing from Tijuana to San Diego these days is immediately slapped in the face by a huge billboard screaming, “Stop the Border Invasion!” Sponsored by the rabidly anti-immigrant vigilante group, the Minutemen, the same truculent slogan reportedly insults the public at other border crossings in Arizona and Texas.

The Minutemen, once caricatured in the press as gun-toting clowns, are now haughty celebrities of grassroots conservatism, dominating AM hate radio as well as the even more hysterical ether of the right-wing blogosphere. In heartland as well as in border states, Republican candidates vie desperately for their endorsement. With the electorate alienated by the dual catastrophes of Baghdad and New Orleans, the Brown Peril has suddenly become the Republican deus ex machina for retaining control of Congress in the November elections….”

-Mike Davis
         Border Invaders, The Perfect Swarm Heads South (For rest of the article, click on title)
(Davis is the author of numerous books, including Planet of Slums (2006), Under the Perfect Sun: The San Diego Tourists Never See (2003), Ecology of Fear (2000) and City of Quartz (1990))