| CAMPAIGNS |
By our very name, the Environmental Change-Makers group is about ACTION. From this page you can access information and tools for our latest campaigns. |
| Community Garden to benefit the homeless |
Holy Nativity Church in Westchester - the site where Environmental Change-Makers holds our monthly meetings - has just removed a 1200 square foot portion of their lawn to create a community garden raising food to benefit the homeless. They have also been converting some of their grounds to functional gardens growing flowers for their services (cut flowers being a heavily sprayed agricultural product and import-intensive, thus greenhouse gas intensive). The Environmental Change-Makers have been invited to participate in the garden's design and planning. A list of community garden meetings, plus more information, can be found on this community garden page http://www.holynativityparish.org/communitygardenhn.php |
| LAX Draft Environmental Impact Report |
Los Angeles International Airport is currently soliciting comments "regarding the proposed scope and content of the environmental studies and other information that will be included in the EIR" for the "Yellow Light Projects." The "Yellow Light Projects" include: developing a Ground Transportation Center, constructing the Automated People Mover 2, demolishing CTA Terminals 1,2,3, Reconfiguring the north runway and center taxiways, and making on-site road impfovements associated with the above list. You can read more about the project at www.OurLAX.org The Environmental Change-Makers has prepared a letter containing questions about this proposed project. In particular, we raise the issues of global warming and peak oil. We question (1) what they're doing to reduce the airport's greenhouse gas emissions impact, and (2) the air travel volume they're anticipating, given the fact that society is currently at the end of the age of cheap oil (increased volume is what they're justifying the whole project on). You can read the text of our letter here. |
Resources:
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If you have issues you'd like to see them cover in this EIR, now is the time to ask those questions! Submit them to:
Note that an EIR is a formal, regulated process. You have to follow the format of the process. Now is not the time to rant or comment on the project itself, but rather to ask questions you'd like them to cover as they prepare the EIR for the "Yellow Light Projects." Comments are due by June 18, 2008. Public Scoping meetings will be held in May - see www.OurLAX.org for schedule. |
| LAX Northside pending development |
"LAX Northside" is 340 acres on the north side of LAX airport, currently fenced off and unused. The airport is now reopening discussion of developing this property, and reminds the public that they hold 30-year-old entitlements for 4 ½ million square feet of commercial/office/retail for this property. The world has changed in those 30 years. Today, a lot of people in this city feel that every remaining inch of open space is priceless. Los Angeles is a city notoriously low in per capita park space. As we face a future with global warming, peak oil, and biocapacity issues, we will need open space. In a lower-carbon, powered-down, reduced-consumerism future we will need open space for community gatherings, open space to Reconnect with nature, open space to garden local food. Last summer, Kathleen Bullard's UCLA Extension Landscape Architecture class created a comprehensive vision for what this land could become. Some elements of the UCLA/Bullard plan: |
Along Westchester Parkway West
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Lincoln Corridor Streetscape
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El Segundo Dunes
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Westchester Parkway East
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See it for yourself In the Shadow of LAX: Balancing an Airport Environment with Community and Habitat (by UCLA Extension Landscape Architecture, Summer 2007, Kathleen Bullard, ASLA, instructor) is a beautiful full-colored document depicting this plan. At this time, it is unfortunately not available online. It is, however, available for public viewing at the Los Angeles Public Library, Westchester Loyola Village branch, at the information desk. You merely let them hold your library card or driver's license while you use the book. |
TAKE ACTION Attend the LAX Northside Land Use Community Workshop, If you attend, make public comment succinctly to the effect that you wish to see as much open space as possible, and that any commercial development should be concentrated near the existing commercial area. You can advocate for open space and community-serving uses you wish to see (the UCLA/Bullard list above provides some ideas). LAX Northside Land Use Community Workshop Weds Feb 13, 6:30-9:00pm St Robert's Auditorium, Loyola Marymount University, We will post information about other workshops as they are scheduled. |
| Use Recycled Paper |
Does your office use paper made from virgin trees? What do you use in your home printer?
Staples in Westchester sells 100% post-consumer copier paper by the ream or by the case. They also sell 30% post-consumer paper (if your older copier or printer isn't happy about the 100%). When earth-wiser products are this easy to get and use, is there any reason to not use it? |
-Martin Luther King Jr.