By Ingrid Steinberg
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As a psychologist, I’ve been seeing more and more clients reporting anxiety and depressive symptoms related to helplessness about climate change and other environmental issues. In fact, although more than half of US adults believe that climate change is the most important issue facing us today, about 40% of people have not made any alterations to their behaviors to reduce their impact on the environment.
... this summer will be another record breaker for heat in Los Angeles and across the West. More than outlier weather, USA Today reports “persistent heat waves may be sticking around for a while, raising concerns that the extreme heat may become the new normal. Scientists who study drought and climate change say that people living in the American West can expect to see more of the same in the coming years.”
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On August 9, 2021, eight-billion alarms were rung by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)... The good news: There is still a small window to limit the extent of climate change.
The next time you’re walking in your neighborhood, count the number of emerald-green lawns you see. Of those, how many are on the parkway or in an area that’s not being used by anyone – except maybe dogs – and is predominantly for aesthetics?
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We have more plastic problems than ever since the pandemic began. Most of us have increased our plastic use as we order more takeout in plastic. Furthermore, using the pandemic as an excuse, the plastic industry pushed for and obtained misguided rollbacks in plastic waste regulation, like a temporary suspension of the California plastic bag ban although reusable bags have not been shown to be a vector for the virus.
In the words of David Attenborough, "If we act now, we can put it right." In 2021, the UN concluded that, in order for our species to survive, let alone thrive, we must go plant-based. On April 25th, in honor of Earth Day, the Pacific Palisades took a small step toward "getting it right."
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One obvious answer to the power problems in our sun-drenched community is a community microgrid. Community microgrids are one of the keys to the cleaner and more efficient electrical infrastructure that will transform America’s energy grid over the next decade.
As a Resilient Palisades volunteer in the Green Gardens program, one of the hats I wear is delivering free lawn signs to residents who have stopped using gas powered leaf blowers or lawn mowers (or all gas-powered equipment!) in their yards – creating a low or zero-emissions property.
Walking and hiking around the Palisades, I see a lot of plastic water bottles both on the ground and on people’s porches. The single use bottles are prevalent on the Temescal Loop trail, along the curb of Temescal on my walk to the beach and then at the beach in the sand.
Solving the climate change emergency will require changing behavior. Unfortunately, only a small minority of Americans are currently willing to make the necessary changes in how they live, and the same is true in most other countries. As a result, in order to address climate change within the narrow window scientists estimate we may still have, new approaches are urgently required.
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Neighborhood Alphabet StreetsCastellammareEl Medio Bluffs / MesaThe HighlandsThe HuntingtonMarquezMarquez KnollsPacific View EstatesThe RivieraRustic Canyon / Santa Monica CanyonTahitian Terrace / Malibu VillageSunset MesaVia BluffsOther Pali neighborhood / don't knowNon-resident: I work in the PalisadesNon-resident: I attend school in the PalisadesNon-resident: Other
