Nature and the Environment

The Search for Jumbo Squid in Southern California

See also: *Living on Mars Time: What If Your Day Lasted 24 Hours, 39 Minutes and 35 Seconds? *Lily Simonson's Paintings of Yeti Crabs and Other Creatures Merge Art and Oceanography Once a year, or maybe every four years — no one knows for sure — jumbo squid make their creepily delightful ... More >>

Promised Land Review: Gus Van Sant Directs a Screenplay by Matt Damon and John Krasinski

Brown Widow Spiders Have Taken Over Southern California, And They Bite ...

If you're getting sick of all these brown folks invading Southern California, they're not done yet. A new research paper co-authored by Richard Vetter, professor of urban entomology at UC Riverside, confirms a long-feared invasion of brown widow spiders in SoCal. The spiders are indeed coming fro ... More >>

USS Iowa Is Caked in Marine Life, Will Need a 2-4 Day Hull Cleaning Before Arriving in L.A.

What happens to a battleship docked in airtight "mothball" mode for 20-plus years? It gathers itself a good thick coat of barnacles and bottomfeeders, according to Pacific Battleship Center, the company who's spent the last six months preparing the 1940s-era USS Iowa for its journey from the Bay Ar ... More >>

Peter Wallerstein: This Sea Lion Walks Into a Sandbar ...

One of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2012 issue. Check out our entire People 2012 issue here. An anxious crowd quickly encircled the sea lion. Lying prone on El Porto beach, it was foaming at the mouth, with red bulging eyes. "Do something," a fat man in a too-tight Lak ... More >>

Could Fracking in Los Angeles Cause an Earthquake?

Could Fracking in Los Angeles Cause an Earthquake?

Conversations about fracking, the controversial technique for natural gas extraction (alternately known as "that thing that turns your tap water flammable") are typically confined to Pennsylvania, where the critically acclaimed documentary Gasland was set, or the state of New York, currently debatin ... More >>

Turtle Smuggler Busted at LAX Sentenced: Atsushi Yamagami Gets 21 Months

Atsushi Yamagami had quite an import-export business going, according to federal authorities. Not only did he bring protected tortoises into the United States for sale, but he used that cash to export snakes, turtles and tortoises native to America back to Japan, they said. Savvy, yes, except he ... More >>

Why Did the Department of Fish and Game Kill an 80-Pound Mountain Lion in Sunland?

An officer-involved shooting in Sunland last Friday afternoon -- between a warden and a young male mountain lion -- has L.A. animal advocates calling for justice. According to Department of Fish and Game (DFG) spokesman Andrew Hughan, a resident of the foothills near the Angeles National Forest cal ... More >>

Starbucks has Venti Recycling Goals

If you've ever finished your drink in a Starbucks cafe, then looked around in vain for a recycling bin in which to deposit the empty cup, you're not alone. With less than 10% of Starbucks in Los Angeles County having customer recycling bins, a lot of our cups end up in landfills. There are 364 compa ... More >>

Are 1 Million L.A. County Residents Getting Fracked Over by Oil Company PXP?

Guess what? If you live anywhere near the 1,000-acre Inglewood oil field -- in Culver Crest, Baldwin Hills, Baldwin Vista, Ladera Heights, Windsor Hills, Village Green or anywhere around there -- your home is bordering the largest urban oil field in America. Cool, right? It's run by giant Texas oil ... More >>

Ovo

Cirque du Soleil's Ovo: How to make costumes that look like bugs

Bushmeat Smuggled Into U.S. Poses Virus Threat

Flickr/freedom-studiosLeave the wildlife eating to the wildlife.​Eating monkey meat is a really bad idea -- that's the bottom line. According to BBC News, scientists have documented potentially dangerous viruses entering the U.S. through illegally imported "bushmeat" (African wild animal meat) ... More >>

Raw Milk Products Recalled Recall Upheld After Children Sickened in California

Flickr/grongarOrganic Pastures raw milk has been quarantined in California.​ The California Department of Food and Agriculture has upheld its recall of raw milk products, even though the dairy demanded the quarantine be lifted, saying tests show its milk is pathogen-free, according to the Asso ... More >>

SeaWorld Whales Are Slaves Held in Violation of 13th Amendment, PETA Says in SoCal Lawsuit

PETA's a FAIL on this one if you ask us.​Updated at the bottom with reaction from SeaWorld and L.A. author Earl Ofari Hutchinson. First posted at 11:27 a.m. Animal rights -- perfectly normal, perfectly healthy. Yet where does the movement go too far, surpassing even the best wishes of a life- ... More >>

Capybara, World's Largest Rodent, Spotted in Paso Robles: Is It Wrong to Lust for a Carcass?

AnimalPhotos.infoHydrochaeris hydrochaeris, aka the capybara​The Los Angeles County Natural History Museum has plenty of bizarre beasties in stock, many of them from creatures not found within a thousand miles of L.A. -- or within a thousand years of 2011. Which is why the museum is captivated ... More >>

VIDEO: Redondo Beach Kayaker Nearly Overturned by Massive Blue Whale

MrRJCtube via YouTubeA kayak's worst nightmare​Whale-watching enthusiasts have been jizzing their wetsuits over the latest handheld footage of a big California blue off the coast of Redondo Beach. The video was shot by YouTube user MrRJCtube, who happened upon his gorgeous specimen while kaya ... More >>

California Environmental Protection Could be Watered Down Under Sneaky Law Awaiting Jerry Brown's Signature, Activists Say

Chris McCorkleDensity in downtown L.A.​Critics of over-development in L.A. are up in arms about a California law, which just needs the governor's signature to be finalized, that they argue would weaken the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and allow cities to use years- and decades-o ... More >>

EPA Orders $20 Million Worth of Groundwater Cleanup to Help Residents of San Gabriel Valley

​Tap water has a bad rap these days. And in many cases, for good reason. There's an awful lot of groundwater contamination out there. But for those folks living in the San Gabriel Valley who - God forbid - like being able to actually drink their tap water, there was a splash of good news today ... More >>

The Battle for Malibu Lagoon

Should humans destroy Mother Nature in order to save it?

One-Third of Mountain Yellow-Legged Frogs in Existence Just Died in Fresno

mylfrog.infoOne of 200 Mountain Yellow-Legged Frogs left in the universe.​A rare breed of frog with leopard-like markings and funny haunches -- and absolutely no relevance to your everyday life, except that it's an L.A. native, and hey, neighbors look out for neighbors -- was wiped of 1/3 of i ... More >>

Sea Lion Shot in Waters Off Venice: $5,000 Reward Offered For Info Leading to Capture of Killer

MARThe victim.​Warning: Disturbing photos after the jump. The group Marine Animal Rescue is offering $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whomever fatally shot a sea lion off Venice last week. The shooting was reported about 3:30 p.m. Aug. 3, according to the organi ... More >>

Backwards Beekeepers, L.A.'s Bee Rescue Service

​ Modern talk of bees tends to dwell on their deficiencies more than their benefits. Colony Collapse Disorder. Fatal bee-sting allergies. Killer bees both Africanized and Saturday Night Live. But honey is a food that keeps indefinitely, much like the Metro trains that buzz incessantly on this ... More >>

L.A. Doctors Sue EPA Over Smog

Ben Amstutz via Flickr​A group of pissed off doctors in L.A. are suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for not doing its job to clamp down on smog. In November 1990, the South Coast Air Basin region, which stretches from Malibu to Laguna Niguel, was given the worst possible rating of "ex ... More >>

Cactus and Succulent Show and Sale

Love to Bug Ya, or My Fair Ladybug

Ballona Wetlands May Be at Mercy of "Fishy" State Commission: Sierra Club, Ballona Institute Allege Wrongdoing

Ballona Wetlands: Please don't bulldoze me​In 2003, it felt like victory: after fighting 30 years to protect Ballona Wetlands near Marina Del Rey and Playa Del Rey, environmentalists saved 600 acres, halting plans by developers for thousands of apartments and big shopping centers. With taxpayer h ... More >>

Hydraulic 'Fracking' -- New Oil-Drilling Technique -- Could Create Jobs, Poison Tap Water in California

What's a little contamination in the name of the drill?​The nation was abuzz yesterday with highly unsustainable news of a fresh way to squeeze millions more barrels of oil from the deepest Earthstuffs of America the Beautiful: It's called hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking" among Big Oil exec ... More >>

I'M A WHALE WATCHER

Project Fishmap, Monterey Bay Aquarium's Newest App: Almost as Much Fun as Angry Birds

​Here's something new to add to your phone if you're a seafood lover. No, not a bluefin tuna version of Angry Birds, although that would be kind of fun. Slightly more useful is Project FishMap, a new feature of the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch app, which lets you tag any of more than ... More >>

No Fracking Way

The dirty cost of clean energy in GASLAND

Animal-Rights Activists Send 'AIDS-Tainted' Razor Blades, 'Hell Awaits You' Note To UCLA Professor

UCLA MagazineWhatcha got for me today, Doc​UCLA neuroscientist David Jentsch, who performs drug tests on vervet monkeys at the university, was the target of a particularly gnarly animal-rights protest this week. He received a package at his home containing alleged AIDS-infested razor blades a ... More >>

California's 2010 Embrace of Green Tech

In killing Proposition 23, residents choose to pay more for energy, use less

Looking for Lizards

So how many lizards are there in L.A.?

The Orangutan Angel

Birute Galdikas' quest to save a vanishing habitat

Red State Blue State Smackdown: Red States to Sue California Over Global Warming Law

​The attorneys general of Alabama, Nebraska, Texas and North Dakota will sue California over its Global Warming Solutions Act, known as AB32, which requires 80 percent carbon emission reductions by 2050, California Watch reports. First, though, the potential litigants are awaiting the results ... More >>

El Ninos Getting Stronger, More Frequent, According to JPL In Pasadena

JPL​Get ready for the storm of the century: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena this week unleashed a study showing that El Ninos, those wet-weather generators for Southern California, are growing stronger and more frequent. There has been some speculation that the warm Pacific water ... More >>

Give Your Opossum a Proper Pedicure with ME Pearl

Yeah, I don't know what's going on with this woman and her opossum, but I'm going to file it under "Pets" (because she seems to keep opossums as pets), and "Science" (because it is an instructional video), and "Weird" (for obvious reasons), and "Art" (because when a video is this sublimely good, it ... More >>

Shark Warning North Of L.A. Issued By National Park Service

​Great white sharks? In Southern California. Nice way to start off the summer season. The National Park Service issued a shark warning for the Santa Barbara area on Wednesday following a great white shark sighting off East Beach. A shark might have also attacked a sea lion pup that ended up de ... More >>

Environmental Groups Fight Fast-Tracking For Possible NFL Stadium Near Staples Center In Downtown Los Angeles

​Nearly 70 environmental groups have been warning California legislators not to let the owner of Staples Center off the hook when it comes to providing an environmental impact report for an adjacent NFL stadium the company hopes to build. Leaders at the Sierra Club say they've heard rumors th ... More >>

Taxidermist Humor

Squirrel Chili

Hungry Sea Lion Pups Coming Ashore In Southern California

​The organization Marine Animal Rescue reports that " ... the rescues of sea lion pups in very fragile physical conditions are continuing to increase" on the shores of L.A. area beaches this month. KCAL9/CBS2 reported Friday that some of the rescues have happened on Dockweiler State Beach near ... More >>

County Dogs Sniff for Illicit Produce

Courtesy: Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky's Web site​Because practically nobody covers the county anymore, the job of writing light feature stories about the nation's largest local government has fallen to... Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky's press staff.Today they turn in a nice piece on Ebony and Tahoe (p ... More >>

L.A. Tops List Of American Cities With The Most Green Buildings

mccarthycook.comThe Trident Center in West L.A.​Los Angeles topped the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's list of major American cities with the most energy efficient buildings, the EPA announced Tuesday. This marks the second year in a row L.A. was tops in green buildings. L.A. has the l ... More >>

SAVE THE WHALE WATCHERS

Brazilian Cattle Exporter Signs Pact with Greenpeace After Deforestation Report

Yesterday the Brazilian beef exporter Bertin reported that it had signed a pact with Greenpeace to refuse to buy cattle from deforested parts of the Amazon. Greenpeace claims that the Brazilian Amazon cattle industry is the largest driver of deforestaton in the world, responsible for 14% of the wor ... More >>

The Cove: Free Willy, Seriously

Documentary exposes the horrific treatment of dolphins, but who will save the salmon?

Envirowimps: L.A.'s Big Green Groups Get Comfy

Activists leave the street-fighting to the little guys

Talking with the Institute for Figuring’s Margaret and Christine Wertheim

Masters of the Woolen Reef