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A little more from ASEC’s founder

If Frank Scura is convinced he can turn around a sector that is the very epitome of heedless consumption, it's because he's been there himself. "My whole life was based on sex and debauchery," he says of his days on the nascent action-sports circuit in the 1980s. But one day, as he tells Gregory Dicum here, everything changed.

I had pretty much gorged myself on the fruits of Babylon and found myself empty. But when I went to Portland, I found sustenance. I found people who played music for music, who grew gardens, who were in touch with the Earth.

Then my grandmother died in eastern Oregon. None of us had ever even gone there, but I was going to go and be Grizzly Adams. I invited people to come start a commune with me, but nobody went. So I went anyway.

The Few, the Proud, the Marine Reserves

California will create nation’s most ambitious marine-protection program California wildlife officials voted this week to create 15 distinct marine reserves from Half Moon Bay to Santa Barbara, making about 110 square miles of ocean off-limits to most human activity and giving another 94 square miles or so protection of varying degrees. Backers hope the plan […]

The documentary filmmaker talks about his film on California sea lions

Avast, mateys! 'Tis been too long since me last post. The good ship Something Fishy, she been a'travelin' far and wide to find ye the juiciest sea-worthy stories yet untold. This week, I introduce you to Alan De Herrera, a documentary filmmaker whose latest work, Sea Lions: An Unforgettable Encounter, delves deep into the lives of California sea lions.

Circus veterans for more than a century, California sea lions are entertaining animals, and as a result, are one of the most widely recognized marine mammals in the world. But De Herrera's more worried about their reputation as pests -- venturing into marinas and climbing aboard boats; following commercial vessels to all the best fishing holes and then pilfering the catch; even maneuvering onto fish ladders to trap salmon on their way upstream.

"[People] just think they're stinky, dumb dogs with flippers that want to go rape and pillage all the fish out there, and that's simply not the case," De Herrera says. His 45-minute film, narrated by former hobbit Sean Astin, aims to show the public how intelligent and playful the animals are and illuminate the threats they face from humans. (One in five sea lions rescued by the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, Calif., have carcinoma -- a cancer linked to chemical exposure -- and another 20 percent suffer from gunshot wounds likely caused by angry fishermen.) "It's not in any way going to be beneficial for human society to eradicate these animals," De Herrera asserts.

I caught up with the impassioned filmmaker between promotional screenings at the Seattle Aquarium earlier this summer to chat about de-villainizing the charismatic mammals, protecting their West Coast habitat, and educating the next generation of fishermen.

My love affair with Bucky Fuller

A few days back, David posted a link about the Dymaxion Car, Bucky Fuller's ill-fated attempt to inject sanity in to Detroit. In 1933. Maybe I'm just being me, but I think David was trying to taunt me in to posting. I did, after all, pick a related title for my blog.

Conservatives on global warming v. conservatives on terrorism

A comment on the aforecited TP post reminds me of something I've been meaning to say: The arguments conservatives use for inaction on global warming seem sharply at odds with their arguments about terrorism.

Consider Dick Cheney's celebrated One Percent Doctrine, which says that even a 1% chance of catastrophic terrorist attack should prompt us to respond as though it were a certainty.

Well, the chances of catastrophic damage from global warming are a hell of a lot higher than 1%. So ...

Capitalism

In a recent post, I mentioned the common misconception that the only way to fight global warming is to cripple capitalism.

You won't find that misconception more clearly expressed than in this op-ed by Donald J. Boudreaux:

Eat it up

Maybe y'all knew this already, but I read this today and felt sick to my stomach:

Rijsberman said the price of water would have to increase to meet an expected 50 percent increase in the amount of food the world will need in the next 20 years.

Emphasis, and trepidation about the not-so-distant future, mine.

Is a brand-new hybrid SUV a “grand” prize?

As I've mentioned before, I'm definitely not a closet reality TV fan. But if I were, I might note that tonight is the finale of So You Think You Can Dance, a Fox gem by the creators of American Idol, except, you know, with dancing. (I mean, I assume.) Why am I mentioning this here? Well, the winner of tonight's show will go away with a grand-prize package that includes, in addition to a year's contract as a dancer with Celine Dion's Vegas show, a brand-new hybrid SUV.

That's right. A hybrid. Now, you wouldn't know this from looking at the SYTYCD website. And in fact, they hardly even make note of it on the show. (Or so I've heard.) It's kind of mumbled every so often. Here's the thing: I'm psyched that a hybrid vehicle (albeit an SUV) is considered cool enough and flashy enough to be a grand prize for a show with a very-middle-America demographic. But why no hype?

Oxygen-deprived area kills crabs and fish

In 2002, scientists discovered a large "dead zone" -- a marine area that has virtually no oxygen and thus can't support life -- off the coast of Oregon. Dead zones are occurring with increasing frequency all over the world. Scientists believe that changes in weather -- sound familiar? -- are contributing to the ever increasing size of the Oregon dead zone. This summer's dead zone is one of the worst. Thousands of dead Dungeness crab, sea stars, and other marine life carpet the ocean floor. Check out this video that made Al Pazar, chairman of the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission and a crab fisherman himself, "weak in the knees."

The Grass is Always Meaner on the Other Side

Genetically modified grass found in the wild In what could be the first confirmed instance of a genetically modified plant growing outside a farm in the U.S., EPA ecologists have found an unapproved type of GM grass in the wild in central Oregon. The EPA said the creeping bentgrass (could it sound more evil?), being […]