West Coast Wasteland

The state’s unemployment rate stands at more than 12 percent, and in some poorer counties it’s in the 25 percent range. In Los Angeles, that number is 12.2 percent. “It boggles the mind,” says LA’s mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa. “Not since the Depression have we had numbers this bad.” To make matters worse, in an attempt…

Coca-Cola is tasting green.

Unveiled at the Copenhagen Climate summit, the new bottle has been found to have a 12 to 19 percent smaller carbon footprint than traditional plastic bottles. In part, that stems from the fact that Coke’s petroleum-based plastic bottles require upwards of 17 million barrels of oil per year to produce, the Pacific Institute, a California…

Marijuana legally prescribed to young people is showing up in classrooms.

This is putting teachers and principals in a new and challenging position. Aimee Polacci, garden product manager, carries a tray of cannabis clones to be sold at the Peace in Medicine dispensary in Sebastopol, Calif. The lone medical marijuana dispensary in this Northern California enclave has become such a pot destination that it has more…

Cokes New Bottle Update

PART PLANT Coke, under fire from environmentalists for using plastic bottles, has introduced a new packaging material made partly from plants. The container has “the same weight, the same feel, the same chemistry, and functions exactly the same way” as a regular plastic bottle, a Coke spokeswoman says. Coke isn’t the only beverage concern trying…

GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY

Editor’s Comment: The writing below is now 15 years-old. But it is as true today, and will be into whatever future humanity has left, as it was when written. It isn’t a message about the futility of our existence, but about the stupidity of our devices and desires. It is meant to signal that we…