Whole Life Magazine

April / May 2015

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I t's fi nally happening. The evidence is now so strong that some of the most stalwart climate-change deniers are acknowledg- ing concern. In a 2014 poll by The Washington Post and ABC, 69 percent conceded that climate change is a serious problem. Surprisingly, even more—79 percent—said federal government should limit greenhouse gases. So now that we know we have a problem, what are we do- ing about it? UN negotiations are underway for an international climate change agreement to be adopted at the December 2015 conference, and implemented starting 2020. Will everybody sign on? Will the United States? And even if we do, will whoever becomes President in 2016 fol- low through? Finally, why are we waiting so long? We should be starting now. In another survey, 71 percent believed greater use of alter- native energy sources, such as solar or wind power, would be the most effective in the battle against climate change. I like to think that most WLT readers are making efforts to help the envi- ronment, anything from bringing their own grocery bags to install- ing solar panels on their homes. You can't walk into Home Depot these days without getting hit up with a solar panel leasing offer, so we decided to do a little re- search. That no-money-down option makes it awfully tempting. See what we found out about leasing vs. buying (pg. 23). We were surprised at how much more affordable it's become all around. Increased sun and decreased water are two problems that go hand in hand. Lake Powell and Lake Mead, which feed the Colorado River, the primary source of water in Southern Cali- fornia, are down below 50 percent. Water is already more ex- pensive than gas in some parts of the world, and here's another sobering fact: It takes at least four gallons of water to produce a pint of beer, and some estimates range as high as 30 gallons (wine fares no better). Looked at that way, drinking water is an absolute bargain. In this issue, however, we're focusing our attention on the water along our gorgeous Pacif- ic coastline (pg. 26). I've started participating in Heal the Bay's third-Saturday beach cleanups at Will Rogers and been quite as- tonished at the amount of trash, specifi cally Styrofoam. If you're wondering about the plastic in the Great Pacifi c Garbage Patch, it's all around you on the beach and you probably don't even no- tice most of it, cause it looks so much like a shell. If you're one of those people who, like me, gets "too busy" to go to the beach, this is a great excuse. The down side is it's made me super aware of trash everywhere. Somebody should organize a Pacifi c Coast Highway cleanup; the stretch from Will Rogers to Las Virgenes is downright embarrassing. Are you listening, city of Malibu? We can tell by responses to posts on our Facebook page that plenty in our community are concerned about the environment. What do you think is the most urgent issue? We'd love to hear from you, about that or anything related to our triple mission of sustainability, integrative healing and new spirituality. Happy Earth Day! From my cloth grocery bag, from the editor Dear Readers, Styrofoam fragments and broken beach shells look remarkably similar. Can you tell them apart? H a r m o n y i n r e l at i o n s H i p s Sat April 25th 10:00am - 4:00pm Hill Street Center 237 Hill St., Santa Monica A workshop on Vedanta: The philosophy and practice of subjective development. The quality of a relationship depends on the quality of the inner personality. A developed individual finds harmony in any relationship. www.VedantaLA.org 6 wholelifetimesmagazine.com

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