![Caltrans plans to widen the 91 Freeway [again], spending $1.3 Billion to improve commute speeds 1.5 miles per hour, while further destroying the only wildlife connection between the Santa Ana Mountains and the Puente-Chino Hills. Commuter trains, anyone?](https://www.wilderutopia.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Jerry-Collamer-91-Freeway-Insane-Toon-115x115.jpg "Caltrans Driving Us to Freeway Insanity")
Defensible Space: My Wildfire-Appropriate Retrofit Journey – Part I
KXL Blocked – How Indigenous People Will End Tar Sands Pipelines
Mythological Journey to the Aztec Underworld
Confronting Wildfire: Retrofit Communities, Not Forests
San Onofre Nuclear Waste Dangers Compound
Defensible Space: My Wildfire-Appropriate Retrofit Journey – Part IAs the Western U.S. continues with massive wind-driven, high-intensity wildfires that often turn deadly, Naomi Pitcairn recommends retrofitting homes on the Wildland Urban Interface for fire-resistant resiliency. This is Part I of a three-part series.
Read More KXL Blocked – How Indigenous People Will End Tar Sands PipelinesA federal judge blocked the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline in November 2018, saying the Trump administration’s justification for approving it last year was "incomplete," meaning it vacated for political effect the requirements of environmental law in the US. Idle No More and AIM leader Lydia Ponce reflects on her visits to the camps challenging tar sands pipelines to protect Mother Earth and Indigenous sovereignty.
Read More Mythological Journey to the Aztec UnderworldIn Aztec cosmology, the soul's journey to the Underworld after death leaves them with four destinations: the Sacred Orchard of the Gods, the Place of Darkness, the Kingdom of the Sun, and a paradise called the Mansion of the Moon. The most common deaths end up on their way to Mictlán with its nine levels, crashing mountains and rushing rivers, and four years of struggle. This pantheon of gods and goddesses and the expanse of the 13 Heavens provides the cultural basis for the Day of the Dead customs and celebrations.
Read More Confronting Wildfire: Retrofit Communities, Not ForestsAs California continues with massive wind-driven, high-intensity wildfires that often turn deadly, the governmental and institutional response has been to thin forests and "grind up vegetation" to fight fires. Naomi Pitcairn points to a movement by plant community and wildfire experts led by the Richard Halsey of the Chaparral Institute to focus on protecting vulnerable communities rather than trying to control nature, which now faces extreme heatwaves and droughts from an unpredictable greenhouse-gas-warmed climate.
Read More San Onofre Nuclear Waste Dangers CompoundSince it was closed for safety violastions in 2012, the dangers of San Onofre Nuclear Generation Station (SONGS) between Orange County and San Diego have only continued to loom. Listen to this EcoJustice Radio interview with activists from Public Watchdogs explain how the nuclear waste being buried on the beach poses serious dangers to California.
Read More
Waste Colonization, Plastic Pollution and the Pacific GyreHow do we confront the swirling gyres of plastic pollution dumped into our oceans? EcoJustice Radio on KPFK-Los Angeles examines the social and environmental implications of wasted resources, and follow two interrelated approaches to solving the problem from an indigenous woman doing exemplary work in New Zealand and an LA-based plastics pollution fighter who built a raft made of plastic junk and crossed the Pacific.
Read More
Rise for Climate Los Angeles: September 8On September 8, the international Rise for Climate Day of Action is bringing people together for Climate, Jobs, and Justice, calling on governments, corporations, and organizations to initiate aggressive action on climate change, protect frontline communities, and create good jobs in the clean energy economy. Join us to Rise Together in Los Angeles on Saturday, September 8, in solidarity with events in San Francisco and around the globe that same day.
Read More
San Onofre Beach as Permanent Nuclear Waste DumpAccording to a former Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chief, the beach in front of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station could become a permanent nuclear waste dump. Learn why Edison's program of storing deadly nuclear waste on the beach is not a "temporary" plan. And cartoonist Jerry Collamer weighs in.
Read More
The Underworld, Rebirth and Renewal with Ceres and ProserpinaIn ancient Roman religion, Ceres was a goddess of agriculture, grain crops, fertility and motherly relationships. The following myth tells how her daughter Proserpina was abducted by the ruler of the underworld, forced to become his wife, but with Ceres' help, she watches over the springtime growth of crops and the cycle of life, death, and rebirth or renewal.
Read More
Cinematic Cultural Change in West Africa with Idrissa OuédraogoIdrissa Ouédraogo, whose simple, carefully observed movies about cultural change in Burkina Faso and elsewhere in Africa, brought him international acclaim and a top award at the Cannes International Film Festival, recently died. We share his first film, Yam Daabo (The Choice) about a family facing famine in the Sahel.
Read More