July 9, 2022 By David Goldstein It’s fairly clear by now that Americans living in arid regions have not adequately planned for water shortages. In the current drought, local governments and water purveyors in the local region have responded with a new set of measures, including restrictions on outdoor watering. In areas with the hottest…
July 6, 2022 by David Goldstein Last week, on a nationally televised show, news-based comedian John Oliver criticized a local response to drought. Oliver’s diatribe, viewed on YouTube over 2,760,000 times as of last Tuesday, called study of a suggestion to tow an “iceberg in a diaper” to Ventura County “monumentally stupid” and an example…
EYE ON THE ENVIRONMENT | JULY 4 BARBECUES: GAS VERSUS CHARCOAL June 29th, 2022 by David Goldstein As you prepare to celebrate Independence Day with Fourth of July barbecues, consider the example of Ali Ghasemi, the executive officer at the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District. “I have two gas barbecues,” he told me. “One…
Eco-tip: Fighting planned obsolescence with extended warranties, right to repair By David Goldstein Special to Ventura County Star Are extended warranties worth the cost? For cars, the question becomes complicated by a wide variety of options, prices and incentives. For other items, such as appliances and cell phones, the choices are simpler. Some people need…
Eco-tip: Recycling promoters target kids — how insidious! By David Goldstein Special to Ventura County Star “You’re insidious!” my neighbor, Jim Polisini, said with a laugh. Insidiousness got a bad reputation after the Star Wars franchise named The Emperor Darth Sidious in the original trilogy. But even before then, I had never heard environmental outreach…
Water and Sanitation – Heroes At Work in the Mud Can you be called a hero if you just do your job? Workers who respond to main line water breaks are heroic because water shoots out of these pipes at up to 10,000 gallons per minute, threatening anyone or anything nearby with submersion or ground…
Eco-tip: Sunflowers at Museum of Ventura County bring message of beauty from compost David Goldstein Special to Ventura County Star Local artist Paul Lindhard usually works with stone and produces installations on a monumental scale, but his latest vision, coming into formation during the next few weeks at the Museum of Ventura County, involves the…
Eco-tip: Students can dig into Public Works Week with tons of online material by David Goldstein, PWA – IWMD Special to Ventura County Star This week is Public Works Week, and the American Public Works Association’s 2021 theme, “Stronger Together,” fits well with the way local educators are working. Despite the pandemic, they are collaborating…
Eco-tip: Ventura County compost competition rewards and educates David Goldstein Special to Ventura County Star A new, local environmental group is organizing a competition to promote composting and hoping the competition will become an annual event. The Ventura County Compost Network, a group of local commercial composting businesses, gardening stores, nonprofits, farmers and others, recently…
Eco-tip: Reusable glass bottles are gone, but alternatives have advantages David Goldstein Special to Ventura County Star Stan Wilson, of Ventura, recently wrote to me, “I don’t understand why we can’t just go back to reusable glass bottles. As a teenager I worked as a stock boy in a grocery store. I don’t remember there…