The Week’s Environmental News Roundup

State of California will purchase Tejon Ranch easements

The Los Angeles Times reports, 62,000 acres of Tejon Ranch, in the Tehachapi range, will be placed into conservation easements. The move marks “the first step in implementing an agreement that would protect up to 240,000 acres of wildlands  in one of the largest pieces of private property in California…The conservation easements will prevent the Tejon Ranch Co. from future development of the properties but allows the ranching and hunting activities to continue.”

Los Angeles County bans plastic bags

The Los Angeles Times reports, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday, enacting “one of the nation’s most aggressive environmental measures” by banning “plastic grocery bags in unincorporated areas of the county…If grocers choose to offer paper bags, they must sell them for 10 cents each.”

“Plastic bags are a pollutant. They pollute the urban landscape. They are what we call in our county urban tumbleweed,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said.

Reusable shopping bags may carry health risk

Be sure to wash your produce, even if it’s organic. First came reports of potentially illness-inducing bacteria now the New York Times says, “reports from around the country have trickled in recently about reusable bags, mostly made in China, that contained potentially unsafe levels of lead.”

International investors issue global warming warning

According to the LA Times, a statement, signed by 259 asset managers and asset owners whose holdings account for one-quarter of global capitalization totaling $15 trillion “called Tuesday for the world’s nations, particularly the United States, to move decisively to combat climate change or face economic disruptions worse than the global recession of the last two years.” The impetus seems to be getting backing for so-called green technologies, “Let’s get back to the table and do what must be done to fight climate change and catalyze private investment into low-carbon technologies,” said Jack Ehnes, chief executive of the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, a $142-billion public pension fund.

Schwarzenegger launches new climate-change group

The governator wants his legacy to be that of Mr. Freeze. The Los Angeles Times reports, “Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday launched an international organization to tackle climate change with leaders from regional governments in Europe, South America, Africa, Asia and the United States.” Ahnahld told delegates to a climate summit held at University of California at Davis, “The sub-nationals should do their work…. The green revolution is moving forward full speed ahead without the international agreement.”

This was Schwarzenegger‘s third climate conference. And, despite state officials predicting that 100 government leaders would sign on only about 25 states and provinces inked onto the pact.

Kenya to launch Africa’s first carbon exchange, while Chicago carbon exchange closing

The same week the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) all but announced it would shut its doors (it will lay off about two-thirds of its employees by the end of 2011’s first quarter, Kenya announced Africa’s first carbon exchange. The BBC reports, “Kenya’s government estimates that its largest forest, the Mau, has the potential to earn the country close to $2bn (£1.2bn) a year over the next 15 years.”

The CCX had opened to bright and glittery projections when it opened in November 2000. Estimates put the voluntary trading scheme’s potential at $500 billion. The estimate skyrocketed to $10 trillion eventually before falling hard to earth.

Cracks in your concrete? You need ‘BacillaFilla’

A team of students at Britain’s Newcastle University has  developed a genetically-modified microbe to fill cracks in concrete. According to the university’s media release, “The genetically-modified microbe has been programmed to swim down fine cracks in the concrete. Once at the bottom it produces a mixture of calcium carbonate and a bacterial glue which combine with the filamentous bacterial cells to ‘knit’ the building back together. Ultimately hardening to the same strength as the surrounding concrete, the ‘BacillaFilla’ – as it has been aptly named – has been developed to prolong the life of structures which are environmentally costly to build.”

BacillaFilla could be especially useful in areas of unstable land and fault prone areas. “This could be particularly useful in earthquake zones where hundreds of buildings have to be flattened because there is currently no easy way of repairing the cracks and making them structurally sound,” said Joint project instructor Dr Jennifer Hallinan.

The BacillaFilla spores only start germinating when they make contact with concrete – triggered by the very specific pH of the material – and they have an in-built self-destruct gene which means they would be unable to survive in the environment.

Folk singer falls from grace her oak tree

The San Jose Mercury-News is reporting that folk-legend Joan Baez fell from her treehouse–“a treehouse” the 69-year-old folksinger “purposely had built without walls because she wanted to sleep among real birds at her Woodside, Calif., home.”

Friday was World Toilet day

You might be tempted to joke and say that you don’t care squat about World Toilet Day, yet 1 out of 5 children die of diarrheal disease before their 5th birthday. According to its website, World Toilet Day brings “awareness for the 2.6 billion people (nearly half of the world’s population) who don’t have access to toilets and proper sanitation.”

Time magazine has a short article about the day. Time says toilets are especially needed for women, “For women, the toilet issue is especially acute — in some countries, they are not permitted to defecate during the day due to issues of ‘modesty.’ After dark, however, when they are finally allowed to go, they become vulnerable to assault and rape. (More on TIME.com: The History of the Toilet)”

UPDATE:
From Uganda’s Daily Monitor: “30 arrested over toilets.” Apparently, using a toilet does not happen naturally and it’s taken very seriously. The police in Nakapiripirit have arrested 30 people, including two primary school teachers, over failure to construct toilets at their homes and allegedly easing themselves in the bushes near Nakapiripirit Town council.”

““We have arrested 32 people for breaking the health by-law that seeks to prevent another outbreak of cholera in the district,” Nakapiripirit District Police Commander, Mr John Bosco Sserunjogi is quoted as saying. “We got them red-handed and we rounded them up in the bushes around the town…” The offenders will be taken to court “as an example to the rest.”