{"id":13527,"date":"2015-10-19T06:08:03","date_gmt":"2015-10-19T11:08:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=13527"},"modified":"2015-10-19T06:08:03","modified_gmt":"2015-10-19T11:08:03","slug":"a-local-watchdogs-checklist-for-tackling-environmental-issues-in-your-own-backyard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=13527","title":{"rendered":"A Local Watchdog&#8217;s Checklist for Tackling Environmental Issues In Your Own Backyard"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 id=\"page-title\" class=\"page__title title\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.desmogblog.com\/2015\/10\/18\/local-watchdog-s-checklist-tackling-environmental-issues-your-own-backyard\" target=\"_blank\">A Local Watchdog&#8217;s Checklist for Tackling Environmental Issues In Your Own Backyard<\/a><\/h3>\n<p>The environment is large, complex and cross-jurisdictional. As activists, it\u2019s easy to jump on board with the large national and international issues\u2014like protecting the Clean Air Act or fighting climate change\u2014that are pursued by myriad organizations. Those causes are worthy of support, but it&#8217;s easy to overlook or count out the smaller issues in your own\u00a0backyard.<\/p>\n<p>What happens in our own communities is equally important, not just to improve our quality of life and that of our neighbors, but because many of the solutions to the national and international problems start locally. Plus, local is where lots of the real action is happening\u00a0anyway.<\/p>\n<p>In 2005, then London Mayor Ken Livingstone convened 18 mayors from \u201cmegacities,\u201d which spawned the formation of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.c40.org\/history\" target=\"_blank\">C40 Cities<\/a>, an international coalition of city officials committed to reducing carbon pollution and building resilience. Even President Obama, in his Climate Action Plan, acknowledged that, given the state of Congress today,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/docs\/task_force_report_0.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">cities and states are leading the way<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re not all Erin Brockovich, so tackling local environmental issues can be challenging, beginning with even identifying what&#8217;s worth fighting\u00a0for.<\/p>\n<p>Here are a few steps you can take to bring your passion for the environment home.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Understand Your\u00a0Ecology<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Each community is unique. Where I live on the Gulf Coast, the oil industry has driven the devastation of the nation\u2019s largest expanse of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.usgs.gov\/newsroom\/article.asp?ID=3224#.VfgkWhFVhBc\" target=\"_blank\">coastal<\/a>\u00a0wetlands, disappearing at the rate of a football field an hour and jeopardizing the sustainability of coastal communities. But in Los Angeles, the most pressing issues are related to the effects of the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/ca.gov\/drought\/\" target=\"_blank\">ongoing historic drought<\/a>\u00a0and the water use policies and practices that make it worse. In West Virginia, there&#8217;s plenty of water and high ground, but the dominant coal and chemical industries wreak havoc on the landscape by\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/ilovemountains.org\/resources\" target=\"_blank\">blowing up mountains<\/a>\u00a0for coal and underinvesting in safety equipment such that their products and waste\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/2014_Elk_River_chemical_spill\" target=\"_blank\">poisons the ecosystem<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Local Watchdog&#8217;s Checklist for Tackling Environmental Issues In Your Own Backyard The environment is large, complex and cross-jurisdictional. As activists, it\u2019s easy to jump on board with the large national and international issues\u2014like protecting the Clean Air Act or fighting climate change\u2014that are pursued by myriad organizations. Those causes are worthy of support, but [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5317,234,9952,9951,9953],"class_list":["post-13527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-desmog-blog","tag-ecology","tag-local-community","tag-local-environment","tag-local-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13527"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13528,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13527\/revisions\/13528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}