A deer hunter in Northern California tipped police off on what he thought was a massive stand of marijuana growing on public land. The police arrived and found 1,991 plants that they estimate are work about $3.8 million. They also dismantled a dam that had been setup to divert water to the illegal farm. People in the area reported that they’d seen workers going into the field every day, which begs the question why the police didn’t bother arresting anyone who’s been trashing wildlife areas to grow marijuana.

These farms on public land must be all over the place. If you’re in Northern CA and don’t have the money to fill your pot prescription, just go to a national forest and walk in a straight line. You’re bound to find a bunch of it for free sooner or later.

via Outdoor Pressroom

Getting outside may be good for your ADHD! Want to ride bikes? According to a new study kids that regularly run around in the woods or play in outdoor spaces have milder attention deficit hyperactivity disorder than kids who play indoors. Seeing as how almost every adult I’ve worked with has at one time blamed ADHD for not paying attention when I was talking to them, I assume that everyone could use a dose of outdoor fun.

A group of artists rappelled down the defunct Matilija Dam near Ojai in Southern California to paint a message to anyone who passed by: Get rid of this stupid thing. So far the city has left it there, and the LA Times has written a thoughtful piece about how the dam really ought to come down. I love it. In most other places the government would spend $200k to hire an OSHA-approved contractor to come in and clean the dam using toxic chemicals.

via Moldy Chum

Last night I attended Al Gore’s latest presentation and the culmination of his latest event, 24 Hours of Reality. It began a day earlier, and a presentation was held hourly in every time zone around the world and streamed live to anyone who cared to watch.

The goal of the talk is to rally the masses to acknowledge reality — that climate change exists. He focused on the extreme weather that’s becoming the new normal: the floods in Pakistan that displaced millions, the extreme drought in Texas that led to massive fires, the tropical storm that destroyed homes in Vermont a couple weeks back. Yes, a tropical storm in Vermont, not Puerto Rico. He labored on the point that the academies of science in every single nation in the world and 97% of climate researchers agree that climate change is caused by humans. It’s not a matter of whether you believe but whether you’re willing to accept widely held beliefs by everyone in the science community. He spoke eloquently, comparing the climate change naysayers to those in big tobacco who declared nicotine non-addictive even as they struggled to find new customers while theirs died of lung disease.

And I’d say the room was maybe two-thirds full. The broadcast beamed around the world was watched by 8 million people. That’s a million less than the parody of that popular wedding dance video (which originally saw 69 million views) that was on YouTube.

So what does this mean? Well, hardly anyone is listening. And even fewer people are doing anything.

His suggestion was simple. Not unplug-your-cell-phone-charger-when-you’re-not-using-it simple, but still simple. He said: I’ve had some experience in politics. Here’s what you do. You call your representative and you say, “This is important to me. I’m watching what you do. And if you do what’s right, I’ll support you to get reelected. And if don’t, I’ll do everything in my power to ensure your defeat.”

I can do that. And honestly, it’ll feel nice to tell a politician just that.

It’s tough to be a green retailer since the essence of your business is getting people to consume your goods. This is especially hard for a fashion company that builds in a planned obsolescence to their outfits. No one is more cognizant of this than Patagonia. I would consider Patagonia more of a gear company than a fashion company, but it’s impossible to argue that there isn’t a fashion component to their gear. And a company that designs stylish gear shouldn’t be demonized for doing so. So they’re faced with a quandary: What can we do to be greener given the inherent nature of our business? Well, they came up with the Common Threads Initiative. And they opened an eBay storefront to help people buy and sell their durable goods, regardless of how out-of-fashion they may be. And they also have a pledge you can take, which sounds, frankly, like a terrible idea for anyone, but hey, it might work for you.