By Tom Molloy
Let’s support the Angeles Chapter Clean Break campaigns to hold the oil industry accountable
California is one of the largest oil producers in the nation. There are over 105,000 oil and gas wells in the state and over 5,000 wells in Los Angeles County. Studies link proximity to oil and gas drilling to increased risk of asthma and other respiratory illnesses, pre-term births and high-risk pregnancies, and cancer. These emissions are a major contribution to greenhouse gas pollution and the global climate crisis. Most of these toxic neighborhood oil and gas wells are in low-income communities, where people of color are disproportionately harmed.
Please browse this Angeles chapters Clean Break website to get information on their location-based campaigns. https://cleanbreak.info/.
Consider signing these petitions to help push the ball:
CA STATE: Support health and safety buffer zone
CA STATE: Fight to clean up idle wells
SIGNAL HILL: Oppose 46 new wells in Signal Hill, California
LONG BEACH: Tell Long Beach to phase out and clean up oil drilling
California’s Giant redwoods – the world’s largest trees – flourishing in the United Kingdom
And now for some bittersweet news about our beloved Giant Redwoods.
The BBC reported last month that the trees, which were first brought to the UK about 160 years ago, are growing at a similar rate to those found in their native range in California. The scientists believe the UK trees now outnumber the ones in the Sierra Nevada mountains. However, they aren’t yet as tall. In California, the biggest reach 90 meters in height, but in the UK the tallest is 54.87 meters. But that’s because the introduced trees are still very young. Giant redwoods can live for more than 2,000 years. The researchers found that the trees were growing about as fast as the Giant Redwoods in their native home in the mountains of Sierra Nevada. The UK climate seems to suit them.
It’s estimated there are half a million redwoods in the UK compared to about 80,000 mature Giant Redwoods in their native range in California. This includes the Giant Redwoods studied (Sequoiadendron giganteum, also commonly called Giant Sequoias) as well as Coastal Redwoods and Dawn Redwoods, both of which were introduced at later dates. But the scientists in the study say they think most of the UK trees are Giant Redwoods.
In California, as we know, they are under threat from climate change. They’re not faring well with hotter and drier weather and more intense wildfires. Recent wildfires in the Sierra Nevada have decimated some Giant Redwood groves.
