Viable Solutions

Last week’s windstorm downed trees and wreaked havoc on our streets and landscapes, costing millions of dollars in property damage. Equally as devastating was the costly damage to a critical part of our community infrastructure: the urban forest. Kudos to all the arborists, the professional tree people, who've just performed the heroic, high-risk work of rapid cleanup. These are people who until recent municipal budget cuts were regularly employed keeping our trees safe and healthy.

We need trees in cities more than ever. We need them to protect us from heat, flooding, air pollution, drought - health and safety hazards far more common than a uncharacteristic wind storm. We need them to provide us with oxygen, shade, beauty, natural habitat, energy savings, and carbon dioxide sequestration. In losing the trees toppled by the storm we’ve lost vital services.

Could these losses have been prevented?  

I recently finished my term as a test “pilot” of the new Chevy Volt.  As one of 15 members of their Consumer Advisory Board, General Motors loaned me the plug-in electric Volt for 3 months. The vehicle was wonderful and I fell in love with it for multiple reasons, which I’ve shared in past posts. But driving it also raised some tricky questions.

For one, a neighbor asked me if I could be sure that I was emitting less in the way of greenhouse gasses, since I was using the mix of energy provided by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) - much of which comes from coal.

My neighbor had a point. It’s true that about 40% of the power provided by LADWP to the Los Angeles basin comes from the burning of coal, according to the LADWP’s Integrated Resource Plan (pdf). 

I was really sad the day General Motors took my Chevy Volt away. But it wasn’t mine to keep. GM had appointed me to a special Consumer Advisory Board, which amounted to being one of fifteen “test pilots” across America who got to drive and critique a Volt for three months.

When I first drove the Volt, having been a proud Prius driver for the past five years, I was initially put off by its relative heaviness, which seemed to cause an unnecessary waste of power just to propel the car. On the other hand, I was really impressed with the control panel, the array of electronics, the amazing stereo sound, and the full-time help and assistance through the On-Star System. I also appreciated the Volt’s steering radius. It was the tightest and best I’ve experienced in any car, foreign or domestic.

“The first time I ever left Chinatown was when my 5^th grade class went on an Eco-tour at TreePeople. Since that day over 20 years ago a week hasn’t gone by that I haven’t thought about TreePeople.”