Climate Change

Supervisor has wrong idea about Planned Parents Since when does the Board of Supervisors have the right to even consider voting against the Planned Parenthood contract because it doesn?t coincide with their religious beliefs? The recent item introduced by Supervisor John Moorlach smacks of a vote being taken in violation of the founding fathers of our country when they clearly stated there should be a separation of church and state in government matters! This action by the board is inexcusable!

What’s with this wacky weather? Last Thursday, the forecast was for 80 degrees, which was pretty darn hot for November. But then it hit 90 here in Huntington Beach. Two days later a cold front swept in. On Sunday, it rained cats and dogs in San Diego. It even snowed in the San Bernardino mountains. Our garden is so confused by the weather that it doesn’t know what to do. Our Granny Smith apple tree is blooming, something it normally does only in the spring.

The changing of the guard included some familiar faces along with one new member at Monday's Huntington Beach City Council meeting. Mayor Don Hansen, Mayor Pro Tem Devin Dwyer and Councilman Keith Bohr saw their terms come to an end. Dwyer lost his reelection bid, placing fifth in the race of 12 with the top-three vote getters - Jill Hardy, Jim Katapodis and Dave Sullivan - earning a seat on the council. Connie Boardman and Matthew Harper were unanimously voted in as the new mayor and mayor pro tem, respectively, of Huntington Beach.

Vic and I attended the Newport Beach Film Festival this past weekend. Naturally, Vic and I focused on environmental documentaries. We saw three films, "A Fierce Green Fire,""Last Call at the Oasis,"and"Bitter Seeds. " "A Fierce Green Fire" is based on the book of the same name. The film explored the history of environmentalism from John Muir's failed attempt to save the Hetch Hetchy valley north of Yosemite from being dammed, up to today's battle to slow global warming.

Huntington Beach gets a new mayor next week. As he looks back on the year, current Mayor Gil Coerper says he has few regrets. Coerper will relinquish the position of mayor on Monday, passing the gavel to Councilwoman Debbie Cook, the current mayor pro tem who also was mayor in 2002. The mayor’s job rotates each year as the council members take their turn at being the chief parliamentarian. “It’s an honor and a privilege to have the opportunity to serve the citizens of Huntington Beach,” he said.

I recently toured the National Fuel Cell Research Center at UCI. This facility, under the direction of Scott Samuelson, is the leading fuel-cell research facility in the United Sates. The widespread availability of this technology in the future would greatly benefit California?s economic vitality and help it become energy independent. All of us agree on the importance of finding ways to increase our energy supply to maintain California?s economic health and stability. California is faced with an ever-growing population, increased electricity consumption and possible climate change problems.

I just read with interest the article ?Divided on Environment? (Aug. 14), which detailed the different environmental stances of Congressional candidate Debbie Cook and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher. And boy are they different. It?s so nice when politicians make it so easy to decide! Rohrabacher supports drilling for oil off the shores of Huntington Beach, and Cook supports looking for ways to end our addiction to oil. Rohrabacher says global warming is a hoax and climate trends are not affected by human carbon emissions.

Last week, Vic invited Larry Shaw, the director of operations at Orange County Vector Control, to guest lecture in his natural history class at Irvine Valley College. Larry is into bugs in a big way. It's not only his job to study mosquitoes and ants, but studying insects is his lifelong hobby as well. Larry moved from collecting insects to photographing them many years ago. We got to look at lovely slides instead of icky dried bugs. I sat in on Vic's class so that I could share Shaw's wisdom with you. The phylum Arthropoda includes crustaceans (like lobsters and crabs)