Save The Waves Coalition environmental director Josh Berry cut his teeth working in Chile challenging local industries such as coal and pulp that pollute the coastline and threaten surfing. He now works and writes this blog in California hoping to protect surf spots worldwide.
This sometimes happens when you are a seal in northern California: (note large teeth gashes in seal's rear end)
Photo by Benji, June 26th 2009. I encourage you to educate yourself and your friends about how fragile and important sharks are. Sharks have been in the oceans for hundreds of millions of years - since before dinosaurs - but they might not survive human pressures on them from global warming, pollution, shark finning, by-catch fishing, and other environmental problems.
P.S. - today marks the third year of my blog! Thanks to Save The Waves, Proplaya, and The Ocean for all the awesome support. And thanks to you for reading. I love you.
Kapakahi will rock hard for us on July 16, 6pm - 9pm, at the Park Chalet: 1000 Great Highway, San Francisco. Featuring live music and innovative new surf films such as The Surf Magazines Don't Talk About Lapsed Catholics and more.
My friend Kyle Thiermann, a Santa Cruz surfer and activist, produced this video about coal power and how it's funded. Excellent! We are showing this movie next week at 6:30pm on July 16 at Park Chalet. Located at 1000 Great Highway, Ocean Beach in San Francisco.
It's been three years since I started this blog, and my new inspiration is: environmental activism with no bullshit and no nonsense.
You'll notice a recurring message this year in my blog posts: "CLEAN COAL" IS A LIE. Coal mining creates a path of destruction of mountains, homes, health and water. The "clean coal" myth of carbon sequestration is a stop-gap measure and a lie created by the very well-connected and well-funded coal industry. If we don't change our electricity consumption habits, coal power will destroy the human race with toxic pollution.
"Carbon sequestration" means the capture and underground storage of the carbon burnt in coal. It's meant to fight global warming. It is a prohibitively expensive process, it is unproven, but more importantly, there are many other poisons associated with coal electricity power that are destroying us: mountain top removal in West Virginia, Australia and China; fly ash pollution causing massive asthma problems; mercury and heavy metals poisoning our waters; and more. Coal will destroy the health of our oceans and waterways. You can help by spreading the word that clean coal is a dirty lie, and you can help by changing your electricity consumption habits at home and at work to make coal power unnecessary. We don't need the dirty electricity created by coal power.
This is a great "surf film" like no other out there. It is a beautiful commentary on suffering, surfing, and being human. We are showing it next week on July 16 at the Park Chalet in San Francisco and we will show it this Fall at the Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival.
Save The Waves Coalition recruited me to spearhead the organization's activist efforts in Chile; I am now working with local activist-athletes to reduce ocean pollution produced by industry and ignorance. This blog is written exclusively by me from California where I am now STW's environmental director.
