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O.C. firm behind Super Bowl ‘green police’

February 9th, 2010, 2:48 pm by Pat Brennan, green living, environment editor

The electric, stand-up police scooters that seem to be popping up everywhere — including in a recent Super Bowl commercial — are the creation of a Costa Mesa company. t32

The “green police” were featured prominently in the ad for Audi during the Super Bowl, but the vehicles and their growing use by law enforcement are quite real.

Both the standup scooter — called T3 Series Electric Standup Vehicle — and its lithium-ion batteries have been distributed worldwide by T3 Motion, Inc.

The company says it recently hit a landmark: 5,000 of the batteries shipped to a variety of agencies around the globe. The batteries, with a range of 25 t0 50 miles, can be swapped out in minutes, so their range is limited only by the number of backup batteries on hand.

T3 Motion also has shipped out 2,000 of the vehicles themselves.

Marketing manager Jeff Simpson said the company tailored the vehicle for use by agencies. They are not available to consumers.

“We have a vehicle that the market helped design,” he said.

Some 500 law enforcement, government and security agencies use the devices, which can hit 20 mph and are ideal for tight, crowded spaces, indoors or out. Their turning radius is zero degrees.

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Edge of Nature: Small duck makes big impression

February 9th, 2010, 10:15 am by Pat Brennan, green living, environment editor

Among the winter visitors paddling around in bays and reservoirs, the bufflehead is a standout: both this duck’s small size and its white head-patch earn it many a second look. edgeg0209

While the duck itself is among the smallest in North America, its head looks almost too large for its body. According to one source, the puffy nature of the head invited comparisons to buffalo, and gave this bird its common name.

These are diving ducks, becoming completely submerged as they hunt for underwater insects. Buffleheads are also known to favor snails in winter.

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Oil spill’s 20-year legacy: death, new life

February 7th, 2010, 8:30 am by Pat Brennan, green living, environment editor

Twenty years ago Sunday, Vic Leipzig picked up an oil-soaked grebe on the Huntington Beach coast — what he believes was the first bird rescued in the massive American Trader oil spill that blackened the beach, killed thousands of seabirds and hammered the beachside economy. americantradergoc

The hull of the oil tanker was torn open after it ran over its own anchor on Feb. 7, 1990, disgorging 400,000 gallons of crude into the ocean. Soon the oil reached the shoreline, rolling in with the waves.

“There was oil on the surface of the water, and the waves were crashing black onto the sand,” said Leipzig, a biology teacher at Golden West College, remembered as the anniversary approached. “It was a visually dramatic sight.”

What followed were days of chaos — would-be rescuers and spontaneous cleanup crews forming a chaotic throng on the beach, gradually organized by Leipzig and others — weeks of cleanup and years of legal wrangling.

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In Dana Point, zero tolerance for trash

February 5th, 2010, 8:30 am by Pat Brennan, green living, environment editor

When “Zero Trash” kicks off in Dana Point on Saturday, the goal will be simple: sweep the streets of all trash, or at least as much as volunteers can pick up in two hours. zerotrashnb

The event, organizers say, is part of a growing “Zero Trash” movement spawned in Laguna Beach in 2006. Volunteers began gathering once a month to clear trash from the streets of Laguna. “Zero Trash Newport” began in October, and cleanups will be held in both cities Saturday as well. It will be Dana Point’s first.

“Right now it’s slowly expanding,” said spokeswoman Melody Hsu. “We’re looking for storefront supporters in the cities. I think the goal is for each person in the community to take responsibility — to take the community into their own hands.”

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Valentine’s Day endangered-species condoms?

February 4th, 2010, 12:08 pm by Pat Brennan, green living, environment editor

Environmental activists worried about overpopulation say they’ll have a Valentine’s Day gift for the nation: free endangered-species condoms.

gncgocThe Center for Biological Diversity, based in Tucson, says it will distribute the condoms in Orange County and elsewhere around the country. Images of six endangered species will appear on the condom packages.

For now, they are saying little else, keeping details — including which species they’ve chosen — under wraps until the big launch next week.

“Now we’re trying to stuff tons of these things into boxes, trying to get them all out by Monday,” said Randy Serraglio, a conservation advocate at the Center. “We’ll see if that actually happens.”

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Students track ocean threat at Crystal Cove

February 4th, 2010, 6:17 am by Pat Brennan, green living, environment editor

High school students are wading bravely into chilly surf at Crystal Cove State Park this week, buckets in hand, to measure what climate scientists call a growing threat: an increasingly acidic ocean. oceantestinggoc

But it might be more than an academic exercise. Their measurements could become part of a real-world research effort to learn how severely the rise in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is affecting the oceans — and how that, in turn, could affect marine life.

“I believe it doesn’t really matter who caused it, whether it’s natural or man-made,” said Aurelio Isidro, 18, one of 75 advanced-placement environmental-science students from Segerstrom High School in Santa Ana taking part in the program Wednesday. “We still have to take responsibility, ’cause it is going to affect us — maybe not us, but our children.”

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