Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Marc Reisner's must-read
Cadillac Desert: the American West and Its Disappearing
Water
examines the contentious, sometimes violent, water wars that gave rise to modern
California, including coastal cities like Los Angeles.
Cleaner Air, Land & Energy
Although air quality in California has improved markedly in past decades, it still ranks
among the worst in the USA. Along much of the coast, air pollution is alleviated by the
prevailing westerly winds that blow clean air in off the Pacific. But travel inland, espe-
cially across the LA Basin, and the air often takes on a thick haze, obscuring vistas and
creating health hazards.
Today, California leads the nation in automobile emissions control and ownership of hy-
brid and alternative-fuel vehicles, from Priuses and plug-ins to biodiesel cars that chug
along on recycled fast-food cooking oil. Toxic clean-up and reclamation of abandoned in-
dustrial areas and military sites has also created urban 'green spaces' that help Californians
breathe more easily.
Recently, voters have funded construction of solar-power plants, which already produce
500 megawatts of electricity statewide, and there's even talk of harnessing the tremendous
tidal flows of the Pacific to generate more 'clean' energy. By law, California's electricity
utilities must get 33% of their energy from renewable resources by 2020, the most ambi-
tious target of any US state so far.
Coastal California cities are leading the way when it comes to the eco-conscious mantra
'reduce, reuse, recycle.' Take San Francisco, for example, which plans to recycle
all
of its
trash by the year 2020 and has already instituted citywide composting of perishable organ-
ic matter under its 'landfill avoidance' policy.
According to the US Geological Survey, the odds of a magnitude 6.7 or greater earth-
quake hitting California within the next 30 years is 99.7%. During the same time, sea
levels are expected to rise up to 2ft by 2050, due to global warming.
