{"id":708,"date":"2011-03-26T12:45:06","date_gmt":"2011-03-26T19:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dilworth2lead.com\/blogpol\/?p=708"},"modified":"2012-03-23T02:48:56","modified_gmt":"2012-03-23T02:48:56","slug":"708","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/708\/","title":{"rendered":"“Sustainable” Pacific Grove vs Our Environment ?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently a group of people, most new to our community, started several local groups often including the term \u201cSustainable\u201d in their name; e.g. Sustainable Pacific Grove<\/strong>. Their main activities seem to concern energy and trash reduction, and shopping \/ buying local and \u201cgreen\u201d goods. <\/p>\n

They were successful in getting several local mayors to sign a \u201cMayors Climate Protection Agreement\u201d and getting several local cities to sign onto the \u201cUrban Environmental Accords.\u201d <\/p>\n

However, as they admit \u2013 neither document has any force of law. Laudable, but not really meaningful in the hard-ball arena of local politics. I wonder whether anything in politics has changed as a result of those agreements.<\/p>\n

Sustainable Pacific Grove\u2019s<\/a> mission is \u201cTo make Pacific Grove a model of transition to sustainability through innovative, active, local solutions that enhance community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their goals seem laudable, a bit diluted and ambiguous, but seemingly positive. I do note that there is not a single goal that mentions local ecological or health protection; at best unspecific \u201cplans\u201d<\/u> as opposed to the strong protection our local environment needs on a regular basis.<\/U> Oddly, the \u201cMayors Climate Protection Agreement\u201d they promote has more language about protecting trees than \u201cSustainable Pacific Grove\u2019s\u201d own goals.<\/p>\n

Several recent events make me wonder – Why is one of their Founding Board<\/strong> members fighting local environmental protection ?<\/U> and what are the real values and goals of Sustainable Pacific Grove<\/strong> ?<\/p>\n

1. I\u2019ve attended a meeting of Sustainable Pacific Grove<\/strong> and of the 25 or so attendees they seemed pleasant and earnest.<\/p>\n

However, I saw no one there who has ever helped protect our community from the immediate threats on our local environment. Not one person. <\/p>\n

Of all the hundreds of local issues I’ve worked on over the last 25+ years, and the thousands of local citizens who have stepped up to help, there was not a single person attending the Sustainable Pacific Grove<\/strong> meeting who had ever played a role in protecting our community from the threats of developers, forest or tree loss, or increased water connections that have damaged our Carmel River<\/strong> habitat. <\/p>\n

None, not a single person, not even the leaders.<\/p>\n

2. “Reforesting” an Existing Forest – “You Can’t Force Feed a Forest”<\/U><\/p>\n

One of Sustainable Pacific Grove\u2019s projects is \u201ctrying to Re-forest Washington Park.\u201d <\/p>\n

That\u2019s weird. <\/p>\n

Washington Park’s forest is already a fairly healthy and full forest (except for the baseball park the city carved into it). It doesn’t need any more trees. <\/p>\n

Washington Park’s existing trees do need protection from the City which regularly tries to cut down the Park’s healthy trees. <\/p>\n

(Why is Sustainable Pacific Grove<\/strong> always absent and silent when we are trying to stop the city’s chainsaws ?)<\/p>\n

I hope this is not an echo of Pacific Grove’s infamous Eco-Fraud Sandy Koffman who started a group called “Eco-Corps.” They also planted a lot of unnecessary trees in Washington Park (I wonder if anyone can point to a single tree Eco-corp planted that is still living). <\/p>\n

As soon as she was elected Mayor, Eco-corps instantly dissolved and Koffman abandoned all environmental protection pretenses – and began acting to harm Pacific Grove’s environment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

3. Tree Protection Removal Advocate<\/U>

\"Sustainable

Sustainable Pacific Grove Board Member Robert Frischmuth
Anti-Environment Advocate<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

A group of property-rights people are trying to weaken Pacific Grove’s tree protection law. A recent version given to the City Council removed ALL tree protection on private property.<\/U> <\/p>\n

Want to cut a tree down ? No Problem, and No Delay because no permit would be needed anymore<\/U>. The current requirement to replace trees cut down \u2013 it would change to wholly voluntary. Maintaining a tree \u2013 voluntary; you can let it die.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To describe this as a radical reduction in tree protection<\/U> would be accurate.<\/p>\n

During public hearings on this, a board member of Sustainable Pacific Grove, Robert Frischmuth, got up to speak. “Good,” I thought, “finally someone from Sustainable Pacific Grove will advocate helping protect our environment.”<\/p>\n

What a shock. Frischmuth didn\u2019t advocate protecting trees at all \u2013 Frischmuth supported weakening<\/i> the tree protection !<\/U> <\/p>\n

What !?!<\/p>\n

===========<\/center><\/p>\n

4. Smartmeter Support<\/U><\/p>\n

A movement of local people are trying to protect their families and our community from ‘Smart’meters.<\/a>There are serious concerns about fire and medical safety, health, radiation, and privacy. The more they look into it – the more and bigger the problems get.<\/p>\n

Once again the same board member of Sustainable Pacific Grove, Robert Frischmuth, got up to speak. Again he did not disclaim his opinion as independent of Sustainable Pacific Grove<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I was not quite as hopeful this time, but once again I was shocked \u2013 Frischmuth advocated support for Smartmeters.<\/U><\/p>\n

Update: Robert Frischmuth wrote a letter to the editor of the Cedar Street Times<\/a> that was filled with false and misleading information advocating for and defending “Smart”meters. This is particularly offensive because he claims to have some expertise in the area.<\/p>\n

Examples include —<\/p>\n

1. “transmissions of kwh readings are encrypted.” <\/p>\n

Truth: No, PG&E says the transmissions aren’t encrypted until after the data is uploaded to a neighborhood collecting device.<\/a> <\/p>\n

Because the data is not encrypted<\/u> this means that burglars can easily read your home personal use data and make an educated guess when you aren’t there. <\/p>\n

Worse, someone like Timothy McVeigh<\/a> could not only turn off your power, but with a bit of research could turn off the power for a whole town. <\/p>\n

2. “Radio and TV<\/strong> have been emitting waves for a long time.”
\nTruth: Misleading. Radio and TV<\/strong> do not transmit just feet from where we live. Smart”meters are already transmitting 24 hours a day from places in Pacific Grove just a foot or so from a bed, an office desk and a shower.<\/p>\n

3. “Smart”Meters, statistically, were actually more accurate.”
\nTruth: Misleading. Statistically, each human has one ovary and one testicle. In non-statistical reality PG&E was forced to admit that some 1,600 “Smart”meters were been found to grossly overcharge<\/a> (but “only when they got hot” – right.)<\/p>\n

Our local KION TV<\/strong> station did a 13 week test with a calibrated “Smart”meter and a conventional meter. They found the “Smart”meter had a systematically higher billing amount than a conventional meter.<\/p>\n

===========<\/center><\/p>\n

I hope these anti-environmental positions by a Sustainable Pacific Grove<\/strong> founding Board member are contrary to the wishes of the rest of the Board of Sustainable Pacific Grove<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

They certainly don’t reflect the values of our community or protection of our environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently a group of people, most new to our community, started several local groups often including the term \u201cSustainable\u201d in their name; e.g. Sustainable Pacific Grove. Their main activities seem to concern energy and trash reduction, and shopping \/ buying … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":3,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=708"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3341,"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708\/revisions\/3341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}