Second in a series
When Meghan Sahli-Wells and Michelle Weiner summoned community residents to have a conversation in front of City Hall on Sunday afternoon about reversing or at least slowing up the damage that plastic bags are causing to the environment, they were rewarded with a turnout of idealists, of course, but well-grounded activists with pragmatic solutions.
[img]973|left|||no_popup[/img]
[img]972|left|||no_popup[/img]
Photos by Karim Sahli and Jonathan Levy
Acutely sensitive to global environmental turmoil, they chose to place the accent much closer to home.
They talked about parochial panaceas. Fix Culver City and the Westside, said many of the speakers. Talk to Downtown business owners, and bring them reasonable, workable, handleable ideas.
In establishing a tone for the sizable audience that was seated on blankets strewn into a half-moon configuration, Ms. Sahli-Wells said:
“Part of our problem is our dependence on fossil fuels. If you will look closely at your plastic bag, this is a fossil fuels product. It was made by the petroleum industry. It is going to be used, maybe, one time.
“And then it gets thrown, in the best case, in the landfill. In the worst case, it becomes an urban tumbleweed, and eventually lands in the ocean. It is not a little thing. It is a big deal that is hurting us all.”
Ms. Sahli-Wells, who barely missed being elected to the City Council last spring, organized the unique think tank event under the banner of the Transition Culver City. She explained it is a branch of an international movement, Transition Towns.
“The movement is seeking community solutions to the problems of climate change, oil and also the economic problems we are having,” Ms. Sahli-Wells said.
(To be continued)
