Welcome to Bluedot Los Angeles! Every other Sunday, we share stories about local changemakers, sustainable homes and yards, the nature all around us along with planet-friendly recipes, and advice from Dear Dot. Please email us with story ideas at laeditor@bluedotliving.com. Together, we can make a difference for the blue dot we call home.
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SIMPLE / SMART / SUSTAINABLE / STORIES
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As students at Humboldt State University, Leslie Booher and Torre Polizzi witnessed the near-total collapse of the kelp forest in Humboldt Bay. Inspired to help reverse the trend, they launched Sunken Seaweed in 2016 and spent five years examining the life cycles, growth rates, and benefits of different species with a focus on helping the entire nascent seaweed field. Now, the married couple is growing kelp in Humboldt Bay and selling their harvest to restaurants and businesses. They remain committed to researching best practices for growing kelp in ocean waters. “We’re advancing
seaweed aquaculture for the whole industry, not just ourselves,” Booher says. “If it starts and ends with our company, that’s not successful.”
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Quick Links
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Skip scrolling! Here’s what you’ll find in today’s Bluedot Los Angeles Newsletter:
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Angelenos may take heat from the rest of the country for talking too much about the weather. But climate scientist Daniel Swain thinks we should focus more conversations on what’s happening outside our windows. The UCLA-affiliated researcher and founder of the Weather West blog sees it as an
ideal starting point for climate change discussions: “Make climate change part of your day-to-day conversations. Bring it up with your friends and family. It’s a partisan issue, but you can approach it as if it’s not one. Use the weather as a point of entry.” Wildlife conservationists in Southern California notched a big win in 2022 when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reclassified the Stephens’ kangaroo rat from endangered to threatened. The story of the adorable rodent’s successful translocation and recovery is highlighted in a new report released by the Endangered Species Coalition, Ten Stories of Hope: The Endangered Species Act at 50. Led by the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, the efforts to bring back the kangaroo rat spanned thirty years and involved more than thirty agencies. “Conservation work comes with a lot of challenges, setbacks, and even heartbreak,” said Debra Shier, the associate director of recovery ecology at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. “The successes, or ‘wins,’ are revitalizers — they recharge us, reinspire us, and keep us going.”
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Dear Dot: How Can I Invest in Earth-Friendly Funds?
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–Illustration by Elissa Turnbull
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Dear Dot,
Does Dot know anything about responsible investing for 401(k) plans? I was looking at mine last night and realized I have an aggressive portfolio and know nothing about the companies.
—Ali
Dear Ali,
While Dot tends to glaze over at any talk of investments, I do value your questions because it’s one that many of us — including me — should consider. After all, over a third of the American workforce has a 401(k)-style retirement account. And so I will do my best to steer you and your (potential) fortune toward environmentally responsible and fiscally sound waters.
Let’s dive in: While financial managers are getting better at investing in socially responsible funds, investment accounts are still heavily polluted with stocks in companies that have poor environmental track records.
Read the rest of Dot’s answer.
Got a question for Dot? Write her at deardot@bluedotliving.com.
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BUY LESS/BUY BETTER: Sleeping In
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The Bluedot Marketplace includes affiliate links. If you purchase a product through one of our links, we may earn a commission, essentially a small digital finder’s fee.
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Few things feel more wonderful than slipping into a cozy bed on a chilly evening. Make the most of the longest nights of the year with wonderful sheets, blankets, and more.
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Coyuchi
Bluedot’s publisher furnishes her own home with Coyuchi’s organic, Fair Trade Certified sheets and loves the California brand’s relaxed vibe. Their organic cotton comforters and blankets are another favorite.
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Buy now or
read our review.
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Boll & Branch
Boll & Branch makes organic, Fair Trade Certified linens that look crisp and refined, like they belong in a modern penthouse or fancy hotel. If you need basics, they make excellent down and down-alternative pillows and duvet inserts.
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Buy now or
read our review.
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Cariloha
Folks always in pursuit of the cool side of the pillow will appreciate the silky-smooth sleepwear and linen from Cariloha. The B Corp makes items from bamboo viscose, a fabric that can help regulate body temperature.
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Buy now or
read our
review.
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Changing or scrapping a tradition is no easy feat: We’re attached to our rituals, and for good reason. So what do you do when a favorite family tradition is
contributing to climate change? You tweak it, says columnist Krista Halverson. “Maybe this year can be a year of Tradition with Amendments,” she says. “A year of Big Small Change. We can start right
now, even as store shelves are filling with products to “help” us celebrate in 2024.”
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Bluedot Kitchen: More Veggies, Please
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If you made a New Year’s resolution to eat more vegetables, we’ve got you covered. These two winter salads are so flavorful, you’ll forget they don’t feature chicken or salmon. (Bonus: They’re also packed with nutrients.)
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The photos are arresting: a huge cobalt-blue square in the middle of mustard fields, lodged in the sand at the coastline, rising from the snow among a stand of birch trees. To Blakeney Sanford, the Santa Barbara-based artist who created them, the images “incorporated everything that I love: nature and time, discovery, my creative process, travel, problem solving, engineering — everything.” They’re part of Sanford’s latest series, The Portals, and represent a bit of a shift for the artist, who has focused mainly on installation pieces up to
this point. She spoke to Bluedot’s Hilary Dole Klein about her work, why she became an artist, and what inspires her.
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Green Goals for 2024
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I always thought composting would be messy at best, smelly at worst. A recent week in San Francisco changed my mind: My host had a tiny compost bin on her kitchen counter, and throughout my stay, we filled it twice with everything from banana peels to coffee grinds. And guess what? That neat little tin of cooking and table scraps significantly reduced the amount of trash we accumulated over the week. So I resolved this January 1st to start composting in my own kitchen. Maybe I’ll even invest in a Lomi composter. What are your green goals for 2024? Email us and tell us all about them at laeditor@bluedotliving.com.
Thanks for reading, and we’ll be back in two weeks!
–Robin Jones
Do you have a special Los Angeles photo or story to share?
Email laeditor@bluedotliving.com.
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Robin Jones is a Southern California native who served as an editor at Westways magazine for more than a decade. She currently lives in Long Beach and teaches journalism at Cal State Long
Beach, where she advises the award-winning student magazine, DIG MAG. She loves road-tripping across California, especially when the itinerary includes stops in Arcata and Trinidad.
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