Those of you who have watched my work on 10 News or CBS 8 during the past 30 years probably know my true passions are nature, gardening and the environment. Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to have the opportunity to report on those things in addition to keeping people informed on weather changes. During the months of time when San Diego weather rarely changes day to day, it’s been nice to have the additional subject matter to keep things interesting for me, and hopefully you.

I’ve decided to launch my second career now and focus all my energy on those things where my passion lies. The name of my company is still in the works but the direction is coming into focus. The most pressing environmental need is for water conservation, and to that end I am starting a company which will take advantage of technological advances in how we irrigate our lawns and gardens. New products allow me to offer customers a nearly 50% reduction in the amount of water they use outside their homes and do it without a loss of quality in the look of their plantings, with a fairly simple retrofit. We’ll also be installing rainwater harvesting systems.
Additionally I hope to have my organic gardening show Garden Rx on the air in San Diego soon, and then develop gardening products to make common chores a little easier and friendly to the environment.

It has been a remarkable pleasure to work on TV in my adopted home town. When I arrived here as a kid in my mid-twenties, I envisioned it as a stop on a career I hoped would take me to Washington D.C. as a Whitehouse correspondent. When Susie and I took the next step on that journey and moved to San Francisco to anchor the news, I immediately knew I’d made a mistake. San Diego had become more than a stop on a career train. The city, the region, and its people had become part of who I was (and am) and how I hoped to live and raise a family. When I was offered a chance to return as a weatherman, I jumped at the opportunity. You’ve all been remarkably kind and welcoming to me over the years and its important that you know how much I appreciate it.

I’ll be gone from ABC 10 soon, but I’ll remain in San Diego for as long as you’ll have me. Thanks again for all the memories and making me realize that home really is where the heart is.

In the near future you’ll be able to find me at www.lorennancarrow.com I look forward to seeing you there.

How far are you willing to go to protect the environment? How about forgoing a little comfort in the private sanctum of your bathroom for the sake of old growth forests? The New York Times reports that the sale of super soft toilet tissue grew 40% in some markets last year. Americans seem to be involved in a love affair with brands like Cottonelle Ultra, Quilted Northern Ultra, and Charmin Ultra and it not only costs more at the store, it also has environmental costs. To make really soft fluffy tissue takes long fibers; the kind which come from living trees not recycled paper. Millions of trees, including some in old growth forests are used for the softer tissue, even though toilet tissue can be made from recycled material for a similar dollar cost. The unsustainable harvest of trees for toilet tissue is bad enough, but it gets worse. Making ultra soft tissue from trees instead of recycled material uses more water and more toxic bleach to make it white and fluffy. Recycled tissue has far less by-waste too. Ultra soft tissue creates almost its weight in waste which ends up in landfills.
The United States is the largest market worldwide for toilet paper and tissue made from 100 % recycled material makes up less than 2 % of sales for at-home use.
Sadly, even Americans who consider themselves as “concerned for the environment” are resistant to toilet tissue made from recycled paper.
So what is your take on the issue? Will you forgo a little comfort to save trees, water, a cleaner environment and landfill space? Is it your God given right as an American to demand comfort despite the costs to the environment and species harmed by logging in their habitat? Is this just another way environmental dictators are trying to limit your freedom, or is it time to consider every aspect of our life and how it impacts the earth?
This ought to be a lively debate so have at it.
Thanks for tuning in, logging on and speaking up.
Last week, Greenpeace issued a guide to help American consumers choose the best toilet tissues in terms of the environment. Here’s a link to the guide http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/campaigns/forests/tissueguide

For many years it has been obvious that there is a concerted effort to make human induced climate change seem like a left wing whacko plot. One needs look no further than the demonization of former Vice President Al Gore for proof. In some circles the mere mention of his name is a laugh line. His climate group has illuminated the science of climate change and has been targeted for the effort. Yet the preponderance of scientists with Scripps Institution, NOAA, NASA, JPL, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the University Corporation for Climate Research, Woods Hole Institution of Oceanography and dozens of other respected research groups generally believe the climate is being changed by human activity. The burning of fossil fuels is chief among those activities.
The money behind the alternative “science” is not easily discoverable but now the trail of dollars from industry and other vested interests being spent on lobbying is available and its here for you to see.
The Center for Public Integrity has farmed the records and compiled the data of the more than 2300 hundred paid lobbyists influencing the climate debate in Congress. There are four climate lobbyists to every member of Congress. 770 companies and interest groups are paying to direct the debate in their best interest. Who are the big spenders? In 2008 the U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent $62 million on its climate lobbying effort. Exxon-Mobil spent about $25 million, while the Solar Energy Industries Association spent just shy of $2 million, and just one of many coal groups spent around $10 million dollars.
Like I said, there are 770 registered lobbyists pushing climate policy. Some of the lobbyists are well known Democrats, and Republicans, some of the lobbyists are cities and transit boards who see a Federal payday when legislation is sorted out. After you visit the web site and look through the names, I believe you’ll find as I did that the really big bucks being spent are coming from groups hoping to delay this country’s effort to address a problem which is only going to get worse if we wait. Please take a look and share your thoughts. http://www.publicintegrity.org/investigations/climate_change/
Thanks for tuning in, logging on and speaking up.

I’ve recently discovered some San Diego companies you should know about. Blue Summit Financial and JPS Global Investments are offering investors environmentally sensitive investment portfolios. For those of you who have any money left to invest in your future, now seems like a pretty good time to put together investments in the upcoming boom in alternative energy, or matching your investments to your political and social sensibilities. Once you’ve invested you can track how your money is growing (hopefully) by checking out another local company. Robert Wilder of Wildershares LLC has established an industry leading clean energy index of companies. It’s sort of like the Dow or the S&P but only tracks clean energy stocks. It’s nice to see local companies doing well while doing good.

My friends at Western Tree Service dropped off 20 yards of chipped wood and leaves yesterday. This is one of those little known freebies which still exist these days. Tree trimmers must pay to unload their chips at the landfills so they are typically happy to have homeowners or groups of homeowners willing to take it off their hands. I will let the chips heat up and compost a bit to kill any tree seeds in there and then spread the material as mulch around the 10News Ranch. The good companies have such great chippers these days the material is very fine and makes great mulch. The mulch will hold water and greatly reduce the amount of water one needs in the garden. It all but eliminates weeds, which are smothered when covered or fail to germinate seeds to send up through the thick mat. Those weeds which occasionally make it through the mulch are really easy to pull. Within a year the mulch breaks down and becomes rich dark sweet smelling compost that attracts earthworms and feeds my gardens. Did I mention it’s FREE? I know 20 yards is way too much for most city or tract lots, but if you get together with your neighbors, have it dumped on one driveway and then have everyone chip in with pitch forks, wheelbarrows and pickup trucks you can easily distribute it among neighbors and have a little party at the same time. It diverts waste from our landfills, conserves water and improves soil quality.

There must be something bad about it, but after 20 years of using it, I can’t tell you what that would be. I even have the whacky design to wrap black plastic tubing (1/2″) around a huge pile and then have a second load delivered and piled up around the first, which will cover the pipe. If I attach a small pump and run water through the plastic pipe it should heat up to over 100F degrees. I read of one farmer who heated his home and his bath water for 18 months with one compost heap. There are also applications where you can use the water to heat greenhouses or to heat the water for tilapia tanks. I love this kind of stuff. I just wish I had more land and more time to fool around with it.

Well that’s it for now. Let me know what you think.
Thanks for tuning in, logging on and speaking up

One of the oft repeated criticisms of those people advocating a smaller carbon footprint is that they will cause the California economy to suffer or crash. If you are among those doomsday theorists, please read Fred Krupp’s book, Earth: The Sequel. The book is an exciting chronicle of the myriad of technologies under development in California and elsewhere which will forever change how we power America and ultimately the world. Too often we are lead to believe that the future of our power grid is fossil fuel and in some minor role solar power and wind energy. After reading Earth: The Sequel, I have a whole new enthusiasm about what is possible, and even likely, within a relatively short time.
Imagine that one day it may well be possible to paint the south side of our homes with electricity producing solar collecting coverings. Likewise we may soon grow algae in large ponds alongside power plants. The algae will grow on a feed of carbon dioxide from the power plants exhaust, and then create biofuels to power our engines. A San Diego company has already successfully flown a commercial airliner (without passengers) using a blend which contained algae based biofuel. These technologies will create the green jobs we hear so much about, and power America without adding to the atmosphere’s carbon overload.
Let’s assume for the moment that the people who say that increased fuel standards will sink the Detroit automakers. It is likely that smaller (for the moment) California automakers will fill the void. One of the exciting young companies is BSST which holds patents for thermoelectric waste energy recovery systems for automobiles. My understanding of engineering is almost nonexistent, still I’m able to understand the basics of the model. It’s easy for any of us to accept that our car’s engines create substantial amounts of heat. 70% of the energy it takes to run a car is lost to the atmosphere as waste heat. BSST has developed the means to recapture that heat and use it to generate electricity to be redirected to moving our cars down the road. The benefit is a 12% improvement in fuel economy, and jobs.
Building and maintaining our homes uses far more energy than operating our cars. Another California company Serious Materials makes dry wall among other things. Drywall you say, big deal! It is a big deal. Manufacturing drywall the old fashioned way is hugely energy intensive and 50 billion square feet of the stuff is made in America each year. Half the cost of making it is for the energy used to cook it. A full 1% of the U.S. energy consumption is to make drywall. Serious Materials uses self heating slurry to make their Ecorock drywall. No external heat is needed in the process so the energy savings is 90%. These kind of changes will save energy, reduce carbon output and create new jobs.
Biomimicry is the idea that nature has something to teach us. Many things actually. By mimicking the spiral of a calla lily flower or the way kelp is built to withstand ocean currents, engineers are designing new and far more efficient fans, and mixers. Jobs and better energy efficiency by accepting that eons of development by nature have designed organisms to work well. A gecko can stick to virtually any surface and release at will. By mimicking the design of gecko feet, new glue less adhesives are being developed. Lotus leaves are amazing structures. Their design causes water to bead and roll off. As the water leaves it cleans the leaf. Scientists are mimicking the leaves surface design to invent coverings which one day may be used in things like cars to allow water to bead up and clean the car as the water sheds. And for all you boaters, how about hull paint which mimics shark skin? The paint could allow hulls to be cleaned while traveling at very low speeds.
There is amble reason to be excited about the future of our economy as new technologies get the funding needed to both reduce carbon in the atmosphere and reduce or dependence on foreign oil and coal.
So what do you think? Are we doomed or might we be saved by our unfortunate circumstances?
Thanks for tuning in, logging on and speaking up.

A few years ago my entomologist friend Janet Taylor and I began writing books on organic gardening and lifestyle. Our first book, “Dead Snails Leave No Trails” is a handy guide on how to eliminate garden pests using far less toxic methods than spraying them with poison. The book has done very well worldwide. If I had my druthers it would continue to sell for many years, but something nice has happened in my garden in recent years. The damaging insects are pretty much gone. I don’t need my own pest advice any longer.

Blame it on compost. If you read my blog regularly or have listened to my garden advice on TV and radio, you know I’m a huge proponent of composting, or turning carbon-rich materials such as leaves and twigs and stable bedding and nitrogen-rich material like horse, rabbit and chicken manure and grass clippings, weeds etc. into dark, rich, sweet-smelling compost which is then returned to the gardens to feed the soil, which nourishes my plants.

After many years of adding compost to the garden beds around my home, the plants are so healthy and happy, insects leave them alone. My experience is borne out in USDA experiments in apple orchards. After a program of adding compost to the orchards, there was noticeably fewer problems with weeds, fungal problems and insect pests. There was a greater number of predator insects which may account for fewer herbivore or plant-eating pest insects. Healthier plants are just less attractive to insect pests.

Composting diverts material from landfills and improves the soil’s ability to hold water and now fewer insects too. You gotta love it!

So let’s hear your composting story.

Thanks for tuning in, logging on and speaking up.

With all the budget cutting coming, there will be many people criticizing Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in the coming months, so I’d like to buck the trend and say, “way to go, Govenator!”

 When he was campaigning for the job, he said he wanted to make California number one in the fight against global warming (climate change). When the Governor signed AB 32 into law, he showed he meant what he said. The first-in- the-world of its kind law establishes a comprehensive program of regulatory and market mechanisms to achieve real, quantifiable, cost-effective reductions of greenhouse gases. The Governor explains the bill’s goals this way: “Using market-based incentives, we will reduce carbon emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020. That’s a 25 percent reduction. And by 2050, we will reduce emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels. We simply must do everything in our power to slow down global warming before it’s too late.”
This week, during the opening week of the Obama administration, the Governor got a leg up from the new President who promised to review Bush-era blocks to California and a dozen other states plans to enforce vehicle emissions and mileage rules which exceed federal law.
California is again leading the nation on the most important environmental issue of our time, and the Governor’s party isn’t happy. With Bush now safely back home in Texas, the role of Republican obstructionist has fallen to the minority leader.
A spokeswoman for John Boehner, the Republican leader in the House, called the announcement poorly timed and ill-conceived.
“Our nation’s automakers are struggling - drastically restructuring and shedding jobs just to stay afloat,” said Antonia Ferrier, press secretary to the Ohio Republican. “And now they are being forced to spend billions of dollars to comply with California’s emissions standards, instead of using that money to save American jobs.”
In their typical can’t do attitude, American car manufacturer trade groups are crying that it will ruin them. The truth is that their failure to address the climate and foreign oil problems when designing cars is the cause of their possible doom. My foreign car gets 43 miles to the gallon, and my friends who drive the same car get even better mileage than that. The rules California will impose require 35 miles to the gallon. My naïve question is, if a foreign car maker can do it, why not us?
This is a great time to be a Californian. We have a Governor who is willing to tackle a tough issue and who is visionary enough to see that it can be an economic boom for the state to be the leader on the issue.
So, my fellow left-coasters, how does it feel to be a citizen of a state that may be behind the rest of the country in terms of time zone, but way out in front in the fight to avert worldwide environmental disaster?
Let me know what you think.
Thanks for tuning in, logging on and speaking up.
Loren Nancarrow

The climate clock is ticking…

Assuming many of you are parents, I further assume you have uttered similar words to these that follow… turn off the lights when you leave a room. Please turn off the TV when you leave a room too. Please take shorter showers. We don’t own stock in the electric company you know.

Our kids don’t pay the bills, so the connection between a light burning in an empty room and the cost associated with it are off their radar. I’ve noticed recently when parents think they are excused from paying the bills, they act in a similar manner.

The gym where I spend most mornings is pretty state-of-the-art. Each exercise machine has its own TV attached. It’s probably overkill, but anything which helps focus my mind elsewhere while sweating is welcome. Trouble is, that lately, it’s really bugged me that people… mostly adults, old enough to have growing and grown kids, leave the TVs on when they finish. What’s up with that? Someone else pays the electric bill; so, suddenly, their own advice to their kids is forgotten? Trouble is, they ARE paying the bills. We ALL are. Most directly, I suppose, we pay it when the Club passes on its higher utility costs to the members, but we really pay it in terms of climate change. The way we live really does matter. Naysayers love to call people like me “eco-dictators” or similar, to suggest that we want to take away all the comforts of modern society so that we can dictate how others live. Oh please! Making small efforts to use less, and conserve more, does not mean doing without. A TV left on while no one watching is consuming power, but not providing any benefit. It is using electricity generated by fossil fuel and is adding to climate change.

There are similar mind sets among adults when it comes to water. When we turn on our faucets, water comes out, so it must be infinite in supply. It’s not and a very real water crisis is looming. We’ve been warned and yet a surprising number of homeowners, property managers, business owners and public agencies still allow their sprinkler systems to come on when it’s raining. Every automatic sprinkler system has a rain button. How does it make you less free to press that button when rain is coming?

If you ask most San Diegans about the number of laws we live with, they’ll say…”there are too damned many of them.” I agree. Still, when it’s documented that our present use of plastic bags is unsustainable, the message is largely ignored. The result is that more and more cities are passing shopping bag laws. Oh, sure, there are more people bringing along canvas bags on their shopping trips these days, but those people are still a small minority of shoppers.

In his inauguration speech today, President Obama called us to national service. That can mean so many things, but it surely means seeing what must be done and doing it. Maybe it means consuming less, but it absolutely means using only what we need and wasting less.

NASA Climate scientist, Jim Hansen, warned this week that we may only have four years left to begin reversing climate change. If we fail to act decisively, and soon, the damage may be irreversible. The consequences in his words are dire, ranging from flooding of the eastern seaboard, increased desertification of other areas, to increased famine, war and disease.

I believe he’s right, and still I accept that many of you are skeptical. Still, with so many bright well intentioned and well studied scientists saying there is a climate problem, why not look for ways to reduce your carbon output, or at least practice what you preach and turn off the lights and TV when they are only illuminating and entertaining an empty room?

There I go again, spouting that liberal crap! Let me know why I’m wrong. Is using more than we need our right as Americans? Please share your thoughts, concerns and, if possible, your solutions.

Thanks for tuning in, logging on and speaking up!

Loren Nancarrow

So why did the chicken cross the road? To prove to the possum that it can actually be done!

When I was a kid, we used to play a game called “guess the mess,” where you tried to be the first kid in the car to name the animal dead in the road. As an adult, I quietly repeat the exercise as I drive along county roads littered with the carcasses of creatures flattened by our cars. I always wonder if the drivers did everything they could to avoid the tire bump. Were they driving too fast, talking on the cell or texting or did the drivers simply not care enough to avoid the critters doing their best to get by in a world dominated by humans and our machines?

I worked on a ranch when I was younger with a cowboy who aimed for anything that moved along the country roads. His reasoning was always business. Coyotes threaten the calves, rabbits eat the grass meant for cattle, porcupines eat the wires on the equipment and snakes….well they’re snakes!

Our relationship with the animals with which we share earth and the roads is troubling. Some of you are probably figuring me for a real “wuss” right now for whining about what happens to rabbits, birds, bobcats and whatever happens to cross our roads, but I wonder how anyone can help but care?

Over the years, I’ve come to know and idolize a Ramona couple, Chuck and Cindy Traisi, who operate The Fund for Animals Wildlife Center. Chuck and Cindy along with a caring staff work incredibly long hours every day of the year caring for wild animals hit by cars, mauled by our dogs, bent after flying into our windows or broken after a tree was thoughtlessly pruned during nesting season. The carnage is significant. Between 15 and 20 people are killed in the U.S. each year because of car accidents involving wild animals, but for the wild animals the number is in the tens of millions. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve hit rabbits and squirrels on the road, and seen the outline of birds which have crashed into windows on our home. My only point here, I guess, is that it’s sad and I wish there was more we could do to keep from wiping out the creatures with whom we share San Diego.

The reason I bring this up now is that it is the road kill time of year. Wild animals are searching for mates and foraging for the extra food it takes to raise their young. Now is a good time to drive with them in mind and bring pets in at night so they don’t tangle with local wild animals.

It’s a hard problem to solve but one way we can help is by buying and reading a couple books by Cindy Traisi. While helping the Fund for Animals Wildlife Center, you’ll also be amazed at what an incredible story teller Cindy is. The books are “Because They Matter…” and the soon to be published, “Because They Matter Too…“ http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Because-They-Matter/Cindy-Traisi/e/9780965656207

The first title was a constant bedside companion when my daughters were younger. They absolutely loved the stories of caring for wild animals injured and needing human hands to make them whole, or as close as possible again. I read a ton of books, and Cindy’s are among my favorites. She sent me a review copy of her latest title and I’ll never look at road kill the same way again.

The message this week is pretty simple, at a time when we are all feeling uncertain about the future, take time to consider your neighbors…even the ones with feathers or furry tails.

Okay let me have it. I’m a tree hugger, a people hater, an animal rights whacko. Let me know what you think. I can take it.

Thanks for tuning in, logging on and speaking up.

In the next couple months hundreds of thousands of roses will be sold and transplanted into San Diego gardens. After all, what would a garden be without a rose? Thus begins a love affair and the start of infinite frustration. What is that bug? Why are the leaves curling? Is that mildew? What is rust? How come my neighbor’s roses look better than mine? And the biggy: how do I prune the thing and when should I tackle the chore? On this particular question there is new research which will make many of us happy, no, make that thrilled!

The Royal National Rose Society in England has finished some interesting research which suggests all that chopping so many of us attempt each January (much earlier in colder climes) may be doing more damage than good.

The Royal Society grew side-by-side blocks of roses which were treated three different ways. One set of roses were pruned in a typical manner.  Which is to thin old wood, open the plants center for increased air and light penetration, and dead wood and crossing branches were removed. The plants were shortened to 18-24”. In another block, gardeners used power hedge trimmers to minimally shear the rose tops and sides. The third group was left to grow without pruning.

The study was designed to accomplish the goals we seek when pruning our roses.:

1. Encouraging larger and more perfect blooms
2. To increase the quantity of blooms
3. To prevent disease from establishing on the plants

The block of plants which performed the best was those which remained un-pruned, followed closely by the roses which were sheared but not shortened substantially.

The un-pruned roses developed much deeper roots which required less water as well.

So this year, the roses on the 10News Ranch will be left to grow on, although some are encroaching on a garden path and I need to cut them back a little or I risk hurting anyone who walks the path.

Most rose growers also operate under the belief that since roses are heavy feeders they must be fertilized with quick release chemical fertilizers often. No so.

Chemical fertilizers feed the plant and deplete the soil, so just like a junky, they need more and more. Truth is that if we feed the soil, the soil will feed our roses. Twice a year a good top dressing of compost is all your roses need to produce healthy foliage and beautiful blooms.

As a side note, the rose family also contains some of our favorite fruit trees which are also typically pruned each winter including apples, pears, plums, cherries, almonds, peaches, and apricots. The same theory holds that severely pruning these fruit trees may be a whole lot of work for nothing. I have some of each (except cherries) and this year they are not being pruned, except to slightly improve shape. I’ll let you know how it turns out. So the only things that need pruning this year are the grapes, figs, and some citrus. Wow, I’m going to paddle my kayak and watch the playoffs and…

This is so cool!

So what do you think? Will you still prune? Share your rose stories with us, or tell me why you think all this is crazy.

Thanks for tuning in, logging on and speaking up.

By the way…

When you give someone roses, the color can have a meaning. The meaning of rose colors:

• Red = Love and respect
• Deep pink = Gratitude, appreciation
• Light pink = Admiration, sympathy
• White = Reverence, humility
• Yellow = Joy, gladness
• Orange = Enthusiasm, desire
• Red & yellow blend = Gaiety, joviality
• Pale blended tones = Sociability, friendship