Things I post to stir things up
Energy boon
So, here’s a question. Why can’t we clean up the Santa Susanna Field Laboratory (in northern Los Angeles) to minimum exposure (I think it might be called park-level, which means you can visit but don’t let folks live there). Then install a concentrated solar farm, and use stirling engines to store the energy for 24/7 use?
Los Angeles County primary source of income used to be the aerospace industay. And it still has enormous micro-manufacturing infrastructure thanks to our past work. Imagine if the SSFL Reclamation Project became the test platform for de-centralizing the grid / a carbon reduced infrastructure.
Also picture a portion of that territory around the solar farm being returned for horse and hiking trails. Create a renewed ‘rural’ feeling to encourage public use without developers trying to build houses near once highly contaminated territory. Wouldn’t that be worth it?
Toxic cleanup
There’s a number of known biologics (plants, fungi, etc) that will help clean up a toxic landscape. So consider this:
A pilot program through a coalition of the local Southern California universities to examine different biologics for remediation of the Santa Susanna Field Laboratory, under supervision of JPL, with the intent of turning it into parkland. That parkland is then rendered to the Fernandeno Tataviam Band of Mission Indians (in partnership with the schools) to highlight indigenous techniques used to promote a wildfire-resistant landscape.
Both of these methods (the cleanup and the management) can then be licensed (preferably through the tribe, because why not? Great PR for Los Angeles) to the rest of Southern California and likely the Southwest as well, creating a local and unique business opportunity for Los Angeles.
And it helps educate kids that, in the face of wildfires and an increasingly dangerous climate, that you can do something.
What does it take to get this started? Well… Los Angeles hosts a diverse community. Everyone living there has various connections. We just have to puzzle those together and push the presentation. Probably throught Tiktok, but hey, that’s the modern age for you, right? 😛 🙂
Unrelated sidenote: did you know you can grow oyster and shitaake mushrooms from coffee grounds? And that local coffee shops will often give you used grounds for free? There’s a business model in there somewhere…