Jon Christensen
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Articles by Jon Christensen
Contributor: City leaders are sabotaging parks and nature spots across L.A.
L.A. city parks have been starved of funding in the city budget for more than a decade. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) The city of Los Angeles is turning its back on parks and nature, even after investing in a yearlong, citywide, park needs assessment. There’s no good time for a major city to do this, especially in an era of climate change, let alone in L.A. Green spaces provide essential services, such as cooling, refuge and respite.
Mojave Ghost: an emotive journey along the San Andreas Fault
Mojave Ghost Forrest Gander New Directions (2024) In 2023, geologist and poet Forrest Gander embarked on a journey, tracing the 1,300-kilometre-long fracture of the San Andreas Fault in California from north to south. He did it as part of a quest to understand himself — a man in his late sixties, scarred by the recent deaths of his wife, the poet Carolyn D. Wright, in 2018, and of his mother during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021.
Dioramas of walruses and coyotes are stuffed with things to think about
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Dioramas of walruses and coyotes are stuffed with things to think about
As Sheryl Crow snarls her way through “If It Makes You Happy,” the music video for one of her most popular song shows her trapped inside an L.A. County Museum of Natural History diorama of a simple red room wedged between a taxidermied wolf pack in the mountains on one side and polar bears on ice floes on the other.
Leveraging Ethnic Media and Communications to Drive Equitable Urban Greening Implementation in LA
By Jon Christensen California is slated to see around $100 billion of federal and state infrastructure funding invested in climate mitigation, adaptation, and resiliency in the next several years. Half of that is federal funding, the other half is state funding. Approximately 40% of that funding is prioritized for disadvantaged, low-income communities of color facing environmental injustice. A significant chunk of that funding will go urban greening projects.
Parks and Tree Canopy Are a Matter of Life and Death in Los Angeles
A new model for urban greening could be the cure. By Alfredo Gonzalez and Jon Christensen | Ethnic Media Services Parks and tree canopy are literally a matter of life and death in Los Angeles. This is especially true in the middle of an extreme summer heat wave. A recent UCLA study quantified the benefit.
Parks and Tree Canopy Are a Matter of Life and Death in Los Angeles
By Alfredo Gonzalez and Jon Christensen Leer en español Parks and tree canopy are literally a matter of life and death in Los Angeles. This is especially true in the middle of an extreme summer heat wave. A recent UCLA study quantified the benefit. Researchers found that if the areas of Los Angeles County that currently have below average tree canopy cover and park acreage were just brought up to the average, Angelenos alive today would enjoy close to 1 million years of additional life expectancy.
Parks and Tree Canopy Are a Matter of Life and Death in Los Angeles
By Alfredo Gonzalez and Jon Christensen Leer en español Parks and tree canopy are literally a matter of life and death in Los Angeles. This is especially true in the middle of an extreme summer heat wave. A recent UCLA study quantified the benefit. Researchers found that if the areas of Los Angeles County that currently have below average tree canopy cover and park acreage were just brought up to the average, Angelenos alive today would enjoy close to 1 million years of additional life expectancy.
Development Fees and Park Equity in Los Angeles
Problem, research strategy, and findings Parks are inequitably distributed in many U.S. cities, and policies and planning initiatives around the country have sought to rectify these inequities. In this study, we examined whether one such initiative, a policy change in development fees for parks in Los Angeles (CA), achieved its equity goals.
PAID LETTER: Wake up McLeod County, vote Ryan Hansch for County Attorney
As a former McLeod County commissioner, I've seen firsthand the importance of the county attorney and the impact their decisions make at the county level. No one has asked me to write this letter, but I felt the need was crucial. This position is a very critical, high impact position that affects all of the local citizens in McLeod County. I compare the decisions made by the county attorney equally to the attorney general position in the state of Minnesota.
Overwhelmed by Climate Change? Try Re-Framing Your Impact
Youth climate activists participate in Youth Climate Strike LA outside City Hall on March 25, 2022. Students protested at youth climate strikes across the country, calling for government action on climate change. | Mario Tama, Getty Images One of the questions I most commonly hear from people who are concerned about the climate but don’t quite know what to do about it is whether their individual actions matter when such huge forces are doing damage at horrifying scales.
Can Environmental Justice Be Baked Into City Planning? Santa Ana Votes on Tuesday
On Tuesday, the Santa Ana City Council will vote on an update to the city's 39-year-old General Plan. | Chris Jepsen, Creative Commons The Santa Ana City Council votes Tuesday on General Plan Update that would addresses lead contamination and other land use issues that disproportionately affect marginalized communities. A law called SB1000 has been key in helping community advocates lobby city officials to incorporate environmental justice into land use planning in order to reduce health risks.
Is Geography Destiny? How Environments Shape Our Lives
A thick layer of smog sits above homes in San Bernardino, California. | from the film "Fighting for Air" The fourth season of "Earth Focus" explores how our environments affect our health. Stories of collective resistance and human agency reveal how geography itself is shaped by people, and how people act so that their destinies might not be determined by their geographies. The idea that geography is destiny has a long and sordid history.
Clean-Car Rules: California Unveils Proposed Measure to Ban New Gasoline-Fueled Cars
California has proposed a rule that would require all new cars to be zero emissions by 2035. | Anne Wernikoff, CalMatters If enacted this summer, California’s mandate — the first in the world — would increase sales of electric or other zero-emission cars to 35% in 2026, and prohibit new gasoline or diesel cars by 2035. This story was published April 12, 2022 by CalMatters.
Harry Reid’s Last Request: 'Home Means Nevada'
Former Nevada Senator Harry Reid passed away on December 28th, 2021. He leaves behind a legacy of environmental protection in his home state. | Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images Home means Nevada. Home means the hills. Home means the sage and the pines.
The stories that resonated with readers in 2021
From climate change to the West’s housing crisis, see the most-read stories from the past year. High Country News News Jan. 6, 2022 Like Tweet Email Print Subscribe Donate Now The writers and editors at High Country News work tirelessly to understand and convey the complex realities of life in the Western United States. Our journalism strives to be place-based, so that it resembles the West’s own geography: vast and varied.
Notes to self
Setting priorities for the year ahead. Jennifer Sahn Jan. 1, 2022 From the print edition Like Tweet Email Print Subscribe Donate Now Yakama citizen Everett Aleck crosses a wooden bridge over the Klickitat River, a tributary of the Columbia, during the fall coho salmon run.
Congrats to Hub and Spoke
Did you read Hot Pod today? If you made it past the part about the bad idea and behavior company Himalaya, you saw that Hub and Spoke were awarded a $100,000 grant from the Rasmussen Family Fund. Congrats to founder Wade Roush and all the shows in the collective! Timber recently published this story about the collective as a way to point out that making a more-or-less formal group of podcasts that help each other out doesn’t mean you need to put on your Patagonia VC vest and start the next Gimlet.
Pro Podcast Editor Checklist
September 3, 2021by Jon Christensen@timberpod Hi, I’m Jon Christensen, one of Timber’s cofounders, and I help podcasters make shows that last—the kind that still get recommended three weeks, three months, and three years after they were published. Timber Cofounder Jon Christensen You got here because you’re an experienced podcaster trying to grow your audience.
Podcast Audience Growth Self Assessment
August 26, 2021by Jon Christensen@timberpod Hi, I’m Jon Christensen, one of Timber’s cofounders, and I help podcasters make shows that last—the kind that still get recommended three weeks, three months, and three years after they were published. Timber Cofounder Jon Christensen Experienced podcasters that have seen their numbers plateau, been frustrated by some lackluster interviews, and wondered what they can accomplish with editing realize there’s a whole world of things they can learn.
Kill the Senate Filibuster and Save a Bipartisan American West That Cares About the Environment
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) arrives for a press conference with Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) after the U.S. Senate passed the "nuclear option," at the U.S. Capitol Nov. 21, 2013. The a controversial vote changed Senate rules on filibusters for most presidential nominations with a simple majority vote. Seven years later, the filibuster is under scrutiny again. | Win McNamee / Getty Images For a bipartisan American West to thrive, the Senate filibuster must die.
Metrolink, L.A. County Public Health Launch Mobile COVID-19 Vaccination Clinics
Darlene Toledo shows off the arm where she got her COVID-19 vaccination at CSULA in Los Angeles on Tuesday, April 13, 2021. | Brittany Murray/MediaNews Group/Long Beach Press-Telegram via Getty Images LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Metrolink and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health are partnering to provide free mobile COVID-19 vaccination clinics beginning next Tuesday at Metrolink's Palmdale and Lancaster stations, with the ability to administer 250 inoculations at each site per day.
Where to Get Financial Assistance, Food and More During the Coronavirus Crisis
Volunteers load free groceries into cars for people experiencing food insecurity due to the coronavirus pandemic, December 1, 2020 in Los Angeles. As of November 2020, food distribution by the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank has increased by 145% compared to the pre-pandemic levels. | Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images The following article was originally republished April 12, 2021 through a collaboration with KPCC and LAist.
2021 Earth Focus Environmental Film Festival: Tickets and Information
The third annual Earth Focus Environmental Film Festival is going virtual, April 12-23. The two-week event will address climate change realities impacting all living creatures and natural resources across the globe. Each film featured in the festival will be followed by a panel discussion with notable guests, beginning Monday, April 12 with the West Coast premiere of "Playing With Sharks," and ending Friday, April 23 with "Citizen Nobel." General admission tickets are now onsale.
🌊 Shipwreckers, fried chicken, Jessica Simpson's memoir 📖, We Are The Champions 🏆 Josh Gwynn ⭐️
Bonjour! This week we’re getting to peek into the podcast app and listening life of Jon Christensen, co-founder of Timber. App I use: I binge listen on Spotify because for me it has done the best job of remembering where I am in a series and letting me resume without assuming I want some new episode of some other show up next. But for those shows that I do like to stay on top of as they release episodes, I use Apple Podcasts and I even let it send me notifications.
Settling Native American Water Rights in the American West: An Interview with Joe Ely
Title Joe Ely, now a project coordinator for Stetson Engineers, Inc., was a young man in his 20s when he took on a problem everyone told him could not be solved, even the Supreme Court. As the chairman of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, he found a way. The court had ruled that the tribe had no valid claim of a water right to support Pyramid Lake, which was being steadily dried up by upstream reservoirs and diversions to farms and growing subdivisions. But the tribe got a second chance.
Settling Native American Water Rights in the American West: An Interview with Joe Ely
Title Joe Ely, now a project coordinator for Stetson Engineers, Inc., was a young man in his 20s when he took on a problem everyone told him could not be solved, even the Supreme Court. As the chairman of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, he found a way. The court had ruled that the tribe had no valid claim of a water right to support Pyramid Lake, which was being steadily dried up by upstream reservoirs and diversions to farms and growing subdivisions. But the tribe got a second chance.
Mercury in Our Waters: The 10,000-Year Legacy of California’s Gold Rush
Water collecting at the bottom of the pit in Malakoff Diggins State Park. Every year, 100 grams of mercury flow from this pit into the watershed of the Yuba river. | Alexandria Herr If you look closely in the waters of Deer Creek, near Nevada City, California, something strange may catch your eye; lying in globules amongst the gravel is quicksilver, or liquid elemental mercury.
Wine review: 2018 Chemistry Williamette Pinot Noir
Wine: 2018 Chemistry Willamette Pinot Noir Price: $17.99 Availability: Barrel & Bottle, Chateau Wine & Spirits (Polaris), Granville Market, Village Wine Shop (Shawnee Hills), and Weiland's Market Aroma: pure yet complex pinot noir scents Flavor: classic Pacific Northwest flavors of red and black cherry, with slight vanilla suggestion; limpid color, judicious oak Notes: This product of a recent collaboration between Oregon’s Stoller and Chehalem wineries is modestly touted for “life’s everyday...
Will Reid be remembered as a party warrior or a bipartisan environmental pathfinder?
Joe Buglewicz / The New York Times Former Sen. Harry Reid is shown at his office in Las Vegas on July 2, 2019. By Jon Christensen and Graham Chisholm Friday, Sept. 18, 2020 | 2 a.m. Harry Reid, the former U.S. senator from Nevada, will be remembered for many things. In this overheated political season, even in retirement he has been close to the center of the presidential race, as a kingmaker and confidant.
Former Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) Promotes 'green new deal'
During his 34 years in Congress, Harry Reid used every dirty political trick in the book to further his radical, progressive agenda, including Agenda 21 and Sustainable Development, aka Technocracy. Now he is in the center of an effort to subvert more conservative states into a ‘green new deal’. ⁃ TN Editor A green new deal is emerging from the ground up in one of the most unlikely places in the country: Nevada.
Harry Reid’s lowercase 'green new deal'
The following article was originally published Sept. 14, 2020 and republished through a collaboration with Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. A green new deal is emerging from the ground up in one of the most unlikely places in the country: Nevada. The leader at the center of this new pragmatic environmental politics — unlikely as it may seem to observers outside the state — is former Sen. Harry Reid, who represented Nevada in Congress for 34 years.
Harry Reid’s lowercase 'green new deal'
The following article was originally published Sept. 14, 2020 and republished through a collaboration with Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. A green new deal is emerging from the ground up in one of the most unlikely places in the country: Nevada. The leader at the center of this new pragmatic environmental politics — unlikely as it may seem to observers outside the state — is former Sen. Harry Reid, who represented Nevada in Congress for 34 years.
4 Documentaries, 4 Lessons in Environmental Politics and Power
Title "Earth Focus" Season 3 Preview Deep into a decisive election year in the United States that is unfolding in the midst of a global public health and economic crisis, four new “Earth Focus” documentaries explore environmental politics and power: from global youth climate activists to the United States Senate, via South Africa and the Peruvian Amazon. “Power corrupts,” according to the famous dictum. But as Robert Caro, the great biographer of Lyndon B.
The vaccine and the satellite: A tale of two Sputniks
Illustration by Thomas Gaulkin. On October 4, 1957, Soviet scientists shocked the world and launched a “new moon” into Earth’s orbit, a metal beach ball-sized sphere with radio transmitters and batteries.
Endowments
Jon Christensen May 1, 2020 From the print edition Like Tweet Email Print Subscribe Donate Now “Land-Grab Universities” (April 2020) called for reconciliation efforts at schools that have endowments derived in part from the taking of Native American lands in the 19th century. South Dakota State University has dedicated around $636,000 in annual endowment income from these lands to programs and support for Native students.
The Energy Report
Video: How Solar-Farm Development Stalled for More Than a Decade Why'd it take until now to start building new plants out in the desert?
Ranchers blindsided by Trump’s border wall
They built a coalition to protect open space. Now, they’re up against the country’s largest construction project. Jessica Kutz Feb. 7, 2020 Like Tweet Email Print Subscribe Donate Now Bill McDonald, the founding executive director of the Malpai Borderlands Group, walks atop Cowboy Flats in Coronado National Forest in southern Arizona. Since 1994, the Malpai Borderlands Group, a coalition of ranchers, has worked to steward approximately 800,000 acres of rangeland in southern Arizona and New Mexico.
Nuclear film does not bomb on Broadway
If the creators of the performance piece The Bomb sought to make an impact on their audience at their Broadway debut last weekend, they succeeded: At least three people fainted at the first show.
A not-so-hot take on California fires, climate change, smoke waves—and the stories we need, to survive - Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Firefighters work near the Getty Center, just off the 405 freeeway in Los Angeles on October 28. Thousands of residents were forced to evacuate their homes after a fast-moving wildfire erupted. Photo by Qian Weizhong/Xinhua via Getty. We are living in a world of media hot takes. They come at us fast and furious, like embers blown from a firestorm by a fierce Santa Ana or Diablo wind. In an instant we’re surrounded on all sides. Quick judgments are demanded. Winners and losers are soon declared.
Parks are a public health solution waiting on our doorstep - Capitol Weekly
Opinion A section of the Rubicon Trail at D.L. Bliss State Park in South Lake Tahoe. (Photo: AJ9, via Shutterstock) by Jon Christensen and Rachel Norton posted 10.01.2019 Twitter Facebook Email It’s time to shift the conversation around parks in California. New data is illuminating the need to look at state parks in communities a bit differently.
Why California needs another water bond in 2020 - Capitol Weekly
Opinion A photo illustration showing the depletion of water in aging infrastructure. (Image: miophotolap, via Shutterstock) infrastructure. by JON Christensen posted 09.06.2019 Twitter Facebook Email The California Legislature is currently considering several proposals to put a $4 billion bond measure on a 2020 ballot for safe drinking water, drought preparation, wildfire prevention, and climate resilience. An $8.9 billion bond initiative has also been filed by environmental advocates.
Yaroslavsky brings home a big victory for the Santa Monicas
Mark Gold writes: The fight to preserve the Santa Monica Mountains has gone on for more than four decades, championed by former congressman Anthony Bielenson, the author of the 1978 law that created the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, and the late Marvin Braude, a conservation stalwart on the LA City Council for 32 years. Now we can add another name to that political honor roll: LA county supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.
Searching for Justice in Our Consumption of Global Goods
Title Have you eaten avocado recently? Have you drunk milk or had a pizza made with mozzarella cheese? Driven or rode in a car fueled by gasoline? Played a guitar? Earth Focus Season 2 Trailer Then you could be personally implicated in some of the stories told in this season of "Earth Focus," which pulls on revealing threads in our changing global economy to expose our moral economy to thoughtful scrutiny. Spoiler alert: our moral economy has a lot of catching up to do. That avocado you ate?
Searching for Justice in Our Consumption of Global Goods
Title Have you eaten avocado recently? Have you drunk milk or had a pizza made with mozzarella cheese? Driven or rode in a car fueled by gasoline? Played a guitar? Earth Focus Season 2 Trailer Then you could be personally implicated in some of the stories told in this season of "Earth Focus," which pulls on revealing threads in our changing global economy to expose our moral economy to thoughtful scrutiny. Spoiler alert: our moral economy has a lot of catching up to do. That avocado you ate?
Passage of public lands act suggests way forward on a green new deal
President Trump and his administration got out of the way of a bipartisan public lands and conservation bill that passed the Senate and House by overwhelming majorities: 92 to 8 in the Senate and 363 to 62 in the House. The president signed the bill into law Tuesday. Truth be told, he didn’t have much choice. Those are veto-proof numbers. Were this not such an important, even watershed event, it would not even be worth noting the president’s minor role.
‘Why shouldn’t I try and save all you adults?’
A portrait of Haven Coleman, a young climate activist. Jessica Kutz Feb. 21, 2019 Like Tweet Email Print Subscribe Donate Now Twelve-year-old climate activist Haven Coleman attaches some leaves to one of her signs while protesting outside Denver City Hall.
The Green New Deal is already at work in one Portland neighborhood
How one community is building a green workforce to combat climate change. Jessica Kutz Feb. 1, 2019 From the print edition Like Tweet Email Print Subscribe Donate Now With a large crowd of community members as an audience, the Sugar Shack in Cully neighborhood is destroyed to make room for a new affordable housing development, Las Adelitas. Courtesy of Living Cully It’s a cloudy gray day in Cully, a neighborhood in northeastern Portland, and the air is thick with the smell of burnt tires.
After natural disasters, workers rebuild - and face exploitation
Immigrant workers and day laborers are especially vulnerable to health risks and wage theft. Jessica Kutz News Jan. 3, 2019 From the print edition Like Tweet Email Print Subscribe Donate Now When the Camp Fire swept through the town of Paradise in Northern California, it destroyed more than 18,000 structures in its path. The wildfire reduced schools, churches, residences and businesses to piles of rubble and toxic ash, and a years-long cleanup and rebuilding are underway.
UCLA faculty voice: Can L.A. build new parks and public spaces without gentrifying away low-income residents?
The neighborhoods around Echo Park Lake have seen property values increase in part because people like to enjoy nature in urban settings. Jon Christensen is an adjunct assistant professor in the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. Alessandro Rigolon is a professor in the department of recreation, sport and tourism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This op-ed appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
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