Celebrities make splash with California drought awareness

[webfact]

Celebrities make splash with California drought awareness
By SANDY COHEN

LOS ANGELES (AP) — From drought-shaming to eco-boasting, willing or not, celebrities are playing a role in raising awareness about California's debilitating drought.

Stars whose homes boast lush, green lawns at a time when residents have been asked to cut back on water may be drought-shamed on social media. Meanwhile, Eco-conscious entertainers hoping to take the lead on water conservation talk proudly of their drought-friendly gardens.

"We're all in this together," said actress Wendie Malick, who relies on well water at her home in the Santa Monica Mountains. "Unfortunately, it had to come to this crisis moment to get us all on board."

Celebrity enclave Beverly Hills, where many lawns remain bright green, recently approved new water restrictions and penalties for violating them. Enforcement is set to begin this month.

Tony, beachside Malibu has long had water restrictions in place, according to the city's environmental programs specialist, Casey Zweig. While she says the city would never engage in drought-shaming, it does offer a website where residents can anonymously report their water-wasting neighbors. Zweig said her team visits the offending properties personally.

"Once you reach people with this information, they tend to really want to do the right thing and figure out what the best solution is," she said. "People who live in Malibu love the natural aspect. They want to coexist in a lot of ways with these beautiful natural surroundings that they're paying top dollar to live in."

Offenders in the city, though, have multiple chances to make things right before facing fines, Zweig said.

Barbra Streisand, a past drought-shaming target, said she and husband James Brolin have let most of the lawns go brown at their Malibu compound. The couple is also working with a water-reuse company to install a graywater system and rainwater cisterns, she said, "should California be lucky enough to get some rain."

Cher, another Malibu resident, has also let her grass go brown and has talked about the water shortage on Twitter. In a post last month, she complained California used fresh water for fracking.

"WE'RE IN A CATASTROPHIC DROUGHT, WATER MEANS LIFE??" she wrote. "WE CANT DRINK OIL."

Kelly Osbourne drought-shamed herself on Instagram by sharing her guilt over taking a bath and saying she planned to re-use the water.

And some celebs are taking to television with public service announcements about drought conservation, including Conan O'Brien and Lady Gaga.

Malick, who serves on the board of the Environmental Media Association, said "making green cool" is part of the organization's mission statement.

"If people emulate those that they're fans of... why not show them some behavior that is great for the planet?" she said.

Being eco-conscious "is the way to be trendy in Hollywood," EMA president Debbie Levin said, adding that studios are also keen on the effort and some have replaced lawns with artificial turf.

Industry-watcher Michael Levine said it's important that celebrities make the same cutbacks as other Californians because "people care about a sense of fairness."

"They think, 'I'm not going to sacrifice if Brad Pitt doesn't sacrifice,'" Levine said.

Both Levine and celebrity blogger Perez Hilton think concern about the drought hasn't reached a tipping point yet in Hollywood, where it's often socially obligatory to be on board with conscientious trends.

"It's an issue that doesn't trigger an emotional response in a lot of people," Hilton said. "Or maybe they're afraid to speak out because they might be branded hypocrites."

Still, he says only the most publicly eco-aware stars could be damaged by drought-shaming.

"For someone like Kim Kardashian," he said, "people would probably expect her to be watering her lawn and breaking the rules."


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-06-01

[wabothai]

what's new?

[elgordo38]

"WE'RE IN A CATASTROPHIC DROUGHT, WATER MEANS LIFE??" she wrote. "WE CANT DRINK OIL." So True!! Yet in Texas frackers can do pretty well what they want to and the different municipalities can do nothing to stop them. They have friends in high places who passed laws stopping citizens from taking action against frackers. Welcome to the real new P&L world. Profit for big business and loss for the rest of us. Guess you could always start a war with Canada and seize their water.

[sdanielmcev]

"WE'RE IN A CATASTROPHIC DROUGHT, WATER MEANS LIFE??" she wrote. "WE CANT DRINK OIL." So True!! Yet in Texas frackers can do pretty well what they want to and the different municipalities can do nothing to stop them. They have friends in high places who passed laws stopping citizens from taking action against frackers. Welcome to the real new P&L world. Profit for big business and loss for the rest of us. Guess you could always start a war with Canada and seize their water.

When did California move to Texas? Water and oil don't mix.

Anyways, it would be nice to get away to see these people stop putting lawns in arid areas.

[SEEDGER]

Leave it to Hollywood to be the last ones to Know. The drought has been going on for over a year.Hey California Texas had an estimated 35 trillion gallons of water fall on them and not a one of you fruit and nuts came out to scoop up the over flow!

[DividendGuy]

It is a sad situation, but nothing will be done until most of these people are facing complete meltdown, and they never think of living within natural bounds. I guess it is a fact of life that until you are hurting personally nothing gets done. Californians, have always thought of themselves as special and tried to build their utopian lifestyle of opulence so, now let them suffer in their big houses without enough water to feed it all.

[Usernames]

In 1980, there was just over 20 million people in California. Today, it's nearing 40 million. Droughts and semi-arid landscapes are the very nature of the American West, and that is not going to change just because some state is stupid enough to double its population without planning. Oh, and the elephant in the room for this discussion: immigration, illegal and legal but especially illegal. A garden state turned into a hell hole.

[thaibeachlovers]

In 1980, there was just over 20 million people in California. Today, it's nearing 40 million. Droughts and semi-arid landscapes are the very nature of the American West, and that is not going to change just because some state is stupid enough to double its population without planning. Oh, and the elephant in the room for this discussion: immigration, illegal and legal but especially illegal. A garden state turned into a hell hole.

Does anyone outside California feel sorry for them? 5555555555555555555

They have unlimited sunshine, but they are too stupid to set up solar powered desalination plants. What a bunch of morons.

[Asiantravel]

It's not only California that is facing a bleak future right now

the USA's largest reservoir is also steadily losing water at a time when the precious commodity is needed the most and is nearing its lowest height in its 80-year existence.

http://www.ibtimes.com/lake-mead-2015-photos-show-water-level-nearing-record-low-drought-threatens-southwest-1892211

[thaibeachlovers]

It's not only California that is facing a bleak future right now

the USA's largest reservoir is also steadily losing water at a time when the precious commodity is needed the most and is nearing its lowest height in its 80-year existence.

http://www.ibtimes.com/lake-mead-2015-photos-show-water-level-nearing-record-low-drought-threatens-southwest-1892211

It would be ironic if the thing that ruins the USA isn't IS or illegal immigration, but a simple lack of water.

What the frack is Obama doing about it? Too busy worrying about his non legacy to do something that really needs sorting.

There is plenty of technology out there to solve the problem- it just needs a leader to get it done.

[impulse]

They have unlimited sunshine, but they are too stupid to set up solar powered desalination plants. What a bunch of morons.

The problem in California isn't domestic (household) water. The problem is agricultural requirements. They're growing food for a significant part the nation and the world in what used to be a virtual desert before irrigation.

They may be the morons, but the rest of the world will end up paying more for their almonds and avocados. And that's just the "A's". The list goes on...

[thaibeachlovers]

They have unlimited sunshine, but they are too stupid to set up solar powered desalination plants. What a bunch of morons.

The problem in California isn't domestic (household) water. The problem is agricultural requirements. They're growing food for a significant part the nation and the world in what used to be a virtual desert before irrigation.

They may be the morons, but the rest of the world will end up paying more for their almonds and avocados. And that's just the "A's". The list goes on...

Obama is missing a golden opportunity to score some points for his "legacy".

If he led a campaign to construct solar powered water desalination plants in California he would save the state, save the agriculture and reduce unemployment. Unfortunately he does ..............................................

[Langsuan Man]

They have unlimited sunshine, but they are too stupid to set up solar powered desalination plants. What a bunch of morons.

The problem in California isn't domestic (household) water. The problem is agricultural requirements. They're growing food for a significant part the nation and the world in what used to be a virtual desert before irrigation.

They may be the morons, but the rest of the world will end up paying more for their almonds and avocados. And that's just the "A's". The list goes on...

Obama is missing a golden opportunity to score some points for his "legacy".

If he led a campaign to construct solar powered water desalination plants in California he would save the state, save the agriculture and reduce unemployment. Unfortunately he does ..............................................

And like his infrastructure plan I am sure the Republicans would block it and claim the water would eventually trickle down