Santa Monica Close-up

Matthew Willies, 7, pets 'Tinny,' a sixteen year-old Blackthroat Monitor lizard at the  Star Eco Station booth during the Venice Eco Fest on Saturday, June 28, 2008.  Tinny is 6 foot long and weighs 40 pounds.

(top) Stephanie Button, 9, caries her puppy, 'Cupcate' down the Catwalk during the 17th Annual Santa Monica Festival  at  Clover Park on Saturday, May 10, 2008. Children turned newspapers into wearable fashions during the recycled art workshops, then modeled them on the re:Fashion Catwalk. 

(above) Award-winning garden designer, Docent Mayita Dinos,   explains the benefits of the 'Rain Garden' (located on 1027 Princeton) during the Fourth Annual Green Gardens Tour  'Gardening with Intent: Water Management' on Saturday, April 26, 2008. The rain water garden, which she has been working on for the past 6 years, is drought-tolerant and will save 80,000 gallons of water per year. (top) Steve Gerdes and his wife Michelle, who drove up from Long Beach for the tour, walk through the 'rain garden' on Saturday. The Green Gardens Tour is a celebration of what is beautiful and possible - and together with the Virginia Avenue Project, helps to sustain our planet one kid and one garden at a time! The tour benefits the Virginia Avenue Project, a not-for-profit arts organization that uses the arts to help kids discover their full potential.

(ABOVE) Achuar leaders (left to right)  from the Peruvian rainforest, Henderson Rengifo, Manuel Tampet Najasip and Carlos Mukuin Tirisfrom speak outside of the Fairmont Miramar Hotel during Oxy’s Annual shareholders’ meeting on Friday, May 2, 2008. "We are tribal warriors and we will fight against any oil developments, we will not allow our land and water to be contaminated by Oxy!" said Manuel Tampet Najasip during the demonstration. (Top) Lionel Powell AKA 'Tree Man' holds a sign during the Oxy protest on Friday. Approximately 50 environmental activists demonstrated outside of the Fairmont Miramar Hotel, scrubbing the sidewalk and holding banners, reading: OXY: Clean Up Your Toxic Waste in the Amazon,” during the rally. According to Amazon Watch, Oxy dumped nine billion barrels of toxic wastewater into virgin tropical rainforest belonging to the indigenous Achuar people when it drilled for oil in Peru from 1971 to 2000. The company then fled the country, leaving local communities with lead and cadmium poisoning and living in a devastated environment. Amazon Watch Executive Director Atossa Soltani. “Oxy knowingly poisoned the rainforest homeland of the Achuar people and has refused to clean up its toxic contamination. It appears we now need to resort to public demonstrations and lawsuits to get Oxy to do the right thing.”

Theodora Walkow-Foster, 7, and Jason Dean Feigerle, 7, spray water onto the Watershed Diorama at the Santa Monica Aquarium during their Earth Day theme weekend on Sunday, April 27, 2008.  The diorama, which was custom made for Heal the Bay by Andrew C. Aguilar, is designed for pollution education and to illustrate storm water runoff.

Mike Meldonian, Organizing and Alliances Coordinator from Oxfam America, leads a group of supporters in Oxfam's 'Walk for Climate Justice' on Sunday, April 20, 2008, during the Green Apple Festival at the Santa Monica Pier. Recognizing the urgency of the global climate crisis, Oxfam America supporters celebrated Earth Day by leading a 'Walk for Climate Justice' in 10 US cities. The walk is a visual representation of the hardships that climate change creates for people in vulnerable communities—and the growing distance that poor people, especially women and children, will have to walk for water.

 1) Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce President / CEO, Laurel Rosen, awards Jean McNeil Wyner with the Volunteer of the Year Award on Saturday, March 8, 2008, during the Third Annual Nonprofit Festival at the Third Street Promenade. 2) Susy Holyhead of  Sustainable Works promotes sustainable practices during the nonprofit festival. There were more than 40 local nonprofit organizations participating in the festival on Saturday. 3) Scott Horner, 42, Chairman of the Board from Racers Who Care and who is the 'Land World Speed Record Holder' (217.850 Miles Per Hour), shows of his custom-built turbocharged Suzuki motorcycle during the Nonprofit Festival. 4) Dr. Gary Shapiro, Ph.D., Chairman and Cofounder of Orang Utan Republik , introduces its new costume mascot, a full size male orangutan. The Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce's Nonprofit Festival was stages at the Third Street Promenade, between Wilshire Blvd. and Arizona Ave.

Susy Holyhead, (left) Business Greening Program Director from Sustainable Works,  awards  Lynne Thomas, Marketing Manager of The Lobster, with the 'Santa Monica Green Business Certification' on Thursday, March 6, 2008, during a Solar Celebration Press Conference.  The Lobster has recently added 54 solar panels curved gracefully over its south-facing roof. The Lobster worked with Solar Santa Monica, the City's sponsored program aimed at encouraging both solar photovoltaics and solar thermal (hot water), to get the new system up and running.