acaben via flickr

Napa Valley vineyard

A new study out this week looks at the wine industry through the lens of climate change. The study, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, finds that many of the current wine producing regions in the world will be less suitable for wine production, and that at least some wine production will need to move to higher elevations.

So what does that mean for California? We spoke to Dr. Lee Hannah, who was lead researcher on the study, to find out more about what climate change means for the future of the California wine industry. He said that, as a scientist, he couldn't predict the business outcomes for the industry, but that there's no doubt things will have to change.

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E. Dwass

Candy wrappers can be recycled

Some of us are feeling a tad guilty about eating the kids' Halloween treats. Well, here's a way to atone -- we can recycle all those candy wrappers through an ongoing partnership between Mars candy and the eco-friendly company TerraCycle.

"It's a free collection program for all kinds of candy wrappers, regardless of brands, regardless of type," said TerraCycle public relations manager Stacey Krauss.

In a phone interview, Krauss told us how easy it is to help both the planet and the charity of your choice by joining the "candy wrapper brigade." Simply sign up on the TerraCycle website and designate which nonprofit you would like to receive the funds or points earned.

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Carrotmob.org

The Carrotmob

The art of flash mobbing will be practiced this Saturday at Pasadena's Fresh & Easy supermarket for the cause of the environment. A flash mob, for the uninitiated, is a group of random people who assemble suddenly in a place to perform an unusual and seemingly pointless act for a brief time.

In this case, if at least a thousand random people show up to the store tomorrow, Oct. 6, from 12 - 3 p.m., the store will vow to replace all of their giant industrial freezers with energy-efficient, zero emissions freezers. If so, it will be the first store in the entire U.S. to make that commitment to sustainable change. Anyone can show up, no purchase or RSVP necessary.

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Rachael Narins

Styrofoam Sculpture at Thomas Starr King

For the past two years, 1,256 styrofoam school lunch trays -- much less than what most schools use in a day -- have hung suspended from an acacia tree in the garden located in the middle of a school campus, silently gathering grime. But most definitely not decaying. Strung up by and for the students of Thomas Starr King Middle School, they are there as a reminder of how much trash the trays generate every day. As of Aug. 23, with the announcement that the LAUSD has changed over to compostable boxes (still filled with their nutritionally questionable lunches), that art piece is instead a testament to the power of children to enact change.

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Starbucks/Kathryn Barnard

Starbucks recycling bin

If you've ever finished your drink in a Starbucks cafe, then looked around in vain for a recycling bin in which to deposit the empty cup, you're not alone. With fewer than 10% of Starbucks in Los Angeles County equipped with customer recycling bins, a lot of our cups end up in landfills. There are 364 company-owned Starbucks in L.A. County. Of those, 34 have customer recycling bins in the front of the store. In addition, there are 52 stores that have recycling used by employees behind the counter (or in the "back of the house"). While some customers go the extra mile and take the empty cups to their home or other recycling bins, more often, the cups are tossed in the trash.

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Jeanne Kelley

foraged salad with goat cheese

You don't have to be a Nordic, Michelin starred-chef like Rene Redzepi to work wild-grown foods into your cooking. We can forage right here in Los Angeles County. Because of our summery winter, edible plants such as lamb's quarters, miner's lettuce, nettles and wood sorrel are flourishing now in our local canyons and mountains and maybe even in your own backyard.

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Sifu Renka/flickr

turkey slices

When you examine a heap of sliced deli turkey from Von's, you see no obvious connection between the slippery pink sheets and a semi-winged, beaked creature, or even a lovely roasted bird like you'd enjoy at Thanksgiving. Had you no prior knowledge, if someone told you this meat -- spongy, slick, and loaded with broth -- had been popped out of a machine in a lab, you would not be surprised. Lab meat is still a few years down the road, but scientists are making strides, not least of which is this week's revelation that lab-cultured meat would significantly reduce greenhouse emissions.

According to the results of a just-released study funded by New Harvest, a non-profit research organization working to pioneer alternatives to conventionally-raised meat, meat made using a tissue engineering process being developed by study co-author Dr. Joost Teixeira de Mattos of the University of Amsterdam would have a lower environmental impact across the board -- to the tune of 78-96% lower greenhouse gas emissions, 7-45% less energy used, 99% less land used, and 82-96% less water used.

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Flickr/ldrose

If you needed another reason to book an Air France flight to Paris, you can now do so in the name of environmentalism. Well, at least if you ignore the carbon footprint part. According to Mother Nature Network, Air France-KLM has announced that this fall it will start fueling planes with a blend of cooking oil and kerosene. The first flights to use the alternative fuel will run between Paris and Amsterdam. Your pot brownie and biofuel joke here ______.

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D. Gonzalez

Taking two for the planet: Platine's Cookies' Pots de Creme

Local. Organic. Sustainable. Adjectives that bring to mind the goodness of food. Food that tastes good. Food that is good for us. And food that is good for the Earth. However, one environmentally friendly attribute that doesn't come into consideration much with regards to food purchases is reusable. Nevertheless, Culver City based bakery, Platine Cookies is looking to change that with its pot de crème, a luscious treat that comes in L.A.'s most adorable and highly reusable container.

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Flickr/DotPolka

Starry Kitchen, Chego, and a good number of eateries in the city already package their foods in eco-friendly to-go containers, but if the state Senate has its way, all food vendors in the state will be prohibited from using Styrofoam, er, expanded polystyrene foam^[1] starting in 2014. Not at all discouraged by the Legislature's recent failure to ban plastic bags, local state Senator Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach) introduced a bill in February to ban food vendors, including restaurants, from using the classic clamshell and its related plastic family of convenient take-out and to-go packages. SB 568 passed the Senate by a tight 21 to 15 margin, and is now in the hands of the state Assembly.

The Senator tells us what we already know: this stuff is everywhere. Fifteen percent of the litter in the state is expanded polystyrene foam, thanks to the apparently millions of people who think the world is their oyster and trash can. The foamy plastic is not biodegradable, but, because it is recyclable, cities that establish a recycling program specifically for the material will be exempt from the bill.

Guess who's for and against the bill? You're probably right.

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