Last weekend, as part of a worldwide effort to raise environmental consciousness, Jessica Lass, Noah Garrison and I joined 100 or so others to pick up trash along a stretch of Santa Monica Beach.  Collectively, we picked up 40 pounds of trash, largely cigarette butts, in 20 minutes.  You can see some photos of the event here.  

The Nevil Shute novel "On The Beach" and the 1959 Stanley Kramer movie dealt with the aftermath of a nuclear war.  While that danger may have subsided, the danger from global climate change has increased, to or near the point of no return.  Our afternoon on the beach showed that collective action can leverage a relatively small individual effort into a real benefit to the environment.  Here's hoping that we can all keep this in mind as the Copenhagen talks are only a month or so away.