Photo by Jan Tik via Flickr

When the media is not covering the information you feel needs to get out there, then you have to become the media yourself. That's what Heal the Bay did. "The impetus for creating the site is ongoing frustration with staff reductions at local media outlets," the organization's Communications Director, Matthew King wrote in an e-mail. "This is his chance to tell the local stories that simply won’t be told by resource-strapped media."

Of note, they published an Environmental Bill of Rights:

Everyone that lives and works in Los Angeles has the following environmental rights:

1. The right to breathe clean indoor and outdoor air that poses negligible risks of asthma, cancer, and other health risks.
2. The right to clean water that is safe to drink. Drinking water should pose negligible risks to everyone that consumes it.
3. The right to clean beaches, rivers and lakes that protect public health and aquatic life.
4. The right to open and recreational space, including the ability to walk to a safe park within one half mile of their homes.
5. The right to have easy access to affordable public transportation that moves freely throughout the city.
6. The right to have easy access to a diverse, affordable and healthy food supply within their communities, including locally grown food.
7. The right to have access to sustainable energy, water supplies and comprehensive solid waste recycling programs that do not degrade the environment locally, regionally and globally.
8. The right to have an environmental education across all disciplines for all children from K-12.
9. The right to participate in a green economy through green jobs employment and training.
10. The right to both live and work in affordable residential and commercial green buildings.
11. The right to be heard on all Los Angeles decisions that have a potential environmental impact.
12. The right to exercise all the rights herein equally, to ensure that environmental impacts from traffic, industrial emissions, or waste disposal are not disproportional to any community.