If you need to do some last-minute holiday shopping and you like to shop green, you should visit Grey Bears on Chanticleer Avenue in Santa Cruz. Until my visit earlier this week I didn’t realize what great bargains and good cheer can be found here at the nonprofit operation.
Read MoreLike many households in Santa Cruz County, Kevin Flynn and Emmanuelle Pancaldi-Flynn recently took the big step to go solar. The Flynn’s house in the mountains above Scotts Valley has good sun access in the middle of the day, which is the primary requirement for an efficient solar system.
The next step was a financial analysis to see if going solar would make economic sense.
Read MoreHave you noticed that, at least in some Santa Cruz neighborhoods, green lawns no longer rule? I’ve observed on my morning walks over the past few months that brown lawns outnumber green ones by about 10 to 1.
Given that we’re in the midst of California’s worst drought on record and that lawns require more water than any other landscape plant, this is a welcome trend.
Read Moreby Betsy Herbert, Ph.D.
published in the Mountain Echo, newsletter of the Sempervirens Fund, Fall 2014
Redwoods are extraordinary. The more we learn about them, the more extraordinary they prove to be. We’ve known for a long time that California’s coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) are the world’s tallest trees and among the longest-living. Scientists are now confirming that redwoods play an important role in the local water cycle and in achieving a healthy, stable climate.
By meticulously measuring redwoods, scientists are determining how fast they’re growing, storing carbon and capturing fog, and how they are responding to climate change. For example, a team of scientists is working on the “Redwoods and Climate Change Initiative” (RCCI), with support from Sempervirens Fund, to quantify how accelerating climate change is affecting California’s redwoods.
Read MoreOctober is a great time to hike in the redwoods. Even during Indian summer heat waves, the air is cool beneath the big trees. Leaf color in the forest understory is starting to change. Sword ferns, redwood sorrel and hazelnuts are still green, but big-leaf maples and sycamores are turning yellow and poison oak is turning bright red.
Read MoreIf you’re watching your greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, it’s clear that riding a bike, walking, skateboarding, using a ZipCar or taking the bus are all better choices than driving a personal vehicle . . . at least for shorter trips.
Read MoreI moved to Santa Cruz County in 1986 to follow an old dream...moving to the country. Songs like Jesse Colin Young’s “Ridgetop” and Neil Young’s “Are you ready for the country?” inspired me to search for that rural domicile within commuting distance of my workplace. Sound familiar? What could be better than living in the mountains near the beach in sunny California, surrounded by towering redwoods?
Read MoreRemember in 2010 when PG&E poured some $44 million into state ballot initiative Proposition 16 in hopes of subverting the growing public support for community controlled electric power alternatives?
Voters apparently saw the light and rejected Proposition 16. Since then, the momentum for locally controlled energy--known as Community Choice Aggregation (CCA)-- has steadily increased.
Read MoreLast weekend, I was one of hundreds attending the international conference, Anthropocene: Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet, at UC Santa Cruz. The primary question driving the conference was "How can humans and other species coexist on the planet?" I came away, I think, with a better understanding of how humans, as brainy as we claim to be, have managed to get ourselves and other Earth inhabitants in such a pickle — with climate change, mass extinction, and accumulation of pesticides in our food and water systems.
I also came away believing that we must acknowledge how we got into this mess before we can make the changes in old ways of thinking and interacting with the world — changes needed to reverse the trend.
Read MoreEleven emerging artists--who combine science, technology and art to explore serious social problems in playful ways--invite the public to interact with their works in a new exhibit called “Undercurrents,” on display at UCSC’s Digital Arts Research Center on campus from May 1 – 4.
Local water issues is the theme selected by three of the artists, who have become thoroughly engaged in both the science and local politics driving these issues.
Read MoreThe 1,665-acre Pt. Arena-Stornetta public lands on the Mendocino County coast has become the first portion of the California Coastal National Monument to offer public access.
Read MoreLast December I drove south to Joshua Tree National Park to hang out with friends in the desert. I hadn't visited the area for decades, so I didn't anticipate the major sprawl around the desert town of Yucca Valley on Highway 62 leading to the park -- housing developments, a Walmart, a Home Depot, and other big-box stores.
To avoid the Yucca Valley sprawl, my friends rented a little house between 29 Palms and the town of Joshua Tree, just outside the park boundary. From our house, we could walk up the road a few hundred feet and venture into the park's vast stretches of red rock formations, punctuated with iconic Joshua trees, yuccas, and barrel cacti. Beautiful!
Looking across miles of big sky and expansive desert sands, I observed what appeared to be a strangely irregular, large blue lake. I asked my friend, "Is that a lake in the middle of the desert or is it a mirage?"
With 2013 declared the driest year on record in California, water supply and drought top last year's list of environmental issues affecting Santa Cruz County. Below I list some of the milestones of environmental change for 2013:
Read MoreWhen the subject is coast redwoods, people seem to come out of the woodwork to hear a talk, especially when an expert is doing the talking.
On Dec. 10, Dr. Will Russell drew some 125 folks to hear his talk, "Logging, Fire, and the Recovery of Old-growth Coast Redwoods," at Cubberley Community Center in Palo Alto. The Committee for Green Foothills sponsored the event.
Read MoreLast Saturday, I enjoyed a 3.5-mile walk from a friend's apartment in San Francisco to the 11th annual Green Festival at the San Francisco Concourse Exhibition Center. Billed as "the nation's premier sustainability event," the Green Festival is an extravaganza of organic food, green building, urban farming, solar energy, green jobs, electric cars and sustainable clothing.
The Green Festival is a joint project of two nonprofits, Green America and Global Exchange.
We arrived early, both to beat the crowds flocking to the 350 exhibits and to hear Kevin Danaher, founder of Global Exchange, laud the "new triple bottom-line economy." Danaher said this new economy is developing all over the world "from the grassroots up," spurred into action by the chaos created by climate change.
Read MoreEven though Proposition 37, the California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act, was defeated in November's statewide election, a nationwide movement forges ahead to require labeling of genetically engineered food.
According to the Center for Food Safety, nearly half of all U.S. states have introduced bills requiring labeling or prohibiting GE foods.
Read MoreMuch of the nation's water infrastructure -- especially in California -- is aging and badly in need of replacement. But, according to an Environmental Protection Agency survey released in June, the public is simply not aware of the critical nature of the problem.
"Because most of this infrastructure is out of sight and because many fine professionals work every day to keep it operating under difficult conditions, the full extent of the challenge we face is generally not understood by government officials, businesses and the public," said water expert Gerald E. Galloway in his July 25 U.S. Senate hearing testimony.
Read MoreSanta Cruz clothes shoppers who like to buy local and buy green are finding great value in the area’s consignment shops, each with its own style and specialty.
While most folks may choose to shop second-hand to save money, there’s no denying that buying re-sale clothing is a boon to the environment. Even clothes made from natural fibers take an environmental toll with all the dyeing, bleaching, and pesticide use. Approximately 1,500 gallons of water are required just to produce the cotton for one pair of jeans. Cotton production is responsible for 25 percent of all insecticides applied worldwide
Read MoreWith water-conservation ideas generating so much buzz lately, it's worth revisiting an old technology -- the composting toilet -- to see if it might offer new solutions.
Composting toilets have been around for decades, they use little or no water, and they treat toilet wastes on-site for re-use as valuable compost. How have these devices, with their enormous nationwide water-saving potential, fared recently in public acceptance and use by the building sector for residential, public, and commercial spaces?
Read MoreIt was the afternoon of July 5. From the backseat of the Mexican police vehicle, we could see that long-overdue rains were about to start here in the remote high mountains of Jalisco, Mexico. As rain clouds formed, we wondered how the rocky dirt road would hold up. In the front seat sat two navy-blue clad policia with closely shorn heads, bullet proof vests and AK-47s. Yet, Dr. Ann Lopez, my traveling companion, was smiling in anticipation of her reunion with old friends in the farming village of Rancho Nuevo ... now just minutes away.
Read More
