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The four dams on the Klamath River in far Northern California are under relicensing, something that only occurs every 50 years. The dams are owned by billionaire Warren Buffett, who purchased Pacificorp, one of the lowest-cost electricity producers in the United States, three years ago. Many Californians were hopeful this purchase would mean the end to the dams, but their concerns for the salmon fell on deaf ears. Once again, Warren Buffett rebuffed salmon advocates.

On Saturday, May 3, 2008, American Indian tribes and salmon fisherman failed to gain a private audience with Buffett and were ignored at the Berkshire Hathaway Inc. meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. Protesters shouted, “Un-dam the Klamath! Bring the salmon home!“, while shareholders enjoyed complimentary cocktails Friday night. For two years, an unprecedented alliance of tribes, businesses, conservation groups and commercial/recreational fishermen has tried to reach an agreement with Buffett for dam removal. Buffett said that his company would not decide the fate of the Klamath dams, but Berkshire will defer to regulators in California and Oregon. Ironically, dam removal is cheaper than building the fish ladders regulators are recommending. Read the rest of this entry »

Treasure Island is a 400 acre island built from fill dredged from the bay for the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition. It is connected to land by the Bay Bridge on both sides leading from San Francisco to Oakland. Loosing money due to the depression and WWII, it was converted into a naval base in 1940. In 1996 it was decommissioned and opened to public control. Today San Francisco’s Department of the Environment is transforming it into the most sustainable community in the US by 2020.

The streets are going to be reoriented at an angle to maximize solar and minimize wind. It will include 6,000 units of high-density housing, without any single detached residences. Thirty percent of the housing will be affordable. Read the rest of this entry »

Does aerial biochemical spraying really work to control foreign species?  Many communities extensively sprayed pesticides in an effort to control the spread of West Nile Virus, yet mosquitoes quickly spread this disease across the continental United States in just a few short years. Will aerial pesticide spraying combat the spread of the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM), or is this moth even a threat?

The LBAM is a moth originating in Australia that has been recently found in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles. LBAM is also found in New Zealand, New Caledonia, Hawaii, and the British Isles.  The moth does not have a dormancy period and development is continual.  It is artificially spread through nursery plants, fresh produce, and green waste.

California officials fear LBAM poses a potential threat to the state’s agriculture, but their own projections state the greatest environmental impact as:

Establishment of this moth could cause direct environmental damage via increased pesticide use statewide by commercial and residential growers and via adverse feeding impacts on native plants.

Read the rest of this entry »

What to do when you have spent five years trying to stop a massive federal road project to no avail? Take a walk and say good bye to the gentle one lane curves, old growth forest, and northern spotted owl (NSO) habitat. That’s what members of my community did in semblance of a Maori custom to remember and honor the passing of an important place. As Hyampom, CA resident Marilyn Renaker described the event:

We are taking this opportunity to honor the beauty of the road, and also to honor the people who first built it. These days, the past is often bulldozed away without a second thought. We go on with what is newer, bigger, supposedly better. This road was the work of many people over many winters. With mules and horses laden with equipment, they made a path into a road. They had to blast and clean debris and when they finished in 1923, an era ended. Cars entered Hyampom for the first time and the Land of Trails disappeared. Many of us will miss this old road, just as we miss the hardiness of the people who built it. We will miss it’s beauty, it’s familiar twists and turns. We will miss how it made Hyampom seem special–a hard place to get to, but worth it for the wise.

Read the rest of this entry »

They’ve done it, and help from other states is on the way. California’s Attorney General Jerry Brown has filed a lawsuit with the US court of appeals challenging the EPA’s decision to block California from implementing tough new standards on vehicle emissions. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is quoted as saying;

“It is unconscionable that the federal government is keeping California and 19 other states from adopting these standards. They are ignoring the will of millions of people who want their government to take action in the fight against global warming. That’s why, at the very first legal opportunity, we’re suing to reverse the US EPA’s wrong decision. By implementing these standards, California would be eliminating greenhouse gases equivalent to taking 6.5 million cars off the road by the year 2020.”

As I suggested in my “Open Challenge to California and all State Governments” of Dec. 20, 15 other states or state agencies are joining the action, including Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico and New York. Read the rest of this entry »

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been ordered to release all documents pertaining to Administrator Stephen Johnson’s controversial blocking of California’s waiver to control greenhouse gasses in that state.

The announcement came in an email released by Public Employees forEnvironmental Responsibility (PEER), saying Johnson has bowed to a Congressional request for the information, following the controversy sparked by his controversial decision.

PEER’s Executive Director Jeff Ruch is quoted as saying: “What made Johnson’s decision so striking is that for months he said he was basing it on the scientific and legal merits and then did the precise opposite. One employee told me ‘I am ashamed to admit that I work at EPA’ and another asked ‘What am I supposed to tell my children when they ask me what I am doing to fight global warming?’”

Johnson has said he will not attend a field hearing of Senator Barbara Boxer’s (D-CA), Senate Environment & Public Works Committee on January 10th in Los Angeles. His appearance before Congress, however, promises to be contentious at best. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s time to end Washington’s “We know what’s best for you” grip on this country. The latest incident is the Environmental Protection Agency’s denial of California’s bid for greenhouse gas limits on cars, trucks and SUV’s. The landmark regulations would have resulted in a 30 percent reduction in tailpipe greenhouse emissions in new cars and trucks by 2016, with cutbacks beginning in the 2009 model year. The EPA’s action was taken according to rules of the Clean Air Act, which says the state needed a federal waiver to implement the rules.

The EPA, in refusing the waiver, said the Bush administration was forging a national solution rather than accepting a patchwork of state regulations. At least 12 other states have adopted the California standards with four planning adoption. That, it appears, would qualify as a “patchwork” of standards.

But wait a minute. If the California standards were adopted, car makers could just go ahead and bring their product up to that level and sell the vehicles anywhere they wish. What’s the problem here? Everybody would win with less pollution and more fuel efficient cars and trucks nationwide. Sounds like some smoke and mirrors to me, and if they sell that kind of drivel to the public, we need a better system of education. But the feds are going to hold their ground, so I have a plan, and here’s the challenge. Read the rest of this entry »

Environmentalists already have good reason to despise bottled-water companies, but local economic development folks might now have reason to question the industry too. That’s the message from opponents of a proposed Nestle water-bottling facility in McCloud, California, a small community with natural springs fed by the glaciers of Mount Shasta.

McCloud’s defenders today released an economic study that casts a skeptical light on Nestle’s predictions that the plant would bring more local jobs and an improved local economy. Most of the promised jobs would probably be filled by people from outside the area, while others would be entry-level, low-paying positions. Furthermore, the report added, building a large water-bottling plant in a place known for its natural beauty could drive away some residents and businesses over time.

“The proposed facility threatens to consume one of the area’s most valuable assets: its water,” said Kristin Lee, an economist with the consulting firm ECONorthwest and one of the authors of the report.

ECONorthwest prepared the study on behalf of the McCloud Watershed Council, a volunteer-based residents’ organization working to preserve the quality of the region’s watershed. The group is fighting Nestle’s plan to build a one-million-square foot water-bottling plant in the former logging community, which has a population of about 1,200. If constructed, the McCloud facility’s size would make it the largest water-bottling plant in the U.S.

“It would be the largest building in Northern California,” said Brian Stranko, CEO of California Trout, a group that works to protect and restore wild trout populations in California waters. “You could fit every building in McCloud into it.”

The area’s environmentalists and local residents oppose the plant on many levels. They object to the McCloud Community Services District’s agreement to sell local water to Nestle at “far below” market value. They warn that Nestle’s contract would give the company control of local water supplies for 50, possibly even 100 years. They fear the facility’s impact on the environment, on downstream users of local water, on the region’s attractiveness for tourism and outdoor recreation. And, now, armed with the ECONorthwest report, they worry the plant won’t be as good a deal for the local economy as Nestle says.

That’s now the message they’re hoping to deliver to the McCloud Community Services District, which inked the original deal with Nestle and — they say — still retains the power to renegotiate the terms of its contract with the company.

“It’s not too late for the (district) to reconsider this contract,” said Sid Johnson, a member of the McCloud Watershed Council. “We’re not sure they’re aware of that.”

Nestle Waters is the world’s top seller of bottled water. As of 2006, it sold 72 different brands of bottled water — including San Pelligrino, Perrier, Aquarel, Ozarka, Zephyrhills and Deer Park — around the globe.

By: Anthony J. Gerst

From Patagonia to the not-so-frozen Russian Tundra, unto the Brazilian tropical savannahs, the planet, “she be a changing, mate.” I consider it an honor to be writing for Planetsave. It is the freedom of pure expression that is the net-gem to be found here. Normally, when writing for this page, I narrow the focus down to a singular story. Within the feature blog I often present what I refer to as an activist’s listing. Today we will post an example of this writing style; remember, several of my blog postings are written this way. In today’s hustle and bustle so many of us seldom have the time to explore various avenues of activism; even we environmentalists are usually confined to a narrow focus of work within the field. So, upon occasion, I try and present a smorgasbord of actions in one location. Enjoy!

Once described as the land of the giants by Magellan, Patagonia, one of the richest and most diverse biological wonders on the planet, is in danger. With archaeological sites dating back to the 10th century BCE, recent discoveries would claim sites now go back as far as the 13th century BCE. This sparsely populated region of South America is interlaced with bogs, wetlands, rivers and coastal fjords. Not to mention the Alerce, a coniferous tree, the second largest living tree on the planet, the cypress forest of Guaitecas, and temperate rainforest home to many species found nowhere else on the globe. For instance we have the endangered puma, the huemul, and the fjords, which are used by blue whales, humpbacks, orcas, Chilean and black dolphins.

The government of Chili is in the process of wanting to construct a series of hydroelectric dams which will destroy a 1,200-mile expanse of this pristine ecologically needed CO2-reducing ecosystem. Part of this project would be undertaken by Brookfield Consortium, a Canadian company that would clear-cut a 1,400-mile path through many areas already designated natural preserves and parks. We are literally advancing human kind unto a precipice where no retreat is possible. When will we embrace an eco-friendly life style, realizing that we can still maintain a viable technological society; while we are at it, creating a global economic boom? One of the steps along this journey is to voice your concern in an effort to stop the above atrocity: www.savebiogems.org/patagonia/takeaction.

As an environmental writer I have a few regrets. One, the paper I use is not generated from Industrial Hemp. Two, that I cannot bring to you all the information that flows to me. Three, I can’t write about everything, so often this means prioritizing: in this battle it’s almost impossible to say one issue is above another, as they are all intertwined. So, as things escape along the linear equation we call time, one does their best to advance the cause of saving a planet from ourselves.

On September 21, the initial phase of a five-step process began, which has been battled for over the last seven-years by Ocean Conservancy and its partners. This project created the marine protected areas (MPAs) along the 1,100-mile drive along the scenic coastal highway of California. This is the first of its kind in our nation: kudos to California and their diverse array of citizenry. Having driven that highway I can say, to me anyway, there appears to be three states in one. Cali, you are indeed unique. To learn more about this great project go to the Ocean Conservancy’s page of resources.

We owe a debt of gratitude to Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida. He recently went head to head with Rodney Barreto Chair of the Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC) in an effort to block the downlisting of the manatee. One would think the Chair of the FWC would be fighting for this issue. We have so much work to undo from this current administration. Send the good Governor of Florida a message of accolades.

San Francisco has seen power outages over the past few days that ended up knocking out a good chunk of the internet. Craigslist, AdBrite, Yelp, Technorati, and even the USAToday blog were unavailable for hours while PG&E scrambled to restore service.

Om Malik writes it spot on- the “dumb” power grid is the weakest link on the web. If there is no power, there’s no net.

According to North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) there has been a 50% decline in the capital expenditures by utilities over the last 15 years. The underground cables are crumbling. This report in Fresno Bee takes PG&E to task.

… San Francisco consulting firm KEMA Inc., which wrote in a report two years ago that PG&E distribution equipment “is getting older both in terms of average age and the percentage of very old equipment. … PG&E increasingly will have to become more proactive in addressing issues related to aging equipment.”

This is not just a problem with PG&E. Power grid across the country is aging. It is ironic because data centers/hosting business is one where US companies still dominate. Thanks to an abundance of long haul bandwidth and ample data center capacity, many overseas companies find it more secure to host their digital infrastructure in the US. Bebo might be big in Britain, but its websites are served up from 365 Main.

We need to obviously maintain the current power infrastructure, but we also need to move towards building a Smart Grid. Houses and appliances should be able to tap into the internet to check power prices and post and share usage data. Large regional power plants need to be augmented (and eventually replaced) by locally created power. Every building on the planet should have a solar panel on top and whatever extra power is needed should come from renewable sources like wind turbines, biomass, and geothermal.

A smart green grid is naturally immune to large scale disruptions like the one we saw in San Francisco and should appeal to the Homeland Security crowd for how much safer it is from terrorist attacks.

Much smarter people than I are writing about Smart Grids- for more info check out Smart Grids News and what WorldChanging has to say about it.