San Francisco has been identified as one of the most vulnerable cities in the nation when it comes to water-related impacts of climate change. In a report entitled “Thirsty for Answers,” published by the Natural Resources Defense Council, the organization reviewed more than 75 scientific studies and other reports to come up with a...
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Upon attending the West Coast Green events at the Moscone Center in San Francisco this week, I was thrilled to find out that Governor Jerry Brown would be speaking at the larger event for the Pacific Coast Builders Conference (PCBC) on Thursday. It soon became evident that folks at PCBC were less concerned with...
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Of the myriad of things cramming California landfills, discarded carpets are taking up lots of space. About 400 million pounds are tossed each year, equating to 39 million gallons of oil, says the non-profit Carpet America Recovery Effort. Could California do better? State lawmakers think so. Last tear they passed a law that requires...
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Just as farmers markets are swinging into full bloom, there’s very disturbing news about radiation from Japan reaching new levels in Europe. And if it’s high there, it’s significantly higher along the West Coast. A French research organization that monitors radiation, CRIIRAD, says the risk of exposure to the radioisotope iodine-131 has risen from...
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Did you know that sleeping next to someone blitzes you with 0.05 millionth of a sievert of radiation per night? That eating a banana gives you 0.1 millionth, and that a day’s dose at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant would give you .0036 sieverts? For some great perspective on the doses of radiation and...
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It’s been a point of maddening frustration for scientists and environmentalists that as the predictions on global warming grow more dire, the public seems to be getting more skeptical. Blame conservatives for fomenting doubt and confusion for sure. But as UC Berkeley psychologist Robb Willer observed in a study recently, crying Cassandra can backfire....
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It’s been a long, cold rainy winter this year in California. But it could get worse — much worse. The USGS warned this past week that California is in the eye of a winter storm weather pattern that could be more disastrous than a major earthquake. They’re calling it the ARkstorm Scenario — a reference, one...
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Listen to WOW reporter Alison Hawkes’ radio story about the greening of Treasure Island, which aired on KQED’s California Watch.
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It’s rare that a whale turns up in Tomales Bay. But this week a 25-footer showed up to dine on worms, mollusks, and crustaceans during the annual winter migration from Alaska to the warmer waters of Baja, according to the Marin Independent Journal. A spokeswoman for the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary...
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San Francisco is pioneering a new bike-sharing program in the vein of Paris and Barcelona. The project has been trumpeted by Mayor Gavin Newsom’s office for years. With a $4 million grant that eventually came through, the city is readying 500 bikes for deployment in the spring of 2012. That’s a bit of a...
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