Last July, Oakland’s Fair Trade USA reached a significant landmark in the fair trade fashion industry with the development of the world’s first-ever certification for ethically manufactured apparel. But the battle hasn’t been won. At last Monday’s Global Action Through Fashion event, panelists of well-informed fair trade experts and activists highlighted challenges that still face the industry....
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California’s landmark climate change law survived a dirty battle at the polls last fall when oil industry groups tried to take it down in a ballot initiative. But now a new challenge has surfaced — this time by the environmental community. Environmental justice groups say that the regulatory plan that implements AB 32 doesn’t...
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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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Ocean Beach is one of San Francisco’s most uncertain recreational spots, its permanence in question as shifting sands and sea level rise threaten to change its dimensions, and even existence. City and federal officials are discussing whether to take a more proactive approach towards the sea, rather than let natural forces take their course....
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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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A year after the dissolution of the Restoration Advisory Board for Hunters Point Shipyard, the Navy says it will introduce a new community involvement plan that emphasizes diversity. The announcement follows the White House’s reconvened interagency effort on environmental justice, which held its first meeting under the Obama administration in September.
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It has been a fall and winter swollen with news stories about the endangered coho salmon's banner year in Marin County. The heavy rains many of us have been grousing about help the sea-dwelling salmon enter the rushing, inland creeks and swim to their spawning grounds.
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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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Not to knock your holiday spirits, but I think I'm stating the obvious that it's been an abysmal year for climate change.
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NASA's top climate scientist James Hansen took world governments to task for choosing business interests over the needs of future generations in the fight against climate change.
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