Northern California’s Environmental Magazine
Archive for November, 2003
Thirsty Monterey County Looks to the Sea
Monterey Bay is home to a dazzling array of marine life—from giant octopus to jellyfish. But on land, water is growing scarce.
Unions and Organic Farmers Clash over Stoop Labor
Organic farmers and labor unions are squaring off in the state legislature in a battle farmers fear may threaten organic growing.
When It’s Ebola, NIMBY Makes Sense
UC Davis may one day house the Western National Center for Biodefense and Emerging Diseases and its Biosafety Level 4 labs, equipped to study deadly pathogens such as ebola, anthrax, and hantavirus.
Bush’s Bill Misses the Forest for the Trees
Using public lands in California and Oregon as a backdrop this August, President George W. Bush toured the West, stumping for his “Healthy Forests” initiative.
Biotech Briefing
To induce consumers to buy their products and farmers to test and grow them, biotechnology marketers often look to economically distressed, vulnerable populations, like India’s and Zimbabwe’s — or even Kentucky’s.
Davis Bio-Lab Falls to Community Protest
The National Institutes of Health will not fund a Level 4 biodefense research facility at UC Davis.
Salvage Logging in Duncan Canyon?
Sierra Club seeks to close roadless loophole.
San Francisco Fights the Power
Would a giant gas plant divert the city from green goals?
Changing Currents
n May, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to allow a pilot project to generate power from the San Francisco Bay’s strong tides, the first such project in the nation.
Separation Anxiety
One-compartment trucks zoom through neighborhoods, emptying big blue bins full of recyclables. No sorting required—residents stuff all their paper, glass, and cans into the same bin.
Walkin’ After Midnight
In the quiet of early morning, the unmusical clanging of glass bottles can be heard a block away. Tex moves slowly along San Francisco’s 25th Street, his heavy-duty Costco shopping cart loaded as efficiently as a mule packed by a master guide.
Plastic Not So Fantastic
This year marks the 15th anniversary of what is probably the biggest recycling-related PR effort since the first Earth Day: the stamping of nearly every disposable plastic container on the market with the chasing arrows recycling symbol.
Get the Lead Out
On September 24, Governor Gray Davis signed Senate Bill 20, creating a fund for the recycling of computer monitors and televisions, which can contain lead and other toxic materials.
Give Grease A Chance
Recycling isn’t just about cans and bottles; across California, used cooking oil from restaurants is getting a second life in the form of an alternative fuel called biodiesel.
Rising from the Ashes
“Waste incineration is a dying technology,” says Monica Wilson, of the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA).
Healing Nature with Nurture
It sounds too good to be true, like a Discovery Channel infomercial: Mushrooms transform devastated, polluted creeks into vital, healthy ecosystems.
The Interior Imperative
A record $35 billion budget deficit and the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger overshadowed what will likely prove a more lasting legacy of 2003: California is the first state to ban a common breed of toxic household chemicals known as PBDEs.
The Name of the Game
IN AUGUST, BOTANISTS MET IN Uppsala to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Carolus Linnaeus’ publication of his first blockbuster, Species Plantarum.
A Stick in the Mud
I’m on a bench facing an ivy-covered fence, half-watching the black-and-yellow-banded wasps patrolling near ground level, ready to move if they get too chummy.
Window on the Ecology Center
The big yellow truck usually arrives a little late to the Derby Street Tuesday Farmers’ Market. A casual shopper might raise an eyebrow, thinking these late arrivals got up late or took a long lunch break.
Better Safe than Sorry
This July, the city of San Francisco voted to adopt a purchasing policy based on the precautionary principle, which asks city officials to weigh health and environmental costs in their policy decisions.
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