Posts by Amy Standen
Hard Choices
Elsewhere in this magazine, writer Christy Harrison profiles a cafe owner who struggles to provide a socially responsible sandwich. Multiply that quandary by a thousand and you can imagine what it’s like to be Jill Stapleton, who, with the help of EC staffers and volunteers, runs the Ecology Center bookstore on San Pablo Avenue.
North Coast Loggers Face Veto
It’s not often that forestry activists in the North Coast get good news from Sacramento, so it was a rare celebratory moment in October when then-Governor Gray Davis signed Senate Bill 810, which gives water quality control board officials the authority to block logging operations that are likely to endanger watersheds.
Bayfront Property
The Albany bulb, which sticks out into San Francisco Bay like a short thumb next to the long fingers of the Emeryville and Berkeley marinas, might seem an unlikely site for a restoration.
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.
Greening the Vines
More and more growers are going organic. Just don’t expect to see it on the label.
Border Patrol
One of the challenges of working for a local magazine is deciding what to do when international events threaten to eclipse every other story.
New Rules on Runoff
In February, the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board adopted new measures for San Mateo, Alameda, and Contra Costa counties to control stormwater runoff.
Calpine targets Humboldt
Calpine, the energy corporation that wants to build a geothermal plant on sacred land at Medicine Lake [see Terrain Summer 2000, Winter 2002], is now proposing a liquified natural gas (LNG) storage facility and 2,200-megawatt power plant on the site of a defunct pulp mill on Humboldt Bay.
The 21st Century’s Oil
The World Bank estimates that by 2025, two thirds of the world’s population will not have safe water. In the United States, aquifers are rapidly declining; the entire Colorado River disappears into aqueducts before it reaches the Gulf of Mexico.
Terratorial
This issue of Terrain goes to print on the eve of what will likely be the largest show of anti-war sentiment since Bush’s infamous “axis of evil” speech morphed the war on terrorism into a renewed war on Iraq.
Fasting for Old Growth
In 1998, then-Lt. Governor Gray Davis made a promise to the Conservation League Foundation: If he were elected governor, Davis vowed to ensure that “wetlands are preserved, rivers are clean and all old-growth trees are spared the lumberjack’s ax.”
Chevron Gets the OK to Pollute Bay
Instead of keeping ChevronTexaco’s Richmond refinery from polluting San Francisco Bay with dioxin, mercury, nickel, and selenium at excessive levels, regulators have issued a permit for it, according to a lawsuit by Communities for a Better Environment.
Forest Plan on the Block
The Bush Administration is attempting to remove key protections for forests and waterways in the 24 million acres covered by the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan, the landmark plan governing logging in Oregon, Washington, and northwestern California.
Air Pollution by the Numbers
• Tons of carbon monoxide (CO) emitted in 1999 by OLS Energy (UC-Berkeley campus), Alameda County’s largest non-refinery individual (point) source: 120 • Tons of CO in 1999 from second-largest point source, Waste Management of Alameda County: 78 • Tons of carbon monoxide emitted per day by motor vehicles in the San Francisco Bay Area: [...]
The Brownfields Dilemma
In 1997, 60 teenagers from Fruitvale and San Antonio, two east Oakland neighborhoods, came together to envision something many other kids take for granted: a park.
