Summer 2003
Table of Contents
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.
Hot Lunch
When Bill Myers and other residents of Point Arena, California, heard last winter that the US Department of Agriculture was planning to send irradiated meat to school lunchrooms, there was a bit of a panic.
Salad Days
The 580 freeway sideswipes West Oakland just a few blocks away, but you might not notice its hum once amid the explosion of greenery at 3032 Linden Street, where the Paul and Inez Jones Neighborhood Garden sits, tucked behind two Victorian houses
The War at Home: Tanks vs. Tortoises
On the eve of war with Iraq, the Pentagon launched a less-publicized offensive in Washington. The Readiness and Range Preservation Initiative (RRPI) targets five basic environmental laws that have allegedly hindered military training.
Oil consumption by the numbers
• Average US daily petroleum consumption for 2002: 19.636 million barrels (1 barrel = 42 US gallons) • Average 2002 daily petroleum consumption for France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and 14 other European countries, combined: 15.083 million barrels • Proven world crude oil reserves as of December, 2001: 1.074 trillion barrels [...]
Water Board Fails Forests
In April, the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC) requested a stay to prevent logging operations that may damage watersheds in Freshwater Creek and other northern California forests.
Red Star Falls
Following pressure from community and environmental activists, West Oakland’s LeSaffre Yeast (formerly Red Star Yeast) closed its doors in April after nearly a century in operation.
Showdown at Freshwater Creek
Tensions have run high in the 15,000-acre Freshwater Creek watershed east of Eureka since Pacific Lumber was granted its request for a temporary restraining order against forest activists on March 10th.
Precaution in Berkeley
After “fierce opposition” from Berkeley City Council members, environmental and public health advocates have postponed a proposal for a city-wide precautionary principle ordinance.
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.
Personal Politics
San Francisco may become the first major US city to challenge corporate personhood — a 117-year-old concept that gives corporations the same constitutional rights as human beings. Matt Gonzalez, president of the city’s Board of Supervisors, has agreed to introduce a board resolution that makes the case for ending corporations’ legal status as “persons” through a US Supreme Court decision or a constitutional amendment.
Catching Drift
Edelmira Alcazar was cooking salsa on the day that people in Earlimart — a California town of about 6,000 in Tulare County — would come to call “el dia de la quimica,” the day of the chemical.
Pipe Dreams
During planting season, a Sacramento Valley rice farmer’s fields are hardly fields at all. They are still, square lakes separated by dikes and occupied by white egrets.
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.
Forestry for the Future
The day starts early for forester Jim Villeponteaux. Long before sunrise, he piles chainsaws, pruning saws, propane torches, and other tools into a 1985 Chevy Suburban nicknamed the “crummy.”
The Best of Enemies
Predator and prey species shape each other. As Robinson Jeffers put it: “What but the wolf’s tooth whittled so fine/ The fleet limbs of the antelope?” (Actually, if it was the pronghorn antelope he had in mind, it appears that the tooth in question belonged to a long-extinct North American cheetah, but that’s another story.)
Charming Adventurers
After all these years, my carpenteria is blooming! Let’s hear it for delayed gratification.
Carpenteria californica is also called “bush anemone.”
Once More, with Feeling: Cash for Trash!
Two years ago a team of zealots and environmental extremists from the Ecology Center and City of Berkeley staff prowled the pre-dawn streets of Berkeley, randomly hijacking garbage from the cans of the city’s sleeping residents.
Reduce, reuse, recycle, rot
Given the pressures of our consumer culture, it’s important to take stock of our buying habits. Decisions about if and when to buy something are usually more important than how we will dispose of it — but that’s easy to forget.
