http://ecologycenter.org/terrain Northern California's Environmental Magazine Tue, 16 Dec 2008 01:12:01 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en In early March, I checked my voicemail to hear my good friend Katie Moriarty exclaiming as fast as a Douglas squirrel that had just emerged from a bag of espresso beans, “Oooooh man, check your e-mail, check your e-mail, check your e-mail, and call me NOW!” I clicked open a ... http://ecologycenter.org/terrain/issues/fall-winter-2008/lonesome-stranger/ Using electricity is easy. The quick flick of a switch illuminates our living rooms, dries our laundry, and heats our coffee in the morning. Using energy is such a natural and necessary part of everyday American life that its source is often considered only when the monthly Pacific Gas & ... http://ecologycenter.org/terrain/issues/fall-winter-2008/power-to-the-people/ There's been no better embodiment of suburban green-vs-green tensions than the recent court battle between South Bay neighbors, one of whom claimed that the shade from a neighboring couple’s stand of redwood trees was blocking his solar panels. Both the tree owners and the solar proponent believed they were doing ... http://ecologycenter.org/terrain/issues/fall-winter-2008/true-cost/ For the last several decades, “no nukes” has been the mantra of environmentalists and a no-brainer for many US citizens. The generation of nuclear power involved impossible-to-ignore environmental risks, horribly obvious after Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. People realized that plants could suffer meltdowns, and safe storage options for spent ... http://ecologycenter.org/terrain/issues/fall-winter-2008/nuclear-redux/ In the widening search for renewable energy sources, open water has joined the sun and wind as future energy providers. For decades, virtually all hydro-powered generation came from inland waterways, monumental projects that harnessed rivers and streams across the United States. But hydrokinetic energy can also be harvested directly from ... http://ecologycenter.org/terrain/issues/fall-winter-2008/waiting-for-ocean-energy/ Listen up, apartment-dwellers: no matter how cramped you find your San Francisco studio, I can almost guarantee you it is not as small as Jay Shafer’s house. Propped on wheels in the backyard of his landlord’s property in Sebastopol, the entire wooden structure occupies 89 square feet. He has a ... http://ecologycenter.org/terrain/issues/fall-winter-2008/growing-small-an-interview-with-a-tiny-house-builder/ Sprawling over the Labor Day weekend, the four-day Slow Food Nation festival attracted more than just the usual suspects to San Francisco. Sure, lovers of food and restaurants showed up, paying up to $65 apiece to stroll through the Taste Pavilion at Fort Mason to sample Tuscan-style lardo and artisanal ... http://ecologycenter.org/terrain/issues/fall-winter-2008/qa-tom-philpott-slow-food-fighter/ Journalist and author Jeffrey St. Clair edits the newsletter Counterpunch with political journalist Alexander Cockburn; the two co-wrote the syndicated column, “Nature and Politics,” and have collaborated on several books. St. Clair now edits the daily online version of Counterpunch, while Cockburn edits Counterpunch’s biweekly print edition. This year St. ... http://ecologycenter.org/terrain/issues/fall-winter-2008/qa-jeffrey-st-clair/ One morning last April, a massive set of avalanches took down more than a mile’s worth of the transmission lines that carry power down the mountainside from the Snettisham hydroelectric facility to Juneau, Alaska’s capital. The Snettisham hydro project produces the vast majority of the city’s power, so with three ... http://ecologycenter.org/terrain/issues/fall-winter-2008/the-big-save/ In the spring of 2002, eleven-year-old poultry enthusiast Zachary Thode decided to raise Bourbon Red turkeys at his family home in Sebastapol. The twelve birds were not intended for Thode’s holiday dinners, but they weren’t pets; Thode was raising them for neighbors who had paid in advance. He bought the ... http://ecologycenter.org/terrain/issues/fall-winter-2008/holiday-harvest-slow-down-for-heritage-turkeys/