When I first heard about cap-and-trade — the plan where a company can emit greenhouse gasses up to a point (the cap) then offset its emissions by investing in “unpollution” somewhere in the world (the trade) — well I thought, “This sounds like it’s worth a shot.” But after some looking into it, I have my doubts.
Category: Environment
Posted inEnvironment, Parks & Open Space
‘Big Year’ promotes saving local endangered species (Photo Gallery)
In an effort to educate visitors to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area about the 33 endangered species that inhabit it, Bay Area conservationists and local residents gathered Jan. 9 for the 2010 Endangered Species Big Year.
Posted inEnvironment, Parks & Open Space
Lawyer leads fight to save species on city-owned golf course
Environmental lawyer Brent Plater has single-handedly brought the fight to close the Sharp Park Golf Course to the attention of San Francisco city leaders, who are on the verge of making the city-owned course in Pacifica a high-profile example of local leadership to save endangered species on public lands.
A leader in several groups such as Wild Equity and the Sierra Club, Plater also is the mastermind behind the Big Year contest to discover more rare plants and animals on public land as a way of saving and expanding sensitive endangered species’ habitats.
Posted inEnvironment, News
Bay Area green firms band together to lobby Washington
Green and socially responsible business are flexing their collective lobbying muscles to have their concerns heard in Washington, with firms from the Bay Area leading the way.
Posted inClimate Change, Environment
Copenhagen climate talks teleported to San Francisco
Any question you have about the environment — the best eco-clothing line or whether climate change is a hoax — David Pascal and company will try to answer it, as part of their Copenhagen Café, a two-week-long environmental salon in downtown San Francisco that will parallel the U.N. climate talks underway in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Posted inEnvironment, News
San Francisco less progressive than it thinks, says outgoing green chief
After eight years as the director of the city’s Department of the Environment, Jared Blumenfeld is leaving the position in January for a bigger job.
Posted inEnvironment, Land use
Boxer concerned about Hunter’s Point cleanup efforts
U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer recently voiced concerns about the U.S. Navy’s cleanup efforts of the Hunter’s Point Naval Shipyard in a letter forwarded to The San Francisco Bay Guardian. http:// http//www.sfbg.com/blogs/politics/2009/06/boxer_wants_to_be_shipyard_cle.html
“As Chair of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works committee, I am focused on protecting the health and environment of the Bay Area, including the Bayview Hunters Point community,” read Boxer’s letter forwarded to the San Francisco Bay Guardian.
Posted inEnvironment, Food Systems, Utilities
Homeless counseling group first on Health Dept. chopping block
Caduceus Outreach Services could close its doors as early as July 1 due to the crippling budget deficit facing the San Francisco of Department of Public Health.
Caduceus, a 13-year-old SOMA-based nonprofit organization, could lose two-thirds of its budget as a result of the Health Department’s efforts to cope with an unprecedented $163 million deficit. Caduceus, which provides psychiatric counseling to about 100 homeless people, is just one of 104 city-based community program agencies facing the budget ax this summer, as the city tries to deal with a total deficit of $438.1 million.
Posted inEnvironment, Food Systems, Utilities
News Notes: July 1 budget cuts to trim homeless and AIDS support
Mayor Gavin Newsom’s July 1 budget cuts would raise Muni fares and elminate, through layoffs and attrition, about 1,600 city jobs.
One homeless drop-in center will be closed as part of the new budget proposal and services for HIV and AIDS patients, drug addicts and the mentally ill will be reduced.
Posted inEnvironment, Food Systems, Utilities
News Notes: Thousands of Bay Area children to lose health coverage
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plan to end the Healthy Families Program could leave more than 60,000 Bay Area children without health care coverage by June 30, 2010, according to the California Budget Project.