Quick Reads
Petaluma Starts Climate Conversations
Petaluma made international news earlier this year for enacting the nation’s first ban on new gas stations. The city of 60,000 in southern Sonoma County also moved this year to prohibit natural gas in nearly all new construction, and hasn’t allowed new drive-thrus since 2008. It aims to be carbon neutral by 2030.
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Silicon Valley Reboots on Adaptation Work
With the aid of a $150,000 grant from the National Fish Wildlife Foundation, Santa Clara County embarked on a substantial new resilience planning effort this summer. In June the county’s Office of Sustainability convened the first meeting of the County Climate Collaborative, bringing together cities, CBOs and other key partners to identify adaptation and resilience priorities.
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Can Wyoming Windmills Mainline Clean Power to California?
The last holdout between California and a new infusion of clean energy–enough to power two million homes–is an unlikely alliance between a Colorado ranch and a flightless bird. Phil Anschutz, former oil prospector and current billionaire, has been hard at work over the last decade-plus planning a project that would build 1,000 wind turbines in Wyoming and route the power to California via a 730-mile transmission line that crosses Colorado, Utah, and Nevada.
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Coastal Mapping Tool Updated to Include Groundwater
In the past decade sea level rise models have popped up faster than fungi after a storm: today it seems like every agency has one. However in August USGS geologist Patrick Barnard and colleagues at Point Blue Conservation Science unveiled a new feature of their Our Coast, Our Future (OCOF) tool that none of the others have: a projection of how sea level rise will impact local groundwater along the California coast.
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Warming to Managed Retreat
To own beachfront property was once a crown jewel of the California dream. Now, many homes at or near the water’s edge are doomed as sea level rises, and for residents, evacuations will be inevitable. In Pacifica, there is talk of moving an entire beachfront neighborhood, and near Bodega Bay, homes have already been abandoned, and roadway managers are breaking ground on rerouting a short but vulnerable stretch of the coastal highway.
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Fire Improves Traditional Plants
Scholar Melinda Adams is reclaiming fire. “When you look at migration patterns of Indigenous peoples, we led with fire. It’s related to our subsistence diets, it’s what kept us healthy,” says Adams, a UC Davis scholar who identifies as Apache and researchs “Indigenous Epist(e)cologies,” or the merge of ecological knowledge with Afro-Black Indigenous epistemologies.
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In-Depth
Cleaner Air, Fewer Health Hazards from Bay Area Refineries
In July, the Board of Directors of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District voted 19-3 to amend its Regulation 6, Rule 5, requiring fossil fuel refineries under its jurisdiction to reduce particulate matter emissions from their fluidized catalytic cracking units (“cat crackers” in refinery parlance), a major point source of pollution. The move gave the Bay Area the nation’s most health-protective and stringent regulation on particulate emissions, a recognized health hazard.
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Budget Bounty for Resilience
On September 23, as part of a historic $15 billion climate package, Governor Newsom signed two bills that together provide the blueprint for a landmark three-year, $3.7 billion climate resilience budget. The money represents a heretofore unthinkable commitment to addressing the impact of climate change on the state.
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Bay Area Leads Nation on Floating Solar
The stately Napa winery of Far Niente and the wastewater treatment plant for the small town of Healdsburg have more than picturesque vineyards in common. Each facility typically produces enough power on-site to run all their operations, and then some. Both hold national records. And the inviting irrigation pond tucked amidst the vineyards at Far Niente bears a striking resemblance to the ponds full of treated sewage-water in Healdsburg.
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North Bay Towns Embrace Drought Gardens
The conundrums of whether or not to spend water on gardening during a drought are many. Growing backyard food is not just enjoyable, it also cuts down on greenhouse gasses from food transport and storage. Maintaining – or expanding – ornamental gardens is therapeutic but also can sustain pollinators and wildlife that are struggling to survive human-made hurdles.
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Dodging a Bullet on the Highway 37 Redesign
To help keep Highway 37 open despite heavy storms and rising tides, planners are assessing a wide range of options from elevating the road to rerouting it. But zeroing in on the right redesign may be trickier than anticipated. New research shows that, with sea level rise, protections for this troubled North Bay road can worsen flooding and economic damages as far away as the South Bay. The good news is that this work can also identify Highway 37 redesigns that avoid these catastrophic impacts.
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CHATTER
Step aside, roads and bridges—it's time for natural #infrastructure, like living oyster 🦪 breakwaters, to get the spotlight in a heating world. Read on for how efforts in the #BayArea stack up against New York designs to shore up coastlines, au naturel:
https://www.kneedeeptimes.org/bi-coastal-experiment-with-oysters-and-infrastructure/
It’s time to share our stories of climate adaptation around the region!🎤@KneeDeepTimes is a new SF Bay Area-based digital magazine featuring stories from the frontlines of #climate #resilience. Among them is a story of the new #BayAdapt Joint Platform at https://www.kneedeeptimes.org/coalescing-as-a-region-around-sea-level-rise-response/ https://twitter.com/KneeDeepTimes/status/1443639027110797312
And we’re live at http://kneedeeptimes.org!
Our first stories include deep dives on air pollution from East Bay oil refineries, drought-resistant gardens, floating solar, and much more. Give us feedback/shoutouts and follow for more stories of resilience amid the #ClimateCrisis.
As drought tightens its grip on California, home gardeners and landscapers wonder whether their plants are worth the water. More in "North Bay Towns Embrace Drought Gardens," by Jacoba Charles: https://www.kneedeeptimes.org/north-bay-towns-embrace-drought-gardens/
#californialiving #cawater #drought #SonomaCounty #marin
Installing solar panels over water saves valuable land in the #BayArea, conserves water, and even improves the water quality beneath the panels.
So what's the catch? Read on in "Bay Area Leads Nation in Floating Solar," by @SierraGInTheSea: https://www.kneedeeptimes.org/bay-area-leads-nation-floating-solar/
#cawater
Many miles of levees and seawalls along the Estuary's shoreline were designed to protect communities from flooding, but these engineered structures do not provide good habitat for native species and were never designed to accommodate the flooding exacerbated by #climatechange. https://twitter.com/KneeDeepTimes/status/1445826196634230784
Highway 37, which runs along the North Bay, is one of the most vulnerable roads in the #BayArea. But putting up a sea wall to protect it could actually force floodwaters into San Jose.
More in "Dodging a Bullet on the Highway 37 Redesign," by @noka_oi: https://www.kneedeeptimes.org/dodging-a-bullet-on-the-highway-37-redesign/
Hoi Shan Cheung Asks Family about Climate Change
Picture of the Month
