I almost forgot about this website, but I’ve been completely busy with some other recent projects, namley the launch of Bikeramento and Bikeramento week.
What is Bikeramento? A mission to make Sacramento a world class bikeable city. A coalition of like minds and groups to create a cohesive bike culture and advocate for bikeability in the Sacramento region.
Join us, won’t you?
I’m a regular Treehugger.com reader via RSS feed, so when I came across this post by Jeff Nield, “Holiday Gift Guide: For the Foodie” I about had a heart attack. THAT’S MY PHOTO! I’d recognize that grainy, badly lit, tiny resolution camera-phone image anywhere. That box is my weekly fruits and veggies from our local Community Supported Agriculture farm, Terra Firma Farms based in Winters, CA. They recently had another Farm Day open house and I’ll post pictures from that day after next week’s Global Entrepreneurship Week here in Sacramento.
Fellow SACtivists - are you out there? Say hello in the comments and link to your own blogs if you have them!
And Jeff - it’s Sactivist, not “Sactavist” (link under the photo’s title).
SACtivist is growing! We’re delighted to announce that SACtivist has partnered with the folks running the Sacramento Global Entrepreneurship Week November 17-23rd, a week long series of events to “inform, inspire, mentor, and connect up-and-coming entrepreneurs”, to grow our local small business community and encourage businesses to take part in giving back to Sacramento. We’ll highlight a few key events and provide followup as the week approaches.
We’ve got a few more tricks up our sleeves for Sacramento activism, so stay tuned!
I love this idea. The premise of PARK(ing) Day is to reclaim the street parking spaces that cater to our car-based cities and turn them, one by one, into tiny PARKs and open spaces for citizens to enjoy.
There will be parks “parked” at the following locations Friday, September 19th in Sacramento. Stop by and enjoy!
- Corner of J and 20th in Midtown from 7:00am-6:00pm
- Broadway and Land Park Drive (at R5 Records).
- Near Tapestri Square at 21st & T.
For more info, check out the Sac PARK(ing) Day website at http://neighborhoods.org/sacparkingday/
I’ve been blogged! And called a treehugger! Well, true enough. Trees need love too! The Sacramento News & Review’s “Ask a Treehugger” column named SACtivist in a review of local green blogs. What an honor!
I’ve been meaning to do a write up about the Sacramento News & Review’s “Green Guide” section. This is a fantastic source of local green news which they launched in the April 19th 2007 edition in honor of Earth Day 2007. “Ask a Treehugger” started with that issue, and I highly suggest browsing the Treehugger archives to check out what they’ve covered so far.
So welcome SNR readers! Leave a comment and say hello!
Chevron Energy Solutions and California State University, Fresno, announced last week the completion of a large-scale solar power installation at Fresno State that will supply 20 percent of the university’s annual power needs.
The 1.1-megawatt solar system—the largest photovoltaic (PV)-paneled parking installation at a U.S. university—is expected to save Fresno State more than $13 million in avoided utility costs over its 30-year lifespan.
The 10 structures, which provide the only shaded parking on the campus, comprise 3,872 photovoltaic panels mounted on top of more than 700 carport stalls constructed in parking lots on the southeast side of campus. The renewable energy system is expected to generate more than 1.5 million kilowatt hours of power each year, offsetting the production of about 950 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions—equivalent to planting more than 24,300 new trees or removing more than 200 cars from the road every year.
What’s interesting about this?
Three things. One, At the ceremony, CSUF President Welty declared “This project is just one of the university’s ‘green campus’ initiatives.” - not just a single, one-off solar project.
Two, he also signed the Talloires Declaration. What is the Talloires Declaration? I thought you’d never ask:
The Talloires Declaration:
University Presidents for a Sustainable FutureWe, the presidents, rectors, and vice chancellors of universities from all regions of the world are deeply concerned about the unprecedented scale and speed of environmental pollution and degradation, and the depletion of natural resources. Local, regional, and global air pollution; accumulation and distribution of toxic wastes; destruction and depletion of forests, soil, and water; depletion of the ozone layer and emission of “green house” gases threaten the survival of humans and thousands of other living species, the integrity of the earth and its biodiversity, the security of nations, and the heritage of future generations. These environmental changes are caused by inequitable and unsustainable production and consumption patterns that aggravate poverty in many regions of the world.
We believe that urgent actions are needed to address these fundamental problems and reverse the trends. Stabilization of human population, adoption of environmentally sound industrial and agricultural technologies, reforestation, and ecological restoration are crucial elements in creating an equitable and sustainable future for all humankind in harmony with nature. Universities have a major role in the education, research, policy formation, and information exchange necessary to make these goals possible.
In essence, any University that signs it is committing itself to a 10-point action plan to incorporate sustainability and environmental literacy into teaching, research, operations and outreach at colleges and universities. It has been signed by more than 350 university presidents and chancellors in 40-plus countries.
Three, the project was financed in part by a $2.8 million rebate from the State of California’s Self-Generation Incentive Program, but the rest was financed by MMA Renewable Ventures. Fresno State is merely providing the space for the project, and MMA owns the PV panels and the power they generate. Fresno State will then buy back the power at a competitive rate under a 20-year contract.
This is fairly new business model that is being fast adopted by solar installation companies that are now financing their projects to bring down the upfront costs of solar power, especially in California where there are ample local, state, and federal rebates available for solar installations. This has created a boom in the solar installation market, and we’ll be covering this topic in greater depth in the future.
Sorry for the recent slew of posts about oil spills, but it’s a pretty big story in the news, and the current Black Sea spill and others help to put the SF Bay spill in perspective. (see Google News articles on the Black Sea Oil Spill). I’ll post some local news later today to make up for it. The photo to the right and accompanying article are from the AP News.
Last Sunday, a huge storm covering the Azov and Black Sea region between Ukraine and Russia sank or ran aground at least 11 ships. BBC News reported that “the Russian oil tanker Volganeft-139 came apart after it was smashed by 108km/h (67 mph) winds and 5m (16ft) waves in the narrow Kerch Strait between Russia and Ukraine”. The tanker leaked 560,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil into the straight. Another cargo ship sank spilling 7,150 tons of sulfur, which can’t be good.
Up to 50 kilometers (31 miles) of Russian coastline are affected, and environmental organizations are reporting a high estimate of 30,000 dead birds… compared to hundreds for the recent Bay Area spill. Yet even the Black Sea spill is small in comparison the Prestige disaster off Spain five years ago. Severe habitat damage was caused to beaches in Spain, France and Portugal when a tanker leaked 64,000 tons - that’s close to 18 million gallons - of fuel oil in November 2002.
From a Moscow Times article:
“This problem may take a few years to solve. Fuel oil is a heavy substance and it is now sinking to the seabed,” said Mitvol, deputy head of the Natural Resources Ministry’s environmental watchdog, said on Vesti-24. “This is a very serious environmental disaster.”
The good news is, as countries begin to develop technologies for alternative sources of sustainable energy, the need to transport via pipeline or ship these vast amounts of oil will slowly decrease. It’s entirely possible that one day in the future, oil tankers will all be scrapped and recycled as countries become energy independent and the only need for energy trade will be the knowledge required to reproduce the technology.
“I touched the delta tower,” he told the traffic service, which monitors ship movements in and out of the bay. It may have been the understatement of the year.
A quick update on the SF Bay oil spill:
SFGate.com is still providing good coverage of what is going on - the cleanup will take weeks and there will be a grand jury investigation, many people have volunteered, and more details are being revealed about the ship’s course.
Crab fishing season has been delayed as well in the bay area, I just hope Hog Island’s oysters are okay.
The SF Gate is calling this the worst Bay Area oil spill in more than a decade - which means it’s happened before, and it will probably happen again, as long as our addiction to oil keeps those tankers coming in. 
The Google Map to the right links to a live mash-up with photos of the affected areas around the bay, and check out the SF Gate and other links below for more on the developing story.
McNertney’s bird was one of 18 oil-soaked scoters and other birds plucked alive off Rodeo Beach Thursday. At least seven others were found dead. It was one of the worst-hit areas. The coastline along the Marin Headlands was caked with great gobs of goo, forcing closures of Horseshoe Cove at Fort Baker, Tennessee Valley Cove and Rodeo Beach.
More video, photos, and news coverage at SF Gate.
As it turns out, the organization helping with the bird rescue effort is UC Davis’ own Oiled Wildlife Care Network. They will post a hotline for volunteers sometime today and I’ll update that on this blog.
UPDATE 10:42am 11/7/07 - Press release: UC Davis Leads Oiled-bird Rescue in San Francisco. Also, the Oiled Wildlife Care Network has set up a volunteer votline at (800) 228-4544. I will be calling later today to see if I can help out this weekend.
Karla and I are going to experiment with getting produce from a CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture farm. I picked one that works best for us since it has a pickup site just a few blocks away from us in the Bank of America building at 5th and Capitol. That way, I can stop by on my way home from work or walk there (I’ve walked a few times).
The basic deal is, 100% certified organic produce, grown year round at a local farm, put in a box, delivered to a pickup site every week near where you live or work. About $5 per person per week gets you a box of whatever is in season, just pick a box size that is right for how many people you are cooking for. The farm I picked is called Terra Firma Farm, over in Winters. There are other CSA’s around Sacramento, here is a list so you can check them out yourself!
Along with the box you pick up is also a weekly newsletter - you get a recipe of the week to best make use of the different fruits and veggies that were harvested and also how the recent weather affected the farm and YOUR produce. Also, there are often discussions of water, agriculture, and other topics and responses to subscriber emails. It’s pretty freaking sweet, and a great way to support local farmers and reduce your carbon footprint (it takes a lot of energy to power those hot house lights and then truck in those Safeway veggies).
The first box we got contained carrots, salad mix, potatoes, basil, apples, garlic, tomatoes, sweet peppers, onions, spinach, and eggplants. The newsletter discussed the local region weather patters and how it affects growing seasons, very interesting to learn about. Pablito at Terra Firma writes:
This fall is as different as all the others we’ve had: heatwaves at the wrong time followed by pounding rain. But overall, we are getting numerous indications that winter is coming early. Nights are chilly and many fall crops are growing slowly after being stunted first by a late August heatwave. So here we are, after ten plus years of growing fall vegetable crops in the Sacramento Valley, and we still haven’t gotten it figured out. Maybe, just maybe, there’s a good reason more farmers here don’t do it.
You can read the full newsletter for that first week, or browse the whole archive.
Today I’ll be picking up our third box, and while I can go read the newsletter for this week online and find out what will be in it, it’s much more of a surprise to just open it and discover what you’ll be eating for the next week.
And did I mention, while organic produce may look a little funny, it tastes WAY better than what you’re probably used to!
Karla also wrote a post about our CSA adventure and the Urban Family Dinners we started because of it! Read her blog at www.mesohungie.com.