Category: Energy

by George J. Janczyn / GrokSurf’s San Diego / December 9, 2010 “Signs of the tide — San Diego’s water…

By Joseph Nevins / AlterNet / Originally published Nov. 1, 2010

Flying is the single most ecologically costly act of individual consumption. Can we kick the habit, or at least cut back?

You’re in a hurry, and for good reason. You — or people you identify with — have to catch a flight to somewhere like Cochabamba, Detroit, London, Montreal, or Washington, D.C. ….

by Bill McKibben / 350.org / October 11, 2010

How do you say ‘thank you’ 7,347 times?

People got to work yesterday in at least that many places around the world — the planet has never seen anything quite that widespread. Or quite that beautiful.

I hope you’ll take a few minutes to visit 350.org to look through some of the thousands of pictures that we have managed to sort through so far:

MANY SAN DIEGO EVENTS – LISTED INSIDE

From the 350.org website:
Dear World,

It’s been a tough year: in North America, oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico; in Asia some of the highest temperatures ever recorded; in the Arctic, the fastest melting of sea ice ever seen; in Latin America, record rainfalls washing away whole mountainsides.

So we’re having a party.

Circle 10/10/10 on your calendar. That’s the date.

Greenpeace claims to have shut down offshore drilling by a British oil company at a controversial site in the Arctic after four climbers began an occupation of the rig just after dawn.

The environment campaigners said the four protesters evaded a small flotilla of armed Danish navy and police boats which have been guarding the rigs in Baffin Bay off Greenland since the Greenpeace protest ship Esperanza arrived last week.

Editor: David Helvarg, a former OBcean and original OB Rag staffer, now lives in San Francisco and runs the Blue Frontier Campaign to save our seas, which he founded in 2003. David is also the author “Blue Frontier – Dispatches from America’s Ocean Wilderness,” as well as a couple of books. Go check out his site.

by David Helvarg/ Blue Frontier Notes / Originally posted August 11, 2010

They’ve finally cemented up BP’s runaway well (from above with a second relief well plug still to seal it from below). Unfortunately this comes after 220 million gallons of oil slimed the Gulf of Mexico. So what’s the effect of a spill 20 times the size of the Exxon Valdez? Apparently not much if you believe the government’s estimates.

by George J. Janczyn / Groksurf ‘s San Diego / August 11, 2010

As noted in yesterday’s water rates story, (08/10/10) the main supplier for most of San Diego County’s water is the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) and it holds great power when it comes to the cost and reliability of our water supply. So when MWD announced a stakeholder forum to examine the 2010 Integrated Resources Plan (IRP) Update there were naturally going to be many local water professionals in attendance. The IRP makes major changes to MWD’s strategy for water reliability through the year 2035, including a bold plan to create a large storage “buffer” to serve as a backup supply against virtually any scenario.

by George Janczyn / Groksurf’s San Diego / August 9, 2010

Many large reservoirs in California need to store and release water in a way that balances flood control needs against water supply needs (San Diego’s reservoirs have limited flood control capability but were mainly designed for storage). Those state reservoir levels need to be lowered in late summer and fall in order to have enough capacity to capture and hold floodwaters that will come during the wet season, but they also need to retain enough to supply needed water in the dry months.

OCEAN BEACH – It seems some people have found a way to steal electricity on the Ocean Beach’s dime, but the city has a plan to put an end to the theft.

Joe Castillo, a representatives with the City Streets Division, tells San Diego 6 that people are ripping off electricity from Ocean Beach lamp posts whose electrical sockets are meant for Farmers Market vendors. “We heard people are plugging their electric vehicles, electric carts, cellphones.”

Three Steps to Establish a Politics of Global Warming

By Bil McKibben / August 4, 2010

Try to fit these facts together:

* According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the planet has just come through the warmest decade, the warmest 12 months, the warmest six months, and the warmest April, May, and June on record.

* A “staggering” new study from Canadian researchers has shown that warmer seawater has reduced phytoplankton, the base of the marine food chain, by 40% since 1950. …

by Jim Bell

We humans are something special and rare.

In spite of there being an estimated 5 to 100 million species of life on our planet, our species is the only one sufficiently conscious to become conscious of existence and our place in it on all levels.

On the most foundational level, this means that if enough of us become conscious enough, soon enough, we will be able to pass the birthright of a peaceful and life-supporting world to our children and future generations.

YUp, another one, just now at 4:54 pm.

The livingroom here twisted. Patty felt it even before the big shake. She still has a sick feeling in her stomach.

Epicenter is our close desert, probably another one in a series of aftershocks from the Easter big one.

5.4 – (downgraded from a 5.9) 13 miles north of Borrego Springs.

Pat Abbott, PhD, a geologist interviewed by NBC local TV says this could be a brand new earthquake. On the San Jacinto Fault Zone – the Coyote Creek Fault.