Santa Cruz County Sustainability Articles

Host Mathilde Rand meets with Jennie Dusheck, career science writer and Lauren Weston, Executive Director of Acterra: Action for a Healthy Planet. They discuss opportunities to fight climate change by electrifying homes.
Links to informational websites:
QuitCarbon is a good …

Only a few small demonstration projects off the West Coast have harnessed the power of waves and tides. Costs are high and hurdles are challenging.

The utilities commission reduced payments to apartments, schools and businesses selling solar power to the grid despite a barrage of criticism. Commissioners say it reverses unfair subsidies.

California ranks among the top states suffering economic damage from climate-related disasters. The report describes food shortages, floods, droughts, wildfires, pollution, disease—all linked to climate change.

Santa Cruz Local newsletter briefs for the week of Nov. 13:

Tim Thomas is the recipient of the Ed Ricketts Award from NOAA's Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary along with Rumsen-Ohlone Tribal member Linda Yamane. In this interview, Tim Thomas discusses the sardine and abalone fishery in the Monterey Bay, and …

California grants climate credits for fuel made from cow manure, but there’s a paradox: The state’s program encourages collection of methane yet promotes natural gas.

Ocean wind farms are essential to electrify California’s grid with 100% clean energy. But they’re a giant, costly experiment—no one knows how hundreds of towering turbines will transform the remote North Coast.

The conservation director of Land Trust of Santa Cruz talks about the highlights of his work, and some of the issues he sees in maintaining California’s parks.

In a future envisioned by Watsonville officials, the city’s downtown will be a vibrant and bustling place where commerce, mixed-use housing and a redesigned transit system intermingle and trees line a narrowed, two-lane Main Street. The Downtown Specific Plan, approved …

Dune restoration, other measures possible.

Why are some people so up in arms about CEQA? with Professor Deborah Sivas, Stanford Law School What do you know about CEQA, the California Environmental Quality Act, passed in 1970 and signed into law by then-Governor Ronald Reagan? For …

In a time of growing eco-despair, one may wonder: Is grief good for you? The folks at The Good Grief Network say it is, and they have created  a pragmatic program that metabolizes eco-distress and transforms it into meaningful action. …

Jeri Bodemar Photo courtesy of Lisa Fotios

Coastal armoring, retreat strategies, goals to be considered.

California has used reclamation districts to turn millions of acres of unusable swamps into fertile agricultural land, starting in the earliest days of the Gold Rush. Here’s how it happened.

Animal Rescues Struggling with Climate Change It might be a hot August day outside, but Royal Oaks resident Helbard Alkhassadeh has been preparing for the end-of-year rains for the last several months. For the past nine years—and the last seven …