Santa Cruz County Sustainability Digest

Some 7,000 square miles of ocean on California’s Central Coast could soon become the largest national marine sanctuary in the continental U.S. It could also make history as one of the first federal sanctuaries to be spearheaded by a Native American tribe.

California’s leading air regulator acknowledged major roadblocks to meeting its ambitious carbon emissions target for 2030. The hurdles revolve around the feasibility of carbon capture technologies and the state’s flagship climate program, known as cap-and-trade.

The total number of climate change court cases has more than doubled since 2017 and is growing worldwide. These findings, published by the UN Environment Programme and the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, show that climate litigation is becoming an integral part of securing climate action and justice.

As sea levels rise, many countries are considering a controversial strategy: relocation of communities. A Stanford analysis of planned relocations around the world reveals a blueprint for positive outcomes from an approach often considered a last resort.

The National Association of Counties delivered a unanimous vote Friday that will include equitable flood protection for disadvantaged communities.

The changes could result in an 10% increase in service overall that, pending further public engagement and direction from the Metro Board, could roll out as soon as December.

San Francisco has become the prime example of what downtowns shouldn’t look like: vacant, crime-ridden and in various stages of decay. But in truth, it’s just one of many cities across the U.S. whose downtowns are reckoning with a post-pandemic wake-up call.

Raising Shasta Dam to increase its capacity would provide 634,000 more acre-feet of water per year, legislators say. But that assumes there will always be enough precipitation, and the move risks flooding sacred Native American lands and harming local habitats.

The vast scale and effort of recycling are on full display at the Santa Cruz Resource Recovery Center, which offers tours every Friday at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. until Aug 25.

In the magazine Nature, a team of scientists reports that they have detected changes in ocean color that cannot be explained by natural, year-to-year variability alone. These color shifts have occurred over 56 percent of the world’s oceans.

The autonomous, water-free system captures waste in biodegradable bags and sawdust and are then taken to a central location for composting.

On summer weekends Metro’s Route 35 to Big Basin Redwoods State Park will provide locals with a sustainable option for visiting the popular regional destination.

Metro CEO Michael Tree told the Sentinel the hydrogen fuel cell-electric bus purchase is the largest of its kind in North America.

Ariel Marshall, a senior official from the U.S. Department of Energy visited Santa Cruz city leaders to learn about progress made on all-electric housing and other developments. Marshall’s message was clear: there’s federal money for the city’s climate-friendly projects.

California lawmakers passed the Western Joshua Tree Conservation Act, permanently protecting the iconic and imperiled species.

The Salt & Straw ice cream chain is part of the upcycling movement, creating high-quality products from leftover food with flavors like Cacao Pulp & Chocolate Stracciatella Gelato, made from leftover cacao pulp from chocolate production.

Federal law requires the plan be updated every four years and designed to use effective public outreach methods to “create and maintain a regional transportation network that prioritizes equitable decision-making and transparency."

Community members, local officials and city of Santa Cruz staff gathered at Santa Cruz City Hall to roll out an electric bike share program that will extend to other parts of the county.

Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, likened to the “Serengeti of the Sea,” is world-renowned for its mammal, bird, and habitat diversity.

A documentary by a UC Santa Cruz alum about endangered coho salmon and their struggle to survive the CZU Lightning Complex fire will air on PBS this Friday.

Environmentalists say it's past time for California water officials to halt Los Angeles' diversion of Mono Lake's tributaries. But L.A. officials insist that water is a tiny but vital part of the city's water supply.

The U.S. government has approved a proposed multibillion-dollar transmission line that would send wind-generated electricity from rural New Mexico to big cities in the West.

California legislative committees in the Assembly and Senate blocked two big climate bills. One would have made the state’s greenhouse gas emission reduction targets more ambitious. Another would have allowed people to sue oil companies over health problems if they meet certain criteria.

The Sempervirens Fund announced that the land trust recently purchased a 16.5 acre patch of forest adjacent to Big Basin Redwoods State Park known as the Sterrenzee Ridgetop.

It’s a quiet Sunday afternoon at Oakes College, with few people in sight despite the rare appearance of warm sunshine. For students Gabe Schiering, Lydia Oltman, Charlie Lysikhina, and Isabella Brower, it’s a perfect time to make dirt.

As far back as the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, California has set a target date of 2030 to significantly reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to those lower than they were prior to 1990. The legislation prompted other municipalities to adopt their own climate action plans, including Watsonville.

Fort Bragg is embarking on an innovative pilot project to desalt ocean water for the Mendocino Coast community using carbon-free wave action to power an energy-intensive process that in other cases generates climate changing greenhouse gases.

As the industry invests $40 billion in new US electric car plants, the rapid transformation raises labor and supply chain issues. Automaker Ford says, “we’re all in.”

Trucking companies say the deadlines for converting big rigs, delivery trucks and other heavy vehicles are unachievable and will cause “chaos and dysfunction.” The move is designed to clean communities' air, especially near ports, warehouses and freeways.

And neither was 1952. The top honor should really go to 1983, which clinched first at 231% of normal, an analysis by the Bay Area News Group found.

Atop a 100-foot barge in the Port of Los Angeles, engineers have built a floating laboratory to answer this question: Is there a way to cleanse seawater of carbon dioxide and return it to the ocean so it can suck more of the greenhouse gas out of the atmosphere to slow global warming?

The Biden administration has identified more than 175,000 square miles of old growth and mature forests on U.S. government land and plans to craft a new rule to better protect the nation’s woodlands from fires, insects and other side effects of climate change.