Land Trust of Santa Cruz County goes forward with 20-year conservation plan

Stephen Slade can remember a time just three decades ago when Campbell was a tiny rural community, reachable only by rough dirt roads. Terry Corwin grew up in Southern California, surrounded by orange groves that have almost entirely vanished.

“Most people that are growing up in California,” Slade says, “will have a memory of a landscape that is going to be completely altered. I grew up in Modesto and when I go back there now it’s like, ‘Where am I?’ The Central Valley is rapidly changing.”

There were 700 bills awaiting Gov. Schwarzenegger’s signature or veto by Sunday, Oct, 11.  Were there any vetoed bills that you believe should have been upheld, or bills passed that you believe should not have been?  Why?

I was disappointed to learn that the Governor vetoed:  Senate Bill (SB) 14, which would have made programmatic changes to implement an increase in California’s Renewable Portfolio Standard’s goal to 33 percent by 2020; SB 14, along with Assembly Bill (AB) 21 and AB 64, would have combined to provide a clear and enforceable timeframe for investing in new renewable energy resources in order to meet the greenhouse gas emission reductions mandated under AB 32, the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006.

AB 1401 would have enacted the California Transition to Organics Act of 2009 and would have established the Transition to Organics Fund (TTOF) with federal, industry and private citizen funding.  TTOF monies would have provided financial assistance to individuals who transition their uncertified farms to certified organic farms.

Online market lends power and convenience to Cruzans who want to buy and sell local

“It’s no secret that the Internet has become something of a disconnecting factor in our society—a simulated world of convenience and entertainment that is all too easy to be sucked into. And, in the midst of the over-stimulation, two enterprising young Santa Cruzans have found a way to use the Internet’s omnipotence and convenience to get people to eat healthy, be involved in the local community, and support the local economy.

Santa Cruz Local Foods (SCLF), created by Noah Pinck and Eleanor Taylor just over three months ago, is a year-round online local foods market dedicated to bringing people fresh foods (picked that day in most cases) from within a 100-mile radius of Santa Cruz. “Our intent is to really paint a picture that you can eat local, and it’s not hard, and there’s a great abundance here,” says Taylor.

Thursday, Oct. 15 The Great California Shake Out—A statewide simulation at 10:15 a.m. to help Californians prepare.  It will be the largest earthquake preparedness activity in U.S. history.  Anyone and any organization can register to participate.

Saturday, Oct. 17  Dangers in Paradise: Preparedness Fair and CERT Muster—Aptos Village Park, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Free.  This promises to be a veritable smorgasbord of exhibits and demonstration for residents about earthquake and other disaster preparedness.  There will be a visit by the Shake Cottage with its simulation of a large earthquake, and a full-fledged CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) competition.

An Evening of Commemoration and Reflection

Where were YOU at 5:04?

At 5:04 p.m. on Oct. 17, 1989 the Loma Prieta Earthquake ripped through the forested canyon of Aptos Creek, snapping trees, throwing boulders and opening fissures across the landscape.  This wasn’t the first time the Aptos canyon had been torn loose by an earthquake.  On April 18, 1906, the north side of the canyon wall collapsed, hurling trees down the mountainside and blocking the creek for weeks. 1906 and then 1989.  Have we learned anything?  Did the 1989 earthquake modify our behavior in any significant way?   Do you do anything differently because of that earthquake?  Are we any closer to being able to predict earthquakes here in California?  And what about the scars scratched into our psyches?  Have they healed?  From this lofty perspective 20 years later, knowing what you know now, would you have done anything differently before Oct. 17, 1989?  And after?  See all Loma Prieta earthquake articles in the Santa Cruz History section >

How prepared are we for the next natural disaster?

The past month has been one of quakes: an 8.0 hit Samoa on Sept. 29, the same day that a 7.9 rocked Sumatra, and just last week there were three earthquakes of magnitudes greater than 7.1 in the South Pacific, resulting in tsunami warnings for 11 countries. And as further points on the globe rumble their way through the month, Santa Cruz is commemorating a more proximal disaster—the Loma Prieta Earthquake, which shook the Bay Area at 5:04 p.m. on Oct. 17, 1989. With international earthquakes all over the news and the 20th anniversary of a local quake at hand, Santa Cruz finds itself facing a tough question: Are we ready for the next one?

Workshop teaches skills for a low-energy future

“Generally we don’t go up to people and say, ‘Do you know that the world as you know it is coming to an end?’” Michael Levy is a reasonable man. He’s not going to try to convince you that the Apocalypse is nigh or of some other doomsday scenario. He just believes that our current standard of living in the United States and other industrialized nations is unsustainable.

That’s why a year and a half ago he founded Transition Santa Cruz (TSC), part of the growing worldwide transition movement. Originating in England in 2005, and now with hundreds of chapters worldwide, transition initiatives are grassroots local movements. They seek to educate their communities about the possibility that energy resources like oil will soon grow so scarce and expensive that they will be unavailable to the vast majority of people, a development that will radically alter our current lifestyle, which for the past century or more has relied heavily on the availability of low-cost oil, coal, and natural gas.

With the year-end deadline for health care legislation looming, what is the likelihood of the public option making it into the final bill? What will happen if it isn’t?  First, let me explain what the public option would do. I’ve found that too often over the past few months, debate has raged without a clear understanding of the subject.

The public option would be just that, one insurance option of many. More importantly, it would only be available as part of the health insurance exchange, the marketplace of insurance options for those without employment-based insurance.

UCSC humanities division forum keeps the budget wheels turning
Distress over UC Santa Cruz budget cuts has already spurred an opening-day walkout, the occupation of a campus building and a flurry of coalition-building among students, workers, and faculty. While every division on campus is coping with permanent budget reductions, the transparency of the decision-making has varied.

On Sept. 29, UCSC Humanities Dean Georges Van Den Abbeele hosted a “Humanities Division Town Hall Meeting” to disclose the division’s latest budget woes and elicit creative solutions from the campus community. The evening of the event, more than 60 faculty members and graduate students (plus a handful of undergraduates) are gathered at the Humanities Lecture Hall.