Build a School Garden

Southern California - Camarillo, CA

Starting a community garden in an elementary school provides educational value, as well as parent involvement -- and delicious, fresh food!

El Nino to La Nina - water Talks

Green Job Wizard is a directory of career certifications for more than 400 jobs. I've put this directory together to encourage people to continue learning -- and benefit from their efforts -- by adding job certifications to their knowledge and skill level.

Continuing education is important to optimize good decisions -- such as conservation of natural resources, energy and use of natural materials vs. toxins.

Check it out... if you know of other quality certification programs, please let me know at carolyn((at))solutionsforgreen.com (Which (solutionsforgreen.com) is a directory of green companies -- and who knows this might be good job hunting ground for people with good job certifications!)

:-) Carolyn

Excellent tips

Bain & Co.. Video of Winning in Turbulence, tips for reducing costs and improving sales..

in reference to: Bain & Company: Winning in turbulence < Hot topics < Consulting expertise (view on Google Sidewiki)

California Green Solutions

This blog has been forwarded to my main website, CaliforniaGreenSolutions.com in order to keep all info in one spot. I'll be transferring these articles to the website... eventually :-) Carolyn

Petitions to Regulate Carbon Dioxide Under Clean Water Act in California

For Immediate Release, February 28, 2007
CONTACT: Miyoko Sakashita, (415) 436-9682 x 308
Conservation Group Petitions to Regulate Carbon Dioxide Under Clean Water Act

Ocean Acidification From Carbon Dioxide Emissions Threatens Marine Life

SAN FRANCISCO— Today the Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the state of California to regulate carbon dioxide pollution under the federal Clean Water Act. The petition marks the first step towards regulating carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, cement kilns, oil refineries, and other industrial sources due to the adverse effects of carbon dioxide pollution on the ocean.

Carbon dioxide is the most prevalent greenhouse gas, and not only contributes to global warming but also causes ocean acidification. The ocean absorbs CO2, which reacts with seawater to make it more acidic—thus altering the chemical composition of the ocean. Approximately half of the carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere from fossil fuel burning and cement production over the past 200 years has been absorbed by the oceans.

Carbon dioxide pollution has already lowered average ocean pH by 0.11 units, with a pH change of 0.5 units projected by the end of the century under current emission trajectories. These changes are likely to have devastating impacts on the entire ocean ecosystem.

The primary known impact of acidification is impairment of calcification, the process whereby animals such as corals, crabs, abalone, oysters, and sea urchins make shells and skeletons. Many species of phytoplankton and zooplankton, which form the basis of the marine food web, are also particularly vulnerable to ocean acidification. Laboratory studies have shown that at carbon dioxide concentrations likely to occur in the ocean in the next few decades, the shells of many marine species dissolve, killing the organisms. Absent significant reductions in carbon dioxide emissions, ocean acidification will accelerate, likely ultimately leading to the collapse of oceanic food webs and catastrophic impacts on the global environment.

“Ocean acidification is as grave a threat to the health of our planet as global warming,” said Miyoko Sakashita, a staff attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity who specializes in ocean issues. “Fortunately, the Clean Water Act provides the tools to regulate carbon dioxide pollution, which will help address not only ocean acidification but also global warming.”

While the Environmental Protection Agency under the Bush administration has taken the position that carbon dioxide cannot be regulated as a “pollutant” under the Clear Air Act, the Environmental Protection Agency already lists pH as a “pollutant” in its Clean Water Act regulations. Because CO2 is absorbed by the ocean, lowering the pH of seawater, carbon dioxide emissions therefore can and must be regulated under the Act.

Today’s petitions, submitted to California’s Regional Water Quality Control Boards, seek the listing of all ocean waters under the jurisdiction of the state as “impaired” due to the lowering of pH from the absorption of carbon dioxide pollution. Under the Clean Water Act, states must create a list of water bodies that are being degraded or not attaining water-quality standards and set limits on the input of pollutants into these bodies of water to prevent further degradation. In this case, the Clean Water Act would require limits on carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to ocean acidification.

“Until Congress passes legislation explicitly aimed at substantially reducing carbon dioxide emissions, the Clean Water Act is very likely the best legal mechanism for curtailing these emissions that are destroying our oceans as well as our atmosphere,” said Sakashita.

The Center for Biological Diversity will shortly be submitting similar petitions to all other states that have jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act over ocean waters. Legal action under the Clean Water Act is also being prepared against some of the nation’s largest carbon dioxide emitters for polluting activities that are contributing to ocean acidification.

A copy of the petition and other information on ocean acidification can be found at http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/programs/marine/acidification.html.

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The Center for Biological Diversity is a national conservation organization with more than 32,000 members nationwide dedicated to protecting endangered species and wild places.

New Water Supply Coalition pushes for water supply infrastructure

Advocates for new water supplies nationwide have come together to form the New Water Supply Coalition to push for expanded federal support for water supply infrastructure. The Washington DC-based coalition of public water agencies and water industry companies will seek congressional support for the development of new water supply projects nationwide including water recycling, seawater and brackish groundwater desalination and groundwater reclamation projects.

The New Water Supply Coalition is an expanded organization that grew from the U.S. Desalination Coalition (www.usdesal.org), formed in 2002, to seek federal funding for the construction of seawater and brackish groundwater desalination projects. The U.S. Desalination Coalition has several major public water agency members from Florida, Texas and California. The U.S. Desalination Coalition raised congressional awareness of the nation’s looming water supply crisis and successfully sought the introduction of legislation in the 109th Congress that would have provided $200 million in funding for desalination projects.

“Our growing national population and the challenges posed by climate change make the development of new water supplies a critical priority for our nation,” said Hal Furman, Executive Director of the New Water Supply Coalition. “We have the technology to develop new water supplies if it becomes a national priority, but time is of the essence.”

Current members of the Coalition include:
∑ American Water
∑ Eastern Municipal Water District (CA)
∑ El Dorado Irrigation District (CA)
∑ Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority
∑ Honolulu Board of Water Supply
∑ JEA – Jacksonville, FL
∑ Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
∑ San Diego County Water Authority
∑ San Gabriel Basin Water Quality Authority (CA)
∑ ST. John’s River Water Management District (FL)
∑ South Florida Water Management District
∑ Southwest Florida Water Management District
∑ Texas Water Conservation Association
∑ West Basin Municipal Water District (CA)

The New Water Supply Coalition is currently drafting new legislation that would authorize public water supply agencies to issue tax credit bonds to help finance construction of new water supply infrastructure. Eligible projects under the program envisioned by the Coalition would include: coastal seawater and inland brackish groundwater desalination plants, water recycling projects, and groundwater contamination clean-up projects that create new water supplies. The Coalition will be seeking congressional sponsors to introduce this legislation in the 110th Congress now in session.
For more information about the New Water Supply Coalition visit www.newwatersupply.org.

A study finds climate change will further reduce Colorado River flows.

Global warming will worsen drought and reduce flows on the Colorado River, a key water source for Southern California and six other Western states.

The study, prepared by a National Research Council committee, paints a sobering picture of the future as the water needs of a rapidly expanding population test the limits of a river system further strained by the effects of climate change.

The authors concluded that there was no easy solution. Such measures as conservation, desalination and water recycling will all help, they said, but won't offer a panacea.

The report, which examined climate modeling and tree-ring data, reaffirms a more pessimistic assessment of river hydrology that has emerged in recent years.

Scientists have concluded that historically the Colorado River system, which supplies water to 25 million people and several million acres of crop and ranch land, has been drier and more prone to severe drought than was the case in the early 20th century, when the river's flows were divvied up among the seven states in the basin.

That period, it turns out, was unusually wet, prompting an overly generous estimate of how much water would be available to farms and cities. Ancient tree rings, which provide graphic evidence of past precipitation patterns, indicate it had been three centuries since the basin was last awash in that much water.