Jared Blumenfeld was the Executive Director of San Francisco’s Department
of Environment for 9 years. He was instrumental in the mandatory compost law
and ban on plastic bags in stores. He is now the EPA’s Regional Administrator
for the Pacific Southwest. I’m really looking forward to our on-camera interview
this week for Planet Check !

A massive iceberg, measuring about 50 miles by 25 miles, broke off from the Mertz glacier after being rammed by another giant iceberg knowsn as B-9B.

An enormous iceberg smashed into a peninsula of ice in Antarctica, causing the protruding ice shelf to break off and become a massive iceberg the size of Luxembourg. The two icebergs are now drifting close together about 100 miles north of Antarctica, creating a fence that is keeping heavy, ultracold water from circulating. This blockage has prompted concern that the event could alter the salinity of the surrounding ocean, with damaging effects on marine life and global ocean currents.

Produce to the People: New Ideas for Local Distribution
Tuesday, March 2nd; 6:30-8:30

There are now over 5,000 farmers’ markets in the U.S., yet still only a small percentage of Americans regularly eat fresh produce from local farms. Join CUESA (Center for Urban Education Sustainable Agriculture) and Kitchen Table Talks for a lively conversation about inspiring models for getting fresh, local food to more Bay Area residents. The panel will include: Grayson James, executive director of Petaluma Bounty, a non-profit organization that helps people grow their own healthy food, redistributes surplus food, and provides affordable fresh food to low-income families and seniors; Melanie Cheng, founder of FarmsReach, a new online farm food marketplace that connects farmers to business buyers; and Christine Cherdboonmuang, coordinator of Healthy Farms/Healthy Communities for Oakland’s East Bay Asian Youth Center (EBAYC) and the Oakland School District, who works to bring fresh produce to parents through farm stands at 12 Oakland schools. The panel will be moderated by Michael Dimock, President of Roots of Change (ROC), a non-profit organization whose purpose is to spawn a sustainable food system in California by the year 2030.

The conversation will begin promptly at 6:30 pm and will culminate with refreshments and a reception from 8:00 to 8:30 pm. Refreshments will be donated by Bi-Rite Market. Kitchen Table Talks is produced in partnership with CivilEats.com and 18 Reasons.

Cost: The event is free and open to the public.
Location: Port Commission Hearing Room, 2nd floor, Ferry Building in San Francisco

Exciting ARRA projects are taking place throughout California and the Pacific Southwest. On Tuesday, federal, state and local officials gathered for a unique tour of one such project under construction that will provide critical protections to the San Francisco Bay. Stimulus funds are being leveraged in El Cerrito, Calif., and communities throughout the Bay Area to infuse a “green” foundation into much needed infrastructure improvements. The project is an excellent model for how economic and environmental benefits can successfully work in tandem in the state of California and throughout the Pacific Southwest.

Environmentaland provides an open slate for teaching, entertaining, rewarding, and reinforcing the fact that inspiration is the gateway to action. Next stop, Oregon. Learn more at www.globalinheritance.org.

In case you missed this Super Bowl ad from yesterday, it was one of my favorites. C’est tres drole!

Be at the intersection of the environment and the internet. Learn how computing and the IT world
can help combat climate change. Many movers and shakers will be at Green Net on April 29th here
in San Francisco. One of the speakers will be Google’s Energy Czar, Bill Weihl.

On January 15th, the Department of Public Works (DPW) announced a declaration of emergency along the Great Highway due to severely eroded bluffs on the west side of Sloat Blvd. At yesterday’s Board of Supervisor’s hearing, Supervisor Sean Elsbernd sponsored a motion to concur with Mayor Newsom’s January 19th proclamation of a Local Emergency.

Representatives from the San Francisco Chapter of Surfrider Foundation, Save the Waves Coalition, the Ocean Beach Vision Council and community members testified at the hearing and urged the board to delay the vote in order to have the opportunity to consider more environmentally sound alternatives to hard structures, especially given that hard structural armoring is prohibited in Board Resolution 698-99.

The Board declared a one week emergency and called for another hearing Tuesday, February 2. They did this as a courtesy to the community in order for us to have the opportunity to weigh in on DPW’s current plans.

Please visit http://sloaterosionob.blogspot.com/

It is critical that you communicate your concerns and/or position regarding the placement of hard structures as a short term emergency response to this erosion site. Act now to make your voice heard!

In case you missed it, here’s excerpt from President Obama’s push for new clean energy legislation in last night’s State of the Union speech. I was disheartened to hear him say “nuclear & drilling” and would have liked to have heard the word “renewables.” C’est la vie.

“Next, we can put Americans to work today building the infrastructure of tomorrow. From the first railroads to the interstate highway system, our nation has always been built to compete. There’s no reason Europe or China should have the fastest trains, or the new factories that manufacture clean energy products.
Tomorrow, I’ll visit Tampa, Florida, where workers will soon break ground on a new high-speed railroad funded by the Recovery Act. There are projects like that all across this country that will create jobs and help our nation move goods, services, and information. We should put more Americans to work building clean energy facilities, and give rebates to Americans who make their homes more energy efficient, which supports clean energy jobs. And to encourage these and other businesses to stay within our borders, it’s time to finally slash the tax breaks for companies that ship our jobs overseas and give those tax breaks to companies that create jobs in the United States of America.
The House has passed a jobs bill that includes some of these steps. As the first order of business this year, I urge the Senate to do the same. People are out of work. They are hurting. They need our help. And I want a jobs bill on my desk without delay.
Next, we need to encourage American innovation. Last year, we made the largest investment in basic research funding in history – an investment that could lead to the world’s cheapest solar cells or treatment that kills cancer cells but leaves healthy ones untouched. And no area is more ripe for such innovation than energy. You can see the results of last year’s investment in clean energy – in the North Carolina company that will create 1200 jobs nationwide helping to make advanced batteries; or in the California business that will put 1,000 people to work making solar panels.
But to create more of these clean energy jobs, we need more production, more efficiency, more incentives. That means building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country. It means making tough decisions about opening new offshore areas for oil and gas development. It means continued investment in advanced biofuels and clean coal technologies. And yes, it means passing a comprehensive energy and climate bill with incentives that will finally make clean energy the profitable kind of energy in America.
I am grateful to the House for passing such a bill last year. This year, I am eager to help advance the bipartisan effort in the Senate. I know there have been questions about whether we can afford such changes in a tough economy; and I know that there are those who disagree with the overwhelming scientific evidence on climate change. But even if you doubt the evidence, providing incentives for energy efficiency and clean energy are the right thing to do for our future – because the nation that leads the clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy. And America must be that nation.”

Paul Stamets, author of Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World, announces the Life Box.™ He formed the Life Box Company, and teamed with David and Barry Censi to create Planted Planet Productions LLC, a wholesale business for companies. Their combined expertise could help save the planet. The Life Box™ re-invents the cardboard box. Within the corrugations of the Life Box™ are hundreds of tree seeds and thousands of friendly spores of mycorrhizal fungi. Once a customer receives whatever is shipped inside, the box is torn up, planted, and tree seedlings emerge. “This is a ‘shovel ready’ solution to climate change,” says Paul. ”The beauty of the Life Box™ is its universality of use, that it adds virtually negligible weight to the box, and it empowers individuals to help offset climate change by planting trees that are literally at their finger tips.” People are concerned about the health of this planet, but many ask ‘What can we do?’ The Life Box™ is a simple, clever solution.” Plant the seeds of change at
www.lifebox.com.