Green Options » The Dave Room

How Cities Can Help Residents Go Solar!

The Dave Room — Thu, 22 May 2008 23:03:35 +0000

Cities can develop their own renewable energy and energy efficiency finance programs suited to their residential and commercial needs. For instance, in November 2007, the Berkeley City Council authorized staff to develop a plan to pay for the installation of solar panels and solar hot water systems for any homeowner or commercial building owner. Property owners retain ownership of the solar systems, paying back the cost over 20 years through an assessment on the annual property tax bill. This program entails little risk on the part of the city or the building owner, and overcomes a common obstacle of a costly up-front investment which may take more years to recoup savings than the owner intends to keep the building.

Once accepted into the program, a property owner would schedule an appointment for a solar installer to determine the appropriate solar system for the property. The city would pay the homeowner for the system and its installation, minus any applicable state and federal rebates, and would add a special tax to the property owner’s tax bill to pay for the system.

The building owner would immediately begin saving money on electricity bills without incurring the upfront cost of installing a solar system, and the interest portion of the assessment may be deductible on the owner’s federal income tax return. When the building is sold, the solar array and the tax assessment remain with the property, passing on to the new owner.

Berkeley is working out the legal and financial details and expects to start a pilot plan in 2008. The city is working with banks and credit unions to provide low interest rate financing. Since the property tax assessment will act as a lien, financiers would be first in line to collect in the event a property owner defaults. The current plan works best for owner occupied buildings or buildings where the owner pays utilities. It does not work well for buildings with renters – about 57% of Berkeley’s population, according to the 2000 Census – who pay their own electricity bill.

Another option is to work with redevelopment districts to help finance solar installations and energy efficiency measures. Redevelopment districts spend local taxes in the same neighborhood where they are collected to meet specific neighborhood goals. One of these goals is keeping the cost of living affordable for existing residents in the neighborhood. For instance, it can be challenging for low-income seniors who own their homes to pay higher property taxes if the value of property in the area increases. Decreasing the cost of utilities through energy efficiency audits, upgrades, and installing solar panels can help keep the cost of living affordable for low income residents. The Oakland City Council has already granted funds to the nonprofit Grid Alternatives to install solar PV panels on several homes – either owned by low income residents or a non-profit – in the one of the city’s redevelopment areas.

Peak Oil Is Gonna Make It A Big World After All

The Dave Room — Thu, 15 May 2008 17:49:55 +0000

In my talks, I have talked a lot about reinventing normal life and in particular our notions of mobility (among other things)…
Part and parcel is this idea that it’s a small world. We get this small world idea from Disneyland as kids (recall hearing mechanical children swaying to the refrain “Its a small world after all”) as well as from seemingly serendipitous encounters that are probably statistically ordinary in a world were people jet and motor around the country. It is easy to think that the world is small when one can get from point A anywhere in the global economy to point B anywhere in the global economy within a matter of hours (rather than days or months). It makes it easy for us spread out families and friends as people chase paychecks and jobs across the country if not the planet.

Oil peak is going to change all of that - the world is going quickly to become a lot bigger. Global oil extraction will soon peak and go into decline. Our economies and our cities are not anywhere close to being prepared for making do with less petroleum (or natural gas, which may soon follow oil’s peak). The canary in the coalmine for the end of this small world notion is airline industry woes due to rising fuel prices. The world is going to revert to a much larger place and at some point, people will get the idea that it makes more sense in an energy constrained world to lay down their roots in a place that they really want to be.

As local culture re-develops, rising out of the ashes of the global monoculture of consumerism and suburban living, a sense of place and community will re-emerge as key differentiators as we strive to find a place where we belong. The other major consideration will be the whereabouts of friends and family, though I worry that many will find themselves alone and stranded in locale of their former workplace, unable to afford the cost of reuniting with their loved ones. Que sera sera…

Photo credit: Intercot

How Marin Can Dramatically Boost Renewable Energy And Save Money

The Dave Room — Thu, 08 May 2008 21:57:27 +0000

In 2005, Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law Executive Order S-3-05 which sets a long term greenhouse gas emission reduction target of 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. Reaching this ambitious target will require that California embark on a comprehensive strategy to make aggressive reductions in greenhouse gas emissions over the next four decades.

Nationwide, electricity generation is is the second largest contributor to greenhouse gases. It is incomprehensible how the 80% greenhouse gas reduction target could be reached without tremendous amounts of renewable energy and energy efficiency. I am not saying that greenhouse gas reductions and renewable energy are the same but they certainly are not apples and oranges. I’d say they are more like oranges and tangelos. If we want significant greenhouse gas emissions, we’re going to need to ramp up renewable energy and quick.

And nowhere better to start than Marin County - the richest county, in the richest region, in the richest state, in the richest country in the world. If Marin can’t transition to clean local renewable energy, how can we expect the rest of the nation much less the rest of the world to do so.

Fortunately, Marin Clean Energy has a plan called Community Choice Energy. MCE plans to form a Joint Powers Authority for cities and counties to pool the electricity dollars and take over the procurement of power as well as begin building local renewable energy capacity. Their Community Choice Energy plan calls for 50% renewable energy by 2014 and eventually 100% subject to operational and economic constraints. Continuing with the status quo, Marin is likely to get 30-60 MW of renewable energy or enough electricity for about 15-30k homes in the next 15 years. With Community Choice, Marin is likely to get 120-225 MW or enough electricity for 60-122k homes in the next 15 years. That’s 300% higher with Community Choice.

Recently, Supervisor Charles McGlashan spoke at press conference about MCE’s plan to dramatically boost renewable energy in the Marin:

We have an arduous journey ahead of us to make sure that we provide the accurate background and detailed information to our colleagues on every single city council in Marin County. If you may know the background, the Community Choice Aggregation law passed in ‘02 enables your local government to aggregate you into a completely new paradigm of managing and generating your electricity. And frankly one of the things that I like about the policy is that moves one of the core basic goods of our society - our energy production - back from corporate monopolies and buildings far far away into local backyard, our local board rooms, and our local communities. And that has a few very important benefits that i am personally very intrigued with. first of all it keeps a significant amount of revenue available for reinvestment in our own communities so that we can be paying our local green businesses to generate some of our local electricity in our own county. thats great for job creation, its good for low income job opportunities, for people who need jobs, its good for the electrical trades, and its a boost for a our local economy.

With that comes a more democratic process where community members themselves can talk to their local leaders and decide what kind of energy future do we really want. i think right now in the Rose Garden at the White House President Bush is offering another very tepid climate change initiative that might stop the rate of increase of greenhouse gases some time in the next quarter century. And one of the problems that we have at the local level is we keep waiting for national or state leadership that continues to fail to materialize.

So what Marin Clean Energy promises to do is bring back the community choice, the community direction of how we build our energy future together and brings that control to us locally. And some of the upsides, in addition to the job growth, include 350,000 tons a year of avoided CO2 emissions. There’s absolutely nothing we can do at the local level that is more compelling than that. Thats an overall 15-17% reduction in our CO2 emissions below 1990 levels. Theres nothing we can do next year that will come close to that potential.

Over the last five years, as supervisor Brown will mention, we have conducted very arduous homework on the risks and the bonds capabilities, the legal issues involved with forming this. And I am happy to say that the materials we are presenting to our city council colleagues have explored every single one of those risks. And frankly in my view those risks are lower than doing nothing. If we stay and do nothing, we could be subject to the wild fluctuations of natural gas prices, coal burning for electricity, and even the huge reinvestment in the nuclear power plant plants that others claim is green energy.

And so we’re girding for a very intense debate back and forth with a lot of misinformation and assertions made on the other side I believe, and I want to ask the public to do some very hard homework. We have a very detailed set of information for the city council members and their staffs. And nows the time to dig deep and do some very serious homework. In my view, this may be the most important public policy issue that we investigate in the entire decade. Its a huge potential leg up on local renewable power with local economic benefits. And have to now, sit down, get serious and do some very hard analysis to make sure this provides the promise that so far we think it does. Thank you very much.

Hear the audio.

See also the Local Clean Energy Alliance site for information on the Community Choice Energy effort in the East Bay.

Better Batteries Dramatically Boost Wind Energy

The Dave Room — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:21:18 +0000

The giant wind turbines on the west coast of Ireland stand not only on the geographical limits of Europe, but also on the cutting edge of a revolutionary technology that makes wind power more reliable and valuable. The 32 megawatt (MW) Sorne Hill wind park will be Europe’s first to integrate a large scale battery back-up system that ensures a reliable supply of electricity regardless of how the wind blows.

“The battery enables large amounts of energy from wind or solar power to be stored, managed, controlled and sent into the electricity grid when it is needed. It doesn’t matter whether the wind is blowing or not; the battery makes the electricity output predictable and reliable,” said Tim Hennessy, CEO of VRB Power Systems, the battery manufacturer based in Vancouver, Canada.

Analysts say the potential market is huge for technology that can improve the reliability of large amounts of energy from wind and solar power. Wind power is not generally considered dispatchable or “firm” because wind is intermittent and fluctuates greatly on all scales (e.g., minute by minute, day, season). Furthermore, the wind does not always blow when electricity is most needed and therefore valuable.

Battery storage is particularly useful when wind power feeds a grid belonging to a so-called “island” such as in the UK and Ireland. Spain, on the Iberian Peninsula, is also effectively an electrical island because it has limited interconnections with France in the north and Morocco in North Africa.

By contrast, the electricity grids of Germany and Denmark are interconnected with those of their neighbors. Their excess wind power goes all over Europe; the extensive and varied demands of the grid negate the need for a huge storage system. In addition, Germany uses hydropower and biomass to back up wind and compresses air into salt mines to store excess energy.

With few dams for hydropower and few salt mines, the “electrical islands” of Ireland and Great Britain have fewer options. As a result, they will probably need large amounts of battery storage as they expand their use of wind power.

Both the UK and Ireland are planning wind parks on a massive scale. The UK plans for 33 GW of capacity of offshore wind power by 2020. Ireland already has 1,000 MW of wind power and plans to install 2,400 MW more by 2016 and 4,300 MW by 2020 to reduce their dependence on imported fossil fuels and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Thus, the 2 MW battery in Sorne Hill, slated to begin operation in 2009, could be the start of something big. Hugh Sharman, a contractor with VRB, estimates that Ireland may need as much as 1,000 MW of battery storage capacity by 2016.

As oil and gas prices continue to rise, battery storage systems become even more cost effective. A MW of wind electricity generated in Ireland costs 70€ ($106), which Sharman says is much cheaper than generating the equivalent electricity using natural gas. The lower cost of wind generation helps offsets the high initial investment costs of the battery, and the battery would enable wind power to be delivered when it is most valuable: electricity could be stored during off-peak hours when the price is low and fed into the grid in peak hours when the price is higher.

If the UK proceeds with its plan to install 33 GW of wind capacity by 2020, it could use as much as 12,000 MW of battery storage to balance out the system, Sharman said. Under the plan, nuclear and clean coal will supply a base load of 20 GW augmented by 33 GW of wind power. Without batteries, the base load would be difficult to supply with a fluctuating wind power supply.

The flow battery was developed in the early 1980s at the University of New South Wales in Australia, and further refined and brought to market by VRB Power Systems. It generates current by moving oppositely charged electrolytes in a vanadium sulphate solution between positively and negatively charged half-cells.

The battery charges when the wind turbines produce more power than is needed. When the wind speed drops, the battery almost instantaneously feeds the electricity into the system. In this manner, it can make wind power up to 95 percent constant.

VRB’s battery can be charged and discharged more than 10,000 times without significant deterioration, compared to only 2000 times for conventional lead-acid batteries. It also emits less key environmental pollutants such as CO2 and Nitrogen Oxide through its life cycle and is made without toxic metals (lead, cadmium, zinc, and nickel).

In places like Europe and California, which have relatively aggressive CO2 reduction laws, wind power augmented with battery storage is likely to become a key electricity source over the next several decades. Further, as cities and counties take control of their energy procurement through California’s Community Choice Energy law to boost the renewable content of their power mix, large scale battery systems are one of few viable options for realizing the ultimate goal of a reliable and stable, 100% renewable electricity grid.

What We Can’t See, We Can’t Consciously Change

The Dave Room — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 18:08:00 +0000

Nobody really knows what all was on the Cosco Busan when it sideswiped one of the supports of Bay Bridge, dumping about 58,000 gallons of oil into one of the country’s most famous and fragile ecosystems. That’s because globalization is grandfathered into our consciousness.

But at what cost? Solving the converging crises of climate change and peak oil, not to mention a plethora of others, would be an exceedingly difficult nut to crack even if we had full knowledge and information. Unfortunately, cracking this nut is probably impossible with our current level of thinking and understanding. We cannot hope to apply the necessary systemic thinking to our converging crises, because no one has a full view of the system. What we can’t see, we can’t consciously change.

By Mark Henson of Sacred Light Studio

To improve our ecological and social bottom lines, we need to fully understand what is going on in our name. Our government has been hoarding information about the state of our climate and energy resources for six decades. They won’t tell us the truth, because they don’t think we can handle the truth. Our behavior supports this position. Despite the mounting evidence that we are headed for converging ecological and energy crises, we remain in the stupor of complacency, continuing to accept the globalized economy and its abstractions which hide everything about products beyond form and function. We consume, not realizing that the stories behind the materials, production, distribution, use, and end-of-use of our favorite products are fueling all of fires we want and desperately need to put out.

Recognizing the emerging need to drastically reduce dependence on fossil fuels and to curb greenhouse gas emissions as well as the need to address a variety of ecological, social, and economic issues, I have come to the conclusion that localization is a key organizing principle of the conscious evolution of our economy and culture.

Moving production closer to consumption reduces transport and therefore oil consumption and carbon emissions. Less obviously but more importantly, localization blows away the abstractions which hide everything beyond the form and function of the products we use. Once we start making things, we have to get beyond form and function and focus our attention on aspects of the product life cycle - materials acquisition, production, distribution, and end-of-life - that are not visible to consumers. Becoming producers again gives us the opportunity to begin developing ecologically balanced and equitable economic relationships, processes, systems, and institutions.

Only through localizing − taking control of the entire product life cycle and determining what gets produced and how − will we have the opportunity to co-create, explain, and celebrate positive, life-affirming stories behind the form and function of the products we use on a routine basis.

Tomorrow (25 April 2008), I speak on a panel about Energy and Economic Localization at the Ecocity World Summit At the nob Hill Masonic Center in San Francisco from 3:15-4:45pm. The other panelists are Jan Lundberg of Culture Change and Paul Fenn of Local Power. Kirsten Schwind of Bay Localize will moderate.

For more information on Localization efforts in the Bay Area, check out the social benefit organization I co-founded - Bay Localize .

Micheal Klare on New World Order based on Oil

The Dave Room — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:47:07 +0000

Yesterday evening I went to hear a sobering talk in Berkeley by Five Colleges professor of Peace and World Security Studies, Michael Klare. Klare suggests in his newest book, Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet, that we are now facing a new world order in which power transfers to net energy exporters (e.g., Saudi Arabia, Russia, Kazakhstan) from net energy importers (e.g., the United States). He believes oil will peak between 2012 and 2015 at somewhere around 95-100 million barrels/day. Regardless of whether oil peaks then, he says supply will not be able to keep up with demand much longer.

From http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=76003

Klare points out that China will soon have the world’s largest fleet of automobiles - in decade or so - as they are following our model of auto-centric development. He had hoped that China would leapfrog oil to more sustainable mobility solutions but that is not happening.

Klare suggests that the logical thing for net importers to do is to aggressively conserve energy, wean themselves form petroleum automobiles, and ramp up renewables and oil alternatives. Not sure why he does not suggest ecocities development and localization.

Klare makes the following points:

The U.S. is the single largest user of oil in the world
In February, President Bush presented Congress the largest military budget since World War II - $515B not including $60B for Iraq and Afghanistan.
A lot of the $515B is for highly sophisticated weaponry, e.g., Stealth Bombers
This sophisticated weaponry is not to fight guerrillas in the streets of Baghdad but to fight a future enemy
U.S. documents suggest that this future enemy is China who is also building up their military infrastructure
If we have a cold war with China, very little attention and money will go to environmental and social causes
Hence the number #1 thing environmental and peace activists should be working on is energy cooperation with China.

I asked him about Iran. Klare says he believes there is a 50% chance that the United States will attack Iran before the November elections. He points out that Dick Cheney was in Oman three weeks preparing for military engagement in the straight of Hormuz through which 30% of the world’s oil flows. Oman happens to be right across the straight of Hormuz from Iran.

That’s scary stuff. Obviously, we need to localize our transportation systems such that we are no longer using so much imported oil. And corn-based ethanol is not an environmentally or economically viable option, especially when you consider the impact on the price and availability of food. The smartest thing we can do is reconfigure our city ala the eco city model for less transportation and energy consumption. The extent we need transportation, it should be electrified and highly biased towards public and mass transit with the power coming from a largely renewable energy grid. We’re a long way a way from that but it is possible and we need to get started now. That is why the Community Choice Energy initiatives in California are so important.

Attend an Earth Day Event in the Bay Area!

The Dave Room — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:09:01 +0000

There are a plethora of Earth Day events happening in the Bay Area over the next two weekends. Check out this comprehensive listing for a celebration near you!

Marine Science Institute Earth Day Celebration: Saturday, April 19, 2008
The Marine Science Institute invites one and all to come celebrate the Earth, San Francisco Bay and all things marine science. The day is jam packed with activities for the entire family, including four 2-hour discovery voyages on San Francisco Bay aboard our 90 ft. research vessel the Robert G. Brownlee, a lunch-time performance by the Banana Slug String Band, shark feedings, interpretive tables, fish and shark touch tanks, juggling and vaudeville presentation, ocean crafts, canoe demonstrations, environmental info faire, plankton shows, traditional Pacific Islander dancing, and much, much more.
Time: 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
For more information visit our website at www.sfbaymsi.org, or contact Aaron Tinker at (650) 364-2760 x16 or by email aaron@sfbaymsi.org. Entrance is FREE, but there is a cost for the boat trips. Pre-registration via website for the Discovery Voyages is strongly recommended.

Volunteer: “Earth Day Build-A-thon”: Saturday, April 19, 2008 - Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Come help celebrate the day with friends, co-workers and colleagues and be a part of Habitat for Humanity East Bay’s biggest building event of the year. Help frame 6 green, affordable homes in 4 days! Participants collect pledges and must be 16 or over. No construction experience necessary. Register online.
Time: 7:30am - 4:30pm.
Info: 510-251-6304 x311, http://www.habitateb.org/volunteer/buildathon.shtml.

Earth Day Festival: help plant seedlings, free food & live music by

Second Annual Earth Day Celebration at Alemany Farm. Saturday, April 19
Co-sponsored with San Francisco Parks Trust. Youth from Student Conservation
Association will be volunteering on-site, among other groups.
Visitors can participate in digging beds and planting seedlings. This
is a potluck, but there will also be sustainably farmed beef ribs
available and some vegetarin options. Live music with Slow Motion
Cowboys, a special acoustic performance by indiepop Botticellis and
more. (SF Guardian Featured Event) 10:00 am to 4:30 pm

Volunteer: Earth Day Shoreline Clean-up: Saturday, April 19, 2008
Learn about the Albany Bulb while helping to clean the shoreline. Learn about the amazing plants and animals who call this shoreline home and how urban trash such as styrofoam, plastics, threaten this delicate ecosystem. Wear sturdy shoes, a hat, and sunscreen. Bring your own water bottle and gloves if you can. Snacks provided. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Sponsored by the City of Albany and coordinated by the Watershed Project.
Location: Albany Waterfront Trailhead, End of Buchanan Street, Albany.
Time: 9am - noon.
Info: 510-665-3508, staff@thewatershedproject.org , http://www.thewatershedproject.org.

Festival: “Earth Day 2008 in Alameda”: Saturday, April 19, 2008
Come celebrate with us at Alameda’s Earth Day Festival! Enjoy FREE activities for the kids, Earth Day games and exhibits and learn about building a clean, healthy, sustainable world for generations to come. AC Transit accessibility, free valet bike parking.
Location: Washington Park, Central Ave. & 8th St., Alameda.
Time: 11am - 4pm.
Cost: Free.
Info: 510-747-7529, http://www.ci.alameda.ca.us/arpd/events.html.

Volunteer: Earth Day Celebration at Pier 94: Saturday, April 19, 2008
Golden Gate Audubon will celebrate Earth Day with a special workday at our Pier 94 wetland restoration site–and you’re invited! GGA’s work at Pier 94 began on Earth Day in 2002. Since then, hundreds of volunteers have helped to remove trash and invasive species, plant natives, monitor the restoration project’s success, and create habitat for birds, wildlife, and plants–including the endangered California Sea-blite. In addition to our restoration and maintenance of the site, we’ll take a lunch break and go on a bird walk. RSVP by phone or email.
Location: Pier 94, SF.
Time: 11am - 3pm.
Info: 510-919-5873, jrobinson@goldengateaudubon.org , http://www.goldengateaudubon.org/

Earth Day Open House at EcoHome Improvement: Saturday, April 19, 2008
Clay plaster presentations, hourly raffle, organic food and drink, 10% off everything in-stock.
Location: Ecohome Improvement, 2619 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley.
Time: Noon - 5pm.
Info: 510-644-3500, http://www.ecohomeimprovement.com/

Volunteer: Oakland Earth Day: Saturday, April 19, 2008
Join with your friends and neighbors to plant, trim, dig, and have fun! T-shirts provided! See website for locations.
Location: Oakland.
Time: 9am - Noon.
Info: 510-238-7611, http://www.oaklandearthday.com/AssetFactory.aspx?did=2932.

Environmental Art on Earth Day: Saturday, April 19, 2008
Environmental artist Zach Pine will host his fourth annual participatory Earth Day celebration at Stinson Beach. Using sand, rocks, and other natural objects from the beach, participants create a vast, temporary, multi-element, site-specific sculpture, with no predetermined plan. In past years, beachgoers erected rock towers, made spirals from seaweed, planted a forest of “trees” made of driftwood, and created fairies from sand, shells, and stones. The event site, the south end of Stinson Beach, offers diverse natural materials and microenvironments: boulders, a wide variety of stones, tide pools, seaweed, driftwood, feathers, and sea glass. All ages; rain or shine; bring a picnic.
Location: Stinson Beach, Stinson Beach.
Time: 11am - 3pm.
Cost: Free.
Info: http://www.naturesculpture.com/

Earth Day Breakfast Work Party: Saturday, April 19, 2008
Start your Earth Day with a breakfast work party sponsored by SPAWNERS and the El Sobrante Chamber of Commerce. After an energizing community breakfast join your neighbors in multiple beautification projects. Help with creek and storm drain cleanup at multiple locations, plant and mulch at the Children’s Reading Garden and learn about the winner of our annual Watershed Art Contest. Location: El Sobrante Library, 4191 Appian Way, El Sobrante.
Time: 8:30am - 11:30am.
Info: 510-665-3538, juliana@thewatershedproject.org , http://www.spawners.net/

Berkeley Earth Day: Saturday, April 19, 2008
Cultural Performers include: Shawl-Anderson Dance Center’s 50th Anniversary Featuring The Shawl-Anderson Youth Ensemble; Marcia Flores Cantillana; Antoine Hunter/Urban Jazz Dance Company; Aileen Kim; Dana Lawton; Corrine Nagata (Dance) & Howard Wiley (Saxophone); Phoenix and Afterbuffalo; Orquesta d’Soul. Activities include: Demonstrations of biodiesel and electric cars, solar power; Berkeley Farmer’s Market; Climbing Wall; Vegetarian food, craft and community booths. Volunteers Needed: Call (510) 654-6346 x 2. Please don’t drive. Take Berkeley BART, walk one block west. Valet Bike Parking by Bicycle Friendly Berkeley Coalition. Sponsored by the City of Berkeley. Location: Civic Center Park, Martin Luther King, Jr. Way, Center Street, Berkeley.
Time: Noon - 5pm.
Cost: Free. Info: http://tinyurl.com/2v8rtm

West County Earth Day Festival: Saturday, April 19th
Enjoy workshops, food, music, games and more! Preregister online to attend the West County Earth Day Festival and you will be automatically entered in a prize drawing. We will email you a reminder to attend the festival.
Location: Integrated Resources Facility, 101 Pittsburg Ave, Richmond.
Time: 11am - 3pm.
Info: http://www.recyclemore.com/earthday/_ed_home.asp

Woodside Environment Fest: Sunday, April 20, 2008
The event will include information on high efficiency heating systems, alternative fuel vehicles, and sustainable local organic food. A focus of the festival will be on global warming. Booths, an art contest for children focused on solutions to global warming, a video room showing short, relevant pieces, and a performer of songs for children with an environmental message will be part of the event.
Location: Woodside Elementary School, 3195 Woodside Road, Woodside Time: 12:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
McLaren Park Earth Day: Sunday, April 20, 2008
Celebrate nature where you live. Join us for: live music; food; performances; DIY bicycle repair; Eco-Stewardship Fair; native plant sale; bring back habitat: creek clean-up and planting; meet and hold live animals: frogs, turtles, lizards & snakes; enjoy hikes, walks & talks: birding, butterflies, wildflowers, geology & more, led by trained, enthusiastic naturalists; hands-on science and art projects. Dogs welcome. Valet bike parking available. SF Muni lines 29, 44, 52 and 54.
Location: McLaren Park, John Shelley Drive, Jerry Garcia Amphitheater, SF.
Time: 11am - 5pm.
Cost: Free.
Info: http://natureinthecity.org/earthday_2008.php

Green Apple Festival: Sunday, April 20, 2008
A weekend of music and environmental awareness.
Location: Golden Gate Park, Speedway Meadow, near Fulton and 25th Ave., SF.
Time: Noon.
Cost: Free.
Info: http://www.greenapplefestival.com/

“Dreaming the Earth” Earth Day Event: Sunday, April 20, 2008
This event brings together dreamwork, spiritual practice, and environmentalism. “The Earth is Humming,” a short dramatization based on actual dreams about the earth, will be performed. Co-sponsored by The Arts & Consciousness and Dream Studies Programs at JFK. To be held at JFK Art Annex, San Pablo Ave at Ashby.
Location: JFK University, Berkeley.
Time: 2pm - 4pm.
Cost: $10-$20 sliding scale.
Info: 510-845-1767, http://www.dream-institute.org/

World View of Warming and How Cities Can Save the Earth: Monday, April 21, 2008
Ecocity World Summit - Pre-Conference Event. Held in conjunction with the Ecocity World Summit, and open to the public, Gary Braasch, photographer and author, Earth Under Fire, How Global Warming is Changing the World (University of California Press, 2007), will present his past and present photographic record of climate change around the world with emphasis on cities, their contributions to the problems of the world’s environment, and whole systems initiatives for change. Tickets are on sale now.
Location: Herbst Theatre, War Memorial Performing Arts Center, 401 Van Ness Ave, @ McAllister, SF. Time: 7pm - 9pm.
Cost: $15 general, $12 student/senior.
Info: http://www.ecocityworldsummit.org/index.htm

A Benefit for Women’s Earth Alliance: Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Weaving the Worlds with Joanna Macy and Gemma Bulos: A Speaker Series Event to Benefit the Women’s Earth Alliance’s June 2008 Women and Water Conference in Nairobi, Kenya to be hosted by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dr. Wangari Maathai and the Greenbelt Movement. Evening will include an opportunity to give!
Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm
Location: Numi Tea Garden, 2230 Livingston Street Oakland, CA
Seating is limited. Advance ticket purchase recommended at https://www.earthisland.org/WEA/donate.html.
For more information call 415.662.6939 or email events@womensearthalliance.org

Earth Day Celebration at Ashkenaz: Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Ashkenaz celebrates Earth Day with conscious music from the Adrian Xavier Band and Joe B, preceded by ecologically-themed short films. Seattle’s Adrian Xavier has been performing for almost two decades, starting the band Pure Water in 1997, and under his own name since 2000, singing and playing reggae-rooted world music that adds in rock, hip-hop, jazz and soul. His 2004 debut CD, “R-Nature,” features such original songs as “Mother Nature” and “Redemption Road.” On lead vocals and guitar, Xavier is backed by a globe-trotting band featuring keyboardist Mark Cardenas, violinist Geoffrey Castle, Jamaican-born Lennox Holeness on bass, drummer David Carpenter and lead guitarist Brian Ray. www.adrianxavier.com Joe B, the leader of The Flux, will also be making special guest appearance debuting his new acoustic project! Presented by the Berkeley City College Green Club and Ashkenaz, the Earth Week Film Festival offers free showings of three movies, totaling approximately 80 minutes: “Sidewalk Stories” by Hannah Chauvet Commissioned by the Ecology Center to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their Curbside Recycling Program, a brief history of the recycling movement in Berkeley. Shows interviews with some champion recyclers - winners in the Cash for Trash contests. Shows how the materials are sorted and follows the baled recycled materials to the Oakland port. Chauvet will appear in person to discuss her inspiration for making the film. “The Recyclergy” by Jeremy Kaller www.recyclergy.com San Francisco Bay Area recycling pioneers share their insightfully hilarious thoughts and stories on garbage collection, treasure hunting, Jack Benny, and the products we buy. Featuring music by Rube Waddell, The Recyclergy is an entertaining examination of a fading subculture. “The Story of Stuff” narrated by Annie Leonard www.storyofstuff.com An animation of the consumerist society, “‘The Story of Stuff’ is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patternsÉexposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world.” Doors at 7pm; music at 9:30pm; Free films from 7:30pm-9pm.
Location: Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave., @ Gilman, Berkeley.
Time: 7pm.
Cost: Free before 9pm, $8 general, $5 students with valid ID.
Info: 510-525-5054, http://www.ashkenaz.com/

Digital Be-In 16: Ecocity: Friday, April 25, 2008
The Digital Be-In is returning for the third year in a row during Earth Day week in San Francisco, serving as a launching platform for evolutionary ideas, art, and initiatives — at the nexus of humanistic technology and the sustainability movement. The cyberculture event is being developed this year in conjunction with the 7th Ecocity World Summit taking place in SF 4/22-26/08 with attendees from around the globe. The Digital Be-In is a nine hour journey of presentations, exhibits, performances, live music, top DJs, visuals, art installations, and the Third Force! This year the Digital Be-In is pleased to be working with SF’s newest and greenest night club and community center, Temple. Presented by Cyberset in conjunction with Green Century Institute, Ecocity Builders, and SF Environment. Details and ticket info online. Note new date. Location: Temple, 540 Howard Street, SF.
Time: 7pm - 4am.
Cost: $25 at door, $20 in advance.
Info: http://www.be-in.com/

Festival: Emeryville Earth Day . Saturday April 26th
The Emeryville festival will run from 12 noon until 4:00 pm. (heavy rain cancels), at Temescal Creek Park, at the corner of 47th Street and Adeline. Call (510) 596-3782 for more information.

Earth Day with Literacy for Environmental Justice: Saturday, April 26, 2008
Get ready for the 10th Annual Earth Day celebration hosted by Literacy for Environmental Justice! This year, the theme of our Earth Day 2008 will be the Celebration of Life. Along with some great entertainment and activities, we will focus on the social, local, health, and economic environments of our community. Those groups/organizations/businesses interested in tabling at the event, please contact by email.
Location: Super Save, 4517 3rd Street, Parking Lot, SF.
Time: 10am - 4pm.
Cost: Free.
Info: goodneighbor@lejyouth.org , http://www.lejyouth.org/index.php4

Volunteer: “Earth Day Clean-Up”: Saturday, April 26, 2008
Protect wildlife and the environment. Join us for our annual Earth Day Cleanup at Guadalupe Slough. Bring a hat, sunscreen, and water. We’ll supply gloves and trash bags. Be prepared to get dirty! Reservations are required, space is limited. Call to reserve your spot.
Location: Don Edwards SF Bay National Wildlife Refuge Env. Ed. Ctr., Grand Blvd, Zanker, Alviso.
Time: 8:30am - Noon.
Info: 408-262-5513 , http://www.fws.gov/desfbay/index.htm

Beyond Earth Day: A Future Full of Hope with James Stark: Sunday, April 27, 2008
How do we live in harmony with Earth and all its inhabitants? What is sustainable human habitat? Join us for an exciting day of vision and practical application. James Stark is founder and director of the Regenerative Design Institute. Bring a bag lunch. Register online.
Location: Mercy Center, 2300 Adeline Drive, Burlingame.
Time: 10am - 4pm.
Cost: $60 general, $20 students with ID.
Info: 650-340-7474, http://www.mercy-center.org/Flyers_2008/04_27beyond_earth/beyond.htm

UAS Green Movie Night and Forum: Monday, April 28, 2008
Join us for the Spring Return of the UAS Green Movie Night and Forum! Once every month in 2007 UAS hosted a Green Movie Night and Forum where we challenge ourselves to present inspirational (solution-oriented) content, provide a platform for local organizations and engage the community in a group discussion about the UAS monthly newsletter theme (this month Community and Governance). We took a short hiatus for the winter and now we are back and bigger than ever - we’ve moved from a 50 seat venue to a 450 seat venue and we’ve got a full year of rare, amazing films, so please spread the word and bring your friends! The UAS Green Movie Night and Forum is a great place to meet allies and forge community through exploring solutions together! This month’s theme is Community and Governance and the film we are showing is… The Power of Community
Time: 6:30 – 9:00PM
Location: Victoria Theatre, 2961 16th Street San Francisco
Cost: $10 general admission, $5 for seniors, students, payable at the box office. This is a non-profit event for the community. If you would like to attend but feel you cannot afford it, please come and talk to us.
Info: http://uas.coop/node/1129

It’s Irrational that We Don’t Build Ecocities

The Dave Room — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 05:50:10 +0000

I often ask myself why I continue getting the paper. Getting the newspaper is supporting an unsustainable practice of harvesting trees and manufacturing them into disposable items. And then something magical will happen.

I wasn’t sure what I was going to write tonight. A few minutes ago I found myself reading the book review section of the Chronicle. The article “Gender Identity and Phantom Genitalalia” initially caught my attention and ended with a great quote from V.S. Ramachandran, a neurologist and psychologist at UC San Diego and a leading authority on phantom limb sensations, who says it has long been known that some people who are born without arms have vivid phantom arms.

“I expect a lot of criticism,” Ramachandran says. “Those who study transsexuality tend to be territorial because they themselves have made so little progress. There is no literature that illuminates the underlying mechanisms, other than psychological mumbo jumbo. And then someone comes striding in and spends two weeks solving the riddle. It must be infuriating.”

Across the page was the article “Relying on the random” about a book called Predictably Irrational that suggests we are far less rational than standard economic theory assumes. Essentially this professor Dan Ariely is studying and thinks he understands why people do stupid things. [My words not his.]

He has some general findings (”why we often pay too much when we pay nothing?”, “why options distract us from our main objectives”) and then extrapolates to why these tendencies are important.

The first thing I’m thinking is “have I got a test group for you!” I would love to see his analysis on why we continue holding onto this vision of an infinitely globalizing and growing economy based on finite fossil fuels. After all its current incarnation is damaging the life support systems of the planet. I’d like to know why we continue to desperately and predictably cling to a culture that centers on buying things and cars even as the ecological, social, and economic mount unsustainably. Why getting priced out appears to be our only hope of getting off the growth treadmill and how high the prices have to go.

There is an alternative. Check it out later this month at the Ecocity World Summit. I will be speaking on one panel and will be moderating two others. More on the conference in the next several weeks.

Link to cool flash opening Ecocity World Summit.

But as the author suggests, we are predictably irrational.

The Berkeley Permaculture Bike Tour: Photo Gallery

The Dave Room — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 23:32:51 +0000

This post is a photo gallery from the East Bay Permaculture Guild’s Permaculture Bike tour in Berkeley this past Sunday. It was glorious day and a slew of people came out.

But first a little background on permaculture:

The word permaculture, coined by Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren during the 1970s, is a portmanteau of permanent agriculture as well it is was permanent culture. Through a series of publications, Mollison, Holmgren and their associates documented an approach to designing human settlements, in particular the development of perennial agricultural systems that mimic the structure and interrelationship found in natural ecologies.

This tour shows what some folks in Berkeley are doing to live more sustainably: growing their own food, raising chickens, capturing, heating, and conserving water, and generating electricity.

Only in Berkeley?

Berkeley became a nuclear free zone in 1986. Ironically, more than 20% of Berkeley’s electricity comes from nukes.

My first stop was Fort Awesome on King Street. Notice how the bottom of the sign looks strange. That’s because they painted over the word “DRIVING” which has been stenciled at the bottom of many Berkeley stop signs over past several years.

Zack, one of hosts at Fort Awesome, a cooperative for low-income people.

The front door of one of the two homes at Fort Awesome.

Solar photovoltaic panels at Fort Awesome. These panels feed excess energy back into the grid.

Solar water panels at Fort Awesome. Also known as solar thermal, these panels heat water reducing the need to burn natural gas.

Food not Bombs provided a hearty lunch of sandwiches, pizza, chips, and dips.

The Fort Awesome Community Garden which is several blocks west of Fort Awesome. This particular plot is tended by the Headstart program of a local elementary school.

Their community garden has individual and community plots. Anyone can help out at a community plot without having any responsibility. A good way for the occasional gardener to get their hands dirty.

People often say it sucks to have a billboard in your community garden. They made it a positive. On warm summer nights, they have movie nights. They turn off the billboard lights, hang a screen, and project a movie as a community event.

Christopher Shine hosts the tour at his house. Shine is a permaculture educator.

Shine’s chicken coop. In the morning he brings the hens a bundle of collards from the garden and retrieves 9-12 eggs.

Shine’s grey water system. The water from the washer (using non-toxic soap) is channeled to bamboo along the fence which he uses for privacy and to make things.