The view of Cairo from the air is one of concrete buildings and tangled overpasses stretching as far as the eye can see. Green areas comprise less than 4% of the total urban built area, and recent construction projects have resulted in the destruction of tens of acres of the city’s already-sparse green space. By Marianne Dhenin Yes! magazine […]
Every year, governments give out $700 billion in agricultural subsidies globally. Though well-intentioned, these farm subsidies sometimes work against their core goal: boosting crop yields and farmer incomes while developing rural areas. By Helen Ding, Will Anderson and René Zamora Crystales World Resources Institute Farm subsidies can also inadvertently drive people to clear forests to produce commodities like soy and beef, which caused […]
On Aug. 18, 2021, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that it will end use of chlorpyrifos – a pesticide associated with neurodevelopmental problems and impaired brain function in children – on all food products nationwide. Gina Solomon, a principal investigator at the Public Health Institute, clinical professor at the University of California, San Francisco […]
Despite the marked reticence among most big green groups to address agriculture’s climate impacts, and Democratic politicians’ outright refusal to do anything but grovel at the feet of farmers due to their place in our cultural pantheon (entwined with white supremacy), the meat industry remains a steady investor in disinformation to make people think that any day now, […]
For many years, federal, state and corporate proponents of building more dams in California have touted cold water river releases provided by increased water storage behind dams as a key tool in “saving” struggling salmon and steelhead populations. Yet a just published study by the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences, Dams Ineffective for Cold-Water Conservation – 8/25/21, has found […]
Organic food once was viewed as a niche category for health nuts and hippies, but today it’s a routine choice for millions of Americans. For years following passage of the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990, which established national organic standards, consumers had to seek out organic products at food co-ops and farmers markets. Today […]
The below Delta Conveyance Update by Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta (RTD), “with the help of friends,” indicates that “the operations conditions for water quality under the proposed are getting worse” under the proposed changes by DWR under the single tunnel than under the twin tunnels — and “the suggested operations are worse for salmon” than under the California […]
While most California farms and ranches face water regulations to save dwindling water resources and protect fisheries, Siskiyou County’s Scott Valley alfalfa growers continue to pump groundwater with no regulatory oversight. The river is now a series of shrinking puddles full of Endangered Species Act (ESA) listed Coho salmon, according to an August 13 press release […]
Yesterday, California DWR State Water Project operations managers took the Hyatt Powerplant at Lake Oroville offline as the lake dropped to its lowest-ever recorded water level. By Dan Bacher The current water level is only 641.39 feet above sea level, approximately 259.61 feet from maximum pool. The lake is holding 860,338 acre-feet of water, 24 percent of […]
I have a gold medal show for you, listeners. Today’s guest is Bart Hansen, the founder and owner of Dane Cellars, a winery in Sonoma Valley, California. With a lifelong passion for fine wine, Bart became a winemaker early on in his career. Then in 2007 he and his wife opened their own place where they make […]
River flows are increasing on the Trinity and Lower Klamath Rivers to help spring-run Chinook salmon survive during this year’s unprecedented drought, according to a Yurok Tribe press release. By Dan Bacher “Originating from Lewiston Dam, the 3-day pulse flow is intended to reduce river temperatures in the Lower Trinity River where adult spring-run Chinook salmon […]
A new plan called the Water Year 2021 Whiskeytown Lake Drought Action could take an additional 36,000 acre feet of water out of the Klamath River at time when most of the juvenile salmon have died and the adult salmon are getting ready to come up the Klamath River, according to Save California Salmon. By […]
There’s a new policy to fight climate change: incentives given to farmers to plant cover crops to extract carbon out of the air. Such cover crops are able to extract carbon out of the air and into the soil. Once in the soil, the carbon acts as an exceptionally good fertilizer for consumer crops to […]
In a record drought year where nearly all juvenile Sacramento River winter run Chinook salmon are expected to die before spawning below Shasta Dam due to water mismanagement by the state and federal governments, the return of a record run of adult spring run Chinook salmon on Butte Creek this year was welcome news. By […]
In a move that environmental groups celebrated as a “historic victory” following years of campaigning to remove Roundup and similar weedkillers from store shelves, Bayer on Thursday announced that it will halt the sale of glyphosate-based herbicides to consumers in the U.S. lawn and garden market by 2023. Monsanto’s Roundup (Photo CC by Mike Mozart on Flickr) By Kenny Stancil […]