2. Planning & Conservation League seeks Membership & Events Coordinator
3. Free birding tour of Heron's Head Park Saturday 10th
4. Spring forward with Sunday Streets along Embarcadero Sunday 11th
5. GreenAgers meet and work with teens their own age in high school internship program
6. Fresh Start: Berkeley City College's True Colors Mural Project
7. GGNRA Dog Management Plan Survey - please participate
8. Knowland Park news
9. Docent-led walks at Bay Area's spring wildflower site, Edgewood County Park
10. GG Audubon Society's article on Beach Chalet
11. Victory in Santa Cruz County for banning bull frogs - on to California!
12. Meeting information by District on SF City Budget
13. City-wide planning for San Francisco November parks bond measure
14. Nuclear energy - future not bright
15. Interactive map on climate-induced plant movement/net-zero energy buildings take hold
16. Excellent native garden in Glen Canyon
17. Feedback: peeing off your deck/bat and owl boxes/titanic power of Sun
18. Robert Reich commentary on ability to go to college
19. Mark Fiore's Mad Lib version of 2012 presidential campaign
20. Word of the day: cuckold
21. Sierra Club and the $100 million donation that changed it forever
22. Disaster preparedness advice
For lo, the winter is past;
The rain is over and gone;
The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of the singing of birds is come
Song of Solomon 2:11
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1. For everyone's benefit this walk is limited to 20 people. Please RSVP if you want to join us.
BIRD WALK ON THE PEDRO POINT HEADLANDS
THIS SUNDAY March 11th, 8:00 to 11:00 AM
MEETING PLACE: the firehouse along Danmann Avenue on Pedro Point in Pacifica
LEADER: Paul Donahue
Photo by Paul Donahue...Bewick's Wren, a bird characteristic of the coastal scrub on the Pedro Point Headlands
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2. Planning & Conservation League SEEKS MEMBERSHIP & EVENTS COORDINATOR
PCL seeks an energetic individual to coordinate our membership efforts, communications and special events. The Membership & Events Coordinator will maintain PCL’s donor database, coordinate appeals and member mailings, manage website and electronic communications, organize our annual Symposium and special events, and support efforts to increase PCL’s brand recognition, grow and mobilize our membership, and assist with fundraising. For more information please click here.
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3. San Francisco NatureEducation birding tours of Heron's Head Park - free and open to the public
MARCH 10, Saturday, 10-11:30 AM
Heron’s Head Park at Jennings Street and Cargo Way,
2 blocks south from Pier 96. Free parking at entrance
Leader: Nancy DeStefanis
Learn about natural history of the park and observe some of the 100 birds during their winter migration. Recent sightings include the Clapper Rail, EurasianWigeon and American Kestrel!
Visit wetlands restored by Port of San Francisco and community environmental groups. Free birding tours are lead by high school interns with spotting scopes!
Meet at the entrance to Heron Head’s Park. One-hour tours 10-11:30am leave every 30 minutes.
Contact Anastasia Marin at anastasiamarin@sfnature.org or 415-387-9160 for more information. www.sfnature.org
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4. Spring Forward with Sunday Streets on March 11th along the Embarcadero!
We are happy to announce the return of the popular Sunday Streets program by kicking off a full schedule of car-free events on Sunday, March 11th, along the Embarcadero. Join thousands of Bay Area residents, families and visitors to kick off the 2012 Sunday Streets season by walking, riding or rolling along 3.3 miles of car-free roadway that spans from Fisherman's Wharf (Powell and Jefferson) to Mission Bay (Terry Francois and Mariposa).
Founded in 2008, Sunday Streets creates miles of car-free space for people to get out and get active in diverse San Francisco neighborhoods. This is the fifth season for this popular program that opens streets to pedestrians, cyclists and people-powered wheels of all kinds by temporarily removing vehicular traffic on select Sundays, transforming street-space usually reserved for cars into recreational space for everyone to enjoy safely.
Please share this information with your networks, and don't forget to set your clocks ahead one hour- daylight savings starts this Sunday!
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5. Hello Jake,
My name is David and I am an environmental educator with the SF Recreation and Park Department's Youth Stewardship Program. I work with Kimberly Kiefer of volunteer programs and I am writing to you in regards to a high school internship program that I am establishing for high school freshmen/sophomores who live in the South East part of San Francisco.
I was wondering if you could help me distribute the information and this job application through nature news or through other networks you may know of. I have attached the application here but it can also be found at:
http://sfrecpark.org/documents/Greenagers%20Application%202012-2013.pdf
Here is a little bit more about the program:
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The San Francisco Recreation and Park Department is looking for a diverse group of Freshmen and Sophomores who live or attend schools in the following San Francisco Neighborhoods: Bayview, Bayview Heights, Crocker Amazon, Excelsior, Hunter's Point, Mission Terrace, Outer Mission, Portola, Silver Terrace, and Visitacion Valley and can meet every 1st, 2nd and 4th Saturday of each month, to participate in the GreenAgers Program .
GreenAgers meet and work with teens their own age and gain crucial skills in leading workshops, networking, public speaking, teamwork, environmental education and community engagement.
GreenAgers will:
-take field trips to different parks and open spaces in neighborhoods in the South East part of the city
-meet with Rec and Park Staff
-research issues about what they find interesting
-use parks and open spaces to create projects based on their findings
-work to earn $100/month
_____________________________
"I remember Mimi asking me as a child to make a lens by curling my fingers around to my thumb. I closed one eye and, with the other, looked through my hand lens. I played with scale. Blades of grass were transformed into trees, a gravel bed became a boulder field. Small rivulets pouring over moss became the great rivers of our continent. My world was my own creation. It still is."—Terry Tempest Williams
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6.
The only fence against the world is a thorough knowledge of it. -John Locke, philosopher (1632-1704)
Please help us promote and fund our Kickstarter Fundraising Campaign: Pledge $1 or more on line at:
www.kickstarter.com/projects/juanaalicia/fresh-start-true-colors-interactive-mural-at-realm
About this project
Fresh Start: Interactive Mural @ Realm Charter School - Berkeley City College's True Colors Mural Project 2012
True Colors is the public murals program based at Berkeley City College, fiscally sponsored by Earth Island Institute, and directed by Juana Alicia Araiza. Through Juana Alicia’s Mural Design and Creation classes, True Colors creates one or more public murals every year with social and environmental justice themes.
True Colors’ 2011-2012 Mural Project is a collaboration with the REALM Charter School, located in West Berkeley. REALM is a project-based, technology-rich learning environment that immerses their teachers and students in authentic virtual learning environments that require collaboration, inquiry, critical thinking, ingenuity, and imagination.
This year’s project is to create an environmental “Game Board” themed mural with a virtual game component. This concept is to expand the mural's online presence which allows students to write stories, illustrate and create animations of how to actually play the game. The mural displays narratives of nationally recognized, young environmental leaders intermingled with real and imagined scenarios. These scenes illustrate communities working towards environmental sustainability. The muralists are collaborating with REALM’s students to research, design and paint the new mural and create the virtual board game. All students participated in community surveys, oral histories, and site-based research to develop the content, form and aesthetics of the mural. The research and design are close to completion, and the unveiling will take place on June 2012.
True Colors’ "Fresh Start" mural and its virtual component can only be completed through direct human interaction. This project involves community to navigate complex information utilizing emerging technologies. The audience/participants not only view the mural, but also play with the design that becomes an actual living experience and on-line journey. The environmental issues and messages chosen impact people’s everyday lives and encourage the community to take positive social action. Imagine landing on square that leads you to learn about lead poisoning issues and solutions in West Berkeley. “Playing” will educate the students and community about ideas and practices leading to environmental sustainability. We intend that, through this project, all participants will recognize and activate their ability to shape our world and to better humanity.
Juana Alicia, Artist and Educator
http://www.juanaalicia.com/
http://juanaaliciaatcentro.wordpress.com/
http://truecolorsmuralproject.wordpress.com/
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7.
PLEASE TAKE THE SURVEY AND INVITE OTHER CONSERVATION-MINDED FOLKS TO TAKE THE SURVEY. It's very short and may even help those interested in conserving our National Parks reduce the number and frequency of dogs in our local National Parks
GGNRA Dog Management Plan Survey
The National Park Service is conducting a survey of park users like you to gain a better understanding of dog walking, one of the many recreational uses of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The survey results will help the NPS to better understand use patterns and user satisfaction among dog-walkers and other visitors to the park and surrounding areas. Please take the time to complete the survey. Use Access Code: bcnazrq3. Surveys must be completed by midnight on March 30.
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8. Knowland Park news
Scroll down for:
1. SciAm picks up blog post on rare chaparral plant community at Knowland Park
2. More on mountain lions among us
3. New blog post on how Zoo project raises city’s debt burden
4. Final brief filed in lawsuit
5. Volunteers needed! Can you give a few hours of time?
6. Spread the word
Dear Knowland Park Supporters,
1. SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN! If you care about Knowland Park, you will be as thrilled as we were to hear that Scientific American picked up one of our own Laura Baker’s blog posts on the rare chaparral plant community at Knowland Park to feature on a plants blog! See
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/a-blog-around-the-clock/2012/02/29/berry-go-round-49-all-the-plants-fit-to-print/
2. MORE ON MOUNTAIN LIONS: The post from earlier this week (Tuesday) brings a new perspective to the controversy over California Fish and Game Commissioner Daniel Richard’s shooting of a mountain lion in Idaho. We can’t just not eat them and stuff them - they need habitat to survive, and as scientists study whole ecosystems they have begun to realize how interconnected habitats across a region like the East Bay hills actually are. Changing things in one place can have ripple effects in others in terms of biodiversity. These are issues that are at the heart of our fight to save the park. Please visit our website to read it:
http://www.saveknowland.org/2012/03/06/mountain-lions-an-inconvenient-truth/
3. OAKLAND’S DEBT BURDEN AND THE EXPANSION: In today’s post, Jim Hanson, who has been researching these issues for more than a year now, discusses how the planned Zoo expansion development will affect Oakland’s already-high debt burden. There are much better alternatives that would protect the resources of the park while allowing the Zoo to expand in a way truly consistent with a conservation mission. Read what Jim has (and has not) been able to learn about the financing of this huge project, which if not changed, we will all be paying for for a long time to com - both in loss of rare species and financially. See
http://www.saveknowland.org/2012/03/08/oakland-debt-will-be-raised-with-zoos-new-multi-million-dollar-aerial-gondola/
4. FINAL BRIEF FILED IN LAWSUIT: Yesterday we filed the final brief in our lawsuit to compel the city to do a full Environmental Impact Report on the project. As our lawyers argued, “To allow the Project approval to stand would mean that developers can propose modest projects with less environmental review, then ramp up their projects post-approval while denying the need for a full EIR. CEQA [California Environmental Quality Act] does not work that way.” What we have realized over the five years of learning about all this is that CEQA does not work at all unless citizens are prepared to sue when their governments refuse to enforce it. There are daunting legal barriers, but we have a VERY strong legal team.
We TRULY appreciate all your help with the bills, but we have a very big one coming the end of this month—right now we need a few big donors to step up to the plate to catch us up. (Of course, we welcome your contributions of any amount, but if you can stretch and afford $500, $1000 or even $2000, please think about making a contribution NOW. Remember it is tax deductible and with tax time coming up you know those deductions will come in handy next year! There are always many things for all of us to spend money on, but I’m asking you to consider spending it on a fight that really matters, not just for ourselves, but for the plants, animals, and future generations that could enjoy this very special place if we prevail - and will lose it forever if we don’t. Can you spare just $2-3 a day for a year to save Oakland’s rarest and most biodiverse remaining open space? Checks: Make payable to CNPS and mail to Lee Ann Smith, Treasurer, 111 Shadow Mountain, Oakland, CA 94605. Or use our PayPal link on the website!
5. VOLUNTEERS NEEDED: We need a team of about 10-15 volunteers willing to do some informational tabling (at locations around Oakland) a couple of hours a week. We will provide all materials, training and identify placements. This is a great opportunity for those who don’t have a lot of money to contribute in a very important way to helping others learn about the campaign to save the park. Please email us at info@friendsofknowlandpark.org if you can commit to doing some volunteer work for the cause.
6. SPREAD THE WORD: You can help us! More people are visiting the park all the time and discovering its wonders. Please visit our website at
www.saveknowland.org
add comments on our blog posts and send the link to friends. “Like” us on Facebook. Sign up for our tweets if you Twitter. And please subscribe to our website newsletter here: http://bit.ly/Atv6B5
Thank you for all you do to help, and please let us know if you have comments on the website or ideas for other things we can do to protect the park.
Ruth, Tom and the Friends of Knowland Park Leadership Team
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9. Docent-led walks at Bay Area's premier spring wildflower site
Docent-led wildflower walks are now available year-round. They are free and require no reservations. Pick a date and join us! Check out the Edgewood Photos Website. You’ll find information about Edgewood’s plants, including photos and plant location details.
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10. Here is a link to Golden Gate Audubon Society's article on Beach Chalet in the March issue of Westside Observer.
http://www.westsideobserver.com/news/ggp.html#mar12
______________________________
"I would not enter on my list of friends
(Though graced with polished manners and fine sense,
Yet wanting sensibility), the man
Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm."
-The Task, Book VI, "Winter Walk at Noon" —William Cooper
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11.
Victory: Another Law Enacted To Protect Frogs
At the request of SAVE THE FROGS!, on January 24th the City of Santa Cruz became the first city in the USA to ban bullfrogs. More recently, on February 28th I spoke to the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, and they followed suit by voting unanimously to ban the importation, sale and purchase of American Bullfrogs in the county. We are now moving to the state level and hope to soon make California the first state in the country to ban these non-native predators that are imported into the state by the millions each year for use as pets and frog legs. Read the San Jose Mercury News Article by Jason Hoppin here. Kerry Kriger
savethefrogs.com/bullfrogs
Pacific Chorus Frogs (Pseudacris regilla) are a common prey of American Bullfrogs
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12. This link provides meeting information by District on the San Francisco City Budget.
http://www.sfmayor.org/index.aspx?page=737
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13. SFPA Park Bond Town Hall Meeting
San Francisco Parks Alliance will host a planning meeting focused on the upcoming parks bond:
Monday, March 12, 2012, 6pm to 8pm
Sports Basement, Grotto Room
1590 Bryant Street San Francisco
Community input played a crucial role in the success of the 2008 Clean and Safe Neighborhood Parks Bond. Help us build on that success. This meeting will engage park lovers and users in city-wide planning for the November parks bond measure.
Recreation and Parks Department staff will provide an update on the success of the 2008 Clean and Safe Neighborhood Parks Bond and highlight current park capital needs. We invite you to add your voice to this vital dialogue about what you want to see in your parks and what new needs may have emerged since 2008.
Please RSVP or send questions to policy@sfparksalliance.org by March 9th.
Refreshments will be served, and attendees will receive 20% off purchases that evening at Sports Basement!
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14. Nuclear energy
NEWS: It's Not Just Fukushima: Mass Disaster Evacuations Challenge Planners
The Fukushima evacuation zone raises the issue of what would happen during an evacuation in heavily populated U.S. metropolises during a nuclear meltdown
http://links.email.scientificamerican.com/ctt?kn=41&ms=Mzg5MTI0NDES1&r=NTM5NzIzNTA1NgS2&b=2&j=MTMyNjQ1MjkzS0&mt=1&rt=0
IN-DEPTH REPORTS: The Tsunami and Nuclear Crisis: One Year Later
Japan still struggles with the effects of a powerful earthquake, devastating tsunami and multiple meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant
http://links.email.scientificamerican.com/ctt?kn=5&ms=Mzg5MTI0NDES1&r=NTM5NzIzNTA1NgS2&b=2&j=MTMyNjQ1MjkzS0&mt=1&rt=0
CLIMATEWIRE: Chaos among Officials Bedeviled Japan During 2011 Tsunami Disaster
The government failed to provide accurate warnings after the March 11 event that damaged the Fukushima reactors. Public mistrust remains high
http://links.email.scientificamerican.com/ctt?kn=42&ms=Mzg5MTI0NDES1&r=NTM5NzIzNTA1NgS2&b=2&j=MTMyNjQ1MjkzS0&mt=1&rt=0
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For years man has dreamt that the power tucked away in the atomic nucleus would transform all our lives for the better. A year after Fukushima and 26 years after Chernobyl, we argue in our cover leader (and a 14-page special report) that nuclear energy is now clearly the dream that failed—for reasons of cost as much as safety.
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15.
PBS NEWSHOUR: Plant Movement from Climate Change Revealed in Interactive Map
U.S.D.A. Plant Hardiness Map enables users to see which plants are most likely to thrive in any U.S. area
http://links.email.scientificamerican.com/ctt?kn=30&ms=Mzg5MjU2NzIS1&r=NTM5NzIzNTA1NgS2&b=2&j=MTMzMTE2MjUwS0&mt=1&rt=0
CLIMATEWIRE: Net-Zero Energy Buildings Take Hold in U.S.
Buildings that produce as much energy on-site as they consume are becoming more common
http://links.email.scientificamerican.com/ctt?kn=32&ms=Mzg5MjU2NzIS1&r=NTM5NzIzNTA1NgS2&b=2&j=MTMzMTE2MjUwS0&mt=1&rt=0
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16. Excellent native garden in Glen Canyon
The electronic version of an article to appear in the Glen Park News in shortened form next weekend.
Just google: Glen Park Association and tap Jeanne Halpern's Ultimate Native Plant Garden. I guess it will stay up until the newspaper is published.
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17. Feedback
On Mar 6, 2012, at 7:44 PM, Steve Neff wrote:
Jake,
I like your Ed Abbey quote (as relayed by Paul Sutton): "If you can't pee off your porch, you live too close to town". Well, I don't let living in town stop me, though I mostly do it after dark. But what I most prefer is to pee into the burrows of the gophers who destroy my garden on a regular basis. I read somewhere that dehydrated coyote urine is a good gopher repellant. The nature lover in me is a little worried how coyote urine is gathered, however, so I'll stick to peeing in their holes myself.
as always, enjoying your newsletter, Steve Neff
Steve: Coyote urine is the choice du jour, apparently. It used to be lion piss. Talk about hard to get.
I pee off both my front and back porch regularly - the front only in the dark, but in back almost anytime. Safe, fertilizes the garden, and it doesn't have to be processed by the sewage treatment people. But mostly it's because it gives me a subtle feeling of freedom.
On Mar 9, 2012, at 12:44 PM, Cris Rys wrote:
Do you know if San Francisco supports the habitat, and is a correct place for Owl boxes, or Bat boxes ?
Eg places they can sleep in?
There are bats in San Francisco, primarily on the east side of the city. Putting up bat boxes would help them, I would think, as their nesting/roosting needs are special. Boxes should be designed correctly.
Some owls nest in the city, but I can't tell you anything about their nesting needs. If you want, I can post this mini-dialogue onto my newsletter, and I'm sure you'd get responses.
Sure. Posting and getting input would be great. We have rats and mosquitoes and the boxes have been suggested.
Fred Decker:
Now here's an indepedent cuss...
http://m.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/03/homeless-by-choice-how-to-live-for-free-in-america/254118/
Nice story, Fred, but not entirely convincing to me.
Keith McAllister (to Peter Vaernet):
Peter Vaernet:
Jake: Re grammatical issues: Winston Churchill's reply for having been criticized for ending a sentence with a proposition: "This is something up with which I will not put!"
Presumably the person criticizing the proposition at the end of the sentence rejected that proposition? Maybe with “No sex please. We’re British.”
Ruth Gravanis:
More about CMEs (Coronal Mass Ejections)
For folks who like pictures as well as words:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=77321&src=eoa-iotd
A great site where one can sign up for regular email updates: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/
JS: I feel the need to repeat part of last newsletter posting, drawing your attention to the incomprehensible titanic power of the Sun--just one of trillions of stars in the universe. We should worship the Sun:
A CME is a bubble of plasma-electrons, ions, and magnetic fields-shot from the Sun. A single CME can blast up to 10 billion tons of matter at speeds greater than 6 million mph.
One CME erupts each week at the ebb of the Sun's 11-year activity cycle. During solar maximum, three or more CMEs can blast off in a single day. When CMEs sweep past Earth, they can excite storms that make bright aurorae, the northern (and southern) lights. But such storms also can harm satellites and damage power-transmission equipment on the ground.
Can you imagine the power it takes to cast 10 billion tons from the enormous gravitational field of the Sun out into space--and at 6 million mph? Of course you can't, but it's healthy and exhilarating to contemplate it.
David Abrams (partial quote, heard on radio): We need that which is other than ourselves--the tumbling of the rapids, the grip of gravity. We have no distance from our technology.
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18. Robert Reich commentary on Marketplace
Kai Ryssdal: If you're in college or if you have a child in college for whom you want only the best, you're not going to like this news. The Economic Policy Institute, a think-tank in Washingon, released a study today showing wages for college graduates have fallen over the past decade more than 10 percent for some.
Be that as it may, commentator Robert Reich says a college education is still the key to a brighter future.
Robert Reich: Rick Santorum has called President Obama "a snob" for wanting everyone to get a college education. But Santorum needn't worry. America is already making it harder for young people of modest means to attend college.
http://www.marketplace.org/topics/life/commentary/college-key-success
(JS: I copied some of the comments on Reich's opinion piece):
I'm a very left-oriented liberal who still disagrees with this commentary.
Retirement of this 1960s bolshevik is long over due.
This is typical Marxist tripe from Robert Reich.
The student loan program(s) is already a looming national debt issue on which public radio should be reporting, but indicates that such over-the-top socialists like Reich look only at selective facts, as does Marketplace as well. And don't forget to add all those students who won't repay the loans to our unemployment rolls where they belong.
This is typical, liberal, re-distribution of wealth. Why is it everyone thinks the rich should adopt the poor and pay for them? It is getting old. Socialism, which is what this is, dose not work.
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19. Marketplace for Tuesday, March 6, 2012
There's been no shortage of stories lately about the money in the politics of the 2012 election cycle. We've done it on our show. Everybody has. Because - to be fair - presidential election years can be big business as Sabri Ben Achour told us today with a story about the effect of Super PACs on radio and television advertising during election seasons.
So today, on Super Tuesday, from Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist Mark Fiore, the Mad-Lib version of the 2012 campaign.
http://www.marketplace.org/topics/elections/campaign-trail/video-super-pac-mad-libs
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20. cuckold
MEANING:
noun: A man whose wife is unfaithful.
verb tr.: To make a cuckold of a husband.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Old French cucu (cuckoo) + -ald (pejorative suffix), from the female cuckoo's habit of leaving eggs in another bird's nest. Earliest documented use: 1250.
A reed warbler raising the young of a cuckoo
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21.
The Sierra Club and the $100 Million Donation That Changed It Forever
The Sierra Club has a long history of saying one thing but doing another. The organization made headline news recently for accepting $26 million in secret donations from individuals associated with Chesapeake Energy, a New York Stock Exchange-listed natural gas company. As reported by Time magazine, between 2007 and 2010 the Sierra Club accepted over $25 million mostly from Aubrey McClendon, CEO of Chesapeake Energy, one of the biggest United States-based gas drilling companies and heavily involved in fracking. In the three days leading up to the Time expose, the Sierra Club refused to answer direct questions about its Chesapeake funding history and tried to mislead its members about its nefariously close association with the driller.
In 2010, under the direction of new executive director Michael Brune, the Sierra Club stopped accepting Chesapeake funds and allegedly refused an additional proffered $30 million.
Brune also ended the Sierra Club’s association with the Clorox Company which had donated $1.3 million over four years in exchange for the right to display the club’s logo on its new line of “Green Works” cleaning products. Clorox Bleach is an EPA-registered pesticide; the EPA has fined the company for violating the bleach’s labeling guidelines.
But the biggest donation the Sierra Club ever received is the one that altered it forever. In 2004, the Los Angeles Times revealed a $100 million gift made by investor David Gelbaum. Unfortunately for environmentalists, Gelbaum’s money came with the string attached that the club never speak out against or try to limit immigration into the United States no matter how obvious it became that adding more people has severe ecological consequences.
Gelbaum told Times reporter Kenneth Weiss that his instructions to then-Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope were that “...if they ever came out anti-immigration, they would never get a dollar from me." Pope eagerly agreed...but with devastating results.
Not that long ago, the Sierra Club had willingly tackled immigration-related population issues.
In her Spring, 1989 report Dr. Judy Kunofsky, chair of the Sierra Club Population Committee concluded that the club should work to: “bring about the stabilization of the population first of the United States and then of the world.” That goal was abruptly abandoned after the club deposited Gelbaum’s check.
Throughout the years, true environmentalists like legendary Sierra Club founder David Brower, UCLA astrophysics Professor Ben Zuckerman, elected to its board in 2002, and former Colorado governor Richard Lamm, defeated in his 2003 board run, tried unsuccessfully to guide the club back to its roots. Neither Zuckerman nor Lamm knew until they read it in the newspaper that Gelbaum and Pope had conspired against members who wanted population growth curbed.
Brower once said, “Overpopulation is perhaps the biggest problem facing us, and immigration is part of that problem. It has to be addressed.” After he resigned from the Sierra Club in frustration in 2000, Brower famously described the board as “fiddling as the Earth burns.”
In the decade since Gelbaum bought out Pope, the Club’s pro-immigration folly is easily documented. According to a Center for Immigration Studies study titled A Record Setting Decade of Immigration: 2000-2010, the nation’s legal and illegal immigrant population reached 40 million in 2010, the highest number in American history. Nearly 14 million settled in the United States from 2000-2010. Each one of them adds to America’s footprint.
Had the Sierra Club not taken Gelbaum’s bribe but had instead stayed on its original course, the United States’ ever-deepening population crisis might not be so acute.
Californians for Population Stabilization
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22.
Disaster preparedness
Good advice I picked up from an email correspondent:
Most of us do know and expect that a bigger than our usual 4.0 size will quake our area. Keeping the pantry stocked and water supplies is what we do. I am unsure that full gas tanks will get us anywhere but maybe keep us warm or cool if there is a safe place to park.
Also, it is a good idea to have some cash available in $5s, 10s and 20s as you probably know. Undoubtedly, no one will be able or want to make change.
Dan & I were in Osaka when the big Kobe 8. struck and we learned a lot in the three days following the quake. There will be empty shelves at markets within hours--communication systems conk out. Even in hotels and places that may have come through the shakers most residents/guests are locked out in lobbies or other places until the buildings can be checked for occupancy. Those checking the buildings for safety are in high demand and they may not be up and moving around so patience and caution is required.
(Shortly after the Haiti quake one of the few communications that was working was SKYPE. Of course, with skype you need the computer charged up.)
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