The blackout that shrouded San Diego in darkness in September demonstrated the problem with relying on power grids as they’re currently designed. The problem began at a substation in Arizona, and a series of triggering events caused failures all the way to San Onofre nuclear plant on the coast. At the cost of an estimated $100 million in damages, and major inconvenience to millions of people, the San Diego region received a crash course about the fragility of depending on a grid that runs mostly on distant sources of energy.

But it didn’t have to turn out this way. Four years ago a San Diego engineer, Bill Powers, published a groundbreaking report, San Diego Smart Energy 2020. The report was all about how to use off-the-shelf technologies in order to build and generate power locally to enhance the existing grid, and provide protection against these sorts of events. The report isn’t a pie-in-the-sky vision of the future. It uses affordable technologies that are available and ready to deploy. It’s a practical guide that includes a 20 percent reduction in energy usage through existing efficiency measures and 2,000 megawatts of local solar projects. To back up the solar, which doesn’t generate at night, Powers’ report proposes 700 new megawatts of small co-generation facilities, similar to what is already in use at Qualcomm, UCSD, SDSU, and Children’s Hospital, which are highly efficient users of natural gas.

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California  – Do Not Let Big Oil Win

Oil companies are working very hard this week to block a measure that would protect California’s oceans, beaches, bays and coastlines from oil spills.

This coming Monday, an important bill sponsored by Pacific Environment and supported by several environmental groups will be voted on by the California State Senate.  Assembly Bill 1112, authored by Assembly Member Jared Huffman,  tightens up our state’s oil spill prevention standards while ensuring that there are adequate funds to manage these programs— and paid for by Big Oil, and not the citizens of California.  If this law does not pass, California’s waters will be at risk of devastating and costly oil spills which have severe impacts on our marine environment and public health.

Here’s why this this bill is important:

Our state’s ability to prevent and respond to oil spills is funded by the Oil Spill Prevention Administration Fund (OSPAF), which collects very small fees from the oil industry at a current cap of a nickel per barrel of petroleum product that enters our state.  Unfortunately, this fund will be deficient by millions of dollars over the next several years and the state will have no choice but to cut programs and staff as early as 2012. Clearly, that nickel is not enough.

Huffman’s bill, AB 1112, will bring the fund back to solvency by requiring oil companies to pay an additional 1 and ¾ cents per each barrel of petroleum product shipped into California.  The bill also strengthens the state’s oil spill prevention program by increasing monitoring and safety measures on board the most dangerous oil tankers and offshore drilling platforms.  Unless lawmakers pass this bill, California’s wildlife, beaches and bays, tourism and fishing industries, and human health will be at risk of a catastrophe that could cripple our state.

So, who would be against safeguarding our state from oil spills?

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In June, Pacific Environment was lucky to host visiting scholar Chen Yongsong, from the Chinese non-profit organization Yunnan Econetwork. Born in the tropical rainforests at the southern tip of China, Yongsong is a seasoned environmental advocate who has worked as a consultant to the Chinese government on a range of environmental issues. For example, he helped develop and ground truth the first government-led sustainable development plan for Yunnan Province, working with communities on a huge range of pilot projects in forestry, agriculture, and environmental management.

Our San Francisco staff and other colleagues gathered to hear Yongsong’s insights into Chinese environmental politics. From a foreign perspective, the space for environmental advocacy in China can be seen as quite narrow, and it was refreshing to learn from Yongsong that the space for doing effective grassroots environmental work in China is much larger than we may think.

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Last week, Pacific Environment successfully concluded one of three annual exchanges that support our programmatic efforts and provide opportunities for our partner organizations from Russia to gain new perspectives and build organizational capacity. The purpose of the exchange was to bring 4 -5 indigenous leaders and scholars working on indigenous issues from Kamchatka and Yakutia to North America to learn about sacred sites protection in the United States. We invited two of our longtime partners from Kamchatka, native Itelmen women Nina Zaporotskaya and Nastya Chukhman, along with Venera Sukhareva, an indigenous Koryak and the chair of the local Indigenous Association. Joining them were two indigenous Sakha peoples; Valentina Dmitrieva, a 20-year veteran of the environmental movement, and Viliam Yakovlev, an ethnographer and a cultural expert.

Our participants met with Native American tribal and NGO leaders in New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and South Lake Tahoe to learn about of the methodology of protecting sacred sites and indigenous lands. During the exchange, our Russian participants convened with their peers from the Navajo, Acoma, Washoe, Paiute, and Hopi nations to share experiences and learn from each other.  Our Russian guests gained first-hand knowledge of how sacred sites and indigenous lands are protected  and managed in the United States.  Participants learned the tools needed to educate members of their local communities about sacred sites protection, how to lead efforts to protect sacred sites in Russia, and how to facilitate intercultural exchanges between native communities in the United States and indigenous communities in Russia.

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This year I had the opportunity to attend the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues which was held in New York City from May 16th – 27th. In addition, my name was put forward by Chickaloon Village Tribal Council members to the Tribal Link Foundation who sponsored their annual three day Project Access Permanent Forum training. I had the honor of attending both the training as well as the first few days of the Permanent Forum.

The Permanent Forum is one of three UN bodies that are mandated to deal specifically with indigenous peoples’ issues. The others are the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous Peoples.

The Permanent Forum is an advisory body to the Economic and Social Council with a mandate to discuss indigenous issues related to economic and social development, culture, the environment, education, health and human rights.  According to its mandate, the Permanent Forum will:

1)  Provide expert advice and recommendations on indigenous issues to the Council, as well as to programs, funds and agencies of the United Nations, through the Council.

2) Raise awareness and promote the integration and coordination of activities related to indigenous issues within the UN system.

3) Prepare and disseminate information on indigenous issues. (more…)

A western gray whale named Flex has been receiving media attention worldwide for being the first of his kind to be tagged and tracked.  He is a 13 year old western gray whale that was tagged on October 4^th, 2010 by Russian and American scientists off of Sakhalin Island in eastern Russia.

His precedence is not the only thing gaining him fame though; his unpredictable path in the last four months has also been gaining him attention.  Scientists and researchers are baffled by his movements, but then again, they humbly admit they did not really know where western gray whales should be going in the first place. (more…)

In December of 2009, the U.S. Ex Im Bank gave a record $3 Billion dollars in financing to ExxonMobil for a controversial Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project in Papua New Guinea.   NGOs and Civil Society groups in Papua New Guinea and abroad warned Ex Im Bank that this project’s pipeline would slice through tribal lands and stir conflicts among local people.  And, as predicted, that’s exactly what happened.

Early this week, an outbreak of violence was reportedly sparked by the recent death of a child near the project site. Villagers reportedly attacked employees of an international contractor to the gas project which led to the shutdown of work at one of the LNG project sites.  Disputes between local landowners and the $15 billion dollar LNG project are nothing new and have been reported several times since the project was sanctioned in 2009. The project was disrupted even last week when landowners protested that they hadn’t received the benefits they have been promised from this project. In February 2010, four people were reportedly killed when fighting broke out over a land dispute and there have been several other shutdowns of the project due to similar issues with landowners and tribal communities.

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With his veto pen in hand yesterday, Governor Schwarzenegger missed a huge opportunity to leave a real environmental legacy. Instead, he demonstrated his disregard for California’s priceless marine environment and its billion dollar associated economy, swiftly undermining our ability to respond to the next devastating oil spill.  The governor vetoed AB 234 (D- Huffman), a bill that would have been a triple-win when it comes to protecting our state from oil spills.

If signed, the legislation would have required a safety precaution known as pre-booming – placing oil containment boom in the water – during the fuel transfer operations that take place daily in California’s coastal waters. This technique could have prevented the Dubai Star tanker from spilling over 500 gallons into San Francisco Bay last October. In addition to this increased protection, the bill included a timely take-a-way from the BP gulf oil tragedy and would have insured that the 27 oil rigs in California state waters are equipped with fully redundant safety mechanisms to prevent a blowout here.

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A few years ago, experts came together to discuss potential scenarios for the Arctic.  They discussed what the Arctic would look like in 50 years in the face of climate change and intensified resource development.

The experts developed several scenarios, ranging from a race by countries to extract natural resources to armed military conflict, from protecting the Arctic for its natural wonders to a vision of sustainable development that brought economic wealth to local peoples.  After Russia planted its flag on the North Pole, news outlets trumpeted the likelihood of a new “cold war” with conflict brewing in the Arctic.

This week, Russia held a conference to try to dispel this myth.  The conference, called “The Arctic:  A Territory of Dialogue,” Diplomats and scientists from around the Arctic talked about the importance of working together to address the challenges facing the Arctic.  Speeches by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Prince Albert II of Monaco, and Icelandic President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson provided an official air to the discussion.

I was fortunate enough to be invited to the conference by the Russian Geographic Society, which organized and hosted the event.  In many ways, the conference was organized to showcase Russia’s long-term commitment to exploration and research of the Arctic.  Although hosted by Sergei Shoigu – Russia’s Minister for Emergency Situations and the President of the Russian Geographic Society – the most visible participant was Artur Chilingarov, Russia’s colorful Arctic explorer who planted the Russian flag on the bottom of the North Pole. (more…)

Grandpa Hu (not his real name) said “my loyalty always lies with Chairman Mao.” His red pin emblazoned with the golden head of Mao proudly hung on his left chest. It sparkled in the sun, its statement pronounced by the backdrop of his dark blue vest. Grandpa Hu wore a pair of wide-rimmed Polaroid sunglasses, which were unusually fancy for a retired peasant. He seemed healthy and strong. His description of how his family was unaffected by the flood sounded proud and almost cheery. Grandpa Hu said he used to work for the Forestry Department, until they decided they needed someone who was literate to do the job. He was told to retire early. His accent was very thick and I had to wait for my host to transcribe his words to match my speculation of what he may have said. (more…)