San Francisco Civic Center and Ft. Mason, Labor Day Weekend
Friday August 29 to Monday, September 1, 2008
Slow Food Nation’s inaugural festival will offer activities for all ages, including a markeplace, tastings, dinners, talks, forums, workshops, films and a music festival. The three day event is geared to transform participants’ perception of food, and to engage them in the international effort to build a sustainable, just, and healthy food system.
Solar Living Center, Hopland, CA
August 16 to 17, 2008
The Solar Living Institute bills SolFest as the “world’s premier two-day celebration of renewable energy and sustainable living.”
“Our main stage, family stage, and six workshop tents are filled with world-renowned speakers, musicians and artists, offering keynotes, panels, performances, and over fifty one-hour workshops. The leading developers and distributors of green products and services are here too, sponsoring and exhibiting in hundreds of booths and displays that fill our beautifully landscaped grounds for these two magical days.”
SolFest takes place on the grounds of the Solar Living Center, “a unique solar-powered permaculture site,” where festival attendees can see the principles of renewable energy, green building and sustainable agriculture in action. And participants might learn about the hazards of building in a flood plan. The center suffered major damage when the site was flooded a few years back.
For those who can’t make the trip to Hopland in August, the nonprofit institute offers workshops year-round in Hopland, San Francisco, and elsewhere. Some programs last one day, such as urban gardening and brewing your own biofuel, while others run two or more days–such as the photovoltaic design and installation intensive and constructing a greywater system.
Contact:
The institute’s 2008 workshops
The California Air Resources Board presented its plan to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020 at a workshop in San Jose on August 8, 2008. The audience of about 100 came to offer comments on the AB 32 draft scoping plan, designed to implement the California Global Warming Solution Act, as much as to hear what the board proposes.
The State of California’s climate plan establishes an ambitious goal. It seeks to engage individuals, communities and businesses in strategies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and
“. . . make our cities healthier, our natural areas safer and our working landscapes more productive; that make our economy more resilient as we reduce our reliance on imported petroleum; and that pave the way for technologies that can make our state both more prosperous and more sustainable.”
The state’s $100 billion travel and hospitality industry, and the 900,000 travel-related jobs, are particularly vulnerable to climate change. During the 2008 fire season, over 2,000 wildfires scorched California, and uncontrolled blazes forced mass evacuations at some of the state’s cherished destinations–Big Sur, Santa Cruz, Yosemite, Shasta-Trinity, and the Northern Sierras.
Spring 2008, preceding the fires of summer, was the driest in a generation. The governor declared a water emergency and water districts across the state instituted mandatory water rationing, measures that affect California residents and tourists alike.
The shrinking Sierra snowpack could devastate the state’s ski resorts and affect outdoor recreation activities year-round. The state’s wineries are threatened by rising temperatures and changing weather patterns. California’s coastal communities face rising sea levels and warming waters, which could adversely affect these tourist destinations.
The Air Resources Board will consider comments on the plan, submitted in writing and at public hearings, when it writes its “Proposed Scoping Plan,” which will be released on October 3, 2008. The board will vote on the proposed plan at its November 20 meeting.
Keep reading for more about the Draft Scoping Plan; or
It was standing-room only at the Santa Clara County auditorium on August 8, 2008, when representatives from the California Air Resources Board opened the public hearing on the state’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020. The parking lot outside the auditorium was also full, since the board chose a locale for the hearing that was a good five miles from downtown San Jose, and away from the city’s street car lines.
Kevin Kennedy from the Air Resources Board spent the first hour describing the state’s plan to reduce GHG emissions by:
Then it was the public’s turn to address the critical issue of climate change.
Workshop on the Scoping Plan for AB 32–the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006
Friday, August 8, 2008, 9:30 to 4 p.m.
Santa Clara County Auditorium
1555 Berger Drive, San Jose
The AB 32 Scoping Plan contains the main strategies California will use to reduce the greenhouse gases (GHG). The California Air Resources Board is conducting a series of meetings and workshops throughout the state to receive public input on these proposed strategies.