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County Supervisors to Vote on Community Choice Energy and Kill SDG&E’s Monopoly

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By Tyson Siegle, SanDiego350

On February 15th, San Diegans will have an opportunity to take a huge step forward on clean energy.

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors will vote on implementation for some or all of the San Diego County Comprehensive Renewable Energy Plan (CREP).

Many of the steps outlined in the plan save the county money and promote a healthier environment, but one particular piece of the plan could do more to promote clean energy and lower costs than all the rest combined: Community Choice Energy (CCE).   [Read more…]

Reports of the Destruction of Experience and the Failure of Ecopsychology are Greatly Exaggerated

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This is a response to Will Falk’s article, The Destruction of Experience: How Ecopsychology Has Failed, written on Jan. 10, 2017.

By Thomas J. Doherty

I feel for the author of The Destruction of Experience: How Ecopsychology Has Failed who sounds as if he is truly suffering over the state of their world as he sees it. As a parent, I can identify with his profound feelings of attachment and protectiveness for his nephew. I also appreciate his recognition of some well-known ecopsychology thinkers, such as those represented in the 1995 Sierra Club Ecopsychology anthology. Books like this sit on my shelf as I write, and have been a central influence on my adult life and profession.

But, I fear that the author has drawn too narrow circle around one snapshot of ecopsychology thinking, indeed mainly one book, and one variation on psychologically informed environmentalism, to make such broad and sweeping conclusions as he does.   [Read more…]

Public Transit as a Social Justice Issue

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By Joseph Wagner / San Diego UrbDeZine

One crucial aspect of contemporary debates on spatial politics, socioeconomic stratification, and immigration is the issue of public transit.

Prior to the question of a person’s right to be in a city (or supposed lack thereof in the case of undocumented immigrants), there is the question of a city’s duty to provide feasible means for moving around in its space. Albeit mundane, it is a key factor determining a person’s economic and educational opportunities, to name only two.

And it hardly bears mentioning, but moving around in San Diego all but requires a car.   [Read more…]

Bluff Collapse Reminds Us of Inevitable Erosion of Sunset Cliffs

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Sections of the bluff along Sunset Cliffs in Ocean Beach collapsed January 28th, right after heavy rains. First reported by Delinda Lombardo in the San Diego Reader, the collapse affected two properties, 5107 Narragansett Avenue – the Pelican Point apartment complex, and the property just to its south, 1783–1787 Ocean Front Street.

None of the units on the properties were directly affected, but the cliff gave way under patios on the first floor at the Pelican Point. Lombardo reported, “Though there was no reported damage to the structure itself, the seawall located below the property is crushed.”   [Read more…]

It’s Time to Clean House at SANDAG

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Andy Keatts story at Voice of San Diego about SANDAG (San Diego’s Regional Planning Agency) prompted one of those “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore” moments for me yesterday.

He’s obtained emails showing the agency’s executive director and other high-ranking officials deliberately misled the public regarding economic forecasts with significant errors overstating sales tax revenues expected for transportation projects included as part of Measure A.   [Read more…]

Climate Change: No One Is Exempt

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Luckier Americans are insulated from many everyday worries, like struggling to pay the rent or mortgage on time. Some even enjoy life in gated communities, fine dining and first-class travel. But, just as money is no guarantee of happiness, neither is it assurance of protection against all of the frightening impacts of unchecked global warming.

2016 was the third straight year that the Earth’s temperature was the hottest on record. Contrary to what one might hear in politicized discourse, climate scientists are nearly unanimous in concluding climate change is happening and is the result of burning fossil fuels for energy.   [Read more…]

What Happened to the Rails?

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By Roy Little

The Light-footed Ridgway’s Rail (LFRR) is on the endangered species list for both the Federal Govt and CA but there is a definite indication of problems locally as shown by the population crash of a factor of 10 according to the most recent 2016 census.

First I have to provide some background information to set the stage. The wetland is located west of Pacific Beach Drive and south of Crown Point Drive in the northeast corner of Mission Bay Park. The wetland area is roughly 40 acres, partly owned by UC and partly by the City of San Diego. Officially the wetland is called the Kendall-Frost/Northern Wildlife Reserve (K-F/NW.)   [Read more…]

Feckless Democrats and Business Unionists Fail Early Trump Era Tests

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Making Deals with the Devil

As inspiring as the big marches were last week, it didn’t take long for evidence to emerge that there are still plenty of folks in the Democratic party and elsewhere who just don’t get what time it is. As I wrote on Martin Luther King Jr. day, it was dismaying to see prominent Democrats like Senator Cory Booker and twelve of his Big Pharma funded friends vote against Bernie Sanders’ effort to reduce prescription drug prices before the inauguration.

And that low bar was then pushed a bit further down when ex-Democratic Vice Presidential candidate and consummate corporate tool, Joe Lieberman, gleefully presented Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos while slamming American public education at her confirmation hearing. At that same hearing, Lieberman also failed to disclose that his law firm represents Trump.   [Read more…]

Gov. Brown: ‘California is Not Turning Back. Not Now, Not Ever.’

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State of the State Address / Office of the Governor

This is California, the sixth most powerful economy in the world. One out of every eight Americans lives right here and 27 percent – almost eleven million – were born in a foreign land.

When California does well, America does well. And when California hurts, America hurts.

As the English poet, John Donne, said almost 400 years ago: “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main…And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”

A few moments ago, I swore into office our new attorney general. Like so many others, he is the son of immigrants who saw California as a place where, through grit and determination, they could realize their dreams. And they are not alone, millions of Californians have come here from Mexico and a hundred other countries, making our state what it is today: vibrant, even turbulent, and a beacon of hope to the rest of the world.

We don’t have a Statue of Liberty with its inscription: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…” But we do have the Golden Gate and a spirit of adventure and openness that has welcomed – since the Gold Rush of 1848 – one wave of immigration after another.   [Read more…]

ChangeFest Speakers Rally for Driscoll’s Boycott, Against Domestic Violence & for Fracking Ban

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By Dan Bacher / DailyKos

A diverse array of Sacramento community groups participated in the “ChangeFest: A Climate Mobilization” rally on the north steps of the Capitol on Jan. 21, as part of a week of anti-Trump street protests in Sacramento centered around the Presidential Inauguration.

“It’s empowering to see the community take action against neoliberalism, inequality and taking a stand for justice,” said Garcia. “Borders around the world are being militarized and states are turning immigration into scapegoats all for global capitalism. The workers here in the US and workers in Mexico are not to blame for the lost of jobs; it’s greed by the corporations that value profit over people.”

“Immigrant labor is extremely important for transnational corporations economy such as Driscoll’s, the largest distributor of berries in the world,” said Garcia. “Driscoll’s justifies the pay of $6 a day for ten-plus working hours in San Quintin, Baja California, 5 hours from the Mexican border in San Diego California.”   [Read more…]

Calls For Senators Feinstein and Harris to Reject Trump’s Climate Denier Cabinet

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By David Harris / SanDiego350

Two weeks ago, a sign-wielding crowd of 150 people gathered together in front of the downtown Federal Building to deliver an urgent message to California’s two Senators: reject four nominations made by President Trump to key cabinet-level level posts. Why? Because all four of these men deny the scientific consensus on human-caused climate change.

At the peaceful but spirited rally, speakers Diane Takvorian of the Environmental Health Coalition and newly elected Councilmember Georgette Gomez called upon Senators Diane Feinstein and Kamala Harris to reject Trump’s nominees. “I know how much California has done and plans to do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” stated Takvorian, “and I know Senators Feinstein and Harris support this progress. That’s why it’s now so critical for them to take a vocal, principled stand and oppose these climate denying nominees who value corporate profits over our communities.”   [Read more…]

Pipelines, Propaganda, and Even More Protests

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Indigenous Tribes, Environmentalists, and Scientists Feel Trump’s Wrath

The number one selling book on Amazon earlier this week was George Orwell’s ‘1984’ the classic story of a world of government surveillance, propaganda and “newspeak.” In the book, the “Ministry of Truth” actually delivers lies.

I suspect this uptick in sales (and the announcement of additional printing by Penguin Books) comes from the realization by Americans that lying is officially part of the new administration’s program.

Now it’s time to acknowledge ‘alternative facts’ are just one part of what’s going on. The tactics of this administration also include chaos, as proven by the rapid-fire attacks on institutions, humans, and the planet over the past couple of days.   [Read more…]

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