Feature Archives

Grey water activists and editors Laura Allen and Cleo Woelfle-Erskine celebrated the release of the book, Dam Nation: Dispatches From The Water Underground, and facilitated an interactive workshop, Future Water Solutions, on May 24th in Santa Cruz. People took a look at what individuals, communities, and municipalities are doing to reconnect to water cycles, and there was a discussion of local and global issues.

An Oakland judge on April 18 refused to back down from his earlier order to stop water exports from the South Delta until an incidental take permit for endangered fish is obtained. Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch ordered the agency to "cease and desist" from operation of the Harvey O. Banks Pumping Plant Operation until the agency has obtained authorization with regard to the Delta smelt, winter-run chinook salmon and spring-run chinook salmon.

On Friday, May 11th, Berkeley Critical Mass was stopped by a car that destroyed several bicycles. The cyclists had been through much of Berkeley, including a sojourn to Indian Rock, and were heading back down the Alameda. The riders entered an intersection on a green light, and several were struck by a car, which trapped three bicycles underneath it. They, along with dozens of others, had been participating in a monthly bicycle ride around Berkeley, promoting bicycling and the reduction of automobile and oil dependency. Police reportedly sided with the driver and denied the rights of the demonstrators.

Friday, May 4th was one of the most successful Oakland Critical Mass rides to date. The bicyclists rolled together down Telegraph, visited the Art Murmur, and encountered a scene where a bicyclist had apparently been struck by a motorist. After the ride, some cyclists continued through West Oakland to the collapsed portion of the MacArthur Maze, where they entered the worksite and observed the deconstruction/reconstruction. Later, they corrected a bike hazard that is known as the "Grates of Death." To further assert the message of carmageddon in the face of deadly grates, mazes, and consumer culture, the big box stores of Emeryville were stormed by TallBike.

Van Jones spoke at UCSC on April 25, on "Growing Greener, Growing Together: Sustainability, Social Justice and the Future of the Progressive Movement." Van Jones is the Executive Director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, a national organization in Oakland, CA, that has focused on positive alternatives to incarceration and violence in urban America.

On April 14th, tens of thousands of people gathered across the country to call for action on climate change. The group Step it Up spearheaded the national day of action. Over 1,300 rallies, demonstrations and actions were held in all fifty states to call on Congress to cut carbon emissions by 80 percent by the year 2050.

In June of 2005, in a village called Rossport in Northwest Ireland, residents began to notice an unusual number of trucks carrying pipeline on their roads. There were so many trucks, in fact, that it was sometimes impossible to travel anywhere as these giant lorries could fully eclipse the narrow country lanes.