Big News to End 2008!
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* Because the stronger nature is, the more resilient she can be in the face of climate change.
* And for the satisfaction and happiness we receive from working together as a community to do so. 
* Because if we can restore an intensely developed place like San Francisco, we can restore anything.
News
HANC Native Plant Nursery Partnership
Nature in the City and the Haight-Ashbury Neighborhood Council have entered into a strategic partnership to promote & manage HANC's Native Plant Nursery inside the recycling center at the corner of Frederick & Arguello! We are very excited about this opportunity with HANC and anticipate that backyard habitat restoration in San Francisco will benefit greatly.
Many of our projects will benefit from this alliance, including the Green Hairstreak Corridor, where 100's of plants were installed at the corner of 14th and Pacheco a few weekends ago. (See before and after photos) The partnership will help catalyze native plant restoration for the Mission Greenbelt and Mt. Sutro projects as well.
Fall Fundraising & Program Update
Be the voice of San Francisco's Wildlife!
Your donations help us make San Francisco an international leader in the restoration of urban biodiversity. If you haven't given to Nature in the City, how can we persuade you? Are you an environmentalist, nature-lover, radical ecologist, or just somebody who desires a more livable city?
Please check out our program updates and our 2008 accomplishments, which were included in our most recent email.
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Ecological Economics: Capitalism, the Green Economy and Ecological Restoration
What a year! No doubt we are at a turning point in history. If you have any capacity to hope, the election of Barack Obama presents an historic and exciting opportunity to envision and trust in a better future. But the legislative drudgery around the financial bailout, the economic crisis, and the fiscal stimulus package is rather tedious for the majority of us who understand fundamentally that the ideology of unfettered speculative neo-liberal “free” market capitalism doesn’t “work” even in the “best of times.” The good parts (i.e., NOT throwing money at Wall Street) of what the federal government is proposing to do - now that it suddenly finds itself in a position to do something -- are precisely what central government is good for all of the time.
Caps on executive compensation, public infrastructure re-investment, universal healthcare, mortgage and foreclosure relief are a small share of what the government should have been doing for my entire lifetime in order to stem the tide of inequality wrought by top-down corporate capitalism. One of my favorite statistics: over several decades, the ratio of average CEO pay to average worker pay has increased from 20:1 to a whopping 400:1. If that doesn’t illustrate inequality and bad priorities I don’t know what does.
Another and related inequality has been going on for the entire life of this country: ecological destruction, or "the externalization of environmental costs," if you’re an economist. Notwithstanding national parks and other success stories like the Endangered Species Act, the human race, most notably US-led multi-national corporations, aided and abetted by the “Washington Consensus,” have been laying waste to the planet’s natural resources and cultural diversity for hundreds of years.
So now we literally have a climate crisis before us. Not just a sunflower crisis or a frog crisis or a rainforest or spiral of plastic in the North Pacific crisis, but a climate crisis – everybody’s environment is endangered. Another good statistic: of the entire supply of freshwater on the planet, 50% is polluted!
So how much of the federal government economic recovery package, being heroically championed by the President-Elect, is going to go toward the actual ecological restoration of our natural environment, our home and the home of every other living thing on the planet with which we are interconnected and interdependent?
Exploit the opportunity offered by the sudden crisis to roll back right-wing Republican socio-economic ideology and truly lift up the rest of the country! But please, Mr. President-Elect, members of Congress, Governors, Mayors and legislators throughout the nation, let us do so in a true context of change. Let us create a socially & ecologically sustainable future. Not only do we need the uniquely human priorities of single-payer healthcare, universally affordable pre-K–college education, roofs over everybody’s heads, and affordable, toxin-free, organic food, but also, we need to restore equity between humans and the rest of nature.
Notwithstanding some notable exceptions, Van Jones for one, the voice of reason for ecological recovery is pretty quiet at the moment. Some apologists have even said that the financial meltdown necessitates that we hold off on addressing climate change! Rapacious greed has led to our climate crisis, and instead of bailing out the lifeboat of the planet, we should give money to the corporate profiteers who continue blowing holes in the bottom of the boat with an axe!
I would ask the same question we have been asking San Francisco for the life of our organization, Nature in the City, now for the planet: What is and how can we truly have social and economic justice and “national environmental sustainability” without the ecological restoration of the continent and hemisphere’s ecosystems, from Haiti to the Haight?
“What we call Man’s power over Nature turns out to be a power exercised by some men over other men with Nature as the instrument.” - C.S. Lewis
Indeed, our environmental crisis is a socio-economic problem; the health and integrity of our natural ecosystems depend on restoration of socio-economic health and equity. The inverse is also true: we have to restore our damaged ecosystems and natural resources in order for our economy and cultures to thrive.
So Mr. President Elect, as part of the $1 Trillion economic recovery package, how about allocating a modest 10%, or $100 Billion to the 50 states for locally-based and -coordinated ecological restoration and ecosystem recovery? And meanwhile, let’s not destroy, develop, pave over or otherwise lay waste to what’s left of our remaining natural environment! For all of our supposed material needs, could we not reduce, reuse and recycle nearly everything, one way or the other? If we don’t recover our country’s ecology, we will have no future economy to recover. And what is the “economy” but people being happy, healthy, and restoring a positive, mutually beneficial human- nature relationship?
How many jobs could we create, not only by installing ubiquitous solar panels, expanding public rail transit, and otherwise “greening” the energy sector, but also by physically healing - restoring every square inch of land in this country? How many jobs could we create if we rebuild (not build, thank you) ecocities according to principles of localization, bioregionalism, and “ecological restoration as a means of sustaining the diversity of life on Earth and reestablishing an ecologically healthy relationship between nature and culture."
The Ecological Restoration Fund of the Federal (Ecological) Economic Recovery Act will restore beauty, diversity, and integrity to our natural environment, and:
1. Create truly green jobs of the ecological restoration industry such as hydrologists, geographers, ecologists, engineers, botanists, designers, laborers, project managers, heavy equipment operators, and even landscape architects.
2. Challenge our past hubris by rediscovering humility to treat native wildlife, plants, fungi and all other living things with awe and respect, thereby restoring and revolutionizing our relationship with nature toward mutually beneficial nature-culture co-evolution.
3. Restore habitat and ecosystems of native plant communities, wildlife, and rare and endangered species.
4. Restore health, diversity, dynamic stability, flexibility, and natural flood control to our nation’s waterways and watersheds.
5. Manage the spread and proliferation of invasive species, which are second only to human infrastructural development in ecological destruction.
6. Restore local nature everywhere, both for its intrinsic value and because every place on Earth is part of the interconnected web of life on the planet.
7. Restore the continent’s ecosystems to be resilient once again and to resist the inevitable global climate catastrophe.
8. Heal the land and heal ourselves, through increased physical activity, spiritual renewal, community, and creativity.
9. Create ecological stewardship-based community pride and responsibility.
10. Give everyone, including city dwellers, immediate access to experience wild nature, where they live, in their own habitat, so they need less from the rest of the planet, and can achieve happiness as a function of a deeper sense of place.
Links
| Bay Localize | Green For All |
| Dot Earth - NY Times | Ideas for Change |
| Ecocity Builders | Obama Introduces the New Energy Team |
| Ecological Restoration | Planet Drum |
Ken Salazar a Disappointing Choice for Secretary of the Interior
Stronger, More Scientifically-Based Leadership Needed
to Fix Crisis-Plagued Agency
President-elect Barack Obama has selected Sen. Ken Salazar (D-CO) as the new Secretary of the Interior. As the overseer of the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Mineral Management Services, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Endangered Species Act, the Secretary of the Interior is most important position in the protection of America's lands, waters, and endangered species.
While Salazar has promoted some good environmental actions and fought against off-road vehicle abuse, his overall record is decidedly mixed, and is especially weak in the arenas most important to the next Secretary of the Interior: protecting scientific integrity, combating global warming, reforming energy development and protecting endangered species. Salazar:
* Voted against increased fuel efficiency standards for the U.S. automobile fleet
* Voted to end protection for offshore oil drilling off of Florida's coast
* Voted against the repeal of tax breaks for Exxon-Mobil
* Threatened to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service when its scientists
determined the black-tailed prairie dog may be endangered
* Fought efforts to increase protection for endangered species and the
environment in the Farm Bill
Read the full press release from the Center for Biological Diversity.
Then see BeyondChron's counterpoint.
Surviving the Economic Meltdown One Neighborhood at a Time
Free Workshop to Explore How Working People Can Respond to and Survive the Economic Crisis
(From Chris Carlsson and Shaping SF)
Wednesday, December 17
7:30 p.m.
CounterPULSE
Economic meltdown? Recession? Depression? What are we to do?
With the bailout benefiting Wall Street at the expense of Main Street, many are expect the new Obama administration to champion a New New Deal. But how will working people fare? Will the catalyst for change come from above or below? What lessons can we learn from the past and what are "urban homesteaders" already doing to localize the economy at the neighborhood level? Featuring working class historian Gifford Hartman, who will revisit how working people self-organized survival strategies such as cooperative housing, food
production and distribution and other projects providing for basic needs and community self-defense mushroomed up long before the New Deal came into being.
K. Ruby, founder of the Oakland Institute for Urban Homesteading, will have practical information and advice on doing-it-yourself when it comes to organic gardening, backyard chickens, beekeeping, greywater, natural building, alternative energy, fermentation, home
brewing and food preservation.
Caitlin Fitzpatrick of San Francisco Food Not Bombs will discuss how the organization feds communities around the globe vegetarian and vegan food through non-violent direct action.
College of Marin instructor Robert Ovetz will guide a brainstorming session about how we can respond to and survive the brewing storm and build and expand projects from the bottom up that already envision the "future in the present."
ALSO, last Saturday's Bike Tour on Ecological History South got rained out in mid-tour so it's been rescheduled for this coming Saturday Dec. 20... meet at 12 noon at CounterPULSE...
Nature Conservancy Releases “Green” Economic Stimulus
Altamonte Springs, FL — December 12, 2008 — The Nature Conservancy is advocating for funds to restore ecosystems, initiate green infrastructure construction and create much-needed jobs in the process through a “green” economic stimulus package. The package will be discussed with Capitol Hill lawmakers, agency staff and members of President-elect Obama’s transition team.
Read the full article on the Nature Conservancy website.
| Eco - Events & More |
SF Natural History Series
Researching Sea Turtles
7:30PM
Thursday, December 18
Randall Museum
Join Scott Benson for a presentation on his work researching sea turtles on the California coast. Benson is a marine ecologist with extensive at-sea research experience throughout the world's oceans. Stationed at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, he is co-investigator of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) leatherback sea turtle ecology program and coordinates research on leatherbacks in central California and the Western Pacific.
Golden Gate Audubon is Hiring
Application close date: January 5th
The Executive Director serves as a strategic leader working collaboratively with the Board of Directors to create an organization that is both sustainable and effective in achieving Golden Gate Audubon’s mission.
Please see PDF for full job description and application info.
11th Urban Integrated Pest Management Conference
January 28, 2009
8:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Presidio Golden Gate Club, San Francisco
Go to the website to learn more and register.
Invasive Species Workshop Survey
The Bay Area Open Space Council and the California Invasive Plant Council are planning a workshop on multi-taxa invasive species, to be held in the Bay Area in February 2009. The goals are to share ideas about how to address the pressing challenges of combating invasive species and to learn from the recent successes of a diverse group of organizations and agencies.
They want your input on the issues you'd like to learn more about at this workshop. In addition, your feedback will be used to consider topics for future Bay Area Open Space Council stewardship committee meetings.
Please click here to take the survey, it only takes about 6 minutes to complete.