Posts Tagged: communities
Opinion
OPINION: Americans have grown accustomed to a parade of bad news on climate change coupled with a stream of federal policy shifts designed to promote fossil fuels. But outside of the Beltway, in cities and towns across the country, the move to 100% clean energy is becoming a reality.Dozens of cities and counties in California and elsewhere are already running on 100% clean electricity, and over 150 American cities and counties have set 100% clean energy goals.
News
OPINION: For 11 years, Next 10 has been measuring economic and environmental indicators in the California Green Innovation Index. This year, the data is sobering. If the current pace of emissions decline continues, we will miss our 2030 climate targets by more than thirty years.
Opinion
OPINION: The California Legislature is currently considering several proposals to put a $4 billion bond measure on a 2020 ballot for safe drinking water, drought preparation, wildfire prevention, and climate resilience. An $8.9 billion bond initiative has also been filed by environmental advocates. Many Californians might ask, “Didn’t we already pay for that?”
News
While wildfires have gotten much of the attention in California as consequences of climate change, it’s really rising sea levels that will likely wreak the most damage. With more than 25 million people living near the coast, some $150 billion worth of property is at risk.
Opinion
OPINION: While health and wellness must be a top priority for communities across the US, taxing the poor is not the way to do it. Taxes such as these place a considerably larger share of the economic burden on working families, poor communities and small business owners.
Opinion
OPINION: California has a healthcare workforce crisis. Over the next decade, this state’s 39 million residents face a health worker shortfall of 4,100 primary care physicians and 600,000 home care workers, and we will have only two-thirds of the psychiatrists and mental health providers needed.
Opinion
During the past June primary elections, the process of how the Legislature should allocate funds from California’s climate change program was front and center in Proposition 70. Voters were loud and clear in rejecting that ballot measure — which was born out of a nefarious deal with the oil industry. Now, the question of what those funds should be invested in still hangs in the balance, as the Legislature will soon decide on the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) budget for the coming year.
Opinion
OPINION: Flashing Amber Alerts, public safety messages and directional traffic alerts – for decades, Californians have agreed this type of information is what belongs on the changeable outdoor message signs along our highways’ public spaces. Common sense and public policy says it is in the best interest of the public to keep this public right-of-way space limited to such content and free of blight.
Opinion
OPINION: Growing up in New Orleans, summertime brought mixed feelings. It meant the end of the school year and endless snow cones, but also the beginning of hurricane season. Here in California we experience extreme heat in the summer and floods and fires throughout the year, all made worse by climate change. Unless we take action now to prepare our communities, many will suffer, some more than others.
Opinion
When most of us receive a package at our door from Amazon or another delivery service, we rarely think about the complex system that brought it to us, from manufacturing and packaging to shipping, sorting and last-mile delivery. But California’s massive freight system is key to both our economy and our environmental health.
Photovoltaic modules capture sunlight. (Photo: foxbat, via Shutterstock) 
