Earthquake!

2006 marks the 100th anniversary of the earthquake that almost wiped San Francisco off the map.

Are we ready for it when it happens again? Trust us, you don't want to find out.

WELCOME TO YOUR NIGHTMARE

The minute the next big earthquake hits—whether on the Hayward Fault or the San Andreas Fault or one of the other six major faults running like striations of cracking ice beneath the Bay Area, from Mendocino to Monterey and San Francisco to Walnut Creek—life as we know it will change forever.

Terrorism is an if. Earthquake is a when.

What if it happened today, shortly after you read this article—99 years after the famous 1906 earthquake and fire?

In Marin County, where a single winding path once led through the bucolic countryside, thousands of cars begin to wobble and dance along Highway 101 as the waves build in intensity. Some panicked drivers spin out of control and over the highway's small bridges.

Out past the eastern end of San Rafael, the old piers and shrimping cabins along China Camp start tumbling into San Pablo Bay; nearby houses in Santa Venetia, built on landfill, begin to wallow in the liquefied soil, as do the apartments in the largely Hispanic Canal district a few miles south.

Near Sausalito, rocks and soil from the steep hills above the southbound lanes of 101 begin to slide, burying cars and blocking the roadway.

Read the full article in San Francisco Magazine

Growing Risk Of Water Shortages And Flooding In California

Thanks to greenhouse gases, California risks more winter floods and summer droughts.

Global warming will affect river flows. We'll have more rain and less snow. Snow remains will melt earlier in the year.

California’s major rivers will flow higher during winter and lower during spring and summer.

This is all assuming CO2 doubles (likely) and El Niño will remain the same (probably).


Read about the new research by Lawrence Livermore:

Growing Risk Of Water Shortages And Flooding In California


New Climate Research Reveals Growing Risk of
Water Shortages and Flooding in California


Large-scale Ecosystem Restoration Initiatives
Protecting and Restoring the San Francisco Bay-Delta


CDEC - California Data Exchange Center
Installs, maintains, operates hydrologic data collection network.
Snow gages, precipitation and river stage sensors.
Lots of forecasts reports, charts, satellite images.

CA State Water Board
Protects and enforces many water uses:
industry, agriculture, municipal, environmental

Nature lovers get dirty on World Wetlands Day

What a great way to spend a sunny Saturday morning!

With my dog in tow I joined my neighbors and local volunteers in planting some native plant seedlings to help protect our local open space.

In my case "local open space" is a protected wetland sandwiched between my home and the San Pablo bay. It is called the Santa Venetia Marsh Open Space Preserve.

The Marin County Open Space District and local nonprofit organization "Save the Bay" and many volunteers are building a "biological fence" of native plants on both sides of the levy. Once these plants are established they will keep the endangered animals in the wetland (such as the California Clapper Rail, a rather elusive bird) from being disturbed by humans and their dogs.

Read the article in the Marin IJ. There is even a quote of mine at the end of the article!

Nature lovers get dirty
(Marin Independent Journal)

Related subjects:

World Wetlands Day

Save The Bay

Santa Venetia Marsh

California Clapper Rail