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Links of interest to Sustainable PG

LINKS TO OTHER SUSTAINABLE ORGANIZATIONS

NEW:
Citizens for a Sustainable Monterey County website has the complete, and up to date information on the many Community Action Groups in Monterey County. Click here to go to a page of links for all the groups. ( Sustainable Pacific Grove is one such group.)

LINKS ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY

The Sustainable Resource Network is a wiki of Central Coast businesses, agencies, organizations, and institutions with a committment to sustainabile initiatives, practices and products that is moderated by The Sustainability Academy which has a mission to accelerate the mainstream practice of sustainability on the Central Coast of California.

TRANSITION TOWNS

What is a Transition Town (or village / city / forest / island)?

"It all starts off when a small collection of motivated individuals within a community come together with a shared concern: how can our community respond to the challenges, and opportunities, of Peak Oil and Climate Change?"
They begin by forming an initiating group and then adopt the Transition Model. This is similar to what we have already done in PG. The 'Transition' model can help us to further move our city and our lives to increased sustainablity.

Jennifer Gray, a pioneer in the Transition Initiative in the UK and cofounder of Transition US, describes it as "a community-led response to the twin crises of peak oil and climate change. It's ... positive, pro-active [and] engages the whole community in building resilience into our world." Watch the video.

This video interview, is one with the founder of the transition movement in the UK. Listen to Rob Hopkins.

Here are several links that explore Transition and and what it can mean to us.

This is an important new work done by student designers and planners for the City of Ventura. It reframes city planning in terms of peak oil and climate change. It provides new visions for the city in the future that are very powerfull. ( The file is 281 pages long. )

From the looks of this website Sidney, Australia has gone far on the path of becoming a Transition City.

More general info:

Transition Towns, a WIKI
UK Criteria
12 steps to Transition
In wikipedia
in the US
in California

From US cities;
Boulder, CO
Sandpoint, ID
Lyons, CO
Santa Cruz, CA
Montpelier, VT

Surfrider Foundation

Working to help clean up our Bay, Surfrider Foundation, Monterey chapter. Link here.

Green Businesses

Shop Green -- Sell Green -- Enjoy Green!!

SPG supports the Green Business Program of the Monterey Bay Area.

Here is a link to a new online journal that looks at the security inplications of the growing energy shortage.
Journal of Energy Security

Challengeing Speech by Al Gore

Al Gore in a speech at Carnegie Mellon on May 18, 2008 challenged the United States to produce all electricity from "carbon-free sources" by 2018. Here is the speech, on YouTube.

The (Annotated) Gore Energy Speech

As a result of the speech this site was created by " The Alliance for Climate Protection".

Permaculture

While originating as an agro-ecological design theory, permaculture has developed a large international following of individuals who have received training in permanent agriculture as well as permanent culture. Click here to see more below.

League of Conservation Voters

LCV Action Fund Launches Give Green!

Support LCV The LCV Action Fund has launched Give Green, the first bundling website to raise money exclusively for environmental champions and candidates. Give Green allows activists to support local environmental candidates as well as Congressional candidates across the country who will fight for a clean, renewable energy future.

action.lcv.org/ct/

Sustainable Conservation

They partner with business, agriculture and government leaders to find practical ways that the private sector can protect the environment click to see more below.

Transition Culture

This website sub-titles its home page with "an evolving exploration into the head, heart and hands of energy descent". There are many examples and bits of advise on how we all can adjust to the changing energy picture. Lots of thoughtfull ideas and information. Click here to see more.

Their book "The Transition Handbook, From oil dependency to local resilience" is now in the PG Public Library.

Carbon Footprint Calculators

Links to definitions of a carbon footprint and several carbon footprint calculators are provided below.

Front Groups

This site exposes who is really funding some very nice sounding groups. Names like "Clean and Safe Energy Colition" and "The Water Policy Institute" sound great, but who is paying for them?

A collaboration of Consumer Reports and Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) has put up "a site that exposes front groups - organizations that claim to have a particular agenda, while hiding or obscuring their identity, membership, sponsorship, or all three." Take a look.

Citizens for a Sustainable Monterey County

The Mission of CSMC is "to meet the challenges of Climate Change and Peak Oil by helping our communities transition to sustainable uses of energy and resources.

• Decreasing the use of fossil fuels and other non-renewable resources
• Protecting and restoring the natural environment
• Help communities meet new challenges and new opportunities"

The CSMC website is www.sustainablemontereycounty.org/

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Carbon Footprint

The explaination of the concept of "carbon footprint" in Wikipedia can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_footprint

Here are links to several different 'carbon footprint calculators'. The first ones presented are simpler. It may be interesting to try several to see what different results may come up.

Here is a calculator within this website . It is easy to replace your orginal numbers to see what changes if you change your usage. The data below the calculator shows some typical total usage by those living locally.

To "Calculate Your Impact" using the calculator associated with the video and book An Inconvenient Truth click here.

The "BP" calculator has two versions. The first has interesting cartoon graphics that may help you visualize the meaning of each question asked, as you work thru the data gathering phase.

If you have a slower internet hookup you may want to select the "Non flash calculator" link. ( This is the second link in the left hand set on the page.) This version has no graphics and so may be faster, but it collects the same data from you to do your calculations.

To try one of these click here.
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Green Business Program

Businesspeople:
Want to save time, save money, and increase business?
Find out how your business can be certified and promoted.
Take advantage of free help, advice, and resources!

Locals & Visitors:
Want to feel good about how and where you spend your money?
Find out where to shop and eat. Look for the signs:
"Monterey Bay Area Certified Green Business"
Encourage your favorite local businesses to prosper by going green!

Learn about this exciting program at www.montereybaygreenbusiness.org

To see a list of Monterey County green businesses click here.

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Sustainable Conservation

Succeeding Where Others Have Failed
Founded in 1992, Sustainable Conservation partners with business, agriculture and government leaders to find practical ways that the private sector can protect clean air, clean water and healthy ecosystems.

By promoting effective business and agricultural practices throughout California, Sustainable Conservation and its partners can shift entire industries toward environmental stewardship.
Sustainable Conservation website is www.suscon.org/

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Permaculture

Permaculture has developed possible sustainable solutions to many of the problems that face the world today. Care for the planet, care for people, and everyone gets a fair share. This is a philosophy that has gone way past gardening that uses principles of sustainability to turn problems into solutions.

To see more in 'wiki' click here.

Ben Fahrar has frequent programs (he is listed as a permaculture first responder) that are listed on the bay area urban permaculture guild site: http://www.urbanpermacultureguild.org/pfr/ . ( Not been kept current.)

He lives locally, so many of his programs are close by.

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Updated May 21 , 2010.