March 2008 - Transpo - list.sfgreens.org

March Transpo/Sustainability WG Meeting
by Eric Brooks 28 Mar '08

28 Mar '08

Hi all, Don Eichelberger and I were the only ones to meet last month so I figure we should just push the reset button and shoot for this month. Here's a proposed agenda: Joint Meeting: Transportation & Sustainability Working Groups When: Thursday, 3/27/08, 6:30PM-9:00PM Where: SFGP Office, 1028A Howard St - Assessing The Transit Effectiveness Project - McGoldrick's Elected MTA Charter Amendment - Peak Oil Taskforce Update - Maxwell/Peskin SFPUC Charter Amendment - Update On Mayor's Solar Programs and New Sandoval Solar Proposal - Update On Community Choice Energy project - Combustion Turbine Update - Forming an active working group members alert list for the Sustainability WG -- "I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves." – Che Guevara

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Re: [Transpo] [Sustain] March Transpo/Sustainability WG Meeting
by Eric Brooks 27 Mar '08

27 Mar '08

Sounds good! Martin Zehr wrote: > I went to a public input meeting on the State Water Plan today in Oakland that I'd like to share with others if that could be added to the agenda. > > Martin Zehr > > > > >> Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:08:43 -0700 >> To: brookse32(a)aim.com; sustainability(a)sfgreens.org; transpo(a)sfgreens.org >> From: done7777(a)sbcglobal.net >> Subject: Re: [Sustain] March Transpo/Sustainability WG Meeting >> >> Eric, et al- >> >> Sounds like a great agenda and I will be >> there. I would like us to give some time to >> discussion of how our group can be more dynamic >> and effective and act as a resource to the >> various efforts- Peak Oil, CCA, solar, transpo, >> etc., as well as a resource for political campaigns we support (McKinney?). >> >> See ya Thursday, >> >> Don >> >> At 12:59 AM 3/20/2008, Eric Brooks wrote: >> >>> Hi all, >>> >>> Don Eichelberger and I were the only ones to meet last month so I figure >>> we should just push the reset button and shoot for this month. >>> >>> Here's a proposed agenda: >>> >>> Joint Meeting: Transportation & Sustainability Working Groups >>> >>> When: Thursday, 3/27/08, 6:30PM-9:00PM >>> Where: SFGP Office, 1028A Howard St >>> >>> - Assessing The Transit Effectiveness Project >>> - McGoldrick's Elected MTA Charter Amendment >>> - Peak Oil Taskforce Update >>> - Maxwell/Peskin SFPUC Charter Amendment >>> - Update On Mayor's Solar Programs and New Sandoval Solar Proposal >>> - Update On Community Choice Energy project >>> - Combustion Turbine Update >>> - Forming an active working group members alert list for the >>> Sustainability WG >>> >>> -- >>> "I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. >>> The people liberate themselves." Che Guevara >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Sustainability mailing list >>> Sustainability(a)sfgreens.org >>> https://list.sfgreens.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sustainability >>> >> Don Eichelberger >> DJ Fix Independent Productions >> >> -- "I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves." – Che Guevara

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New Science: Zero Emissions Necessary To Avert Climate Disasters
by Eric Brooks 17 Mar '08

17 Mar '08

Hi all, Here is an article that gets to the heart of the climate crisis. These new findings actually make our jobs much easier, because they allow us to start saying to people and policy makers that global civilisation must become a zero carbon emitter as soon as possible. No more need to haggle about CO2 parts per million, or percentages of reduction by this date or that one. We can just start saying to people that we need to become a zero carbon emitting civilisation as immediately as we can. Here is the article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/09/AR200803090… *Carbon Output Must Near Zero To Avert Danger, New Studies Say* By Juliet Eilperin Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, March 10, 2008; A01 The task of cutting greenhouse gas emissions enough to avert a dangerous rise in global temperatures may be far more difficult than previous research suggested, say scientists who have just published studies indicating that it would require the world to cease carbon emissions altogether within a matter of decades. Their findings, published in separate journals over the past few weeks, suggest that both industrialized and developing nations must wean themselves off fossil fuels by as early as mid-century in order to prevent warming that could change precipitation patterns and dry up sources of water worldwide. Using advanced computer models to factor in deep-sea warming and other aspects of the carbon cycle that naturally creates and removes carbon dioxide (CO2), the scientists, from countries including the United States, Canada <http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Canada?tid=informline> and Germany <http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Germany?tid=informline>, are delivering a simple message: The world must bring carbon emissions down to near zero to keep temperatures from rising further. "The question is, what if we don't want the Earth to warm anymore?" asked Carnegie Institution senior scientist Ken Caldeira, co-author of a paper published last week in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. "The answer implies a much more radical change to our energy system than people are thinking about." Although many nations have been pledging steps to curb emissions for nearly a decade, the world's output of carbon from human activities totals about 10 billion tons a year and has been steadily rising. For now, at least, a goal of zero emissions appears well beyond the reach of politicians here and abroad. U.S. leaders are just beginning to grapple with setting any mandatory limit on greenhouse gases. The Senate is poised to vote in June on legislation that would reduce U.S. emissions by 70 percent by 2050; the two Democratic senators running for president, Hillary Rodham Clinton <http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/c001041/> (N.Y. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/New+York?tid=informline>) and Barack Obama <http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/o000167/> (Ill.), back an 80 percent cut. The Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain <http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/m000303/> (Ariz. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Arizona?tid=informline>), supports a 60 percent reduction by mid-century. Sen. Barbara Boxer <http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/b000711/> (D-Calif.), who is shepherding climate legislation through the Senate as chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, said the new findings "make it clear we must act now to address global warming." "It won't be easy, given the makeup of the Senate, but the science is compelling," she said. "It is hard for me to see how my colleagues can duck this issue and live with themselves." James L. Connaughton <http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/James+L.+Connaughton?tid=in…>, who chairs the White House Council on Environmental Quality, offered a more guarded reaction, saying the idea that "ultimately you need to get to net-zero emissions" is "something we've heard before." When it comes to tackling such a daunting environmental and technological problem, he added: "We've done this kind of thing before. We will do it again. It will just take a sufficient amount of time." Until now, scientists and policymakers have generally described the problem in terms of halting the buildup of carbon in the atmosphere. The United Nations' Framework Convention on Climate Change framed the question that way two decades ago, and many experts talk of limiting CO2concentrations to 450 parts per million (ppm). But Caldeira and Oregon State University <http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Oregon+State+University?tid…> professor Andreas Schmittner now argue that it makes more sense to focus on a temperature threshold as a better marker of when the planet will experience severe climate disruptions. The Earth has already warmed by 0.76 degrees Celsius (nearly 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. Most scientists warn that a temperature rise of 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) could have serious consequences. Schmittner, lead author of a Feb. 14 article in the journal Global Biogeochemical Cycles, said his modeling indicates that if global emissions continue on a "business as usual" path for the rest of the century, the Earth will warm by 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100. If emissions do not drop to zero until 2300, he calculated, the temperature rise at that point would be more than 15 degrees Fahrenheit. "This is tremendous," Schmittner said. "I was struck by the fact that the warming continues much longer even after emissions have declined. . . . Our actions right now will have consequences for many, many generations. Not just for a hundred years, but thousands of years." While natural cycles remove roughly half of human-emitted carbon dioxide from the atmosphere within a hundred years, a significant portion persists for thousands of years. Some of this carbon triggers deep-sea warming, which keeps raising the global average temperature even after emissions halt. Researchers have predicted for a long time that warming will persist even after the world's carbon emissions start to fall and that countries will have to dramatically curb their carbon output in order to avert severe climate change. Last year's report of the U.N. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/United+Nations?tid=informli…> Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change <http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Intergovernmental+Panel+on+…> said industrialized nations would have to cut emissions 80 to 95 percent by 2050 to limit CO2concentrations to the 450 ppm goal, and the world as a whole would have to reduce emissions by 50 to 80 percent. European Union Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas, in Washington last week for meetings with administration officials, said he and his colleagues are operating on the assumption that developed nations must cut emissions 60 to 80 percent by mid-century, with an overall global reduction of 50 percent. "If that is not enough, common sense is that we would not let the planet be destroyed," he said. The two new studies outline the challenge in greater detail, and on a longer time scale, than many earlier studies. Schmittner's study, for example, projects how the Earth will warm for the next 2,000 years. But some climate researchers who back major greenhouse gas reductions said it is unrealistic to expect policymakers to think in terms of such vast time scales. "People aren't reducing emissions at all, let alone debating whether 88 percent or 99 percent is sufficient," said Gavin A. Schmidt, of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. "It's like you're starting off on a road trip from New York to California <http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/California?tid=informline>, and before you even start, you're arguing about where you're going to park at the end." Brian O'Neill of the National Center for Atmospheric Research emphasized that some uncertainties surround the strength of the natural carbon cycle and the dynamics of ocean warming, which in turn would affect the accuracy of Caldeira's modeling. "Neither of these are known precisely," he said. Although computer models used by scientists to project changes in the climate have become increasingly powerful, scientists acknowledge that no model is a perfect reflection of the complex dynamics involved and how they will evolve with time. Still, O'Neill said the modeling "helps clarify thinking about long-term policy goals. If we want to reduce warming to a certain level, there's a fixed amount of carbon we can put into the atmosphere. After that, we can't emit any more, at all." Caldeira and his colleague, H. Damon Matthews, a geography professor at Concordia University in Montreal, emphasized this point in their paper, concluding that "each unit of CO2emissions must be viewed as leading to quantifiable and essentially permanent climate change on centennial timescales." Steve Gardiner, a philosophy professor at the University of Washington <http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/University+of+Washington?ti…> who studies climate change, said the studies highlight that the argument over global warming "is a classic inter-generational debate, where the short-term benefits of emitting carbon accrue mainly to us and where the dangers of them are largely put off until future generations." When it comes to deciding how drastically to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, O'Neill said, "in the end, this is a value judgment, it's not a scientific question." The idea of shifting to a carbon-free society, he added, "appears to be technically feasible. The question is whether it's politically feasible or economically feasible." (c) 2008 The Washington Post Company

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I'm posting this to Transpo because Marc Salomon kicked me off the Green Active list a long time ago.
by Ann Garrison 12 Mar '08

12 Mar '08

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/03/11/18485040.php http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=AnnieGetYourGang&p=r

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Fwd: MUNI Pulls Hybrids From Bayview
by Eric Brooks 09 Mar '08

09 Mar '08

http://www.fogcityjournal.com/wordpress/2008/03/08/vandalism-prompts-offici… Vandalism prompts officials to pull hybrid buses from Bayview-Hunters Point lines <http://www.fogcityjournal.com/wordpress/2008/03/08/vandalism-prompts-offici…> * By Ashley Wright and Jesse Dungan* March 8, 2008 Hybrid buses running through San Francisco's Bayview-Hunters Point District were removed Thursday to preserve driver and passenger safety, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency officials said Friday. Vandals have been accessing the bus's power switch through a panel door on the sides of the hybrid buses running on the 54-Felton, MUNI spokesman Judson True said. "The safety issue came to our attention and we addressed it in the short term," True said of pulling the buses. A long-term solution to the problem may include adding locks to the panel doors, he said. The cost of installing the locks would not be significant, True said. "Our first priority is making sure that our drivers, customers and vehicles are safe," he added. Bus service has not been interrupted and is running regularly. However, officials said Wednesday that the agency is working on an increased police presence, which will include undercover officers on buses, on the on the 44 O'Shaughnessy and 54-Felton lines running through the Bayview-Hunters Point District due to a jump in violence on the lines. The decision was made by Municipal Transportation Authority Executive Director Nathaniel Ford in conjunction with the Police Department, according to True. There have been 10 reported incidents of violence this year, which have varied from operators being assaulted to vehicles being damaged by thrown rocks, True said. "We have seen an increase in these sorts of attacks over the last two months and we wanted to let all of our stakeholders know we are doing everything we can to keep customers and operators safe," True said. Service was temporarily suspended on the 44-O'Shaughnessy and 54-Felton lines earlier in the year due to reported incidents, according to True. He said that service is suspended on a case-by-case basis. -- "I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves." -- Che Guevara

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(fwd) [whastings@earthlink.net: FW: MTC Scoping Meetings for Transportation 2035 Environmental Impact Report]
by John-Marc Chandonia 07 Mar '08

07 Mar '08

----- Forwarded message from Woody Hastings <whastings(a)earthlink.net> ----- _____ From: MTC info [mailto:info@mtc.ca.gov] Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2008 3:10 PM To: MTC info Subject: MTC Scoping Meetings for Transportation 2035 Environmental Impact Report Are there significant transportation-related environmental issues such as air quality, climate change or land use that MTC should explore in its environmental assessment of the Transportation 2035 Plan? Contribute to the discussion! MTC is preparing a Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the Transportation 2035 Plan, a master plan to guide the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area region's transportation investments over the next 25 years. The EIR for the Transportation 2035 Plan will analyze the broad, regional environmental impacts of implementing the investments identified in the plan. MTC currently is seeking comments on the scope and content of the environmental information that will be evaluated in the EIR. Two regional scoping meetings will be held to solicit this input: Monday, March 10, 2008 10 a.m. to Noon Joseph P. Bort MetroCenter Claremont Conference Room (See receptionist on 3rd Floor) 101 Eighth Street Oakland, CA 94607 Thursday, March 13, 2008 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Joseph P. Bort MetroCenter Lawrence D. Dahms Auditorium 101 Eighth Street Oakland, CA 94607 These meetings also will provide an opportunity for agencies and the public to consult with MTC about the Transportation 2035 Plan and the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). Written comments can be sent to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, 101 Eighth Street, Oakland, CA 94607 (attention: Ashley Nguyen, EIR Project Manager). Comments must be received by MTC by no later than March 21, 2008. ----- End forwarded message ----- -- John-Marc Chandonia (jmc(a)sfgreens.org) http://sfgreens.org/

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FW: MTC Scoping Meetings for Transportation 2035 Environmental Impact Report
by Woody Hastings 07 Mar '08

07 Mar '08

Hi John-Marc, Would you be able to relay the following message to your SFGP Transpo Committee and other transpo-minded folks? Thanks, Woody _____ From: MTC info [mailto:info@mtc.ca.gov] Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2008 3:10 PM To: MTC info Subject: MTC Scoping Meetings for Transportation 2035 Environmental Impact Report Are there significant transportation-related environmental issues such as air quality, climate change or land use that MTC should explore in its environmental assessment of the Transportation 2035 Plan? Contribute to the discussion! MTC is preparing a Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the Transportation 2035 Plan, a master plan to guide the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area region's transportation investments over the next 25 years. The EIR for the Transportation 2035 Plan will analyze the broad, regional environmental impacts of implementing the investments identified in the plan. MTC currently is seeking comments on the scope and content of the environmental information that will be evaluated in the EIR. Two regional scoping meetings will be held to solicit this input: Monday, March 10, 2008 10 a.m. to Noon Joseph P. Bort MetroCenter Claremont Conference Room (See receptionist on 3rd Floor) 101 Eighth Street Oakland, CA 94607 Thursday, March 13, 2008 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Joseph P. Bort MetroCenter Lawrence D. Dahms Auditorium 101 Eighth Street Oakland, CA 94607 These meetings also will provide an opportunity for agencies and the public to consult with MTC about the Transportation 2035 Plan and the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). Written comments can be sent to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, 101 Eighth Street, Oakland, CA 94607 (attention: Ashley Nguyen, EIR Project Manager). Comments must be received by MTC by no later than March 21, 2008.

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