More on wood sequestering

Making things out of wood sequesters carbon, turns out | Grist

https://grist.org › article › timber-industry-rent-seeking

Making things out of wood sequesters carbon, turns out. One telling point that carbon tax advocates make against cap-and-trade systems is that they create …

Sweden’s innovative wooden skyscraper can capture 9 million …

https://www.euronews.com › green › 2022/03/28 › swe…
Mar 28, 2022 — By contrast, wood sequesters carbon dioxide, binding it from the atmosphere and storing it for good. Those behind the Sara Cultural Centre …

New Study Confirms That Switching to Wood Construction …

https://www.treehugger.com › News › Home & Design
And while we talk about how wood sequesters carbon for the life of the building, that is really the smallest part of it. The real savings come from “avoided …

Concrete as a Carbon Sink. Rethinking Carbon Sequestration …

https://buildingresiliencecoalition.org › 2018/12

on faith as being true: wood sequesters carbon, concrete production emits carbon. As in most things, the truth is often lost in translation.

Top 10: global sustainability trends for 2022

https://sustainabilitymag.com › top10 › top-10-global-s…

May 25, 2022 — In 2022, we’ve already received great insights through the latest news and executives and leaders that are working on the sustainability …

Water savings:

Typically, a mix is about 10 to 15 percent cement, 60 to 75 percent aggregate and 15 to 20 percent water.

California drought official quits, blasting Newsom for inaction

By Ian James : sfgate – excerpt

LOS ANGELES — In his time at the California State Water Resources Control Board, Max Gomberg has witnessed the state grapple with two devastating droughts and the accelerating effects of climate change.

Now, after 10 years of recommending strategies for making California more water resilient, the board’s climate and conservation manager is calling it quits. The reason: He no longer believes Gov. Gavin Newsom and his administration are willing to pursue the sorts of transformational changes necessary in an age of growing aridification.

In a resignation note posted online this month, Gomberg accused the governor of siding with defenders of the status quo and also faulted those in his agency who failed to push back…(more)

Editorial: Building limits in San Geronimo Creek watershed not the end

editorial : marinij – excerpt

The county’s approval of tougher restrictions for building in the San Geronimo Creek watershed comes after more than a decade of debate, costly lawsuits, numerous studies, reports and draft ordinances and a lot of political wrangling.

How well it works, for the environment and property owners, remains to be seen. The new zoning rules were not approved without protest from those whose building rights will be affected.

The battle was started when the Salmon Protection and Watershed Network filed a lawsuit to block the approval of an update of the countywide plan.

SPAWN has relentlessly pushed for tougher restrictions to protect the watershed in hopes of bringing it back as a spawning ground for coho salmon, a protected species…(more)

New revolution in the construction industry? Skyscrapers made of wood

nbcnews- excerpt (includes video)

Wooden skyscrapers the future for cities?

Builders are increasingly turning away from concrete and steel in favor of wood. In some cases, the material – known as mass timber – is even being used to construct skyscrapers. It’s becoming a sort of revolution: a 2021 study in the journal Sustainability found that mass timber buildings could reduce a building’s carbon emissions 22 to 50 percent compared to concrete. However, environmentalists worry about the cutting of primary and older forests, which would substitute one type of high carbon building material for another…(more)

Reducing the use of concrete has other benefits. Concrete holds heat and uses a lot of water.

Delta tunnel: Salmon at risk from massive water project, state report says

By Rachel Becker : calmatters – excerpt (includes audio track)

California’s water agency today released a long-awaited environmental report outlining the details and impacts of a controversial proposal to replumb the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and pump more water south.

In the report, state officials said the tunnel project could harm endangered and threatened species, including the Delta smelt, winter-run chinook salmon and steelhead trout. To offset the “potentially significant impacts” on the rare fish, the Department of Water Resources says thousands of acres of other wetlands would have to be restored — which critics say is a slow and inefficient way to provide new habitat…(more)

California Supreme Court Denies Depublication Requests In Livermore CEQA Case Addressing “No Project” Alternative

By Starr Regalia : jdsupra – excerpt

On July 13, 2022, the California Supreme Court denied numerous depublication requests with respect to, and declined to review on its own motion, the First District Court of Appeal’s decision in Save the Hill Group v. City of Livermore (2022) 76 Cal.App.5th 1092, S. Ct. Case No. S274754; Ct. App. Case No. A161573. My May 26, 2022 post on the League of Cities’ and CSAC’s depublication requests, which were shortly thereafter followed by further depublication requests by Respondent City of Livermore and the California Building Industry Association, can be found here, and my April 4, 2022 post analyzing the Court of Appeal’s opinion which can be found here…(more)

With Supreme Court’s EPA ruling, can Trump’s damage to the environment ever be repaired?

By Gregg Barak : 48hils – excerpt

A criminologist examines the toxic roots of corruption that were dug in during the former administration

Grasping the enormity, the breadth, and the depth of “Trump corruption” is rather astonishing. Most news junkies and politicos alike are quite familiar with the in-your-face looting, skimming, and self-dealing of the president and his family members. Beyond the family corruption, there is a much larger world of Trump corruption. A “sliminess perpetrated by literally thousands of presidential appointees from Cabinet officials to obscure functionaries,” as reporter Jim Lardner put it in his article for the American Prospect. It is certainly difficult to tabulate all the knaves, thieves, and corporate stooges as well as the nefarious schemes perpetrated…(more)

Federal lawmakers discussing ways to solve affordable housing crisis amid surging rent prices

by Kirstin Garriss : yahoo – excerpt

skyrocketing rent prices are making it difficult for many families to save for a home.

This comes as inflation hits another record high with surging consumer prices for gas, groceries and rent…

Housing experts say there are millions of vacant homes and lots nationwide on top of a current housing shortage.

Some of these experts told federal lawmakers this week that they want Congress to find more effective ways to use those lots and build more affordable housing.

Experts say one policy solution involves creating more land banks, which are public groups that work with neighborhoods to turn rundown lots into quality homes…

Some lawmakers are also considering proposals that would create nearly 1 million additional affordable homes nationwide…(more)

Given the mess the federal housing system has now with funding and managing affordable housing we may not want to suggest they do more until the clean up the mess they have now. The current programs are so ill conceived and implemented that the people who qualify for affordable housing cannot afford it in San Francisco. If our conditions are the same in other cities, throwing more money at the homeless problem will most certainly fail. Establishing land banks and establishing low and no-equity housing co-ops that encourage independence and hope for a secure future might be a better choice. These should almost certainly be run by communities rather than the federal government or the states.

California’s Idle Crop Land May Double as Water Crisis Deepens

By Kim Chipman : yahoo – excerpt

The size of fields intended for almonds, rice, wine grapes and other crops left unworked could be around 800,000 acres, double the size of last year and the most in at least several decades, said Josue Medellin-Azuara, an associate professor at University of California Merced.

The figure is preliminary as researchers continue to look at satellite imaging and other data. An official estimate remains a few weeks away, said Medellin-Azuara, who is leading an economic study on farm production and droughts with funding from the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

Much of the idle land is in California’s Central Valley, which accounts for about a quarter of US food production. Mile after mile of farmland reveals whithered crops next to fields of lush green plants, a testament to the tough decisions growers are forced to make on how much and what to produce, and whether to keep farming at all.

Surface water rights are seeing sharp cuts amid the drought and reserves are declining because of critically low snowmelt and depleted storage from last year.

“What’s really concerning is for the first time we are fallowing at least 250,000 acres in the Sacramento Valley,” Karen Ross, secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, said in an interview. “Those are the most senior water rights holders.”

Last year, some California farmers were stunned to find their so-called senior water rights restricted. Water laws in the state are governed by a complex system that dates back to the Gold Rush era. Senior rights holders — which include companies, growers and cities with claims that were acquired before 1914, and landowners whose property borders a river — are the last to see their supplies curtailed…(more)

They sounded alarms about a coming Colorado River crisis. But warnings went unheeded

By Ian James : yahoo – excerpt

The Colorado River is approaching a breaking point, its reservoirs depleted and Western states under pressure to drastically cut water use.

It’s a crisis that scientists have long warned was coming. Years before the current shortage, scientists repeatedly alerted public officials who manage water supplies that the chronic overuse of the river combined with the effects of climate change would likely drain the Colorado’s reservoirs to dangerously low levels.

But these warnings by various researchers — though discussed and considered by water managers — went largely unheeded…(more)

RELATED:

The West is dry, and we didn’t plan well enough. We need a system to move water from Midwest Reader Submission:

In response to the various letters on pumping water from the Mississippi River to the West:As an engineer, I believe a large pipeline from near the mouth of the Mississippi would be expensive, but sustainable. A month of average flow from the Mississippi would fill every empty reservoir on the Colorado River.

A smaller and less expensive system would use the existing reservoirs and hydroelectric dams on the rivers that cross Midwest on their way to the Mississippi. Install pumps at each reservoir that pump water up to the one above it. At the most upstream reservoir, pump it up over the Rockies to the Colorado River. This last leg would require the construction of a pipeline of 200 miles from eastern Colorado to western Colorado and an elevation change of only a few thousand feet…(more)