New parents are facing one of the most exciting and rewarding yet challenging and exhausting times of their lives. New schedules, new routines, new responsibilities hit them all at once. As they settle into their new lives together, a little … Continue reading →

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Over 50 years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared February to be American Heart Month. The tradition of Heart Health Month has continued on as we raise awareness about the various risk factors, symptoms, treatments, and most importantly lifestyles that … Continue reading →

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Johannesburg, 23 February 2015 - Endangered great ape species are having their rainforest habitat destroyed and threatened by the expansion of agribusiness projects in central Africa according to new evidence from Greenpeace Africa.

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Brussels, 17 February 2015 – Following the discovery of thousands of additional cracks in critical components of two Belgian nuclear reactors, Greenpeace today called for immediate checks of nuclear power plants worldwide.

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Do you want potholes fixed, transit services improved, traffic signals synchronized, or new bridges or roadways built?

The Sacramento Transportation Authority (STA) through its SacramentoGO outreach program is looking for public input to help determine future countywide transportation priorities and how they might be funded.

Sacramento County taxpayers through the current Measure A transportation sales-tax program managed by the STA have helped fund better maintenance of existing infrastructure and numerous projects to improve the regional transportation system.

Learn more about Measure A benefits and tell the STA which improvements you’d like to see funded in the future by visiting the SacramentoGO website (www.sacramentogo.org ). While you’re at it, follow SacramentoGO on Twitter at http://ift.tt/1FkcXaA and on Facebook at http://ift.tt/1vsDmmK for additional updates and information.

The post SacramentoGO wants your feedback appeared first on Downtown Sacramento Partnership.

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Extra Extra! Read all about climate denial scientist Willie Soon's dirty money from petrochemical billionaire Charles Koch, coal utility Southern Company, oil giant ExxonMobil and other fossil fuel companies to deny the science of climate change!

The last time I bumped into Willie Soon, I asked him if there was any explanation for some of the information in our latest round of documents indicating that his employer was eager to take money from ExxonMobil:

The questions I tried asking Dr. Soon (who won't talk to me, after a few of these encounters went bad for him) are based on seemed to show that despite all the embarrassment Soon has caused his employer, the Smithsonian Institution, private communications with ExxonMobil indicate that Smithsonian was all too happy to take Exxon's money for their general operating budget.

Is that why the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics allowed Dr. Soon to conduct what essentially is a lobbying and public relations campaign for fossil fuel companies, all in their name? From the documents Greenpeace obtained, here's the Harvard-Smithsonian Center thanking Exxon:

To their credit, Smithsonian officials say they are doing an internal review of Dr. Soon. We'll see how that goes, but it's not encouraging to see that Soon's coworkers may have been complicit in peddling influence for ExxonMobil and the other polluters financing Dr. Soon.

For years, we at Greenpeace have been working to make public the secret paper trails that show what everyone already knows: climate science deniers – #Fakexperts – are few and far between, and most of them are paid by companies most responsible for global warming to downplay the problem.

Willie Soon's payments from Koch, Exxon, Southern Company and the American Petroleum Institute aren't news – we've known he took over $1 million from these interests since 2011. But the level of detail and the implications from this latest round of research is shocking. From the New York Times:

He has accepted more than $1.2 million in money from the fossil-fuel industry over the last decade while failing to disclose that conflict of interest in most of his scientific papers. At least 11 papers he has published since 2008 omitted such a disclosure, and in at least eight of those cases, he appears to have violated ethical guidelines of the journals that published his work.

The documents show that Dr. Soon, in correspondence with his corporate funders, described many of his scientific papers as "deliverables" that he completed in exchange for their money. He used the same term to describe testimony he prepared for Congress.

For Greenpeace, this raises both legal and ethical questions. From The Guardian:

In letters to the Internal Revenue Service and Congress, Greenpeace said Soon may have misused the grants from the Koch foundation by trying to influence legislation.

Our executive director Annie Leonard just sent a letter to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, and two letters to the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space and Technology (here and here) in pursuit of answers.

Is the IRS okay with Charles Koch's nonprofit foundation funding research that appears to have directly influenced state and national politicians? Did ExxonMobil violate any Congressional rules by giving Soon a grant just two months after Soon told Congress he had no financial conflicts of interest, after telling them that climate change isn't a crisis? And Southern Company?

We will keep you posted as things unfold – keep track yourself on the Climate Investigations Center, where our former colleague Kert Davies is busy trying to answer the same questions. For disclosure – know that Kert helped start this work when he still was Greenpeace's Research Director. We have continued to partner with him on this since his amicable split from our team.

After you read the Times, check out more on the story…just about everywhere. The Boston Globe writes that Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) plans on opening an investigation on climate science deniers. InsideClimate News notes how Soon has been part of a game plan detailed by the American Petroleum Institute in a leaked memo from 1998. Gawker, Discover Magazine, and STGIST have more. Gizmodo wins for the most brazen headline.

UPDATE: More from Mother Jones, ThinkProgress, Singapore TODAY, Hillsboro OH Times-Gazette, Common Dreams, Wall Street Hedge,

The Koch-funded climate denial "news" outlet Daily Caller isn't pleased.

Connor Gibson is a Researcher for Greenpeace USA.

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The chimpanzee is one of mankind's closest relatives. However there are many of us who do not treat them with what could be called familial affection.

Chimps and other primates in Africa face an increasing number of threats to their very existence. They are traded and eaten as bush meat, have their homes destroyed by illegal loggers, are likely to be highly affected by climate change and there are reports that their numbers suffered greatly because of Ebola.

On top of it all, they are also seeing their homes destroyed by unscrupulous agribusiness companies – many foreign-owned – who are clearing vast tracts of rainforest throughout west and central Africa to make way for plantations producing palm oil, rubber and other commodities.

New evidence from Greenpeace Africa, publicized today, reveals that several projects in Cameroon are destroying and threatening ape habitat. Satellite images show that the Chinese-owned Hevea Sud rubber and palm oil project in the country's South region has already resulted in over 3,000 hectares of rainforest destroyed with many thousands more to come.

The concession borders the Dja Faunal reserve, a UNESCO world heritage site that is teeming with rare and endangered wildlife including the chimpanzee, the western lowland gorilla and the forest elephant. UNESCO asked for an inspection to be carried out some time ago to determine if the reserve had been impacted by the operations, but was refused by local authorities on "security grounds".

The destruction mirrors that caused by US-owned Herakles Farms for a palm oil project in the country's South West region. The deforestation carried out by the company – much of it illegally – destroyed vital corridors of forest used by chimpanzees and other mammals to move around the four protected areas between which the concession is sandwiched.

Indeed such projects and the resultant damage to habitat are being seen increasingly throughout the Congo Basin and throughout west and central Africa.

As Dr Joshua Linder, an assistant professor of anthropology at James Madison University, says: "Agro-industrial developments will soon emerge as a top threat to biodiversity in the African tropical forest zone. If proactive strategies to mitigate the effects of large-scale habitat conversion are not soon implemented, we can expect a rapid decline in African primate diversity."

One project that can yet be challenged is by local Cameroonian company Azur. A Greenpeace Africa investigation in December last year showed that they have their sights set on a concession covering dense natural forest close to the Ebo forest, a proposed national park. The area is home to chimpanzees and other highly endangered primates such as drills.

The Nigerian-Cameroon chimpanzee sub species is one of the most endangered primates in the world while the lesser known but no less magnificent drill is extremely rare, with more than 80% of the world's remaining population calling Cameroon home, in particular the south west of the country.



Greenpeace has written to Azur on several occasions, asking that they provide evidence to allay the growing environmental concerns over their project. There has been no response.

It is a stretch to believe that Cameroon's authorities are blissfully unaware of the controversy these type of projects are causing. The Hevea Sud concession even lies within the home district of the country's president Paul Biya.

More believable is that such controversy is willfully neglected, downplayed or ignored. While it is easy to understand how a chimpanzee or gorilla can fail to be consulted over the future of its home, less so is how a human community can.



Yet throughout Cameroon and the region in general there are numerous cases where projects are started and forests destroyed with little or no consultation with residents let alone their prior consent. Often they are paid a fraction of that their land is truly worth and many people are deprived of the forest and land that is not only their home but their livelihood.

Governments need to urgently develop a participatory land use planning process prior to the allocation of industrial concessions. Projects that are being developed without adequate community consultation and are located in areas of high ecological value should not be allowed to proceed and risk further social conflict and environmental damage.

If such measures are not introduced and effectively enforced then the forests, communities and wildlife of one the most biodiversity-rich regions on the entire planet will continue to be under threat.

Irene Wabiwa-Betoko is the forest campaign leader with Greenpeace Africa.

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The struggle to remain relevant can be a tough one. For the fossil fuel industry, remaining relevant can mean stacks of money and political clout, or, staring into the darkness of very empty pockets.

In the face of growing divestment movements, the blossoming of energy independence because of renewable energy and general disgust towards how recklessly the industry treats the planet, the fossil fuel companies have been asking, how can they still burn carbon and keep themselves from the abyss?

The coal industry in particular is teetering on the brink. For them, desperate times call for desperate measures.

Enter, carbon capture storage (CCS), their most wistful and costly greenwashing exercise to date.

What is CCS?

As the carbon capture and storage association puts it, "(CCS) is a technology that can capture up to 90% of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions produced from the use of fossil fuels in electricity generation and industrial processes, preventing the carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere."

Sounds lovely, but what they don't mention is the staggeringly high cost which is not even justified if you take the captured carbon and pump it into the ground to suck oil out. Using gas to get difficult-to-extract oil is aspirationally known as "enhanced oil recovery" (EOR) but all it means is that the climate will still be under siege, but by burning oil instead of coal.

This is exactly the case with CCS showcase project, Boundary Dam in Canada. The project is brought to you by SaskPower and it's publically funded to the tune of at least US$ 240 million. As Greenpeace Canada climate campaigner, Keith Stewart, puts it, "The captured gas will be used to push out what would otherwise be unrecoverable oil. So this project ends up being a huge public subsidy to oil companies to extract and sell oil that would have been left in the ground, and to continue to accelerate global warming."

Boundary Dam is one of 10 CCS projects in the works globally – out of the total of 13 – where CCS is being used with enhanced oil recovery.

Logic appears to prevail when logic is used. Kevin Bullis, reporting on Massachusettes Institute of Technology findings, said, "The potential of carbon capture is limited. Carbon capture and storage will never be able to accommodate all of the carbon dioxide we emit now."

He adds that, "Capturing and storing carbon dioxide will always make electricity more expensive. It will always be cheaper just to let the carbon dioxide escape into the atmosphere."

Oxford University has been looking at CCS, and last week they released a report which concluded that while CCS is, "very unlikely to alter the sheer scale of mitigation required between now and 2050."

Possibly the US Energy Department has been listening to MIT and Oxford, because last week they pulled US$ 1 billion from FutureGen's CCS project in Illinois, sending them underground much in the way the company was going to try to do the same thing with carbon emitted from a coal power plant.

From a practical point of view MIT, Oxford and the US Energy Department's conclusions are a no-brainer. CCS storage does almost nothing to limit carbon emissions, and it does almost nothing while bilking taxpayers out of millions of their dollars.

In the face of blatantly oxymoronic terms like "clean coal", cooler, practical heads must prevail.

Coal is on its way out, and CCS is a tattered line meant to pull the industry from the yawning hole it's balanced over. Countries like China – the world's biggest coal consumer – have curbed their coal use and are showing none of the devastation the coal companies' PR agencies have been howling about.

They need to howl, because the industry is investing in 1400 new coal plants. With scientists and intelligent policy-makers finally seeing eye-to-eye on how much carbon needs to stay in the ground, that's a whole lot of wasted investment.

Renewable is the future. As Stewart puts it, "We need to move away from using fossil fuels, not pour more public money into extending their lifespan. Wind and solar power are already bigger, better and more economical options for meeting our energy needs than CCS."

The coal industry is a relic from the industrial age and it is about to fall into the abyss. The breeze from the exponentially growing number of wind-turbines will send it over the edge while the reflection of the sun across fields of solar panels will light its way down.

Let's help it along, shall we?

Arin de Hoog is the interim head of news at Greenpeace International.

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Whether you are caring for a loved one or supporting a caregiver with their tasks, keeping track of medical information and appointments can be a challenge. Organizing all the information you need in one place and keeping it accessible for … Continue reading →

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The Downtown Sacramento Foundation (DSF) will launch the award winning 2015 Calling All Dreamers competition and will begin accepting applications from aspiring entrepreneurs starting February 10.

Since 2013, the annual business plan competition has been successful in incubating eight local start-ups and leasing 5,200 sf in ground floor retail space within the urban core.

“If you have ever dreamed of owning a business, this is your chance to make it a reality,” said Valerie Mamone-Werder, Downtown Sacramento Partnership Senior Manager of Business Development. “Through this competition, we are able to open the doors to a wealth of resources for small businesses from legal advice and business coaching to marketing strategy and accounting services.”

Last year’s grand prize-winner Ana Apple is expected to open its first retail boutique this spring in Old Sacramento. The popular brand is known for its quirky, eco-friendly line of apparel for infants, youth and adults.

“This competition is the essence of economic development,” said Youseffi. “Calling All Dreamers is in a very focused and direct way enhancing the retail and business environment in Downtown Sacramento and encouraging an increasing number of entrepreneurs to choose downtown as the home for their businesses.”

The two winning businesses from 2013 – Andy’s Candy Apothecary and The Dailey Method, opened their doors in downtown in less than one year, creating 3 new full-time jobs and 11 part-time positions. The Calling All Dreamers winners now occupy a lively block at 800 J Street.

For more information about Calling All Dreamers or sponsorship opportunities, please contact Valerie Mamone-Werder at valerie@downtownsac.org.

Click here to learn more or to enter the competition.

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Sacramento Skyline from the west CR 102

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2015 has barely begun, but it has already been called "the most crucial year in decades for the climate battle" and a "watershed" year for sustainable development worldwide. Naomi Klein is convinced that 2015 is a once-in-a-generation moment for the climate battle and Avaaz has just told their supporters that we have ten months left to save the world.

What's going on?

World leaders will meet in September to agree upon new goals for all of humanity: the Sustainable Development Goals. And, in December in Paris, another attempt will be made to deliver a global climate agreement. Both summits will be huge, and will get a lot of media attention. Some of our allies have called them "opportunities of a lifetime" and many, including Pharrell Williams, are starting to organize events to mobilize public support for a greener future.

There is no question about the urgency to act. Scientists have just told us that, out of nine vital planetary support systems we need to survive, four have exceeded "safe" levels already. Signs of climate change are starting to appear all around us. Plummeting oil prices, meanwhile, are making risky investments, such as Arctic oil, look even more insane.

It's true that global rules for people and planet are needed now more than ever. However, there is no need to wait for any more summits. Summits can help, because they can act as deadlines. They can force governments to find time to pass legislation or get squabbling ministries to agree on a plan. They can provide additional public attention to an issue, which can be an essential agreement to break a political deadlock. We would probably never have achieved this month's step forward for the protection of the High Seas – almost half of our planet – if we hadn't used the Rio+20 Summit in 2012 to give this issue additional political prominence (and a deadline, which was narrowly met).

And summits can also be places where governments send long-term signals to markets. For example, the Paris climate summit in December could agree to bring global carbon pollution down to zero by 2050. That is, at the moment, one option governments are considering. If they adopt it we could see the end of the fossil fuel era. It would certainly make investors in fossil fuels lose some sleep.

We will work for that. And use the two summits this year as opportunities to call for a future without carbon. A future in which all people have electricity – and it's 100% renewable.

The real "opportunities of a lifetime", however, are actual changes catalyzed on the ground. This is what we all must strive for in 2015. And if we do, the good news is that those real changes on the ground increase the likelihood of better global agreements!

The energy revolution, for example, has started already all over the world. 2014 saw China use less coal for the first time this century and install as much solar capacity in one year as the US has ever done. These domestic changes have made it possible for China to pledge that they will stop their relentless rise in climate pollution by 2030 at the latest. That's not good enough – yet – for a safe future. But, if we manage to seriously shift away from coal in China this year – and end the airmagaddon in China's cities – it will not just end unlivable smog for millions of Chinese people. A continued decline in China's coal use would also make it more likely for China to make an even more ambitious pledge internationally...

To make 2015 matter, we need to attack the fossil fuel industry interests who are holding back better and faster climate action head on.

Therefore, this year, we will be fighting the carbon projects that simply must not go ahead if our children are to avoid climate chaos. That's why we will continue to stop oil drilling in the Arctic.

Join our call on President Obama to take a stand on the Arctic here.

And that's why we will be taking on coal and supporting renewables all over the world – from India and China to Germany and the United States. Right now, we are focusing on driving back Australia's coal expansion.

If you think financial institutions should not be risking the beautiful Great Barrier Reef for the short-term pursuit of coal join us here.

We must make 2015 a watershed year together. We can make this year count by building movements that force real change, from the Arctic to Australia. We have, as we have headlined in previous campaigns, "No Time to Waste".

But, whatever happens at the big summits this year, we will need all of you to continue pushing for faster and more fundamental changes in 2016. The world will not be saved once and for all in Paris in 10 months. But we can make real progress this year in stopping those who are destroying our planet. We need you to accelerate an energy revolution that delivers for all. We can use the summits as platforms to make that change.

But only if you join in!

Daniel Mittler is the Political Director of Greenpeace International.

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1. The plot is cliché

It's like something from a James Bond script where an evil villain decides to dig up a massive amount of coal and detonate one of the world's largest carbon bombs in order to make money for a company with a very dodgy environmental record. When the coal is burnt it will push the world into climate chaos. All of this will be done right on top of one of the seven wonders of the world and kill Nemo.

2. It's just SO unique

Sharks, coral, turtles, schools of tropical fish… the Reef is one of the seven natural wonders of the world and the largest natural feature on earth. It stretches more than 2300 km. At 348,000 square kilometres, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is the biggest tropical marine reserve. It is a rich interconnected world where abundant species rely on each other for survival. Many creatures including six of the world’s seven species of marine turtles call this protected area home.

3. The plans that threaten it are highly dangerous

There are currently plans to dig out coal inland from the Reef in an area called the Galilee Basin and then ship it straight through the Reef. To do this, there has to be massive infrastructure development, including dredging the reef to build a bigger port. More coal mines means more coal ships and more chances for accidents, spillages and grounding on the reef. The scale of the project is enormous.

If we allow the Adani project to proceed, up to 60 million tonnes of dirty coal could be dug up and shipped out every year from 2018 on. When burnt for electricity, this amount of coal would produce 128.4 million tonnes of CO2, which represents more than 70% of total greenhouse gas emissions by the electricity sector in Australia (179.4 Mt CO2-equivalent).

4. The Great Barrier Reef is threatened by climate change

The Reef is on the front-line of climate change. Already we are seeing that rising ocean temperatures and ocean acidification are bleaching corals and killing the Reef. Just like the canary in the coalmine, the Reef is already showing us the risks and impacts of climate change. The need to take action is urgent - coal must remain in the ground and we must move away from fossil fuels to renewable energy. The idea that we would mine for coal in the very area that is being threatened by climate change is adding insult to injury.

5. Banks are already ditching bad investments

Without funding, the project will not go ahead. Therefore banks and financing institutions can be part of the problem, or part of the solution. A number of banks have already committed to not investing in projects that would damage the reef.

Importantly, none of the major four Australian banks have committed to Reef protection.

We need your help to pressure them to make a stand.

6. We have momentum right now

This year, on February 13th and 14th, people around the globe are taking a hard look at their banks to see if they're investing in fossil fuels. If their bank is, they're breaking-up with them. The fossil fuel divestment campaign is the fastest moving divestment campaign in history. Universities and religious institutions have divested. A fossil free pension fund has started in Australia with another due to launch in the UK this year.

This divestment day we can break up with fossil fuels AND save the Reef!

Sign this petition now to make sure that the 4 major Australian banks do not invest in climate chaos and Reef destruction.

Click here to get involved in activities happening near you on the day.

Leanne Minshull is a Climate and Energy Campaigner at Greenpeace International.

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Since we launched the Save The Arctic campaign we've seen an amazing amount of creativity and visual design, both from our talented supporters and the people who work here at Greenpeace. But sometimes it's hard to find the right tools for the job.

Today we're hoping to make it even easier to get involved by releasing an Arctic Style Guide.

As well as offering you colours, fonts and templates we're also opening up a small selection of our best images and videos for you to download and use.

This is just one way we're hoping to build a more 'open source' movement, where everyone can find different ways to contribute their talents and skills to help protect the Arctic.

Beginners welcome

You don't have to be professional designer to use this guide. With help from our friends at Fake Crow we've tried to make it as simple as possible, so that if you just want to download an image and use it as wallpaper on your computer, well, that's fine. At the same time we've included some suggestions on how to create a flyer or a smart email, things you can use to help persuade others to join this growing movement.

There are icons, fonts, palettes, and all sorts of other goodies. We want you to use these as a starting point for your work, a way to enhance your natural creativity. These aren't rules, they're suggestions, and we all know that sometimes the rebellious mind produces the best ideas.

Overall we offer this to you as a tool - something we hope you will use to show the world the incredible beauty of the Arctic and the vibrancy of the movement that's building to protect it.

We hope you like it. And please don't forget to share you work with us, using the email address we've set up for this purpose: arctic_styleguide@greenpeace.org.

Competition time

Today we're also launching a new competition to encourage our supporters to create images, videos or any other type of content for the campaign.

We'll share the best entries on social media, and the most popular will win a Vivienne Westwood Arctic T-Shirt and one of the actual expedition jackets we took to the North Pole.

Creativity vs. Arctic oil

Oil companies like Shell seem to have all the money in the world - and some pretty huge advertising budgets too. But we have ideas, imagination and creativity on our side. That's incredibly important.

And it's one of the reasons why we're going to win.

So it's over to you. Have fun, experiment and get started!

James Turner is the head of communications for Greenpeace International's Arctic campaign.

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