A wine bar for newbies and connoisseurs, cork‐dorks and wine‐geeks, WHIRED, the newest wine bar to hit the downtown area is opening soon! WHIRED (pronounced “wired”‐‐ a combination of White+Red) is located across from the Golden1 Center and will be popping its first corks on February 8, 2016!

WHIRED’s owner, John Marco, has been in the restaurant, events and IT business both in San Francisco and Sacramento and is now opening his own business right off the corner of 4th and “L”, in the heart of the city. He plans to cultivate a diverse clientele to frequent the bar from downtown lobbyists to midtown millennials and everyone in between!

With a modern‐industrial interior concept, WHIRED fits perfectly into the downtown Sacramento business scene and will offer both an extensive wine‐by‐the‐glass and bottle program. In addition, WHIRED will also offer sake, beer on tap and scrumptious small plates.

According to Marco, “Living in Northern California has allowed me to develop my passion and business interest for wine. For me, WHIRED is the perfect combination of both… set in my favorite place to be –Sacramento!”

WHIRED Wine Bar
Address: 410 L St., Sacramento CA 95814. Phone: 916‐823‐5008
Hours: 4:00 PM – 11:00 PM Monday‐Saturday. Closed on Sunday.

Join us for our WHIRED Winemakers Series on Thursdays 5pm-7pm in February & March to taste the wines and meet the winemakers from some of the best wineries in California.

Feb 11: Scott Harvey Wines
Feb 18: Jeff Runquist Wines
Feb 25: Le Casque Wines
Mar 3: Terra Rouge & Easton Wines
Mar 10: Robert Keenan Winery
Mar 17: Klinker Brick Winery
Mar 31: Hugh Weiler Wines”

The post Uncorking Now! The newest business to hit Downtown Sacramento ‐‐ WHIRED Wine Bar is opening appeared first on Downtown Sacramento Partnership.

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This week D&S Development submitted plans for an eight-story complex with 73 units at the southwest corner of 15th and Q streets. Rendering of 1430 Q apartment building - HR Group Architects  The project called 1430 Q will have 9,000 square feet of retail space on the ground level and 97 parking spaces underground and on the second level according to the SacramentoBee. Other characteristics
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"Going PFC-free in one of the world's most extreme and challenging natural environments is possible. I can do it". This was the idea David Bacci – an Italian professional climber – submitted to us when we asked the outdoor community for ideas to make the PFC threat more visible to the public and challenge the outdoor sector to eliminate hazardous chemicals from their products. We thought it was the perfect way to show the world that PFC-free alternatives do work.

David asked us to help him find some PFC-free gear for the challenge, so we decided to borrow some clothing from Páramo, a UK brand that doesn't use PFCs in any of its products.

Now, a few months later, David has successfully completed two of the most intense climbing trails in the world, reaching the Patagonian peaks of Cerro Torres and Fitz Roy. He has become the first climber in 40 years to climb the demanding Ragni route, up the Eastern pillar of Fitz Roy.

According to him the "PFC free clothing from Páramo kept me dry and warm in extreme conditions" – he was very happy about it.

A couple of days ago, at the ISPO (International Sport Fair) in Munich, Páramo announced its decision to make another important step forward by eliminating all hazardous chemicals from its supply chain and products. In being the first outdoor brand to sign the Detox commitment and join forces with the other 34 committed global brands, Páramo has shown itself to be a true leader in the industry.

Their commitment shows that it is absolutely possible for a brand producing high performance gear to stop using hazardous chemicals. Páramo are setting the highest standard in the whole outdoor sector and this example should encourage bigger brands to take the lead for a toxic-free future.

You can help: ask Mammut and The North face to stop contaminating the great outdoors and provide us with products that are not a threat to nature.

Join nature lovers around the world by asking these brands to Detox now.

Chiara Campione is a senior campaigner at Greenpeace Italy and she leads the corporate dialogue team for the Detox Outdoor project.

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Shocking and sad images have been all over the media in the past few days as some massive sperm whales have washed up dead on British beaches. Normally humans and these deep water leviathans live far apart, so it’s understandable that we are surprised and distraught to encounter them like this. But why does it happen? And what can you do?

Crowds of onlookers stand outside a cordon to see two sperm whales found washed up on Gibraltar Point beach, near Skegness. Photo by Lee Swift.

Sperm whales are huge. They have the biggest animal brain on the planet, and make some of the deepest dives in the ocean, where their legendary battles with giant squid fuel our imagination. Immortalised by Moby Dick and Pinocchio, their fictitiously fearsome reputation sometimes overshadows the fact that these were the first whale to be decimated by industrial whaling to be turned into oil. They tend to live and travel in groups, and you don’t normally see them in shallow water like the North Sea.

In fact, when we do see them in shallow water, it’s usually followed by bad news. Every year hundreds of dead whales, dolphins and porpoises wash up dead on British beaches. Amongst them there are usually a few sperm whales. They’re obviously far more noticeable and remarkable than a dolphin, because of their massive size and rarity.

"A fifth whale is washed up on British coastline as aerial footage reveals the devastation https://t.co/ciaQUgWDvH

— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) January 25, 2016"

In the UK we have some amazing organisations looking after our sea life, and amazing scientists monitoring what’s going on.

That was really evident 10 years ago when the city of London had its own whale stranding. when they all came together to try and help.

This week it seems that a whole pod of sperm whales has somehow got stuck in the North Sea, and tragically died. Scientists will be checking the bodies to try and determine why, but there’s a good chance they won’t be able to definitively say. For deep sea whales like sperm whales there’s a pretty good chance that they have become ‘stuck’ in shallow waters and not been able to find food (they can also dehydrate this way, as the Thames’ whale did, because they get all of their water from the food they eat).

"Shame, came up on the 06.30 tide http://pic.twitter.com/C50f8fjL1p

— RNLI Skegness (@RNLIskegness) January 24, 2016"

That then begs a question as to how they got lost? Were they chasing prey? Was it freak weather? Were they affected by something humans did – busy shipping lanes, seismic testing, military noise or something else? There are also the ‘invisible’ threats that whales in our seas carry, most notably a heavy burden of toxic chemicals which could have played a part somehow.

Across the world, as whale populations recover from decades of commercial whaling, they increasingly face a range of new human-generated threats, which are much less visible, but just as deadly. That’s been shown in the pilot whales killed by underwater noise, and the killer whale that got caught up in fishing gear.

Of course not all whales getting into shallow water die, and sometimes a helping hand can make a huge difference - as the great work of the British Divers Marine Life Rescue team shows, or the recent efforts by Scottish fishermen to free a humpback whale.

So what should you do if you see whales or dolphins stranded on a beach or in shallow water?

If they are alive – contact your local Wildlife Trust, or British Divers Marine Life Rescue.

If you find a dead whale, dolphin or porpoise on a beach, then get in touch with the UK strandings network. It’s also a good idea to keep a distance as there might be nasty infections around, and decomposing whales have a tendency to ‘explode’.

"Sad, extraordinary sight of dead #whale that has washed up on Skegness beach @looknorthBBC http://pic.twitter.com/p8IveIlr3k

— Tolu Adeoye (@ToluAdeoyeNews) January 24, 2016"

Willie Mackenzie is a Programme Advisor for the Biodiversity campaign at Greenpeace UK.

This story first appeared on Greenpeace UK.

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Remember in September when we asked major outdoor brands if they use PFCs to make their products?

Most brands had to admit that they do use PFCs. But they didn’t tell us which products they were in.  So we asked you which products you wanted tested. We got more than 30,000 votes on the Detox Outdoor website from outdoor lovers around the world, and sent the 40 most voted for to an independent lab for testing.

The results are in. PFCs were found in all but four of the products we tested.

In 18 items we found high concentrations of the more hazardous long-chain PFCs, even though most of the brands tested claim publicly that they are no longer using them.  We also found PFOA – a long-chain PFC that is linked to a number of health effects, including cancer – in some products by The North Face and Mammut.

These brands are not walking their talk of love and appreciation for the environment when it comes to the chemicals they use in their production chains.

Together with the outdoor community, we are challenging brands to show us what respecting nature really means: stop using toxic chemicals and Detox your gear! 

What concerns me a lot about these substances is that they degrade very slowly in the environment and enter the food chain, making the pollution almost irreversible. We have found them in very remote areas of the planet, and they have already been detected in animals like dolphins, in polar bears’ livers and even in human blood.

When I am not working on the Detox Outdoor project, I spend my time in a little cottage in the middle of the Swiss mountains. The unspoilt scenery that I am lucky enough to see from my window is a constant reminder of how important it is to protect the natural world, the very thing that’s at the core of the outdoor brands’ marketing.

Unfortunately, I also know that PFC contamination has probably already reached this pristine looking landscape.

I am and I always have been an outdoor lover and I am convinced that the outdoor community really has the power and the leverage to make a change for good in the industry. Together we can tell the CEOs of Mammut and The North Face to walk their outdoor talk and stop using toxic chemicals. 

Today UK brand Páramo Directional Clothing announced its commitment to Detox. Páramo is the first brand in the outdoor sector which has already eliminated PFC from its entire production chain, showing that high-performance PFC-free gear is possible, and setting the highest standard within the sector.

The UK brand joins 34 international fashion and sports brands already committed to Detox.

Mirjam Kopp is the Detox Outdoor Global Project Lead for Greenpeace Switzerland.

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After two decades of commercial use, Europeans still can't stomach genetically modified (GM) food. But their producers may have found a way to bypass public opposition and safety regulation. A new range of GM plants and animals could soon end up on the dinner table without any testing or labelling, and without anybody knowing.

Agrochemical multinationals believe EU laws on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are too onerous. This is why some companies and researchers contracted by them are seeking to circumvent the law to gain access to the EU market.

They have invested in new ways to artificially modify the genome of farm crops and animals, and new ways to breed them from GMOs. They claim that all these products and techniques – misleadingly labelled as new breeding techniques – fall outside the scope of EU GMO regulations. The Commission has readily adopted the industry's terminology. 

In particular, producers of new GMOs stake great hopes on so-called gene-editing techniques [see box on gene-editing]. Gene-editing supposedly generates mutations that – producers argue – could equally have occurred naturally. It differs from commercial GM applications, where genes from one species are transplanted into another, but there is nothing 'natural' about it. Examples of gene-editing applications include herbicide-resistant oilseed rape and double-muscled pigs.

Gene-editing changes the genetic code using material from outside the target organism. Much like older GM techniques, it also entails numerous risks and uncertainties. The 'engineering process' is not well understood and can result in unexpected and unpredictable effects on the environment, and human and animal health.

GMO by law

What is gene-editing? Gene-editing covers a range of new laboratory techniques to change the DNA of a living organism. As with traditional GM crops, a common 'modification' from gene-editing in plants is resistance to herbicides, such as in oilseed rape. Double-muscled pigs are one of many applications of gene-editing being tested in farm animals. Most gene-editing techniques use enzymes to 'cut' the genome at a predefined location. The genome then 'repairs' itself. The result is an insertion, replacement or removal of bits of DNA. (Unintended DNA cuts or other gene alterations can also occur, with unknown consequences.) These techniques include zinc finger nucleases (ZFN), transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) and the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR) systems. Another technique involves the introduction of short strands of synthetic DNA that triggers cells to modify their DNA to match the introduced fragments. This technique oligonucleotide directed mutagenesis (ODM).

Europe's laws do not stop old-style GM crops from being imported or grown in the EU. But they do require a detailed – if flawed – assessment of health and environmental risks, as well as labelling, to allow consumer choice. Since 2015, EU national governments can also ban GM crops from being grown in their countries. Nineteen governments have banned GM crop farming on all or part of their territory for the foreseeable future.

To avoid public and regulatory scrutiny, producers of new GMOs want the Commission to confirm their reading of the law. This would automatically allow field trials and commercialisation of gene-edited crops and animals, disregarding legal requirements for GMO risk assessment and labelling.

However, EU GMO law is unequivocal. It covers all organisms arising from processes that alter genetic material "in a way that does not occur naturally by mating and/or natural recombination". True, some ways to modify the genome are exempt under certain conditions, based on their "long safety record" – which none of the new techniques can claim to have. These exemptions must be applied narrowly, in line with the precautionary principle that features prominently in EU law.

The Commission is expected to release a legal assessment on new GMOs by the end of March. It has already hinted that the final decision will rest with the European Court of Justice.

If the Commission sides with biotech companies and agrees not to apply EU GMO law to these risky new GMOs, an increasing number of GM products would never be assessed for their potential effects on our food, health or the environment. They would not be labelled either, so European consumers, farmers and breeders would have no way of avoiding them.

The Commission must safeguard the public and the environment and rigorously apply EU law. It should reject any attempts to circumvent regulations and public opposition to GMOs.

Franziska Achterberg is the Food Policy Director at Greenpeace EU.

This story first appeared on Greenpeace EU.

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It’s worth more than cocaine, diamonds, gold, or heroin. So what’s stopping the Hong Kong government from stamping out all illegal wildlife products?

Along Hollywood Road in Hong Kong’s touristy arts district, sit rows of large window shop fronts filled with exquisite handicrafts. Amongst oriental antiques and wares, are boutique stores proudly and boldly selling ivory carvings. Big-bellied Buddhas, smooth elegant horses, towering Gods and Goddesses – you name it and it’s likely to be in ivory form.

Photo: Alex Hofford

Hong Kong is the world’s largest market for elephant ivory. But an announcement last week by Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, the head of Hong Kong’s administration, to ban the domestic ivory trade will change all that. Leung said they “will kick-start legislative procedures as soon as possible to ban the import and export of elephant hunting trophies.”

This is a great win for elephant conservation. But whilst this (long-overdue) momentous occasion deserves celebration (though the government is still yet to release an action plan and  timeline), there’s a whole host of endangered wildlife products that are still for sale and pushing species to extinction.

The elephant in the room

What’s worth more than cocaine, diamonds, gold, or heroin? You’ll never guess but Hong Kong’s illegal wildlife trade can pull in very considerable profits. Criminal syndicates have long used Hong Kong as a smuggling route to China, where growing affluence has fueled an unprecedented rise in the trafficking of threatened species.

Greenpeace East Asia knows all too well how easy it is to purchase smuggled items. We’ve gone undercover to investigate the business of dried swim bladders from the totoaba – a marine fish that can reach two metres in length and 100kg in weight, and is endemic to the upper Gulf of California in Mexico. As a supposed health tonic in China it can fetch up to USD 645,000. No wonder it’s been dubbed “aquatic cocaine”.

Greenpeace activists investigate the habitat of the endangered vaquita marina in the upper Gulf of California and locate illegal gillnets, which are contributing to the rapidly declining numbers of vaquita. 

During our investigation into purchasing the totoaba , we identified at least 13 shops (including both wholesalers and retailers) as potential sellers, among which seven were able to show our researchers dried totoaba bladder samples in the shop.

But apart from already being critically endangered and illegally sold, there’s another side effect. Totoaba are caught in gillnets, a large vertical net that traps fish by their gills and which unintentionally also entraps the vaquita – a small and rare porpoise of which there are only 57 left in the world. Despite a two year fishing ban by the Mexican government in the protected area, boats are still fishing in the vaquita’s habitat. We know because back in July 2015 we sent the Greenpeace Esperanza ship out in the the Gulf of California waters and have spotted these illegal fishing nets ourselves.

And this is the elephant in the room.  Unless Hong Kong truly takes firm action against all endangered wildlife, trafficking will continue and flourish in other areas, not just ivory.

A model of a vaquita used to illustrate how they are caught and entangled in gill nets, which are used to catch totoaba

Keeping up the momentum

All's not lost though. Momentum is growing and Hong Kong is taking steps other than banning ivory to wipe out illegal wildlife trafficking.

In November 2015, the government took unprecedented action to address the illegal totoaba trade by issuing summonses against the operators of two dried seafood shops that sell bladders from the endangered fish. This couldn’t have happened without your support and the global campaign you’ve been part of to save them.

Over 150 people sculpt a giant vaquita on a Hong Kong beach on 'International Save the Vaquita Day'.

We believe that the Hong Kong Government could and should be a leader in combatting wildlife crime not just regionally, but globally. It’s in a position to demonstrate to the local and international community and the criminal syndicates behind the multibillion dollar illegal wildlife trade, that although Hong Kong is a free port, it has zero tolerance for wildlife crime.

Shuk-Wah Chung is a Content Editor at Greenpeace East Asia. Follow her on Twitter @shookiewah

Do you want Hong Kong to stamp out wildlife trafficking for good? Sign here to protect little guys like the vaquita.

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Applications available now for download

SACRAMENTO, CA – Calling All Dreamers! The Downtown Sacramento Foundation (DSF) will soon accept proposals for downtown business concepts for the 4th Annual Calling All Dreamers competition. While completed applications will not be accepted until February 9, 2016, competition rules, key dates, and applications are available to download now at downtownsac.org to give contestants a head start on the application process. All proposals for the 2016 Calling All Dreamers competition must be submitted online and the deadline is March 29, 2016 at 5 p.m. After a review process and public voting period, the 2016 Calling All Dreamers winner will be announced in June 2016.

Each year, Calling All Dreamers contestants compete for a coveted business start-up package that is designed to provide the winner with essential resources and helpful tools needed to successfully launch a downtown storefront. In addition, DSF will help the winning entrepreneur navigate many of the challenges faced by many business owners during their first year in business.

“This is undeniably one of the most exciting times in Sacramento’s history to start a business in the urban core,” said Valerie Mamone Werder, DSP Senior Manager of Business Development. “The sky is the limit for entrepreneurs with innovative business ideas who can tap into the momentum and energy focused on downtown Sacramento.”

Economic development and small business growth is a top priority for the Downtown Sacramento Partnership (DSP), a Property Based Improvement District (PBID) focused on Downtown Sacramento and sister organization to the DSF. Since the annual Calling All Dreamers competition launched in 2013, DSF has helped 11 new businesses open in Downtown Sacramento. Some of the contestants of the annual Calling All Dreamers competition include the following: Andy’s Candy Apothecary, The Dailey Method, Ana Apple, Sun & Soil, South, Off the Chain Bike Bus Tours, Metro Juice, and Benjamin’s Shoes. To date, these locally owned businesses have leased more than 14,000 sf of retail space and created a minimum of 10 full-time and 35-part-time jobs.

Additionally, the 2015 Calling All Dreamers winner, Heather Wong of Allspicery, is slated to open in early 2016. Allspicery will be the first one-stop spice shop in Sacramento, offering a curated selection of spices, salts, teas, and proprietary house-made spice blends sourced from around the world. The shop will offer commonplace spices as well as obscure, hard-to-find ingredients. Spices will be sold whole or freshly ground in-house, making the shop a veritable candy store for foodies.

###

About the Downtown Sacramento Foundation
. The DSF is a sister organization to the Downtown Sacramento Partnership. Established in 2011, this 501(c)3 organization is dedicated to fostering civic pride through the improvement of the social and physical environment of Downtown. The DSF provides much needed support to the Downtown Sacramento Partnership (DSP) programs that provide elevated services for public space management and beautification, homeless outreach and public safety.

The post DOWNTOWN SACRAMENTO FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES 2016 “CALLING ALL DREAMERS” BUSINESS COMPETITION appeared first on Downtown Sacramento Partnership.

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We’ve barely entered 2016, but China and the US – the world’s largest coal producers – have already embarked on sweeping changes to cut out coal. Could 2016 be the year we break free from this dirty fossil fuel?

It’s the centuries old “addiction” the world can’t kick. Coal-burning power plants remain the single largest source of human-made CO2 emissions worldwide, and burning coal is a serious health hazard – as those suffering from Beijing’s smog know all too well.

But 2016 is already shaping up to be the year where we start to leave our fossil fuelled world behind, and move towards a renewable future.

Last year, the coal industry experienced a dramatic drop. Global coal consumption fell between 90 and 180 million tonnes in the first half of the year – the largest decrease on record.

Politics shifted too. Countries most impacted by climate change spoke out against coal. The president of the low-lying island nation of Kiribati demanded a global moratorium on coal mining. Meanwhile the Philippines launched the world’s first national human rights investigation into 50 big polluters.

But perhaps the biggest blow to coal happened in December, when world leaders at the COP21 Paris climate talks signed an agreement that left no doubt investing in coal was a risky endeavor, at best.

Once coal’s “allies," China and the US are now starting to separate from the dirty fossil fuel. Here’s what they’ve done in just the last few weeks:

China is closing down thousands of mines

In the final days of 2015, China announced plans to halt new coal mine approvals for the next three years and close 1,000 mines as part of its fight against air pollution.

This is astonishing, considering that only two years ago, some predicted China would be burning over a billion tonnes more coal by 2020. Instead, China’s coal consumption has been in decline for almost two years. Prior to the Paris summit, China even announced its intention to peak CO2 emissions by 2030 at the latest. And more recently, Beijing announced it is banning coal in six of its districts to continue its fight against air pollution.

These drastic changes send another signal that the Chinese government is serious about tackling coal’s impact on worsening air quality in big cities, as well as its impact on water shortages and ecological degradation in vulnerable land-locked regions.

It’s an inevitable step as China moves away from its coal addiction. 

Bans and bankruptcy for coal in the US

President Obama promised in his State of the Union address earlier this week that he would charge more for coal and gas companies to mine and drill on US public lands. Today, he made good on his word.

The US Department of Interior – the part of the Obama administration in charge of public lands – has just announced that it will review the program that allows coal companies to mine public lands for cheap, and it will take the impacts of climate change into account. What’s more, during the multi-year review process it will halt new federal coal leases.

This is a huge win in for the climate, considering that 40 percent of US coal comes from public lands. The ban will keep billions of tonnes of coal in the ground.

The news comes just days after Arch Coal, the second largest coal mining company in the United States, filed for bankruptcy. (Over the past few years, nearly 50 coal companies in the US have gone bankrupt. )

Arch Coal is a textbook example of the twisted coal industry in the US. The company has worked to gut basic environmental and public health protections and cheat miners, all while cooking the climate and destroying complex ecosystems across the United States. Even as its profits have declined over the last few years, it has nearly doubled its CEO’s salary.

Its failure now – before President Obama’s reforms kick in – is further proof that coal is on its last legs in the US.

And there’s more. The final kick in the teeth to the US coal industry this week comes from New York state, where Governor Cuomo released new goals to phase out coal-fired power plants statewide by 2020.

2016... and beyond

While we have made amazing progress in reducing the power and size of the coal industry, the transition to clean, renewable energy can’t come quick enough for the climate.

Fortunately, new challenges to the coal industry continue to stream in every single day. And the price of renewable energy keeps getting cheaper all over the world!

These first weeks of 2016 have made it clear that coal is continuing, perhaps even accelerating, its downward spiral. The end of coal is near. So is the dawn of our renewable energy future.

Kelly Mitchell is the Climate Campaign Director at Greenpeace USA.

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When I proposed to Greenpeace to attempt one of the most difficult climbing routes in Patagonia – a land famed for its bad weather – using PFC-free clothing, I had my doubts.

Would these products work just as well as clothing with Gore-Tex? Well, I have to say they did and I am extremely happy with their performance. But let’s start from the beginning. My climbing partner and I had been checking weather forecasts almost constantly for the last three weeks but December had shut us down. Then a four-day good weather window appeared and January 3 looked like our chance to climb the mountain.

We started the approach to Laguna Torre and the Nipponino basecamp under strong wind, but after a six-hour hike through the glacier we settled down to rest. Distances are much greater here than anywhere else, and walking 20 kilometres just to get to the mountains is common. Good and reliable gear is crucial if the bad weather catches you during one of these approaches.  

At Nipponino basecamp we prepared our gear and at midnight we started the approach to the foot of the west face of Cerro Torre (3,102 metres). A long and difficult hike on the Glaciar Grande among huge crevasses led us to Col Standhart with 1,200 metres of climbing just to get to Circo De los Altares and the base of the route. After 15 hours of climbing we got the base of the wall and Col de La Speranza. Here we dug a snow cave that kept us warm and safe during the night. We melted our water and recovered from the day.

Greenpeace lent me PFC-free clothing (from a UK brand) which so far worked very well. I was happy and still dry and warm. On the morning of January 5, we started to climb the west face, 850 metres above us. Snow and incredible ice formations seemed impossible obstacles but in 1974 an Italian team had found a way through. We were following their route. After many metres and many challenging sections of vertical ice and inconsistent snow we got to the last 50 metres of Cerro Torre. The famous Mushroom. This is definitely the hardest part of the mountain: now that can take up to five hours to climb.

I took my ice tools and went for it. After an hour-long battle against howling wind, hard climbing and scant natural protection, we got the top of this amazing mountain – a dream of every alpinist.

After enjoying the view from the summit, we started the long way back to the snow cave. Twenty hours of climbing later, we made it and rested for the night. On January 6, we walked 14 hours through the Hielo Continental, the third largest ice mass in the world, and slept at its base. On January 7, we reached El Chaltén, the end of our trip, happy and satisfied.

My gear worked perfectly and I was very glad to have climbed this mountain without clothing made with toxic chemicals. Nature is our home and our playground and as climbers our duty is to protect it. Thank you Greenpeace for helping us doing this!

Demand an end to PFCs in outdoor gear at detox-outdoor.org

David Bacci is an alpinist and adventurer from Northern Italy. His passion is to climb mountains and to travel to the most remote and extreme places in the world. Visit his website here: davidbacci.exposure.co

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Greenpeace International has today named not only its first female International Executive Director, but two. Jennifer Morgan and Bunny McDiarmid will take up the reigns in an innovative co-leadership role on 4 April 2016.
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As if this was real news, the Sacramento Bee is teasing the idea that the former site of two 53-story towers at Third Street and Capitol Mall could be the site of a mixed-use tower. The state Board of Equalization has meet with CIM Group who manages the site for CalPERS about relocating to a new tower that could be built at the Third & Capitol site. CIM officials showed conceptual drawings of a
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With a theme of Urban Kinesis, Harnessing Our Collective Energy, a sold-out audience of approximately 700 business and community leaders attended the high-energy 2016 State of Downtown breakfast on January 12, 2016 at the Memorial Auditorium.

A stunning new time-lapse video created by local photographer and filmmaker Justin Majeczky was unveiled during the event which captures the invigorating energy pulsing through Sacramento.

During the annual event, DSP Executive Director Michael Ault took a moment to highlight a number of ways Sacramento’s downtown core is in the midst of one of its most transformative eras in its history with some impressive facts to back it up, including:

• Sacramento has seen more than $1 billion in public and private investments over the past decade;
• In the next 10 years we anticipate an extraordinary $5 billion in investments
• More than 20 properties were sold in the last year alone in 36 square blocks totaling $400 million in property sales and two million square foot of space;
• Property values are rising…as an example, the Citizen Hotel sold for $60 million with a room value of more than $300K per key, a 15 percent increase over the last hotel sale eight years ago;
• Downtown’s “Top 10” restaurants exceeded $50 million in sales in 2014; a 22 percent increase from a year ago;
• The Wall Street Journal named Sacramento #6 on their list of the Nation’s Greatest Small Cities for Food Lovers;
• Southwest: The Magazine recently named Sacramento America’s Next Great Food City;

And the list goes on…

Of course, Ault pointed out the incredibly exciting construction of the Golden 1 Center is the catalyst for the transformation. Plus he went on to explain why Sacramento is just getting started with developments happening with DOCO (Downtown Commons), The Bridge District, the Railyards and much more.

Uplifting remarks were also provided by Mayor Kevin Johnson and Golden 1 Credit Union President & CEO Donna Bland. The event’s engaging and knowledgeable keynote speaker was Ron Blatman, Executive Producer/Producer of upcoming television series Saving the City: Remaking the American Metropolis. Blatman shared insights and anecdotes about successful and not-so-successful examples of urban redevelopment throughout the US and Canada with a focus on downtowns and nearby neighborhoods.

If the energy and enthusiasm at this event is any indication, Sacramento is indeed well on its way to becoming The Next Great American City.

Please take a few minutes to share your feedback on the event, take our State of Downtown 2016 Survey.

The post State of Downtown highlights: Urban Kinesis appeared first on Downtown Sacramento Partnership.

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There are 24,133 glaciers in Chile – 82 percent of the glaciers in South America. These vast and intricate cascades of white, blue and brown not only form one of the largest freshwater reserves in the world, they are also vital to the preservation of vulnerable local ecosystems.

But human activity threatens their very existence, despite their importance to people and the environment. Whether due to mining in northern and central Chile or climate change in southern Chile, these unprotected glaciers are under serious strain.

The Esperanza’s mission

The plight facing the glaciers is well known, but their remote location makes them difficult to study in depth. That’s why the Esperanza just spent several days in Patagonia in southern Chile documenting some of these vanishing fields of ice. We hope the research gathered could even be key to pressuring the government of Chile to commit to stronger laws fully protecting the glaciers.

Glaciologists and a climatologist led the Greenpeace expedition to two remote glaciers in Patagonia. Their goal: to gather crucial data about their current state and rate of retreat. One of the glaciers they visited was Pio XI, the largest glacier in Southern Ice Fields and the same glacier the Arctic Sunrise visited eleven years prior. 

After leaving the Esperanza on inflatables, the team hiked for hours across the ice to get the data they needed. Without a ship like the Esperanza, access to this remote spot would have been nearly impossible.

The team used a radar technique called radioglaciology that can measure the thickness of the ancient ice. They also placed cameras at key locations around the glaciers to monitor their retreat and took ice samples for analysis.

While the data they were gathering seems basic – the changing size of the glaciers, the rate of their disappearance – this type of information that is crucial to understanding the scale of the problem is missing from the political conversation.

What the future holds for Chile’s glaciers

The scientists are still analyzing their findings, and we will hear the results soon. But we already know one thing: in our warming planet, protecting all glaciers is essential.

Right now, Chilean law does not protect glaciers from the destruction of human activity. Far from it. Instead several Chilean governments have failed to give them protection – allowing glacier destruction at a record pace. Chilean state-owned CODELCO (the world's largest copper producer) has destroyed about 342 hectares of glaciers in the Andes in the past decades. Other mining projects from Barrick, Antofagasta Minerals and Anglo American continue to raze glacial areas and remain a direct threat to Chilean water reserves.

All this, at the same time the glaciers are under siege from rising global temperatures.

But there is a chance to make this right. Chile is currently considering a proposal to protect some glaciers. Sadly, the plan doesn’t do nearly enough – still leaving over 50 percent of the country's glaciers unprotected. That’s why we need your help – urgently.

All of us can work together to ensure that Chile’s glaciers have the protection they need. Send a message to Chilean President Michelle Bachelet to step up for the environment and the people of Chile and support a law fully protecting all Chilean glaciers.

Estefanía Gonzalez is a glacier campaigner for Greenpeace Chile.

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Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest: there’s no other place like it on the planet. As one of the world’s largest remaining coastal temperate rainforests, some of the richest and most wondrous ecosystems on Earth are found here. It is also home to many First Nations.

Over the years that I’ve been working on this two decade-long campaign to safeguard the Great Bear Rainforest, I have met incredible people, spent time in deeply-rooted communities and have learned some truly wondrous things about this place.

Here are my top seven facts about the Great Bear Rainforest:

1. There are at least 26 First Nations whose unceded traditional territories make up the Great Bear Rainforest.

2. First Nations have ancient village sites going back at least 10,000 years, if not longer.

   

3. Cedar trees and their use have been deeply intertwined with the cultural and spiritual life of First Nations for millennia.

4. The rare, elusive white Spirit Bear can only be found in the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest.

 

5. Why do trees grow so large in the old-growth forests of the Great Bear? Because bears leave their partially eaten salmon in the forest, like offerings, for the trees and soil to absorb the nutrients. In fact salmon DNA has been found in the old trees! 

 

6. The threatened marbled murrelet doesn’t build a nest. Instead makes a depression in the moss found in the canopy of old-growth trees.

 

7. There are some great live cam websites that take you into the seas and rainforests of the Great Bear — such as here and here.

If you haven't visited this magnificent part of the world, you need to go! If you have visited, share with us your own top seven in the comments. 

Eduardo Sousa is senior forest campaigner for Greenpeace Canada. 

A version of this blog was originally posted by Greenpeace Canada.

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2016 has kicked off with great news for pandas.

Back in October, Greenpeace revealed that China’s iconic giant pandas were under threat from rampant illegal logging in the world’s largest panda habitat.

'Loggers in China destroying parts of panda sanctuary' This must stop! #panda https://t.co/c8GcSkh4JM http://pic.twitter.com/Q3lwliks0L

— Greenpeace East Asia (@GreenpeaceEAsia) October 22, 2015

Following a 2-year-long investigation, we uncovered that a shocking 3,200 acres of pristine natural forest in the Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries had been clear cut to make way for plantations of profitable timber, under the guise of ‘forest reconstruction’.

Aerial image of clearcut logging in the natural forest of Fengtongzhai nature reserve, in the Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries - a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We knew this had to stop.

We demanded that the government close the loophole which leaves China’s most famous and beloved animals at risk of destruction and  protect the beautiful place they inhabit.

And that’s exactly what has happened.

Just days after we exposed the illegal logging, the Sichuan Forestry Bureau took action and launched their own investigation.

The results have just come in:

• 23 cases were filed and 22 officials held accountable.

• A new regulation on ‘forest re-construction’- the policy that allowed the illegal logging to go on unchecked- will be issued, ensuring that the loophole is closed and can’t be explo

• The Sichuan Forestry Bureau is now developing a strategy to make sure commercial deforestation doesn’t impact the giant panda’s habitat.

This is amazing news. But the fight isn’t over.

China’s giant pandas are protected for now, but the problem isn’t contained in Sichuan. We previously discovered the same illegal logging happening in Zhejiang and Yunnan Provinces. As it stands, a third of China’s natural forests are at risk of the same fate.

The Sichuan authorities have responded and put a stop to the reckless destruction of precious, natural forest. Now it’s time for the rest of the country to follow suit.

Thanks to all of you for sharing the news and making this happen. We’ll be keeping up the pressure, to make this a victory for all of China’s wildlife, not just the giant panda.

Yi Lan is Deputy Head of Greenpeace East Asia’s Forests and Oceans Campaign

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Welcome to 2016 and a new growth cycle for Downtown Sacramento as three new businesses prepare to open their doors in the urban core. 

2015 Calling All Dreamers grand prize winner, Heather Wong, is on track to open Allspicery at 1125 11th Street within the next month. Located near Chops restaurant in Downtown Sacramento, Allspicery will be the first one-stop spice shop in Sacramento, offering a curated selection of spices, salts, teas, and proprietary house-made spice blends sourced from around the world. The shop will offer commonplace spices as well as obscure, hard-to-find ingredients. Spices will be sold whole or freshly ground in-house, making the shop a veritable candy store for foodies.

Cesar Chavez Plaza will soon welcome La Cosecha, a new market-to-table Mexican restaurant by local restaurateur Ernesto Delgado – owner of Mayahuel on K Street. Plans for the new plaza restaurant include extensive patio dining with new landscaping and lighting. Once the doors open this spring, La Cosecha will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner to guests seven days a week. With the lease recently approved by the City, building improvements will commence this month starting with fencing around the structure on January 11. 

The local creative community is planting fashion seeds in the heart of downtown as 2015 Calling All Dreamers finalists, Karisa Gold and Kimberly Dawn Eanes, recently acquired studio space at 717 K Street to house The Workspace: Fashion Incubator. The stylish entrepreneurs envision The Workspace as a collaborative fashion hub that will incorporate both a professional level workroom and a designer retail showroom where they will produce collections to be debuted at Sacramento Fashion Week in February 2016. 

The post Coming soon to Downtown Sac appeared first on Downtown Sacramento Partnership.

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