Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Green Environmental Issues

I am increasingly of the opinion that the GPCA has lost it's focus on environmental issues. One note that I read on the very small (5 member) GPCA-Environment email list suggests that we need to identify a major environmental issue in California and to start working on that one issue. So, here is my suggestion, personal as it something that I am increasingly passionate about.

I want to see a Green Party of California focus on maintainting / improving the status of the California Delta. In many real ways, the Delta is the Hub of California's future. It is also at the nexus of many environmental practices:
  • increasing population in Southern California creates a bigger demand for diverting water from the delta.
  • if additional water is diverted, it takes away from agricultural use in the Centeral Valley.
  • additional water can be saved if people are willing to build more dams.
  • the reduced water flow from diversions and dams will affect fish populations, especially chinook salmon.
  • reduced water flows will allow more saline water from San Francisco Bay to enter the delta and affect water quality for both agriculture and human consumption.
  • additional pumping of ground water causes delta farmland to sink below sea level.
  • and it is all threatened by the rising sea level that is a result of global climate changes.
However, there are other issues and I am not the only one whose opinion counts. So, I ask you to comment on this post to identify other issues on which we might focus. Or, you can subsrcibe to the GPCA-Environment email list linked above and express your opinion there.

No comments: