Global warming poses a real and serious threat to California’s wine industry, but vineyards throughout the state—and other agricultural lands—can also take steps to blunt the pace of climate change.

It is increasingly clear, says Ted Lemon (right) , co-owner of Littorai Wines in Sebastopol, that the dominant business model in American agriculture, needs to change.

Monoculture farming has not succeeded in feeding the world. Lemon observes, so a new approach is clearly needed.

The Littorai Winery is an informal demonstration site for the practical application of principals of agroecology. The Wine Institute of California has also intiated a proactive program in support of sustainable vineyard practicies, which you can read about here.

Nanotechnology, the tiniest stuff that human technology has been able to create, is becoming a bigger and bigger part of our everyday lives.

SRJC Chemistry professor Dr. Karen Frindell (left)  will deliver a presentation on the small science of Nanotechnology at the Science Buzz Café Dec. 10 at 7 pm in the Sebastopol Youth Annex on Morris Street. She explains that the date is one of historic significance for this branch of science.

Another new aspect of nanotechnology is the creation of tiny motors fabricated from molecules of iron. But the same powerful magnification that has enabled researchers to see what they are doing with those nano-motors has also revealed that nature has already accomplished some of those same functions, on the same micro-miniature scale.

Richard Feynman

When it comes to building new reservoirs and hydroelectric plants, there are good dams and bad dams. A new online-calculator developed by Sebastopol’s Conservation Strategy Fund is a tool designed to help tell them apart.

What’s the difference between a good dam and a bad dam? CFS President John Reid offers examples of each.

Check out  the new web-based HydroCalculator here! development of this new online tool was made possible with support from the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

Daily Acts, a Petaluma-based dedicated to sustainability and transformation, works, its founder says, by exercising “the freedom to act without having all the answers.”

As the impacts from Daily Acts ripple outward from the North Bay,  founder and Executive Director Trathen Beckman says they are looking for new ways, and new partners, to help expand their influence.

From conservation to graywater reuse to designing and installing permaculture landscapes, many Daily Acts projects now are focused in one way or another on water. Which, when you think about it, is only natural.

  This was the postcard invitation to the fundraising (and networking) breakfast on Thursday, Nov. 5. Part of the program was a informational video about the organization, created by local filmmaker Eve Goldberg. You can also see it here: