The Solar Sonoma County program, which got its official kick-off last night, may make our area a model for other rural regions that want to expand their use of solar power.

Click here to see a detailed 2-page fact sheet on Solar Sonoma County. (pdf)

John Lushetsky from the federal Department of Energy, where he is the manager of the Solar Energy Technologies Program. As more and more solar panels collect electricity, there will be increasing demand for batteries to store and save that power. John Lushetshy says his agency will soon turn its attention to that aspect of energy independence as well.

Ives Pool in Sebastopol is an example of a local public facility that has installed solar panels to hold down energy costs.

The most critical natural resource on the planet is at risk, but its not one we’re accustomed to thinking of as endangered.

Dr. Vandana Shiva is the founder of Navdanya International , an India-based science and policy research center. Its mission: "To protect nature and people's rights to knowledge, biodiversity, water and food."

Dr. Shiva notes that pesticide use contributes to the "desertification" of soils, a process that is accelerated when the soil is poor to begin with.

One little-known consequence of the widespread adoption of genetically modified cotton seed by farmers in India has been a surge in suicides by debt-ridden farmers whose crops do not earn enough to pay their seed bills. Dr. Shiva says that a generation ago, suicide was rare in India, but the numbers now suggest there is a new death approximately every 20 mintes.

On August 27^th, the Jackson Theater at Sonoma Country Day School in Santa Rosa will host an evening with Dr. Shiva, advocate and author as well as winner of the alternative Nobel Peace Prize. For more information about the speaking event, click here . KRCB will also record her presentation for later broadcast next month.

Palm Oil

First the ethanol boom created a surge in corn prices; now bio-diesel made from palm oil is threatening tropical rain forests.

To view a continually growing list of products that use palm oil, click here.

To see the website for the Rainforest Agribusiness Campaign, click here.

Plastic shopping bags have been banned in cities as big as San Francisco and as small as Healdsburg, but Marin county attorney Stephen Joseph says they’re getting a bum rap.

Tiburon Attorney Stephen Joseph has created the SaveThePlasticBag.org website.

His campaign was also recently profiled in TIME magazine.

Below, Joseph talks about the few photos that purport to show wildlife being harmed by plastic bags in their natural environment.

Plastic bags should be reused whenever possible, and those not being used can be recycled.