Foreclosure sales of homes where the loans are in default still represent a loss for the banks making the sales. Yet local agencies that work with overextended homeowners say few lenders seem willing to work toward other outcomes.
When people come to the foreclosure prevention program, says Linda Hedstrom at California Human Development, they sometimes have unrealistic hopes. But the keeping the house is often not possible, so damage control becomes the fallback objective.
One secondary effect of the foreclosure wave has been a considerable number of former homeowners who must return to the ranks of renters. But Hedstrom observes the rental market in Sonoma County currently is much tighter than the for sale housing market.
A new foreign insect pest has been found in a north coast vineyard, and extensive trapping is underway to see how widespread the European Grapevine Moth may already be.
The European Vineyard Moth and the Light Brown Apple Moth have a very similar appearance, which isn’t really surprising. As Lucia Varela, an Integrated Pest Management specialist with the University of California Cooperative Extension, explains, both are members of the family of Tortricid moths, which is well known to California agriculture.
Non-native plants and animals that proliferate outside their usual range are often characterized as “invasive” species. Varela prefers the more neutral term, “exotics” to describe the moth pests, but concedes they may well come to be considered invasive, depending on how much of a threat to the area’s vines they become.
This picture shows two tell-tale signs of the European Vineyard Moth, the white “webbing” between the individual grapes, and the shriveled and wrinkled skin, which indicates that the worm has already eaten its way into the fruit.
As the 2010 US Census prepares to start counting every American, the five Indian tribes in Sonoma County are getting involved to ensure their people are fully included in the final totals.
Jim Meadows, Partnership Coordinator for the regional Census Center articulates the two most compelling reasons why anyone—and especially native people in California—should want to be included.
Harvey Hopkins, chairman of the Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians adds that a full count of the Native Americans in Sonoma County and throughout the state is critical to the funding formulas that support vital programs that serve these populations.
For comprehensive information about the once-a-decade national survey, go to the 2010 Census website.
When the Post Carbon Institute was started in 2003, the idea behind its name was a philosophical ideal. Seven years later, it’s become a imminent necessity—one with an accelerating deadline.
Moving into a post-carbon world will require all kinds of changes in the way people live, especially in our high-consumption culture. But Asher Miller (left), Executive Director of the Post Carbon Institute, believes that the necessary adjustments may not prove to be as difficult or disruptive as they may appear at this point in time.
This is Miller's Open Letter to President Obama, in response to his 2010 State of the Union Speech.
Dear President Obama,
Your State of the Union speech last week laudably referenced clean tech and renewable energy several times. We ask that you follow your words with action, by leading the transition to a post-carbon economy and a healthier world.
You also spoke of our need to face hard truths.
Hard truth: Our continued, willful reliance on fossil fuels is making our planet uninhabitable. We are evicting ourselves from the only paradise we’ve ever known.
Hard truth: No combination of current and anticipated renewable sources can maintain our profligate energy usage as the global supply of fossil fuels heads for terminal decline.
For the recently released Searching for a Miracle, Post Carbon Institute Senior Fellow Richard Heinberg conducted a “net energy” analysis of 18 different energy sources (including nuclear and “clean coal”). He concluded that the amount of energy available after accounting for the energy used in extraction and production of those sources is—at our current and anticipated rates of consumption—insufficient to get us “over the hump” to a post-carbon world.
Our 29 Post Carbon Institute Fellows—experts in the leading economic, energy, and environmental issues of the day—all agree that this "net energy" deficit is just one of many interrelated crises shaping the 21st century. Each crisis alone creates formidable challenges; in combination, their complexity admits no simple solution. But given their direness, inaction risks tragedy.
Mr. President, we respect you and your advisors and appreciate the enormity of the dilemmas you and all of us confront. When a great leader frames a great challenge, a resilient people will rise to meet the opportunity. And so we ask, Mr. President, that you tell the American people that we must:
1. Face reality. In a carbon-constrained world, true prosperity comes not from heedless growth, but from shared security, community, and liberty.
2. Prepare for the future. Conservation, with an emphasis on building a green economy and revitalizing struggling communities, offers cost-effective “found” energy, and the most immediate and long-term return on investment.
3. Lead the way. A substantial investment in renewable energy, with an emphasis on distributed solar and wind, offers the best hope for moving to a sustainable economy and environment.
Mr. President, lead us in creating a future worth inheriting. Post Carbon Institute and our Fellows will support you and your team in whatever capacity we can. We believe that the American people, and the world’s people, will support you as well.
With hope, Asher Miller Executive Director Post Carbon Institute
When people come to the foreclosure prevention program, says Linda Hedstrom at California Human Development, they sometimes have unrealistic hopes. But the keeping the house is often not possible, so damage control becomes the fallback objective.
