Birds speak in a language all their own. Through chirps, warbles, trills and calls, they advertize for mates, warn of approaching predators and defend territories. Naturalist and author David Lukas trains listeners to pick up on these cues and hear a new world, as KRCB's Danielle Venton reports. (Right, David Lukas observes a flock of unperturbed Canada geese grazing near Lake Merritt, Oakland/Danielle Venton for KRCB.) 

Bird vocalization carries an astounding level of information and variety. Here, Lukas has collected three song dialects from the same species -- White-crowned Sparrow. (Image of White Crowned Sparrow, right, courtesy of Public Domain Images.)

Lukas recently published a book about the birds of the Bay Area. The region, he says, is the perfect place to be a birder.

Penicillin and other antibiotic "wonder drugs" have save countless lives over the past 70 years. But widespread use is threatening the future effectiveness of these important medications, and there is nothing yet known that could take their place.

Ramanan LaxminarayanAlthough it is doctors who prescribe antibiotics, efforts to reduce their use are better directed primarily toward patients, says Ramanan Laxminarayan, Director of the Center for Disease, Dynamics, Economics and Politics.

An even bigger challenge, Laxminarayansays, lies in curtailing the widespread use of these drugs on animals in our food supply.

  The CDDEP's newly unveiled online ResistanceMap be used to chart and compare both the use of classes of antibiotics on a state by state basis, as well as data on the increasing bacterial resistance to these same drugs. The Center will tailor their educational efforts to reduce unnecessary use of these medications based on the geographical consumption patters shown in the data.

The basic reason why widespread overuse of antibiotics is summaraice in this graphic, used courtesy of the University of California Museum of Paleontology's Understanding Evolution (http://evolution.berkeley.edu).

Sonoma County has set an ambitious goal for greenhouse gas reductions by 2015. A new report shows that encouraging progress toward that target is being made.
 

Ann HancockThe linkage between using less electricity and gasoline and curtailing CO2 emissions is direct and easy to understand. Cutting down the waste stream that goes into the county landfill is also important, explains Ann Hancock, executive director of the Climate Protection Campaign in Santa Rosa, but in more ways that may be immediately obvious.

 The new  Sonoma County Greenhouse Gas Report for 2011 can be read and downloaded here. The chart cummarizing the progress detailed in the report can be seen below. Used with  permission

Economic benefits multiply when dollars re-circulate in the local business community. Creating a form of local money ensures it won't go elsewhere, and that's what Go Local is quietly doing here in Sonoma County.

To maximize ease of use for cardholders, Go Local's Janeen Murray explains, they have developed a user-friendly online system for tracking both spending and progress toward rewards.

The gradual introduction of Go Local's alternative currency program began almost three years ago, and it has been more visibly gaining adherents over the past few months. But Murray says the greater vision includes more than just retail commerce.