Monthly Archives: March 2008

Lights Out!

By Alex Breitler | Published: March 29, 2008 | Comments closed
So there’s a day for everything. You know, Talk Like a Pirate Day and all those other special occasions. On Saturday there is a special hour. It’s called Earth Hour. Between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. the enviros want us to turn all our lights out. Just for one hour. This was done last year in Sydney, Australia, [...]
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Electric news

By Alex Breitler | Published: March 28, 2008 | Comments closed
In what some people are calling Who Killed the Electric Car part II, this just in from the AP: SACRAMENTO (AP) — California air regulators on Thursday slashed the number of battery-powered and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles that must be sold in the state, a setback for environmentalists and health advocates. The decision is expected to [...]
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The eyes have it

By Alex Breitler | Published: March 27, 2008 | Comments closed
As a member of the four-eyed club, the following news is, well, a sight for sore eyes. New research into myopia (shortsightedness) reveals that people who wear glasses are NOT stereotypical geeks or nerds. Memo to that girl I asked out in high school. What was her name again? Anyway, here’s the quote from a University of Melbourne [...]
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Turtle time

By Alex Breitler | Published: March 24, 2008 | Comments closed
Meet Baby, Rhondda Nunes’s 25-year-old desert tortoise. Baby recently emerged from her shell after her winter hibernation. Seems a bit early this year, Nunes says, probably because spring came early, too. Perhaps that’s fodder for another story about climate change, this time focusing on its impact on Stockton’s tortoise population. Then again, mebbe not.
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Canal questions

By Alex Breitler | Published: March 21, 2008 | Comments closed
Reader Michael Palmer had some questions after learning that the state has officially launched the environmental review process that could lead to construction of a peripheral canal. His email: “I’ve heard that this canal is supposed to be built along the west side of I-5, which will also lead it to the west side of Stockton. If the [...]
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Tourney time

By Alex Breitler | Published: March 19, 2008 | Comments closed
Thursday and Friday should be national holidays. There’s nothing worse than being chained to your desk at work during the first round of the NCAA basketball tournament. But yours truly, sly sports fan that I am, found a way to make hoops relevant to my job writing about the environment and our natural resources. One of hundreds of [...]
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McNerney v. EPA

By Alex Breitler | Published: March 16, 2008 | Comments closed
Congressman Jerry McNerney has weighed in on the Environmental Protection Agency’s new stricter standards for ozone. Those standards aren’t strict enough, many enviro groups say, arguing that the White House pressured the EPA into its controversial decision. McNerney sent a letter to EPA administrator Stephen Johnson saying that he’s seen the consequences of air pollution firsthand in the San [...]
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Saturday, beware!

By Alex Breitler | Published: March 14, 2008 | Comments closed
I love Saturday. Es mi dia favorita. But Saturday, March 15, is the Ides of March. According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac: “This has long been considered an ill-fated day. The word ides comes from a Latin word meaning “to divide.” In fact, the ancient Romans considered the ides of any month unfavorable. The concept of unlucky [...]
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Confused? I don’t blame you

By Alex Breitler | Published: March 11, 2008 | Comments closed
Air pollution in the San Joaquin Valley can be complicated stuff. We ran a story Monday about the debate over the latest plan to help the air meet federal standards for the smallest soot particles — known as PM2.5. The enviros don’t like the plan because they say it will take too long to meet the [...]
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Tick, tock

By Alex Breitler | Published: March 8, 2008 | Comments closed
We’ll be running a story Saturday about a new U.C. Santa Barbara study that says Daylight Saving Time may actually waste energy, rather than saving it as folks as far back as Benjamin Franklin have envisioned. Not to be outdone, the University of Chicago has an interesting study on how the normal rhythms of life — [...]
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