I think we all remember the horrific tragedy of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, an event brought closer to home through media and online resources showing real-time videos and estimates of the massive oil plume that ultimately spewed ~4.9 billion barrels (210 million gallons) of oil over a five-month period, affecting 68,000 square miles […]
Greening Our Infrastructure: Transportation
We are now on the precipice of systemic change to our planetary climate system… The near-unanimous consensus at last year’s IPCC 1.5 conference, combined with an initial wave of climate change impacts in the form of stronger hurricanes, more violent storms/floods and longer drought, demands a holistic transition of all economic sectors to a carbon-free […]
Global Citizens Club Meeting on Climate Change Grassroots Action Draws a Huge Crowd!
The huge response to our February 19th Global Citizens Club (GCC) meeting was extremely gratifying, with over 200 people from the community turning out to learn more about effectively fighting climate change from a diverse panel of experts and activists. Highlights of the meeting hosted at the El Encanto included a moving statement from local […]
PG&E’s Bankruptcy Filing: An Opportunity for Energy Democratization
By Robert Perry, Director of Energy Research Everyone is buzzing about the implications of Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) declaring bankruptcy. When the news broke last week, PG&E’s stock fell 52%, only to bounce back by 75% when California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection determined that private electrical equipment was responsible for starting the […]
2019: The Year of Climate Mobilization
By Robert Perry, Director of Energy Research “For the world is changing: I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth, and I smell it in the air.” – Treebeard, from The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien. For many, 2018’s seemingly endless succession of hurricanes, wildfires, and torrential storms, combined […]
The Arts can Deliver Us from Climate Change
By Robert Perry, Director of Energy Research With 2018 coming to a close, a lot of focus has been placed on the accelerating urgency of climate change and how we can mobilize to defend humanity from its own extinction. Various experts, technicians, and scholars are tirelessly working on this Gordian Knot, trying to loosen the […]
We Must Mobilize Now to Stop Climate Change
With each passing day, the threat from climate change grows. For California, each year brings bigger, more deadly fires, and the specter of 129 million dead trees looms as a potentially catastrophic release of carbon and lethal particulates into the atmosphere. Recently, the LA Times reported an estimated 1.1 million structures remain vulnerable to destruction […]
Bringing a New Vision to State Street
The debate rages on about ways to revitalize State Street and downtown Santa Barbara, and the World Business Academy remains at the forefront of the public discussion about this vital issue. On Wednesday, December 5th, Rinaldo Brutoco and Director of Energy Research, Robert Perry, participated as panelists in the latest public forum focusing on revitalizing […]
2018 in Retrospect: Focusing on Safety, Resilience and Citizen Engagement
Last year on December 5, our friends, supporters and staff gathered at Rinaldo’s and Lalla’s house to celebrate the closing of 2017. It was a lovely evening, and we left the gathering with our hearts full of cheer. But there was also an undercurrent of foreboding as the Thomas Fire had just begun its destructive […]
Wildfires Tell Us We Already Live in a Climate-Changed World
Once again, California is up in flames. It’s beginning to look like a recurring seasonal phenomena much like hurricane or tornado season in the Southeast and Midwest. The Camp Fire is currently the deadliest wildfire in California’s recorded history at 81 deaths (with ~870 persons still missing). We can only pray that another massive fire […]
Call to Action: Help us Stop the CPUC!
We need your help! On October 11th, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) will meet to decide whether to dramatically increase the Power Charge Indifference Adjustment (PCIA) charge, an on-going fee that is levied on Community Choice customers, so those who remain with the utility do not incur long-term financial obligations made for the benefit […]
Santa Barbara County’s Redistricting Future: A Comparative Analysis of Measures G and H
By Robert Perry, Director of Energy Research Well, it’s that time of year. The November election is fast approaching and soon we will be receiving voter guides the size of small phone books, replete with competing ballot propositions and measures, where only one proposition or measure actually lives up to its title. For Santa Barbara […]