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STAFF UPDATES 6/30/05, Emily Lee, Fanta Kamakate, and Meena Palaniappan conducted a Speakers' Bureau Training on diesel pollution with residents and partner organizations in West Contra Costa County. The training helped resident speakers prepare for the upcoming release of our new diesel pollution study conducted in West County. 6/28/05, Jason Morrison attended a convening of experts organized by Business for Social Responsibility to discuss "'Megatrends' of the Coming Decade and the Role of the Corporation." Attended by approximately 15 individuals from the private sector, civil society organizations, and academia, the facilitated discussion sought to explore emerging strategic issues relating to businesses' interface with sustainable development. 6/28/05-6/29/05, Michael Cohen participated in the California DWR Salton Sea Advisory Technical Subcommittee meetings on variability & modeling for Salton Sea inflow projections, and on habitat planning for the Salton Sea Ecosystem Restoration process. The meeting was held in Ontario, California. More info available online. 6/23/05. Meena Palaniappan and Emily Lee attended the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project General meeting that focused on efforts to remediate toxic sites in West Oakland, and the West Oakland Truck Route. 6/21/05, Jason Morrison gave a presentation entitled "Raising the Corporate Transparency and Accountability Bar" at the annual conference of the Multi-State Working group on Environmental Performance. The conference was held in Grand Rapids, Michigan. 6/20/05-6/24/05, Michael Cohen participated in the Bureau of Reclamation's Salton Sea Restoration Value Planning Study Phase I meetings held in Denver, Colorado. 6/20/05, Meena Palaniappan hosted the Steering Committee meeting of the Regional Ditching Dirty Diesel Collaborative to plan initiatives to reduce diesel pollution in Bay Area Communities. 6/15/05, Peter Gleick gave the keynote luncheon address at the AWWA/Water for People annual meeting celebrating the Ware Fellows - a group of developing country students visiting the U.S. to receive training on water supply, sanitation, quality, and management. 6/14/05, 6/15/05, Jason Morrison participated in an international workshop organized by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and held in Washington, DC. Entitled "Public Environmental Policy and the Private Firm", the summit consisted of over 100 practitioners and policy-makers from various OECD countries looking to find more effective and efficient policy tools and approaches for enhanced environmental protection. 6/13/05, Michael Cohen participated in the California DWR Salton Sea Advisory Technical Subcommittee meeting on inflows and variability for Salton Sea inflow projections. The meeting was held in Ontario, California. 6/13/05. Meena Palaniappan participated in a planning meeting for a regional campaign to reduce unnecessary idling of diesel vehicles. Idling is a significant source of toxic air pollution in California. 6/10/05, Michael Cohen served on a panel entitled "Action Agenda: What Should We Be Doing?" at the University of Colorado Law School's conference "Hard Times on the Colorado River: Drought, Growth and the Future of the Compact" held in Boulder, Colorado. 6/9/05, Fanta Kamakate and Meena Palaniappan attended a West Contra Costa County planning meeting, hosted by Community Focus, for a campaign to reduce diesel emissions. The campaign aims to educate diesel equipment and fleet owners in the community on how to get funds to replace, retrofit, or repower their vehicles to reduce emissions. 6/8/05, Emily Lee, Margaret Gordon, and Meena Palaniappan hosted a meeting of the Healthy West Oakland Collaborative, which includes state and county health agencies and community organizations. The Collaborative is focusing on health insurance sign-ups in West Oakland and health impact assessments. 6/08/05, Michael Cohen presented "Environmental Impacts of Increased Colorado River Water Stress and Shortages: An Overview," at the University of Colorado Law School's "Hard Times on the Colorado River: Drought, Growth and the Future of the Compact" conference in Boulder, Colorado. 6/3/05, Emily Lee and Margaret Gordon participated in a meeting of the 3rd Planning Consortium meeting of the California Environmental Health Tracking Program. The Planning Consortium has been active in dialogue with the Center for Disease Control about creating an Environmental Justice Working Group of the national Health Tracking Program. 6/3/05, Meena Palaniappan gave a talk on the impact of Ports on community health and quality of life, and presented a range of solutions, at the Green Ports Workshop for World Environment Day. 6/2/05, Margaret Gordon and Meena Palaniappan hosted a tour of West Oakland. The tour highlighted community victories, including the shut down of Red Star Yeast, as well as the impacts of the Port of Oakland and gentrification in the neighborhood. Residents spoke about their visions for redevelopment that combine creating jobs and housing with protecting community health. 6/1/05, The Pacific Institute and the Earth Day Network hosted a standing-room-only event on water for the first day of the official World Environment Day program. "Solving Water Challenges in the 21st Century" drew over 70 people to Fort Mason for presentations by Peter Gleick and Gary Wolff of the Pacific Institute, Dana Haasz, a Pacific Institute alumni now working for the City of San Francisco, and Larry Farwell, an independent consultant. An HTML version of this newsletter is available online: http://www.pacinst.org/online_update/ Problems, questions or comments: newsletter_editor @ pacinst.org (remove spaces) Copyright 2005, Pacific Institute, www.pacinst.org 654 13th Street, Preservation Park, Oakland, CA 94612, USA |
