Natural Resource Management

We believe that the process of unconventional fossil fuel development including shale tight oil and gas development in the Monterey Shale formation using hydraulic fracturing, acidization, and other forms of well stimulation will exacerbate many of these environmental threats, particularly climate disruption, local air and water pollution, and resource consumption. Thus, the decisions you make about the development of unconventional oil and gas production from shale in California will hold important consequences for California and the state’s future.

I am excited to announce that this week, International Rivers published a new report titled An Introduction to Integrated Resources Planning. The report, written by 1999 Fellow Chris Greacen, Chom Greacen, David von Hippel, and David Bill, demonstrates the benefits of a comprehensive approach to energy planning.

Laura Bozzi completed her PhD at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies in 2013. She is now Program Manager at Appalachian Mountain Advocates in southeastern West Virginia, where she splits her time between the organization's twin goals to protect the communities and natural resources of central Appalachia and to advocate and help build a just and sustainable economy for the region. In particular, she's working to develop a new sustainable agriculture program.

It is mid-April, a weekday. As is often the case, I am working in a mild panic. Papers from too many different projects are stacked in inelegant piles across my desk in my home office tucked against a ridge in Mānoa Valley.

Hello all: I just received an important notice from the Global Footprint Network (based in Geneva). Today, 20 August 2013, is “Earth Overshoot Day.” It’s the approximate date that humanity’s annual demand on nature exceeds what Earth can renew in a year.

Amber Pairis, 38, of La Jolla, has been appointed assistant secretary for climate change at the California Natural Resources Agency. Pairis has been climate change advisor at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife since 2008. She was a science and research liaison at the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies from 2006 to 2008 and a conservation biology curriculum developer at the Antioch New England Institute from 2002 to 2004.

The relationship between Belize and Guatemala is complex. The history goes back hundreds of years and begins with a territorial dispute between Spain and Britain over who rightfully owned the region that would later become Belize. Guatemala has picked up the feud after gaining its independence from Spain and argues 4,900 square miles of Belizean land – which amounts to over half of the country – belongs to them. The entire nation of Belize is roughly the size of New Hampshire.