Revised Curriculum Guide Supports Communities Grappling with Freight Transport Issues

The Pacific Institute's revised Gearing Up for Action: A Curriculum Guide for Freight Transport Justice is an important advocacy tool to build the power and capacity of communities to participate in decision mak ing around freight transport issues. The activities have been designed to help community leaders engage groups of community members to learn more about freight transport and connect it to their own lives. The goal of our freight transport justice work is to reduce the adverse health impacts of freight transportation on low-income neighborhoods of color closest to freight transport hubs, and to increase the share of the benefits that residents of these communities enjoy.

The project began in 2009, when the Institute's Community Strategies for Sustainability and Justice Program began sharing the popular-education-style training, research, and advocacy tools for freight transportation justice that we had developed over five years with organizations and coalitions in other freight transport corridors and major hubs in the United States. The first edition of Gearing Up for Action came out in October 2010 to an enthusiastic reception, and the 2013 update is available now in both in English and Spanish.

Read more. 
Download the guide in English (PDF)

Download the guide in Spanish (PDF)

The Colorado River, recently named America's most endangered river, supports millions of people in the American Southwest and northwest Mexico and helps irrigate millions of acres of land. Yet demands on the river already exceed the river's average supply, with irrigated agriculture consuming more than 70% of the water supply within the basin.

For the first time, new research from the Pacific Institute describes the extent of irrigated agriculture throughout the seven Colorado River basin states and two additional states in Mexico, the types of crops grown, and the amount of water used to grow these crops. In addition, the new report - Water to Supply the Land: Irrigated Agriculture in the Colorado River Basin - compares several agricultural management scenarios and the potential water savings and costs associated with each. Importantly, none of the scenarios remove agricultural land from production.

"We know water supply and demand don't match up and it will get worse going forward. We know there is much that can be done; the question is how much and where, and how to get there," said Michael Cohen of the Pacific Institute, lead author of the report which has already been downloaded over 18,700 times. "This analysis improves understanding of crop acreages and water use in the basin and offers a set of plausible scenarios in which some of the water currently devoted to irrigation could be conserved and used for other purposes - without taking agricultural land out of production."

Read more.  

Download the full report.

Download the Executive Summary.

View the interactive map.

New Report on Groundwater Dynamics in the Colorado River Limitrophe - Available in English and Spanish

Este reporte tambi�n est� disponible en espa�ol, aqu�.

The Colorado River, diverted and channelized and intensively managed, only rarely has enough water to flow even 20 miles past Morelos Dam, the last dam on the river, near the California/Arizona/Baja California border. The river's limitrophe reach is the roughly 22.5 mile stretch from Andrade to San Luis that separates Baja California from Arizona and is generally considered the uppermost extent of the remnant Colorado River delta.

Groundwater Dynamics in the Colorado River Limitrophe describes and explains the changing groundwater conditions in and adjacent to the Colorado River's limitrophe reach, and analyzes the impact of groundwater pumping on these overdraft conditions. The key question underlying this study asks how changing groundwater conditions in the limitrophe could affect the sustainability of planned habitat restoration projects.

This study indicates that, even after the exceptionally dry period of 2005-2009, when surface flows failed to reach the gage at the downstream end of the limitrophe on 90 percent of days, more than a third of the channel through the limitrophe still exhibited connectivity with the water table, and roughly two-thirds of the limitrophe still had a water table that remained within the reach of the roots of cottonwoods and willows. The plunging water table at the downstream end of the limitrophe suggests that the final five miles of the river within the limitrophe may not respond to efforts to restore riparian habitat, at least not without a long-term commitment to supplemental irrigation, but areas upstream appear well-insulated from the recent drawdown and would benefit from restoration activity, such as that proposed by the recent Minute 319.

Read more.

Download the report (PDF).

Lee el reporte Din�mica del Agua Subterr�nea en el Tramo Lim�trofe del R�o Colorado (PDF).

The reality of climate change will affect California in many ways, from rising temperatures to changes in fire frequency, drought and flood risks, threats to agricultural production and our water resources, and especially, growing damage and destruction along our extensive coastline from rising sea levels. On May 15, Pacific Institute President Peter Gleick testified before the California Assembly Select Committee on sea-level rise and the California economy. 

Over the past century, sea level has risen nearly eight inches along the California coast, and climate science research suggests very substantial additional increases in sea level over the coming century. The Pacific Institute, with support from the State of California, completed a detailed analysis of the current population, infrastructure, and property at risk from projected sea-level rise if no actions are taken to protect the coast.

Continue reading.

Download Dr. Gleick's presentation from his testimony. 

Report from Circle of Blue   

Circle of Blue, an affiliate of the Pacific Institute, is the international network of journalists, scholars, and citizens that connects humanity to the global freshwater crisis.

On the frontlines with Circle of Blue - Choke Point: India 

Photo: � J. Carl Ganter/Circle of Blue

The Green Revolution that catalyzed grain production in the mid-1960s ended India's fear of famine. But achieving food abundance is overwhelming India's mammoth and unwieldy bureaucracy, draining its freshwater reserves, and straining the energy sector and electrical grid. This week, Circle of Blue, in collaboration with the Wilson Center China Environment Forum, begins an in-depth look at India's water, food and energy challenges. Read the first in the series, "Choke Point: India - The Leopard in the Well."

Read More. 

In Brief   

High Level Public Officials from China Visit the Institute 

A visiting group from China's National Development Research Council's Academy of Macroeconomic Research visited the Institute at the beginning of June to discuss issues of urban development and environmental policy with staff members. Staff members spoke on urban water issues in California and the Western United States, the Institute's research efforts, and climate adaptation. 

Pacific Institute staff members gave talks and lectures, conducted workshops, and participated on panels far and wide this month. Here are some of the places we've been:  \

Heather Cooley, Water Program Co-Director:

- presented at the Association of California Water Agencies Spring Conference in Sacramento, California. Her presentation focused on water rates and conservation and efficiency. 
- attended the Commercial, Industrial, and Institutional Task Force meeting to finalize the Task Force's report that will be given to the state legislature this year.

Dr. Juliet Christian-Smith, Senior Research Associate:

-attended the California Roundtable on Water and Food Supply meeting in Davis, CA.

Upcoming Events

- June 12: Summit on Regulations Affecting Agriculture

Dr. Juliet Christian-Smith, Senior Research Associate in the Water Program, will be speaking about the Institute's farm water success stories on June 12 at the Summit on Regulations Affecting Agriculture at the University of California - Davis. Hosted by Ag Innovations Network, this Summit is the culminating meeting of a project that has sought to identify a broadly supported set of recommendations to simultaneously assure high environmental performance and the viability of farming operations at all scales.More details are available at http://aginnovations.org/regulations/summit/

Register online or contact Serena Coltrane-Briscoe at [email protected] or 707.823.6111 �220 for more information.

- June20: Presentation of the Water Demand Forecasting Tool
Dr. Christian-Smith will also be presenting the Institute's water demand forecasting tool at the California Urban Water Conservation Council plenary on June 20.

Location:Tsakopoulos Library Galleria, Sacramento
Time: 9:30am-3:30pm

- June 21: Training-of-Trainers on Popular Education Tools
The Pacific Institute and the Ditching Dirty Diesel Collaborative will be co-hosting a Training-of-Trainers on Popular Education Tools for Community Health for community organizers, outreach workers, and health educators on June 21. The training will share activities and materials from our Gearing Up for Action curriculum guide that can build the capacity of community residents to take action to address the impacts of diesel pollution and freight transport operations on community health and quality of life.

Using a Popular Education approach and activities from Gearing Up for Action, the training will give par

• Elevate the lived experiences of community members they work with;
• Make connections between the work of their organization and the impacts of trucks and trains in the communities they work in;
• Enable community members to envision and advocate for healthier communities.

When: Friday, June 21, 9am- 5pm
Where: Pacific Institute, 654 13th Street (at MLK), Preservation Park, Oakland, CA 94612
Contact: Catalina Garzon, [email protected] or 510.251.1600

Register here. 

Space is limited! Please register here if you plan on attending as we are tailoring the training to the particular issues and campaigns that participants are working on. Lunch and snacks will be provided.

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