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Stay on top of all of the environmental issues that are happening out there. Learn the background on current issues, our activities related to those issues, and other things of note about our environment, both locally and beyond.

Press Releases and Statements

In the News

  • Vote Cinches Robust Regional Response to Sea Level Rise
    Knee Deep Times
    December 18, 2024

    "After RSAP’s first release in September, there was push and there was pull. Local governments and others objected to some of the mandatory standards proposed, calling for 'flexibility.' A November draft tacked in that direction, changing quite a few 'musts' to 'should' and demoting some of the Standards to 'planning tips.' Now it was the turn of the environmental coalition, some forty groups, to decry a 'watering-down.' Further redrafting ensued.

    The result of these contending pressures seems, surprisingly, to please nearly everyone nearly well enough. 'We seem to have found the sweet spot,' says BCDC planning director Jessica Fain. The Sierra Club’s Gita Dev agrees: 'We are very happy with the results of the RSAP. Now,' she goes on, 'it’s time to get serious about execution.'”

  • The Bay Area Now Has Its First-Ever Regional Sea Level Rise Plan
    KQED
    December 6, 2024

    "Arthur Feinstein, who chairs the Sierra Club’s Coordinated Bay Alive Committee, said he’s disappointed that the new plan “weakened some standards” around preserving undeveloped shoreline lands and nature-based sea level rise adaptation strategies.

    'They could have gone back and said that you must apply these standards instead of you must consider these standards,' Feinstein said. 'That alone would change how it’s going to be implemented because it’s so much more forceful.'”

  • Turning San Francisco Bay into a bathtub
    POLITICO, California Climate
    December 4, 2024

    "Environmental groups, though also generally supportive of the plan, aren’t happy with those changes. Forty environmental groups including the Sierra Club and San Francisco Baykeeper argued in a letter to the agency that any weakening of the standards leaves the door open to uneven adaptation, with better-resourced areas pushing flooding and toxic contamination on to disadvantaged neighbors.

    'If everybody reacts to the sea level rise with a levee or a sea wall, then the bay would turn into a bathtub,' said Gita Dev, vice chair of the Bay Alive campaign for the region’s three Sierra Club chapters. 'You still need a plan that works for the whole region and will take care of sea-level rise over time into the future.'"

  • A tale of two turfs: Bay Area residents split over using artificial grass
    The Mercury News
    October 15, 2024

    "Susan Hinton, however, said cities and school districts can still invest their resources into keeping and installing grass fields, especially since artificial turf wears out after eight to 10 years and needs to be replaced. “There are many reasons to not put artificial turf on the landscape or anywhere,” said Hinton, a member of the Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter who actively campaigns against artificial turf. Dashiell Leeds, conservation organizer at the chapter, said natural grass can allow for just as much playing time as turf can. Leeds believes Local governments and school districts should explore grass as a safer alternative to turf, as the later can expose athletes and ecosystems to microplastics. “At the end of the day, we want kids to play on these fields and get play time,” he said. “We want to encourage jurisdictions to explore natural grass field management techniques to meet the needs of the community. They can be met with natural grass.”"

  • As the world heats up, so does the debate around artificial turf
    The New Lede
    August 20, 2024

    "Susan Hinton, a plastics pollution prevention advocate with the Loma Prieta Chapter of the Sierra Club, has taken up a habit of holding an infrared thermometer to artificial turf fields and residential lawns on hot days to test its temperature. Her community, in Santa Clara County, is one of many across California that are considering or currently implementing bans on the product following a 2023 bill allowing the move. Hinton has measured the turf at temperatures between 150 and 180 degrees on warm summer days, she said."

  • Regional plan to fight sea-level rise underway
    San Mateo Daily Journal
    July 18, 2024

    Featuring Jennifer Hetterly, Bay Alive Campaign Coordinator
     

  • Concerns over sea barrier grow
    The Daily Journal
    December 28, 2023

    Featuring Gita Dev,  Sierra Club Bay Alive Campaign Vice-Chair and Loma Prieta Chapter Sustainable Land Use Committee Co-Chair

  • Collisions with buildings are killing millions of birds nationwide. A dark-sky movement to save them is sweeping the Bay Area.
    The Mercury News
    December 26, 2023

    Featuring Shani Kleinhaus, Environmental Advocate with Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society and member of Sierra Club Loma Prieta's Executive Committee, and Dashiell Leeds, Loma Prieta's Conservation Coordinator.

  • Drastic flood control plan needs more public scrutiny
    The Daily Journal, Letter to the Editor
    December 21, 2023

    OneShoreline is an intergovernmental agency that creates plans for climate adaptation impacts, and has recently come forward with a sea level rise flood protection plan. Regarding that plan, Sierra Club Bay Alive Campaign Vice-Chair and Loma Prieta Chapter Sustainable Land Use Committee Chair Gita Dev wrote a letter to the editor in the San Mateo Daily Journal.

    “[the plan] proposes a 2.65-mile offshore barrier, with tidal gates, encroaching into the Bay, despite a 50-year old state law forbidding such actions to preserve the Bay’s ecology and reverse damage caused by landfill and garbage dumping.”

  • Bio safety advocates concerned over upcoming lab in Redwood City
    RWC Pulse
    August 28, 2023

    In the face of a rapidly expanding life sciences industry in the Bay Area, Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter’s Bay Advocate Program alumni and active Bay Alive volunteers, Nina and Steve Goodale, are on the front lines of Chapter efforts to raise awareness about associated bio safety risks to our communities and Bay ecosystems. Their efforts are creating results; read their quote in this Redwood City Pulse article! More community members are raising their voices and cities are beginning to take action to manage the risks. Learn more about biosafety and what cities can do to protect their communities.
     
  • The End: Supervisors Approve Agreement to Close Lehigh Cement Plant
    County of Santa Clara press release
    August 15, 2023

    Includes quote from Loma Prieta Chapter Director.

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If you have any suggestions for material to be added, please email your suggestion to loma.prieta.chapter@sierraclub.org.