Six “Unrealistic” Ideas for Deep Greening San Francisco

We need bolder visions for San Francisco's future this election. From car-free downtown zones to sustainable sports complexes, here are six “unrealistic” id... Read more.

Sizing Up Progress on Nature-Based Infrastructure

A May 2024 environmental conference covers levees, seawalls, reefs, wetlands, and other climate resilient shoreline designs for the Bay Area.... Read more.

Harmful Blooms Spur More Wastewater Upgrades

To reduce nitrogen loads, the Bay Area is facing an overhaul of wastewater plants to the tune of $16B. Sea level rise calls for other retrofits. The two could r... Read more.

Tweaking Climate Talk So It Hits Home 

Climate change messaging often falls short, dwelling on too much science, favoring the dark side. Researcher Richelle Tanner is exploring what could help.... Read more.

Beach Loss Looms for the California Coast

Even though Dan Hoover's been surveying the same stretch of San Francisco’s Pacific coast for 15 years on his ATV, it never looks the same. In summer it's wid... Read more.

Corps Experiments with Sediment Feed from Shallows

Can tides and waves move sediment placed in the shallows onto wetlands? The Army Corps is experimenting with how to do it.... Read more.

Nested Plans Neck and Neck with Rising Bay

Like Russian dolls, Bay Area preparations for sea level rise finally began fitting together this fall.... Read more.

Who’s on First at the SF Seawall?

Ten months after the Port of San Francisco lowered 288 experimental tiles into the water, these bio-friendly seawall surfaces are already crawling with crabs a... Read more.

Shores that Can Shapeshift AND Stay Put?

The region is obsessing over beach-building. Whether it's a degraded salt marsh in downtown San Rafael or a sliver of wetlands near the old San Francisco shipya... Read more.

The Case for Climate Castles

As climate change throws more extreme events at us, isn't it time to think bigger, bolder, further ahead? Six young architects draw climate-resilient castles.... Read more.

Looking for Justice at the Nexus of Housing and Climate Policy

How housing is built and who it is built for are not only equity questions, but also climate mitigation questions. When people can afford to live near their job... Read more.

One Hour Walk, 33 Signs of Resilience

Ariel Rubissow Okamoto, San Francisco... Read more.

Could Textured Tiles Bring SF Seawall to Life?

Buried in the blueprints for a refurbished San Francisco seawall is a cutting-edge experiment in texturing pieces of this buttress against sea level rise so the... Read more.

Tears for Trees

I've watched an army of white trucks topped with cranes and chippers remove the oaks, redwoods, bays and manzanitas from around the power lines on our mountain ... Read more.

Planting the Edgy Bits of Giant Marsh

Two days on the ground filming and talking with work crews planting new zones of the Giant Marsh Living Shoreline. "We need habitat to mature enough to function... Read more.

Less Sea Level Rise for Left Coast

Scientists are now more confident we should plan for up to a foot of sea-level rise on the Pacific Coast by 2050 than they were the last time they did the math.... Read more.

Half a Dozen Horizontal Levees in the Works

The specter of sea level rise, perpetual drought, and disappearing wetlands has put many sizes and shapes of horizontal levee on the region's shoreline adaptati... Read more.

Power Down, Safety Up for Christmas Hill

"We’re still in the process of analyzing our other fire-prone areas of town, but based on what we already know about Christmas Tree Hill’s vulnerabilities t... Read more.

Planners Ruminate on Adaptation Lessons

Random snippets from the 2021 California Adaptation Forum, an event designed for government planners and activists to share insights on climate adaptation and r... Read more.

Regional Storm Capture Facility Going to Ground

With rains overwhelming local drains in late October, the visible construction progress over the summer on Orange Memorial Park, a regional stormwater capture ... Read more.

Clean Ride by Power the People to Oakland Shore

Oakland residents are fighting for better, cleaner transit access to the shore, and bike routes that don't take them on freeway overpasses and through the bad a... Read more.

Purple Air Warnings Not Enough

If late fall fires start up again after the October deluge, Alameda County will already have smoke alert protocols in place. The county developed specific thres... Read more.

Bi-Coastal Experiment with Oysters & Infrastructure

While the weather is top of mind for many, others are riveted to congressional antics over the long-awaited massive spending bill designed to fix the nation's r... Read more.

What 3 things do you keep under your bed?

Ariel Okamoto, San Francisco... Read more.

Coalescing as a Region Around Sea Level Rise Response

Regional leaders approved a joint platform of nine actions and 21 tasks this June aimed at galvanizing the Bay Area into collaboration on sea level rise adaptat... Read more.

Rocky Drought & Short Supply

What do rock walls across Delta water channels, brown lawns, bans on hoses, and red flag fire warnings have in common? California’s deepening drought. Up in t... Read more.

Enough Mud to Fill 670 Skyscrapers?

How much mud do we need to save Bay Area marshes from rising seas and how will we move it into position? If the future is drier there’s one answer, and if it�... Read more.

10 Ways to Field a Flood in Marin City

Ten future reconfigurations of a Marin City lagoon, park and highway site subject to flooding came from UC Berkeley students last fall. The students from Dr. K... Read more.