The future is now for #climatechange

Effects of climate change in California are 'significant and growing' - latimes.com: "California is feeling the effects of climate change far and wide, as heat-trapping greenhouse gases reduce spring runoff from the Sierra Nevada, make the waters of Monterey Bay more acidic and shorten winter chill periods required to grow fruit and nuts in the Central Valley, a new report says."

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Free private transit is a pain in the neck

Proposed Shuttle Bus Plan to Solve San Francisco's Public Transportation Woes | Complex: "The private buses service companies such as Yahoo!, Google, Facebook, Apple, eBay and Genentech. Complete with air conditioning and Wi-Fi, these buses regularly stop and public bus stops and block intersections, creating a nightmare for everyone except their passengers and the companies who charter them. So far, the MTA's method of dealing with the problem has been to not deal with the problem."

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Car culture a financial burden on working people

Give up driving, take public transit and save money, a new report says - Vallejo Times Herald: "Goodwin said he agrees with the NRDC report. He cited a 2010 agency report indicating that Bay Area residents who fall into low- and lower middle-income categories spend 72 percent of their income on housing and transportation.

Those who earn more money spend less than half their income, or 41 percent, on those items, he added.

Another Bay Area look at the issue shows people who live in neighborhoods near public transit also spend far less on transportation, said Shannon Tracey, communications director for TransForm, an Oakland-based policy group.

"If you live in a neighborhood with the least amount of access to public transportation you are spending $5,400 more per year than someone in a household with the best transportation access," Tracey said."

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Traffic jams from BART strike prove the importance of #publictransit

BART strike: "The BART strike has paralysed commuter traffic by contributing to the largest traffic jams in the Bay area since the last BART strike in 1997."

BART benefits Bay Area $73M per day in worker productivity alone

Alaska Dispatch: "The San Francisco transit strike that has stranded 400,000 commuters, snarled traffic, and all but crippled remaining public transport systems this week is costing the Bay Area at least $73 million a day in lost worker productivity, economists say."

Ban on hiking at Lake Mead as #climatechange bakes the west

'It's brutal out there': Weekend heat wave to bake western US - U.S. News: "At low-lying Lake Mead, which straddles the Arizona-Nevada border and is anticipating 120 degrees this weekend, rangers are positioned at trailheads to discourage visitors from hiking.
Earlier in June, a group of Boy Scouts hiking in the Colorado River canyon fell prey to soaring heat. Four teenagers and an adult had to be rescued, while a 69-year-old Scout leader died."

Dark ice causing melting feedback loop

guardian.co.uk Arctic sea ice, another key measure of global heating, is now 60 years ahead of worst-case projections from the last report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007."