San Diego County Democrats for Environmental Action will soon be taking up a number of electoral races in which to consider endorsements. Before we hold any endorsement meetings--and without any specificity to any particular races or measures that we might consider--I’d like to share our process and member voting eligibility requirements as laid out in the club’s bylaws, and my own thoughts on the process. Procedure The club’s Political Action Committee shall notice races for consideration, help in shaping candidate questionnaires, conducting the endorsement meetings, and then noticing endors ..read more

Redwood tree at the Forest of Nisene Marks, Santa Cruz County By Tommy Hough The regularity with which the national debt limit is extended is nothing new. Ever since 1917, the "ceiling" of the debt limit is periodically extended by Congress to determine how much money the U.S. government can borrow to give the Department of the Treasury flexibility in issuing debt. While there are legitimate and appropriate questions about how much money our government should borrow, determining the debt ceiling shouldn't be controversial or raised to the level of a national crisis in a bicameral system li ..read more

Visitors meet among the native plants at Friendship Park (photo by Michelle Landis). By Tommy Hough Located along the far western boundary of the U.S. and Mexico just up the beach from the Pacific Ocean, Friendship Park backs up to the southern end of Border Field State Park on the San Diego side, and is just a few feet away from the Plaza de Toros Monumental in Las Playas on the Tijuana side. Recently featured at our club's April meeting, Friendship Park was established in 1971 as a placid space where family and friends meet, exchange food, hold hands and perhaps exchange a beso through t ..read more

By Richard Ram We hope you had a great Earth Day, wherever you may have celebrated with family, friends and fellow citizens concerned about the many crises challenging the future of life as we know it on our planet. Our club was in attendance at the newly-christened Earth Fest on the Presidents Way Lawn at Balboa Park this past weekend, where we spoke with festival attendees, neighbors, members of similar organizations, and with fellow Democrats about getting more active in promoting an environmental agenda with our county party. Interestingly, a few Republicans stopped by who seemed lost ..read more

By Dr. Peter Andersen  ​ It is with great sadness I report the death of environmental activist George Courser. George was one of the San Diego community's leading conservation advocates, and he worked tirelessly on behalf of our environment. People would often describe George as warm, welcoming, tireless, open, kind, and collaborative, but those wonderful qualities did not prevent him from taking on cities, counties, and developers as a ferocious and unrelating champion for the environment. George served as chair of the Sierra Club San Diego Conservation Committee, and held a half a do ..read more

By Richard Ram Due to several last-minute scheduling conflicts, our September club meeting has been moved to Wednesday, Sept. 29th, at 6:30 p.m. As always, our on-line check-in will begin at 6:15 p.m. Join us on Zoom to hear our panel of special guest speakers discuss the Farm System Reform Act, as well as local efforts to mitigate the traffic and pollution impacts from development, along with reports on wildlife and climate action. General club meetings are always open to both members and guests, but we encourage you to join if you're not a member, or two renew if your membership has laps ..read more

By Mia Taylor Plastic bottles and containers have become ubiquitous in our society. The plastics industry and our consumerist economy assure us that everything is okay – after all, you just drop it into the recycling bin, right? But what's really happening with what we put into our recycling bins? Many of us are aware that the global recycling business has been turned upside down in recent years, as China, which took in about half of the world's discarded recyclable materials for decades, instituted a ban on the import of most plastics in 2018. Since then, plastic waste has been piling up ..read more

By Richard Ram At our executive board's most recent meeting we reviewed the proposal for the JVR Energy Park, a massive 650-acre solar farm that would nearly surround the community of Jacumba Hot Springs, located just south of Interstate 8 along the border of the U.S. and Mexico in southeast San Diego County. While we recognize the critical importance of building new clean power infrastructure, we cannot in good conscience recommend the approval of the project as proposed. In consideration of the immediate harm this project would do to surrounding sensitive habitats and a vital wildlife cor ..read more

By Richard Ram It was great seeing many of our members at Balboa Park this past Saturday for the San Diego Green New Deal Alliance "Celebration for Climate, Jobs and Justice" event. So many groups were present, including San Diego 350, Climate Mobilization San Diego, Extinction Rebellion San Diego and San Diego Coastkeeper, as well as local education and labor representatives, city services, and housing and community activist groups. We'd like to thank our own past and present board members Maleeka Marsden and Galena Robertson of Climate Act ..read more

Special thanks to Kim Delfino of Earth Advocacy for composing and distributing this coalition letter opposing Gov. Newson's overreach and inappropriate use of the state budget process to bypass normal legislative routes in order to undermine the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) regulatory process. Please find the full letter linked here. Additional thanks to Brandon Dawson with the California Sierra Club in Sacramento. The letter follows. The Honorable Gavin Newsom, Governor California State Capitol Sacramento, CA 95814 The Honorable Ben Allen (SD-24, Malibu) The Honorable Josh ..read more