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Plant Native Milkweeds to Help Monarchs!

With the recent declines in numbers of monarch butterflies leading to the popular insect becoming a candidate for listing as an endangered species, more and more gardeners are thinking about growing milkweed. Milkweed, after all, if the only kind of plant monarch caterpillars can eat, and so growing milkweed in your garden means you’re providing monarchs with a nursery and larder for their young.

But there’s a problem: there are about 140 known species of milkweed, some of them potentially invasive in California wildlands. In fact, not all milkweeds are of equal benefit to monarch butterflies. There’s even some thought that one popular tropical milkweed may be harming North American monarchs by changing their migration habits.

Fortunately, there are fifteen species of California native milkweed that gardeners can choose from to give monarchs a helping hand. Not all of them are readily available in nurseries, but with a little searching you should be able to find at least one species appropriate for your part of the state.

Image credited to Marshel Hedin

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Estimated Cost of Climate Change Too Low

Stanford University scientists have found that the economic damage caused by a ton of CO2 emissions–often referred to as the “social cost of carbon–could actually be six times higher than the value that the United States uses to guide current energy regulations, and possibly future mitigation policies.

A new study by Frances Moore and Delavane Diaz finds that the ‘social cost’ of one ton of carbon dioxide emissions may not be $37, as previously estimated by a recent U.S. government study, but $220.

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WATERMARK – Films for the Future #1

WATERMARK – Films for the Future #1               download poster

download press release

Sonoma Community Center and Transition Sonoma Valley present Edward Burtynsky’s acclaimed film, WATERMARK, on January 23, 2015.

Shot in stunning 5K ultra high-definition video and full of soaring aerial perspectives, this film shows water as a terraforming element and the scale of its reach, as well as the magnitude of our need and use.

The film will be shown on a new 16’ theatrical screen on the Rotary Stage at the Sonoma Community Center 276 E. Napa Street, Sonoma CA 95476.

Doors open at 7:00 with light refreshments served, Films start 7:30

Tickets $12.

Available online at www.svbo.com or by calling 707.938.4626×1

Hello World – TSV is Back Online!

As you can see, we were down, but we’re not out… your beloved Transition Sonoma Valley website is finally back online.

Pardon our humble appearance, while we reassemble the glory that once was this community-loving website.

Admittedly we haven’t been as quick to get back online as some others who have been pwned recently by hackers. Take for example our colleagues over at @CentCom, (who like us are also deeply concerned about climate change).

Image Source: www.defensenews.com
image: defencenews.com

… but rest assured that on a budget-normalized basis we still managed to get ourselves back online WAY AHEAD of them.

Stay tuned (LOL) for lots more to come in 2015 and beyond from all of us at Transition Sonoma Valley!