[ Tuesday, September 20, 2016; 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm. ] The Institute of the Environment’s annual Fall Fest is back and better than ever, with a graduate student poster competition, amazing door prizes, good food and drink, and remarks from this year’s featured speaker, Rebecca Tsosie, on “Climate Justice, Indigenous Sustainability, and an Ethic of Place.” Come catch up with colleagues and enjoy the festivities [...]

Donate now to the Cyclovia Fall Fundraiser!
Cyclovia Tucson is a program of Living Streets Alliance, a non-profit organization working to make our streets safe, vibrant places for everyone. All donations are 100% tax-deductible and every dollar we raise goes directly towards making Cyclovia an incredible experience for all.

[ Wednesday, September 14, 2016; 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm. ] Join Rising Tide Tucson and others for a Solidarity Rally with the water protectors of Standing Rock resisting the Dakota Access Pipeline. We will be gathering on Wednesday September 14th at 4:30 at Bank of America downtown (33 N. Stone, between Congress and Pennington). Bank of America is one of many financial institutions investing [...]

[ Friday, November 4, 2016; 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm. ] In the first part of his talk, Dr. Fitch will define sustainable and regenerative building and why the concept is so important to society, natural environments, and the Earth’s Biosphere. He will then outline the steps and technologies of sustainable, regenerative building, using the solar-powered home he built in Redstone Canyon, Colorado, as an example. [...]

Along with The Loft Cinema and the UA Institute of the Environment, Sustainable Tucson will be co-presenting the film “A Time to Choose,” which will be shown June 15, at 7:30 pm, at The Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway Blvd. Come early and visit with us at the Sustainable Tucson table on the patio. [...]

Jihan Gearon is Executive Director of Black Mesa Water Coalition (BMWC), whose environmental justice/economic development work focuses on a region of the Navajo nation called Black Mesa. BMWC’s mission is to build a Just Transition away from the fossil fuel based economy of the Navajo Nation towards a green economy that uplifts the traditional [...]

[ Friday, April 22, 2016; 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm. ] You are invited to a screening of the new film “Catching the Sun” on Friday, April 22nd at 7pm at Casa Video Film Bar at 2905 E Speedway Blvd.

Catching The Sun is a feature length documentary that explores the global race to a clean energy future. The event will be done by donation, as Tucson [...]

We Need to Electrify As Much Transportation As We Can
by Richard Heinberg

Transcript:
JESSICA DESVARIEUX, PRODUCER, TRNN: Welcome to the Real News Network. I’m Jessica Desvarieux in Baltimore.
Folks are lining up to reserve electric car automaker Tesla’s Model 3. It’s considered to be one of the first electric cars for the mass market at an expected price [...]

“Intro to Broadway Widening Project – Who What, When, Why: Why Are We Spending $74 Million and Destroying 30 Buildings in a Central Historic Area while Producing No Traffic Improvement?”
Overview and background, an intro for people who are learning about the situation. By Dave Bilgray.
http://www.sustainabletucson.org/2016/03/intro-to-broadway-project-who-what-when-why-why-why/
 
An excellent OpEd by Tucson architect Bob Vint on how Historic [...]

Why Are We Spending $74 Million
and
Destroying 30 Buildings in a Central Historic Area
while
Producing No Traffic Improvement?
 
The Broadway Improvement Project is not needed, and will provide no benefit to the residents of Tucson.  The City’s own data shows that widening Broadway will provide only a 6-second improvement in travel time.
 
The City of Tucson wants to bulldoze [...]

Has HDR Engineers done what they were hired to do?

Here is the scope of work

The phrases below are excerpted from the 2011 Scope of Work issued by COT Dept. of Procurement for the Broadway Project used to issue the contract to HDR Engineering.
 
The consultant is to establish

“an innovative and context sensitive, solutions-oriented approach toward the [...]

There are large differences from the base alignment that the Citizen Task Force (CTF) recommended and the Mayor and Council adopted in May 2015. They are:
 
1.     Many more buildings, historic and businesses, will be acquired and demolished. It appears to be at a minimum around 30, not the 10 to 12 promised earlier.
2.    [...]

1) The current alignment (the 30% design) ignores public input, which overwhelmingly advocated for preservation of the historic streetscape and local businesses.
 
2) The 30% design defies the direction of Mayor and Council, who approved an alignment that would have caused the loss of at most 11 historic buildings. The proposed 30% design will take out [...]

[ Tuesday, April 19, 2016; 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm. ]

XXX
This is an urgent appeal to the Sustainability Community to show up and speak out for sustainability and reject an unnecessary road widening plan which will cost millions and do nothing for sustainable mobility and economic vitality.
XXXXX
We have limited opportunities to help shape decisions about urban form and public infrastructure which effect the way [...]

Petition by iPetitions
//

Analysis of RTA and COT’s own numbers shows widening Broadway will not cut travel times for cars or anyone else.
So why are we spending tens of millions of taxpayer dollars amidst a budget crisis?
(A)  The proposed work will have almost zero (~1.4%) benefit, as the Design Concept Report (DCR) data itself declares.
(B)  Regional Transportation Authority [...]

[ Tuesday, March 29, 2016; 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm. ]
XXX
Why would we spend $75 million for no appreciable improvement in traffic?
XXX
The City of Tucson is proposing to:
XXX
1)   Widen Historic Broadway even though traffic hasn’t increased for 20 years,
2)  Demolish 30+ buildings and businesses, and
3)  Ignore the community’s plea to design for a vibrant, history and place-preserving, climate-friendly future where local [...]

[ Monday, March 14, 2016; 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm. ] Climate Change and Pima County Operations:
Mitigation and Adaptation through Energy Efficiency, Water Efficiency, and Renewable Energy

The Sustainable Tucson general meeting for March continues this year’s focus on climate change and local impacts and actions.

In Pima County, residents, businesses, and public services primarily rely on energy generated by natural gas and coal-fired thermoelectric plants and [...]

[ Saturday, March 5, 2016; 8:00 am to 1:00 pm. ] Tucson currently grows millions of pounds of food right in the urban area, but we don’t see it because it comes from many, many places in small quantities.

Now you can join the Feeding Tucson Urban Farm Tour on March 5 to see examples of the future of Tucson’s secure food system.

During this 5-hour tour, participants [...]

[ Monday, February 8, 2016; 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm. ] Continuing Sustainable Tucson’s theme of “Climate Change and Actions for Our Sustainable Future”, please join us at the February General Meeting to hear about the progress being made locally on the policy and actions front.

Find out what is happening within Tucson City government, Tucson’s Climate Change committee’s upcoming recommendation to establish a new carbon [...]

[ Monday, January 25, 2016; 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm. Monday, February 8, 2016; 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm. Monday, February 22, 2016; 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm. Monday, February 29, 2016; 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm. Monday, March 7, 2016; 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm. ] UA Earth Transformed Lecture Series

A Series of Six Lectures
Exploring Our World and Ourselves

Mondays, January 25 – March 7
7:00-8:00 PM
UA Centennial Hall

Climate change and its impacts are no longer merely abstract projections for the future. Instead, they are on-going and growing challenges for both humans and many of the natural systems upon which we depend. Globally, [...]

[ Saturday, January 23, 2016; 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm. ] Join Rising Tide Tucson, the Bus Riders Union, and other local groups for a community conversation on climate justice globally and here in Southern AZ. We will be showing Naomi Klein’s new documentary about climate change and grassroots resistance, This Changes Everything.

The film presents seven powerful stores of communities fighting for justice [...]

[ Thursday, January 21, 2016; 2:30 pm to 4:00 pm. ] Southern Arizona Regional Solar Partnership Meeting: January 21

The public is invited to this important, free event.

Agenda:
Vince Pawlowski, a recent delegate to COP21, the United Nations Climate Conference in Paris in 2015, will be a guest speaker. Vince, a recent graduate in climate policy from the University of Arizona and part of the UA delegation to [...]

[ Monday, January 11, 2016; 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. ] Greetings and wishes to you all for a very Happy & Sustainable New Year!

2016 marks Sustainable Tucson’s 10th Anniversary. To mark that milestone, we will be planning this year’s meetings around the theme of “Climate Change and Actions for Our Sustainable Future.”

Join us at the next Sustainable Tucson General Meeting for a review of [...]

Duality in Climate Science
Published by Kevin Anderson blog on 2015-10-15
Original article: http://kevinanderson.info/blog/duality-in-climate-science/ by Kevin Anderson

 
The value of science is undermined when we adopt questionable assumptions and fine-tune our analysis to conform to dominant political and economic sensibilities. The pervasive inclusion of speculative negative emission technologies to deliver politically palatable 2°C mitigation is but one such [...]

[ Thursday, November 19, 2015; 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm. ] Sustainable Tucson is co-sponsoring a special movie at the Loft Theater – “This Changes Everything” by Naomi Klein.

The presentation also features a post-film panel discussion with Luis Alberto Perales of Tierra y Libertad, Bob Cook of Sustainable Tucson, and Diana Liverman of UA Institute of the Environment.

This presentation is part of Science on Screen at [...]

[ Thursday, November 19, 2015; 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm. ] In place of the November Sustainable Tucson meeting, ST is co-sponsoring the movie This Changes Everything at the Loft.

Featuring a post-film panel discussion with Luis Alberto Perales of Tierra y Libertad, Bob Cook of Sustainable Tucson, and Diana Liverman of UA Institute of the Environment.

This presentation is part of Science on Screen at [...]

[ Monday, October 12, 2015; 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm. ] On October 12th, the Sonoran Permaculture Guild and Sustainable Tucson host a special evening to view a new documentary,
INHABIT: A Permaculture Perspective.
Permaculture is a unique design [...]

Join us at this year’s 5th annual Envision Tucson Sustainable Festival, October 18, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the YWCA, 525 Bonita Avenue. The Festival will showcase the many features of sustainable living in Tucson and our desert Southwest.
We’re very excited about the great variety of activities and exhibits at this [...]

[ Saturday, June 13, 2015; 9:00 am to 12:00 pm. ] Metro-Tucson receives more rain than we pump out of the ground AND import from the Colorado River. And we waste nearly all of it.

We can prepare for an uncertain future and create abundance and beauty by harvesting what we waste, and by setting priorities for what we have.

Be part of a discussion of our opportunities [...]

[ Monday, April 13, 2015; 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm. ] As activist citizens, we have been working towards sustainability in many ways, particularly looking at issues impacting life in our city, including the work of the Broadway Coalition featured at last month’s General Meeting.

This month, we’ll carry on the discussion started by that examination of the Broadway Corridor, by looking at some positive examples of [...]

REJECT THE BROADWAY ALIGNMENT!
A model letter to the City of Tucson
By Broadway Coalition Member Laura Tabili
OOO
Send to:     broadway@tucsonaz.gov,      Jonathan.Rothschild@tucsonaz.gov, mayor1@tucsonaz.gov, ward1@tucsonaz.gov, ward2@tucsonaz.gov, Ward3@tucsonaz.gov, ward4@tucsonaz.gov,ward5@tucsonaz.gov,Regina.Romero@tucsonaz.gov, Karin.Uhlich@tucsonaz.gov, Paul.Cunningham@tucsonaz.gov, Shirley.Scott@tucsonaz.gov, Richard.Fimbres@tucsonaz.gov, Steve.Kozachik@tucsonaz.gov, citymanager@tucsonaz.gov
OOO
REJECT THE BROADWAY ALIGNMENT!
The Broadway Citizens Task Force and Tucson’s Mayor & Council must reject the excessively wide and destructive staff-generated Broadway Alignment posted on [...]

[ Monday, March 9, 2015; 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm. ] Please ACT NOW: Email your objections to the City’s Broadway Plan. Here is a model letter with email addresses by Broadway Coalition member Laura Tabili to help list the community’s concerns.

“Broadway Corridor Plan Aims to Demolish 37 Tucson Buildings” reads the Arizona Daily Star lead headline from Feb.24th. City of Tucson staff and consultants are [...]

Response to assertions made about energy’s costs, systems
By Carmine Tilghman
Special to the Arizona Daily Star, January 29, 2015
 
Evidence of Tucson Electric Power’s commitment to renewable energy isn’t hard to find.
Visit the Solar Zone at the University of Arizona Tech Park, where solar projects built from competing technologies cover 165 acres and produce a combined 23 [...]

[ Wednesday, February 18, 2015; 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm. ]  

OOOOOOOOOO
(Note Special LOCATION, DATE, & TIME)
February 18th     
6:30pm to 8:30pm
University of Arizona, Center for English as a Second Language (CESL), Room 103
OOOOOOOOOO

OOOOOOOOO

Do you know that the production of electricity in Tucson accounts for over 60% of Tucson’s climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions?

Imagine the City of Tucson joined in a “clean energy partnership” with Tucson [...]

Economic development: Start with a Tucson metropolitan microgrid
By Terry Finefrock Special to the Arizona Daily Star Arizona Daily Star
January 23, 2015
There is great potential that electricity costs could be reduced, increases avoided, system reliability improved and recurring economic benefits provided by establishing utility-scale photovoltaic solar electric facilities within and adjacent to the Tucson distribution grid.
By [...]

[ Sunday, January 4, 2015; 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm. ] at The Loft Cinema, 3233 East Speedway Boulevard, Tucson AZ 85716
Start the New Year Right: Gear Up to Fight Climate Change!
The Yes Men Are Revolting

On Sunday, January 4 at 1:00 p.m., Sustainable Tucson will partner with the Loft for a special preview screening of The Yes Men Are Revolting, with the duo of pranksters tackling [...]

Climate: The Crisis and the Movement
by Naomi Klein & Allen White
Wherein lie the roots of the climate crisis? Allen White, Senior Fellow at the Tellus Institute, talks with writer and activist Naomi Klein, author of the new book This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate, about how our economic system has driven us to [...]

 
What climate change asks of us: moral obligation, mobilization and crisis communication
by Margaret Klein
“Humans contain a great capacity to help each other, to dutifully respond to the needs of others, and to improve the world around us… When it is clear there is an emergency, and we have a vital role in responding to it, [...]

 
The Oil Price Crash of 2014 
by Richard Heinberg
Oil prices have fallen by half since late June. This is a significant development for the oil industry and for the global economy, though no one knows exactly how either the industry or the economy will respond in the long run. Since it’s almost the end of [...]

[ Monday, November 10, 2014; 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. ] The most recent Greenhouse Gas Inventory (2012) for our region has recently been released, showing a slight decrease since its peak in 2010. Nationally, this same trend is attributed to reduced emissions from electricity generation, improvements in energy efficiencies, reduction in travel and yearly fluctuation in prevailing weather conditions. For the Tucson region the two [...]

[ Monday, October 13, 2014; 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm. ] From Garbage to Gold: Turning Organic “Waste” Into a Valuable Resource
Meeting at Joel D. Valdez Main Library, Lower Level Meeting Room, 101 N. Stone (free lower level parking off Alameda St.)

Compost is a good alternative to chemical fertilizers…It doesn’t pollute groundwater, wells, or waterways.
Compost keeps organic materials out of landfills, reducing methane gas emissions.
Compost sequesters [...]

NOTE: This petition is an initiative of the Broadway Coalition which is solely responsible for processing and managing the results. Sustainable Tucson hosts this online petition drive as a community service.

[...]

[ Monday, September 8, 2014; 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm. ] Garbage: Waste Or Resource?

Compost is a good alternative to chemical fertilizers…It doesn’t pollute groundwater, wells, or waterways.
Compost keeps organic materials out of landfills, reducing methane gas emissions.
Compost sequesters carbon deep in the soil
Compost promotes healthy microbial activity in the soil, providing micronutrients to plant roots and discouraging soil diseases.
Compost improves soil structure, thereby protecting topsoil [...]

[ Monday, August 18, 2014; 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm. ]  

Monday, August 18, 2014, 6:00 – 8:00 pm

Joel D. Valdez Main Library, Lower Level Meeting Room, 101 N. Stone

(free lower level parking off Alameda St.)

HOW CAN TUCSON THRIVE IN THE FACE OF ONGOING ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL MALAISE?

WHAT AILS OUR TUCSON ECONOMY?

HOW CAN TUCSON THRIVE IN THE FACE OF ONGOING ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL MALAISE?

WHAT CAN LOCAL [...]

[ Monday, July 14, 2014; 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm. ] Tucson CAN Have Abundant Urban Food Production
Monday, July 14, 5:30-8:00 pm
Joel D. Valdez Main Library, Lower Level Meeting Room, 101 N. Stone
(free lower level parking off Alameda St.)
Urban agriculture is becoming much more common — in many forms, not just backyard gardens. Voters of Tucson recently adopted a General Plan that endorses urban food production, [...]

[ Friday, July 11, 2014; 5:00 pm; ] at Tucson Electric Power Company, 88 East Broadway, Downtown Tucson AZ (two blocks south of Ronstadt Transit Center)

Tucson Talks Transit – with Jarrett Walker
Friday, July 11, 2014
5:00 p.m. Sign-in and Reception
6:00 p.m. FREE Public Presentation

Jarrett Walker, the preeminent transit planner and transit thinker, will visit Tucson for a town hall the evening of Friday, July [...]