At an ocean conference in China last October, renowned American oceanographer Sylvia Earle told participants that "we must think of taking care of the ocean as if our lives depended on it....because they do!"
Everyone in the watershed lives within a few miles of one of these tributaries, which are like pipelines from these communities to the Bay. Throughout the watershed, degraded streams and rivers are affecting everything from tourism to cultural heritage.
After 200,000 years of trying to wipe us out, and getting damn close once, we finally have the upper hand. That's right. We're changing the climate. We're shaking things up (Literally. We can make our own earthquakes now).
There's a revolution brewing on the plains of Kansas. For the past 30 years Wes Jackson, founder of The Land Institute, has been working to correct a major step in the wrong direction by the founding fathers of farming -- when they chose annual grain crops instead of perennials.
The Deepwater Horizon rig continues to spew 200,000 gallons of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico. The fish, birds, marine mammals in the Gulf region -- many of whom are endangered species -- are now struggling to survive.
Not only does bottled water take valuable water resources from locations around the country that need them, but it uses huge amounts of fossil fuel to bottle and deliver it, leaving in its wake a literal ocean of unrecycled plastics.
Of the two billion people living on less than $2 a day, three quarters live in rural communities that depend on natural ecosystems for sustenance and livelihoods. If subprime development persists, many will pay: first with their livelihoods, and then with their lives.