Welcome to Monitor Notes, a weekly roundup of news items, event announcements, and updates on past Bay Area Monitor articles.
Vote-Casting Call
Spread the word about National Voter Registration Day, set for Tuesday, September 25. The national campaign is a chance to register or update your registration to make sure you don’t miss voting on important local and statewide measures in the November 6 election. We’ll be discussing one of them, Proposition 6, which seeks to repeal the recent gas tax increase, in our upcoming October edition. In the meantime, if you want to learn more about National Voter Registration Day activities, including planned Bay Area voter registration events and volunteer opportunities, click here.
Blaze a New Trail
Looking to explore this weekend? Head over to Pinole to check out the newest stretch of the San Francisco Bay Trail; when complete, this planned 500-mile walking and bike path will cut around the bay’s edge through nine counties. Swing by the East Bay Regional Park District’s website to read more about the new trail segment and the factors that almost threatened its completion, and to view a time-lapse construction video. If you want more day-trip ideas, Monitor editor Alec MacDonald wrote last summer about his four-county bike tour, including points where the route intersected the Bay Trail.
Green Around the Grilles
Last week’s Global Climate Action Summit drove home the latest transportation technology and related policy needs to help lower greenhouse gas emissions. The League of Women Voters of Berkeley-Emeryville-Albany attended a satellite session that touched on everything from the growth of autonomous vehicles (the testing of which we covered last year) to the need for additional electronic vehicle charging stations. Take the fast lane to the League’s article for insight into a variety of panel discussions between transit agencies, ride-sharing companies, and others.
A Moo-ving Study
Researchers at the University of California, Davis will embark on a six-month study in October to see if feeding cattle seaweed will cut their methane emissions. Dairy farms are a major source of methane, a greenhouse gas emitted when cows burp, pass gas, or even make manure, per a CBS news report. As we noted in our own 2017 coverage, nearly 60 percent of the state’s methane emissions come from agriculture — namely dairy farms — so we’re keen to know if seaweed helps cows become more climate-friendly.
Monitor Notes is produced by Cecily O’Connor. To receive it by email, scroll to the bottom of this page, enter your email address in the box under “RECEIVE EMAIL UPDATES,” and click the red “SIGN UP” button.