Oakland is pushing "two green actions in one" this month with a reminder to locals to ride BART to shop, and carry your own bags to tote away new goods.

Every second, 400 plastic bags are distributed in California. That's 14 billion bags per year, according to a new campaign to green the city. Californians could save 2,000 barrels of oil each day by using half as many plastic bags.

From the Measure DD Community Coalition, a local group that promotes access to the Oakland-Alameda waterfront:

Monday marked the beginning of a week-long greywater installation course at the Humanist Hall. The day was jokingly deemed "Laundry Day." No, not the day to throw dirty clothes in the wash. Rather, the goal was to create a basic and inexpensive system to carry excess water from your washing machine to a drum, then into your yard for irrigation.

On March 30, Oakland will present an ambitious Energy and Climate Action Plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 36 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050.

Need a five-minute break (or less) from work?  We've got just the
thing for you: a survey which will help Walk Oakland Bike Oakland's
advocacy efforts and give you a shot at cool WOBO gear and other prizes.
 

By Ali Winston

California Watch

West Oakland is a neighborhood of glaring contradictions.

Glistening new condos line one street, around the corner from boarded up Victorian houses and storefront churches.

The new phone book is here! The new phone book is here! Which means, in Oakland, you may be nobody -- several times over. (Joke hint)

This week new Yellow Pages were dumped on doorsteps in many parts of Oakland. But are East Bay advertisers getting the kind of distribution they're paying for? Oakland Local spotted one case where four Yellow Pages books were delivered to a house that was not only obviously abandoned and boarded up, but fenced and locked by the city.

Watch this video...

With an 8.8 magnitude earthquake hitting Chile, and a tsunami-watch across the Pacific affecting 53 countries--it's hard not to worry that California will be affected--not only is there a tsunam watch in effect--but we have those little things know as faults running under our state, hey, pract

For the past 6 years, Keep Oakland Beautiful has been helping the city of Oakland bloom. Each fall this public/private partnership hands out free flower bulbs. (Most recently at Home Depot.) Individual volunteers and community based organizations plant them throughout the city.

Imagine strolling, running or cycling across the new Bay Bridge East Span to Yerba Buena Island, or indulging your wanderlust as you watch the freighters enter and leave the Port of Oakland carrying the world’s goods, or just relaxing in the park and basking in the beauty of the San Francisco Bay.

While global warming has propelled environmental issues into the mainstream of American politics, an all-day hearing activists held recently in East Oakland showed the difficulty of translating concern into action in the neighborhoods hit hardest by environmental problems.

A group of concerned parents at an Oakland elementary school are raising concerns about a possible decision to place nine Verizon cellular antennas across the street from the school and an adjacent park.