Pacific Standard Debut Cover

The No Nukes That Turned to Slow Nukes

September 27, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
The No Nukes That Turned to Slow Nukes

"No Diablo," chanted thousands of protesters at the gates of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant near San Luis Obispo, Calif., in September of 1981. "No Diablo over me." The 10-day gathering came two years after the accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania and the big anti-nuclear rallies in New York City and elsewhere, including 30,000 protesting in San Francisco against the nascent Diablo plant, that incident inspired. But complete with rock star Jackson Browne and friends, plus plenty of national media coverage, the 1981 Diablo Canyon protest was viewed at the time as the most ... Read More

More like this: Environment
Tags: , , ,

New Studies Help Boy Scouts ‘Be Prepared’

August 17, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment

The Boy Scouts of America, while last year celebrating the 100th anniversary of its founding, reviewed and commissioned much research into how the organization is accomplishing its core mission of promoting good character traits and prosocial behaviors — as well as reaching out to a new generation of kids. Scout leaders hope that the studies will offer guidance to program leaders for the organization's next 100 years. If Scouting is to maintain influence in the next era, it must reverse its declining membership. Participation peaked in 1973 with 4.8 million scouts and has since plunged 42 ... Read More

More like this: Culture
Tags: , , , ,

Old Buildings Combine Sustainability, Preservation

June 6, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment

Much to the consternation of developers and redevelopment agencies intent on demolishing historic buildings and constructing new ones, these days, in the name of going green, preservationists are making the case that “the greenest building is the one already built.” “When we first started working on sustainability issues and tried to get people thinking about the environmental value of reusing buildings, rather than tearing them down and building new ones, we were greeted with arched eyebrows and polite nodding heads,” explains Patrice Frey, director of sustainability research for ... Read More

More like this: Environment
Tags: , , , , ,

Thoreau Was Right: Nature Hones the Mind

January 11, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment

A long line of the world's thinkers — from Immanuel Kant to William James to Deepak Chopra — have recommended we take walks in nature to relieve stress and refocus our thoughts. And nature writers — from Henry David Thoreau to John Muir to Edward Abbey — have extolled the restorative benefits of nature. "Everybody," Muir said, "needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul." Turns out they were ahead of their time. "Attention Restoration Theory" or ART, which posits that a walk in the woods helps refocus the ... Read More

More like this: Environment, Health
Tags: , , ,

Suburban Trail Use Not a Sure Thing

October 5, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment

For decades a walking/biking trail near a suburb has been considered a universal good: the most preferred amenity (more so than golf courses and tennis courts) of suburbanites and regarded as a major contributor to good health and fitness. Studies have shown that a location near a trail increases property values and even suggested that homebuyers are drawn to a specific neighborhood by the proximity of a pathway. “Build it and they will come,” is a core conviction of suburban trail builders and policymakers alike from Fullerton, Calif., to Farmington, Conn. New research, however, casts ... Read More

More like this: Health
Tags: , , ,