The Tucson Climate Report is a column on Substack that covers various aspects and actions of increasing heat and what it means to life in our Sonoran Desert region.
I have been involved in climate change education as a writer, publisher and community organizer since the early 2000s when I began working with a biotech company in Palo Alto, CA, as an internal communications specialist. The company, Genencor International, was a leader in the development of cellulosic biofuel derived from grasses, wood and algae, which was considered a promising alternative to both fossil fuel and biofuels made from the food crop, corn.
With a background in newspaper journalism, primarily at the San Francisco Chronicle, my curiosity was piqued by the advances in the technology then being developed to help mitigate the damaging effects of our carbon-heavy society. In 2005, I began working as a contract writer for Applied Materials in Sunnyvale, CA, a global leader in semiconductor technology, and covered the company’s move into photovoltaic (PV) solar development. Its participation in PV development helped hasten the lower prices for solar systems we are enjoying today.
In 2006, I published EnergyResource, a newsfeed that covered daily business, industry and R&D news specific to what we then termed “alternative energy” — solar and wind — which was published on the Dow Jones news portal, Factiva.
With a solid footing on the technological advances in climate mitigation, I turned my journalistic focus on community and consumer education and launched TerraMarin, a quarterly magazine about what my community, Marin County, CA, was doing for the climate and the environment — a lot, at that time, as was the State of California, which had recently passed the groundbreaking Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (parts of which are being assailed by the Trump Administration).
TerraMarin was well received by the progressive community and by a growing number of advertisers who were participating in the county's Green Business program. News and features were specific to climate and green and sustainable lifestyles. The magazine was my way of expanding the climate conversation through my strong belief in the power of education.
Beginning in 2011, I was a contributing editor at the Climate Change Business Journal, a subscription-based business intelligence publication providing market research on nine segments of the climate change industry, including renewable energy, transportation, green buildings and carbon capture and storage.
My work at the Climate Change Business Journal involved writing news and analyses of industry, technology and regulatory policies as they related to the growing climate change tech market. The work allowed me to get a broader perspective on the work being done and the work needed throughout all industry sectors.
In 2013, I moved to Tucson, my hometown, and began reintroducing myself to the beautiful Sonoran Desert. I also began researching and reading about the many and notable climate scientists and researchers at the University of Arizona. Their work, and the desire to share that knowledge with the Tucson community, led me to organize Climate Tucson.
Now on Zoom, Climate Tucson is a climate education group that features, among others, the expert climatologists and researchers at the UArizona. Climate Tucson has a loyal and growing membership, which is today celebrating Tucson’s official declaration of a Climate Emergency. The unanimous vote by the Tucson City Council marks an important and official step forward in what we need to do now to protect and save our residents and environment.
