15 Highway

An article by Frank Schiavone

How ‘green’ is a valley that doesn’t protect all species?

has been added http://nicheriver.com - An article announcement blog and site.

A new wave of “greenness” is washing over our valley. Politicians are talking up something called the “Green Valley Initiative.” My city, Rancho Cucamonga, is the latest convert. It wants to be a leader. Our City Council has voted to include green initiatives in our General Plan update.

Commendable, but the rub is what does this all mean? What exactly is sustainable development and what are green programs? The internationally recognized definition of sustainability is that it “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

This (Brundtland Commission) definition implicitly argues for the rights of future generations to raw materials and vital ecosystem services and that these inherent rights be taken into account in decision-making. Criteria common to sound sustainability programs are:

Click here to read the complete article

A new article by Frank Schiavone

Citizenship and The Man in the Arena

has been added to 15hwy.com

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

- Theodore Roosevelt

Read the complete article