Photo: Grist / Amelia Bates

 For nearly 20 years, organic dairy has been a strong area of growth for the dairy industry, and California in particular has the U.S.'s highest concentration of organic dairies. But the ongoing three-year drought, combined with co-ops' reluctance to raise milk prices, has doomed many of the state's dairies. Pastured dairies throughout California, once exemplary models of sustainable and organic farming, are now operating at a loss, and many may have to close. (Grist) 

In the world's ninth largest agricultural economy, farmers are switching crops, fallowing land, adopting new irrigation technology, and finding new food for their cattle. In the long-term, farmers may stop planting commodity crops such as wheat and corn and concentrate on high-value crops such as wine grapes, almonds, and pistachios, which have a strong export market. (Bloomberg)

Valley Fever Moves North into Sacramento with Drought

Valley Fever, spread by a soil fungus, is typically found in arid southern California and Arizona, but climate change is expanding its range north, likely to reach as far as Oregon and Washington. Dry, hot, dusty conditions - like those of the current drought - will spread the fungus, while rain will help it to grow beneath the soil. Valley Fever cases have increased 15% each year between 1998 and 2011. Because its symptoms resemble flu and the disease is little known outside of its primary area, raising awareness is important. (SacBee) 

Extreme heat kills more people each year than tornadoes, hurricanes, or flooding. In the U.S., heat

Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

waves will get more lethal as global warming intensifies, partly because more people are moving to cities. Cities can reduce heat waves death by 60% by implementing combinations of several strategies, according to a new Georgia Tech study. Water-scarce cities, for example, may find increasing the reflectivity of roofs and pavements more effective than increasing urban forestry. (Vox)

The end result is pure, distilled water cleaner than groundwater, but California law still does not allow direct re-use of the water produced by the world's largest treatment plant in Orange County. The plant recycles residential waste water from dishwashers to showers to toilets via a three-stage purification process, which is cheaper than importing water from northern California or seawater desalination. Now as the drought continues, regulators would like to change that law by 2016, while other water agencies are now examining water recycling plants of their own. (Guardian) 

Companies are examining the risks of doing business in a changing climate, with extreme weather, drought, and pests all more likely to disrupt globalized supply chains and shipping. Here's what seven major food companies reported about their climate-related business risks in their annual disclosure to investors filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The companies involved are all household names, including Keurig, Heinz, and Coca-Cola. (Think Progress)

Photo: Concrete Promotional Group

Pervious concrete and porous asphalt are two alternatives for reducing stormwater runoff and preventing pollutants from entering waterways. They can be used anywhere and serve as an effective adaptation strategy, provided that it is designed with the end purpose in mind, and with proper installation. (Sustainable City Network)

Yolo County Housing Authority, 147 W. Main St., Woodland

September 18, 9.30am-4pm

This training workshop from the Statewide Energy Efficiency Collaborative will teach local governments how to use SEEC ClearPath California, an online emissions management platform for local governments. Participants will learn how to use the new platform to track, forecast, and mitigate GHG emissions at the municipal operations and community scale. Lunch provided (Register)

The Cost of Climate Inaction: OMB Director Shaun Donovan

September 19, 2014, 7-8am PST

White House Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan will discuss the costs of climate inaction and how current investments in climate can mitigate climate change and bolster the economy. This timely discussion will take place in anticipation of the U.N. Climate Summit on September 23. (Webcast available when event begins)

Placer County Community Development Resource Agency, 3091 County Center Drive, Auburn
September 22, 11am-1pm

The Nature Conservancy is hosting a workshop to provide communities with tools to evaluate the climate benefits of their conservation plans. Through a pilot carried out in Sonoma County, the project develops a replicable county-wide portfolio of tools, policies, and economic incentives to facilitate the conservation of high priority natural and working landscapes to address climate change. Come and learn about the project, its applicability to your community, and help provide feedback. (RSVP, lunch is provided)

September 29, 2014

The one-day summit provides collaboration around shared cross-sector goals that demonstrate the connection between healthy people, healthy places, and a healthy economy. Join the discussion centered around regional opportunities with socially motivated investments, community design and planning, livable wage jobs, the influence of policy, and healthcare access and services. (More info)

Board Room, SACOG, 1415 L St. #300, Sacramento

October 9, 1-4.30pm

Come to the Climate Readiness Collaborative's first Quarterly Meeting to learn more about responding to climate change impacts in the region and how we can work together to leverage adaptation opportunities. Topics will include water supply, wildfire, transportation, business resiliency and more. Participants will also have an opportunity to share additional opportunities and identify next steps to help sustain and enhance the Capital Region's resiliency efforts.  (Learn more and register)

The Capital Region Climate Readiness Collaborative is a membership based collaborative network designed to promote greater climate change resilience planning coordination in the six-county Sacramento Region. The purpose of this collaborative network is to create a forum where leaders from government, academia, environmental and community groups, the business community, and labor can come together to exchange information, identify vulnerabilities and data gaps, leverage resources, and advance comprehensive solutions in an effort to create stronger, sustainable, and economically viable communities in the Sacramento Region.  If you are interested in learning more about the Climate Readiness Collaborative, joining the Collaborative, or being added to the list serv, visit: www.climatereadiness.info/