Pear by Robin Meadows
Acclimatewest Tells Stories
Acclimatewest is an experimental, place-based, independent storytelling project. It’s the brainchild of editors and writers who regularly cover climate change and environmental stories in the San Francisco Bay Area and California, and builds on their relationships with local scientists, planners, and resource managers. While gigabytes of new technical information have been developed on climate change and sea level rise impacts on our region in recent years, not enough stories are being told about all these plans and findings to the people who live, work, and play on our shores. Our stories try to bridge that gap, offering fresh, easy-to-read, baseline information that introduces readers to other sources of more detailed information along the way. Through our climate quilts and youth reporting, we also offer a variety of accessible levels of storytelling and community-building around adaptation.
Current Initiatives 2020-2025
Acclimatewest’s current new initiatives include writing more stories about Bay Area creeks for its Wade in or Hold Your Breath? series under our Places pages; creating a California Climate Quilt where individuals and groups can tell their own very short stories about resilience and action (Dare25by2025; Citizen Science & Disaster Preparedness); providing platforms for the Bay Area region and the West to see each resilience program, action, and policy in the context of others (under construction); and developing new collaborations with youth so they can explore their environment, prepare for change, and learn how to write, blog, and post about their world (Mycelium Youth Network). Join us in cherishing this brave new world.
Origins and Support
The AcclimateWest editorial and reporting team has roots in ESTUARY News magazine, published for 25 years by the San Francisco Estuary Partnership and supported by diverse local partners.
Several non-profits are involved in its growth, including Urban Ecology Inc. and San Francisco Baykeeper. Several major regional planning agencies, including the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission and the California Coastal Conservancy, are also encouraging our storytelling efforts. The project enjoys a strong base in the region’s current restoration and environmental community.
In the future, AcclimateWest embraces the idea that other West Coast communities might want to share this platform to develop their own stories around specific bays, canals, sloughs, river mouths in the path of rising seas, extreme tides, and more intense storm surges. Intensifying wildfires are another challenge West Coast communities with forests and wildlands have in common.
Editorial Policy
AcclimateWest remains entirely independent of any entity. Any funds provided in support of our reporting are accepted with no strings attached in terms of how stories, themes, and content are presented.
Work in Progress & Funding
AcclimateWest is a work in progress. Seed funds have come through the San Francisco Estuary Partnership. We are currently seeking local funding partners to adopt their waterway stories and watersheds, as well as funds to support high quality independent journalism, youth reporting, multi-media interpretive spots, climate art, photography, and more avenues for community voices to be heard through our stories. We welcome collaborative relationships with public media and community interests to broaden stories and art that will be developed and posted on this web site.
AcclimateWest Pilot Advisory Board
- Julie Beagle, Scientist, Resilient Landscapes Program, San Francisco Estuary Institute
- Dana Brechwald, Director, Adapting to Rising Tides, SF Bay Conservation and Development Commission
- Sarah Cardona, Climate Director, Greenbelt Alliance
- Lil Milagro Henriquez, Executive Director, Mycelium Youth Network
- Darren LaShelle, President, Northern California Public Media
- Jody London, Sustainability Coordinator, Contra Costa County
- Lindy Lowe, Planner, Waterfront Resilience Program, Port of San Francisco,
- Paul Okamoto, Architect, Urban Ecology Inc.
- Bruce Riordan, Director, Bay Area Climate Adaptation Network
- Taylor Samuelson, Public Information Officer, California Coastal Conservancy
- Stuart Siegel, Coastal Resilience Specialist, San Francisco Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, Adjunct Professor, Department of Earth and Climate Sciences, San Francisco State University
- Caitlin Sweeney, Director, San Francisco Estuary Partnership
- Michael Vasey, Director, San Francisco Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, Romberg Tiburon Center for Environmental Studies
- Ian Wren, Staff Scientist, San Francisco Baykeeper
Acclimatewest Team
- Ariel Rubissow Okamoto, Editor & Founder
- Isaac Pearlman, Special Research Projects
- Audrey Mei Yi Brown, Youth Editorial Projects
- Estuary News Service Reporters
- Darren Campeau, Web Design
- Tony Hale, San Francisco Estuary Institute, Web Design Update
Dare 25 by 2025 Summer 2020 Start Up Team
- Lilian Bui, Environmental Science
- Allison Daly, Political Science/Sustainability
- Adriana Pera, Art History, Biology
CONTACT acclimatewest@gmail.com