Climate Change Changing Assumptions on Land Use, Energy

"Repeat after me the first rule of environmental activism: "Think globally, act locally."

But wait. What do we do when global concerns are at odds with what we hold dear at home?

That question hangs over the Bay Area as surely as last week's smoke obscured our skies. The environmental agenda is being redefined by the very real threat of climate change. In the process, some of our basic articles of faith - such as keeping development away from the bays and the hills - could be called into question.

'As much as I don't want it to, I think global warming changes the measure of how we think about sustainability in a region like the Bay Area,' says John Eddy of the San Francisco office of Arup, an international engineering firm. 'It's a tough challenge for all of us.'"