Climate Column: Savoring summer closer to home

NATASHA JULIANA

ARGUS-COURIER COLUMNIST

June 24, 2024

It’s officially summer — the season for taking a break and enjoying the great outdoors.

While much of the country has been hit hard recently by unnatural disasters — dangerous heat domes, repeated tornadoes, catastrophic flooding, and golf ball-sized hail — here in Petaluma we have been blessed (knock on wood) with wonderful weather.

I don’t find it easy to navigate this kind of dichotomy. It requires striking a balance between not turning away from unfolding tragedies elsewhere, while simultaneously appreciating what’s here right now. For my own mental health, I find it valuable to count my blessings and practice being present. I know full well that the future will bring more and more weather extremes, so it is important to savor the good days while we have them.

Here are a few ways to increase your positive experience while decreasing your negative impact:

With long light hours and mild temperatures, this is the perfect time to enjoy our beautiful town by foot. I love walking around as I do my errands, but heavy grocery bags pose a problem. Last week, I stopped by Rex Ace Hardware to see if they had one of those foldable shopping carts popular in places like Brooklyn and Paris. Helen directed me to the front window and Harold even helped me assemble it on site so that I could use it for my walk home. This little contraption is the cargo bike for walkers and I absolutely love it.

Summer is also a traditional time for vacations. As noted in previous Climate Columns, air travel sadly has a huge environmental impact. As much as we love jet-setting around this beautiful planet, the planet doesn’t love it back. One round-trip flight from San Francisco to Italy has a bigger carbon footprint than driving a hybrid car for a whole year. In 2023, more than 70% of flights in the U.S. were for personal reasons including leisure and recreation, family visits, and travel to and from college.

Visits to see family or flights home from college might be harder to avoid, but there’s plenty of leisure and recreation to be had right here in our own backyard. We are lucky enough to live in one of the world’s most beautiful places. Pretend you are on vacation here and you can see it through tourists’ eyes. Majestic coastlines, a world-class city, ancient redwood forests, and internationally known wine country are all within a stone’s throw.

I stopped by the Petaluma Visitors Center in the beautiful historic train station and was welcomed by a warm and enthusiastic staff eager to help me explore the magic of our town and the surrounding areas. Mary, Julie, and Jean all jumped in to share their favorite tips and stories.

Want to take the SMART train to a winery? They’ll help you navigate the train schedule, book a shuttle, and hook you up with a two-for-one tasting coupon. They can even tell you all about the best organic and biodynamic wines in the area.

Have kids to entertain? They have a long list of family-friendly activities to choose from.

Want to explore the area by bicycle? They can provide the Petaluma Green Lane bike path map and the SMART Pathway map, plus a list of local shops that rent bicycles. And stay tuned, as they are getting their own set of electric assist rental bikes right there at the train station sometime this summer.

Ready to explore the river? You may know that the Floathouse has boat rentals, but did you know they have guided night tours? Apparently, much of their business comes from tourism and they are eager to see more locals using the boats as well.

Mary Roualdes, the marketing and communications manager for the Petaluma Visitors Center, could not have been more helpful. “We love having people come in,” she said. “We meet people from all over the world who chose Petaluma as their destination.” They find that locals are most likely to visit the center when guests come to town, which happened twice in the hour I was there, but it’s a great everyday resource for Petalumans as well.

By the end of my visit, it was easy to understand why they had just won best visitor center in Sonoma County.

As new empty nesters, my husband and I are going to start taking advantage of their knowledge to liven up our weekend plans and create local vacation itineraries that make us feel like we are getting away without the dollars, time, or emissions often accompanying longer trips. We fell in love with Sonoma County when we were first dating, and this is our chance to fall in love with it all over again.

And at the end of the day, love is what it is all about. Many of us long to travel because we are in love with the beauty and diversity of this unique planet — the natural environments, the built environments, the cultures, the foods, the music, the people are 

We just have to make sure our love is helping, not hurting, that which we care the most about.