In October in Oakland, scientists met to share research results on the health of San Francisco Bay and the Delta. Diagnosis: condition guarded and trending the wrong way. Getting from knowledge to timely action is the challenge I write about in two longish pieces for the excellent Estuary News, December issue. Can a little more water be allowed to flow down overtapped feeder rivers to nourish Delta and Bay? Can a mishmash of shoreline governments really form a common plan to deal with sea level rise? Hope is in the air at such conferences, but inertia is a mighty force in the world outside. See my “The View from the Precipice” and “Regional Science and Governance.”