ESPM Center for Fire Research and Outreach researcher Brandon Collins is quoted in this Fresno Bee article on this year's wildland fire season in the San Joaquin Valley and Sierra foothills. Newly dead conifers in the region are a fire hazard because the dead, dry needles are still attached to the branches. After winter rains knock the needles to the group and dry out, “there’s a lot more material that is ready to burn,” Collins said. “You don’t have that potential for fire moving from crown to crown, but you have potential to spread fire. The embers can land on something ready to burn. You get spots in front of the main fire.”
Grist | July 03, 2017
ARE professor Meredith Fowlie is featured in this Grist article on ways the US can be weaned off fossil fuel dependence and shut off greenhouse gas emissions. Fowlie argues that there are different paths to meeting greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets, and some will cost a lot more than others. The long-run political viability of decarbonization depends on finding lower-cost paths.
Climatewire | June 30, 2017
ARE professor Max Auffhammer and ERG postdoc James Rising are highlighted in this ClimateWire article on recently published research that lays out an outlook for widening economic inequality caused by higher temperatures. Rising is part of the Climate Impact Lab consortium that studied county-level impacts of climate change. "Climate change is global, but adaptation is local," said Auffhammer, who is familiar with the work but not involved with the research. "So you need to figure out how much should you do, and since we all have a very scarce or limited budget of public dollars to spend on these adaptation-type mechanisms both public and private, we want to put them to the best use. And this will help."
Desert Sun | June 30, 2017
ARE professor Max Auffhammer is featured in this Desert Sun article on electricity use spikes in the Southwest during heatwaves. Record-breaking demand for electricity is likely to continue, said Auffhammer, who wrote a paper on the subject in February. Hot states with growing populations, such as Arizona, California, Florida and Texas, will feel the biggest impact, he said.
Berkeley News | June 29, 2017
ERG postdoc James Rising is featured in this Berkeley News article on the economic impacts of unmitigated climate change. The recently published student combined 116 climate change forecasts and numerous economic analyses developed by scientists around the world to assess costs and benefits of unmitigated climate change on crime, agriculture, energy, labor, coastal communities and mortality. “[The study] helps us focus on high-value targets,” said Rising. “And while agricultural impacts are quite big, human health turns out to be most important.”
California magazine | June 29, 2017
ESPM professor Dennis Baldocchi and ERG alum Peter Gleick (M.S. '80, Ph.D. '86) are featured in this California magazine article on the massive Delta tunnels proposed by the Jerry Brown administration. “The Delta was a great place for agriculture in the late 19th century and early 20th century,” says Baldocchi. “The tunnels are a mid-20th century response to a 21st century problem, a $20 billion and 20-to-30 year distraction from the real solutions we need to pursue,” Gleick says.
Popular Science | June 29, 2017
ERG postdoc researcher James Rising is featured in this Popular Science article on recently published research that models out climate change impact on the American economy on the county level. The modeling was done with the assumption that humans won't make efforts to mitigate climate change and doesn't take into account people's attempts to adapt. Rising, who coauthored the study, noted, "It’s important to understand that there’s a lot of opportunity to use numbers from our paper to decide on what kind of responses we want to make.”
California magazine | June 28, 2017
ESPM professors Steve Beissinger and Stephanie Carlson are featured in this California magazine article on climate change's effects on California's flora and fauna. Beissiner and colleagues are tracking how California's wildlife are responding to rapid environmental shifts. Carlson's research has shown that shifts in precipitation levels can and do influence natural selection. Carlson stresses that the research does not show whether species actually are evolving in response to climatic shifts, which would require tracking adaptive traits across many generations.
Scientific American | June 26, 2017
ERG professor Dan Kammen authored this article for Scientific American on the Oakland EcoBlock project he is co-leading with ERG chair and CED professor Harrison Fraker. Kammen notes that neighborhood efforts to reduce fossil fuel and water consumption, as well as greenhouse gas emissions, could go beyond serving as a model for sustainability by providing local construction jobs and revitalizing entire communities.
KCET | June 16, 2017
ESPM professor Adina Merenlender is featured in this KCET article on environmental regulations in Napa Valley. Merenlender, who has been studying northern California vineyards’ environmental impacts for over 20 years, says the conversion of shrub, oak and conifer habitat into new vineyards is fragmenting wildlife habitat, thinning out forests, and, through erosion caused by agriculture, destroying the stream habitat where imperiled salmon and steelhead trout spawn. Merenlender also notes that vineyard expansion will continue to compress migration corridors to ecological dysfunction.