Headline

Opinion: A summer of extreme heat and wildfire shows the cost of human folly. CCSC’s Stephanie Pincetl in the LA Times.

As Greece attempts to recover from the recent destructive wildfires around Athens, Southern Californians facing our own heat wave should take note of the pattern that enabled them. It should be well-known by now: sprawl into the urban-wildland interface where development collides with nature, the corresponding replacement of grass, shrubs and other plants native to the area with many more trees for shade, then strain on the land thanks to drought, record high heat and wind, intensified by climate change. The conditions that led to the worst wildfires in Greece this year, burning 156 square miles, damaging more than 100 homes and causing at least one death, apply in Los Angeles too.

Announcements

California Public Utilities Commission project on distributed energy resources led by UCLA’s CCSC and LARC

The California Public Utilities Commission has selected the California Center for Sustainable Communities and the Los Angeles Regional Collaborative at UCLA IoES to lead a Data Working Group on Distributed…

California’s clean energy leap: Easy electrification for most homes

New UCLA study finds most California homes can easily electrify without costly panel upgrades, thanks to strategic load management.

Announcements

UCLA to guide the prioritization and evaluation of equity strategies for LADWP’s clean energy transition

Last year, as part of the study, the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation (LCI) and colleagues provided LADWP with recommendations for robust, long-term solutions to low-income customers’ ability to pay their bills through the clean energy transition. Now, in partnership with the UCLA California Center for Sustainable Communities, our researchers are digging deeper into energy equity issues to guide the agency’s development, implementation, and evaluation of these recommendations. “LADWP has the opportunity to lead the nation in how to achieve a more just energy transition,” said Stephanie Pincetl, director of the UCLA California Center for Sustainable Communities, “and we are honored to help facilitate that possibility.”

Headline

Will changes at San Gabriel Mountains National Monument serve LA’s communities of color?

UCLA’s Stephanie Pincetl says expanding the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument should go hand in hand with better local access to green space — so LA’s residents can enjoy nature without overcrowding the mountains.

Blog

The California Center for Sustainable Communities at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability strongly condemns the mob attack on our UCLA student encampment. 

We object in the strongest possible terms to the University's failure to support our students' right to protest peacefully and to be kept safe while doing so. We are horrified that Chancellor Block did not exercise his responsibility to protect and support students. We believe his statements (and those of President Drake) opened the way to these attacks on our community. The exemplary nature of this encampment made it a target for those who oppose the free exercise of views that differ from their own. Continuing to arrest and jail protesters will not lead to a thoughtful and productive discussion about the very real issues raised by the Israeli invasion of Gaza, and what the University can do to help curb the extraordinary suffering and deaths that are occurring. We call for the convocation of a body to discuss the substantive calls for disclosure and divestment. We also support full legal, academic and disciplinary amnesty for all students, staff, and faculty.