California Center for Sustainable Communities

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UCLA community raises concern over water usage amid drought in California

However, the state of California has not done much to curb water consumption, said Stephanie Pincetl, a professor at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and the director of the California Center for Sustainable Communities. Part of this comes from a general lack of official regulation, she said, but added that the failed recall against Newsom also may have impacted the state’s response. The recall was the major focus of Newsom’s attention for a couple of months, and Pincetl said that it likely would have been politically delicate for Newsom to expand on water conservation. However, Pincetl also said the state is only one factor in the whole water system. The Metropolitan Water District, a special district that provides water to 26 agencies in Southern California, is an important aspect of providing Californians with the necessary water, she added.

Dr. Stephanie Pincetl discusses the future of the Los Angeles River on PBS VIDEO

Los Angeles is known for great weather and beaches as well as iconic movie studios and sports teams. Soon you can possibly add an amazing 50 mile riverwalk community to this list. The multi billion dollar LA River revitalization project is advancing and some say this could be the greatest riverwalk in the United States. Certainly this massive design is not without its controversy or its critics. Watch Dr. Pincetl's interview (starting at ~15:00) with Sustaining US on KLCS/PBS. 

Climate Change, Extreme Heat, & the Future of LA’s Electric Power System

For LA residents climate change is no longer a distant or abstract concept because its effects are already being felt throughout the region. During just the past three years, for example, several new record high maximum daily temperatures have been recorded in numerous LA neighborhoods, with Van Nuys experiencing 118 °F in 2018 and more recently, in 2020, parts of Woodland Hills enduring temperatures of 120 °F. These developments are clearly illustrated in the figure below which shows the percentage of sampled maximum daily temperatures within the LA-Basin that were above different high heat thresholds for each year from 2005 to 2020.

UCLA environmental experts featured in PBS series about sustainability

Season two premiers Wednesday, Oct. 6, and will air weekly on Wednesdays at 10 p.m. and the following Mondays at 5:30 p.m. Viewers can watch on Ch. 58 or livestream on KLCS PBS. Topics and respective UCLA experts in season two include: The Los Angeles River: Stephanie Pincetl, founding director of the California Center for Sustainable Communities at UCLA

UCLA community reflects on climate report, ways to take action for environment

Tackling the interconnected political, economic, societal and environmental issues of climate change and the large-scale forces at play can be daunting, said Stephanie Pincetl, a professor at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. Students can turn climate anxiety into action by identifying and tackling issues they’re passionate about solving, said Pincetl, who is also director of the California Center for Sustainable Communities at UCLA. She said students can get involved by creating or joining groups that advocate for change and hold lawmakers and governments accountable.

Is it time to stop flushing the toilet?

The Western United States is in the midst of a devastating, record-breaking drought. For those of us outside the West, there’s increasing evidence that climate change is coming us hard and fast. People are being asked to do their part to conserve water: take shorter showers, don’t let the faucet run, fix that leaky sprinkler and so on. Which begs the question: Is it time to stop flushing the toilet all the time? “Oh yeah, absolutely,” answers Stephanie Pincetl, professor at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. You know the old saying “If it’s yellow let it mellow?” That should be the new normal, Pincetl says. “I do it drought or no drought because we live in a climate where that no longer makes a difference.”

A Just Transition: Envisioning the Next 40 Years

This webinar by Physicians for Social Responsibility raises some of the fundamental issues that face the energy transition and highlights dangerous course we are on today.  Highly recommended for an in-depth analysis of what needs to change -- Stephanie Pincetl, director of CCSC

THE ABC’S OF ELECTRIFYING YOUR GAS APPLIANCES: A Guidebook for Households

While there are many benefits to electrifying your gas appliances, there are also costs. The costs and benefits are different for each type of appliance. We wrote this Guidebook as a starting point, to help you begin thinking about these decisions. Many people can’t afford to replace all their gas appliances, so this Guidebook can help you prioritize your choices, to make the best decision for you and your family. Your decision to electrify will depend on what is most important to you, such as improving your indoor air quality, keeping your utility costs low, or helping to slow climate change and improving outdoor air quality.

Dr. Pincetl spoke with the Environmental Science without Borders UCLA Chapter

Getting Beyond Tropes: Cities for the 21st Century Dr. Pincetl spoke to the Environmental Science without Borders (ESWB), a subsidiary of UCLA's Center for Diverse Leadership in Science (CDLS), which connects students and early-career scientists from around the globe, regarding her research on urban metabolism water and energy policy, habitat conservation efforts, and the impact of land use in conjunction with climate change and climate policies. 

Eric Fournier talks to ABC 7 about Oregon’s Bootleg Fire threatening California’s power supply

“What is happening more and more is that the geographic scope of high heat and also the geographic scope of fire risks is increasing pretty significantly. And so in Southern California, because of the interconnectedness of the power system, we’re actually fairly vulnerable to both disasters and high temperatures that are occurring somewhere else,” said Eric Fournier with UCLA’s Institute of Environment and Sustainability.

Stephanie Pincetl in CalMatters: Water shortages: Why some Californians are running out in 2021 and others aren’t

Stephanie Pincetl, director of UCLA’s California Center for Sustainable Communities, who has studied Southern California’s reliance on distant water sources, said the decisions had far-reaching, if unintended, consequences: Los Angeles’ water grab from the Owens Valley exploited distant ecosystems, and urban sprawl was fueled by the Metropolitan Water District’s imports. “It’s really the growth machine of Southern California … by providing all this water to inland places, and allowing the sense that there’s unlimited water and the sense that you can build as far as the eye can see,” Pincetl said. Still, she said, “You can point fingers a lot, but you can also be reassured that you can actually turn the tap on and have water come out of it, most of the time.”