IoES in the News
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Daniel Swain in Bakersfield.com: Why California’s 2020 lightning fires got so big so fast
“The fact we got such extremely large, fast destructive fires without any offshore winds is very unusual,” said UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain. “All of this hints at something which…
Awards
Environmental economist wins award for sustainable management research
Magali Delmas, professor at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, has received the 2020 Organizations and the Natural Environment Division Distinguished Scholar Award from the Academy of Management for her work…
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2020 Pritzker Finalist Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner in The Conversation — Fridays for Future: how the young climate movement has grown since Greta Thunberg’s lone protest
The climate strike movement has grown into a network of global campaigns focused on systemic change to tackle the climate crisis. In the process, young people have outgrown the mainstream…
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Nick Russo receives Fulbright-Hays fellowship
Nick Russo is one of nine UCLA graduate students awarded a 2020 Fulbright-Hays study abroad fellowship. Russo’s research in Cameroon investigates the movements of hornbills (large, seed-dispersing birds) in response…
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Daniel Swain in EcoWatch: California Wildfires Destroy Condor Sanctuary, at Least 4 Birds Still Missing
One of the many wildfires raging through California has destroyed a sanctuary for endangered condors, and the fate of at least four of the birds remains unknown. However, University of California, Los Angeles scientist Daniel Swain said…
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Daniel Swain in KQED: How Climate Change Is Contributing to California’s Bad Fire Seasons
Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with UCLA and a prolific chronicler of California’s increasingly wild weather, discussed the impact of climate change on wildfires on KQED’s Forum radio program on Tuesday. Swain and other scientists…
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Daniel Swain in The New York Times — California Fires: Want to Control Blazes? Start More, Experts Say
Which leaves what Daniel Swain, a California climate expert, told the New York Times one smaller-scale fix to the wildfire crisis. Communities and homeowners themselves can better prepare by clearing fire breaks or…
Blog
Edith deGuzman in Noticias Ulitmas: In the face of the heat wave, Los Angeles is testing innovative solutions to cool its streets
California has been experiencing an unprecedented heat wave since mid-August that affects the health of millions of inhabitants and promotes hundreds of fires. In Los Angeles, the city is relying on…
Headline
Daniel Swain KQED Interview: The Link Between Climate Change and Wildfires
Record-breaking heat, dry vegetation, and lightning each played a role in sparking wildfires that have burnt more than one million acres across California. But to what extent were these factors…
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Daniel Swain in The New York Times — California Fires: Why This Year Is Different
Tuesday: The vast scale of wildfires rampaging across the state is an indication of what’s to come. What’s different this year, officials and experts said on Monday, isn’t just that…
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Daniel Swain Q&A in Bloomberg Green: California’s Climate Tinderbox: A Scientist Explains the Fire Crisis
Unexpected bad news hit California more than 11,000 times last week. That’s the estimated number of lightning strikes that unleashed two of the biggest fires in state history. Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at…
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Emily Lindsey in The Daily Mail: Prehistoric sloth unearthed in the Amazonian rainforest was killed by a giant crocodile
Prehistoric sloth unearthed in the Amazonian rainforest was killed by a giant crocodile that stalked the swamps 13 million years ago, bite-scarred shin bone reveals. The study of the fossilized…
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Daniel Swain in The New York Times: Scope of California Wildfires Is Staggering
More than 7,000 fires have chewed through 1.4 million acres this year, making this fire season one of the most active ever. “I’m running out of superlatives,” said Daniel Swain,…
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Daniel Swain in San Francisco Chronicle: ‘The Bay Area dodged a bullet’: Monday lightning storms are mild as wildfires keep burning
Temperatures will hover around the mid-70s inland and across the East Bay, reaching the mid-90s in cities like Livermore. Winds weren’t predicted to hamper the ongoing firefights, with “no strong…
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Daniel Swain in San Francisco Chronicle: Wildfires are an annual California nightmare now. Will they only get worse?
In the past week, the extent and complexity of the blazes have stretched California’s firefighting resources to the limit. Some of the larger, more remote fires may still be burning…
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Daniel Swain in Inside Climate News: California and Colorado Fires May Be Part of a Climate-Driven Transformation of Wildfires Around the Globe
The wildfires that exploded over the past few days in California and Colorado show clear influences of global warming, climate scientists say, and evidence of how a warming and drying…
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Daniel Swain in Vox: Dry lightning, extreme heat, and Covid-19 are all shaping California’s efforts to contain massive, deadly blazes.
A stunning, sudden surge of wildfires is burning through California, threatening towns and sending choking smoke over major cities and across much of the United States. It’s creating an epic…
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Daniel Swain in Mercury News: California’s devastating summer blazes are a bad omen for fall wildfire season
“Global warming is making extreme heat waves more intense and likely, and climate change is making California fire risk worse,” said Daniel L. Swain, a climate scientist at the University…
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Daniel Swain in Bangkok Press: More evacuations as massive fires rapidly expand in California
A series of massive fires in northern and central California forced more evacuations as they quickly spread Thursday, darkening the skies and dangerously affecting air quality. Evacuation orders were expanded…
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Los Angeles Urban Cooling Collaborative in Legal Planet: Beat the Heat
The detailed Rx for Hot Cities report, released this year by local nonprofit TreePeople and a group of researchers and urban practitioners called the Los Angeles Urban Cooling Collective, suggests that if Los…
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Daniel Swain in MIT Technology Review: Yes, climate change is almost certainly fueling California’s massive fires
Over the last four decades, the combined forces of higher temperatures and lower precipitation levels have already doubled the risk of extreme wildfire conditions in California during the fall, according…
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Daniel Swain in Mashable: Popular wildlife cam just became a dreadful fire cam
One of these many blazes, the Dolan Fire, is a grim scene on the normally pleasant explore.org wildlife webcams in the Ventana Wildlife Society’s Condor Sanctuary, located some two miles from the Pacific…
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Daniel Swain in Ventura County Star — California wildfires: Little relief on horizon as fire siege pummels the Golden State
California still has weeks or months to go before its peak fire season as crews battle hundreds of blazes sparked by extreme heat and intense lightning. A massive heat wave baked…
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Daniel Swain in the Guardian: California wildfires: thousands evacuate as ‘siege’ of flames overwhelms state
Hundreds of fires, stoked by a searing heatwave, prompt governor to declare a state of emergency. “It’s kind of an overwhelming fire siege,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at…