IoES in the News
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Paul Barber in Axios: The environmental impact of Fluffy and Rover
The 163 million dogs and cats in the U.S. ate one-quarter of the 94.3 billion pounds of meat the country produced in 2015, or as much as 62 million Americans did, according…
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Paul Barber in The Los Angeles Times: UC graduate students threaten more strikes as movement grows
A growing number of students and faculty members across University of California campuses walked out of class, held rallies and signed letters this week, as a systemwide movement takes hold…
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Travis Longcore in Daily Mail: Row of mysterious lights in Colorado night sky is revealed to be Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites – but furious astronomers say billionaire’s scheme blocks out the stars
Social media users in Colorado posted amazed pictures this week as they spotted a strange row of lights moving slowly through the sky. The unusual sighting was identified as a…
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Daniel Swain in Gizmodo: Warning Signs Of Widespread Drought Loom Over California
“It’s virtually impossible at this point for March/April precipitation to completely make up the very large accumulated seasonal deficit, but a series of last-minute storms would still help delay the…
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Daniel Swain in Grist: Climate change is a catastrophe. But is it an ‘existential threat’?
Some climate scientists think that calling climate change an existential threat is misleading. “I don’t think it’s an existential threat to humanity or ‘life on Earth,’” Daniel Swain, a climate…
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Daniel Swain in The New York Times: California Had Its Driest February on Record. Here’s How Bad It Was
This February “was not just merely a below-average month,” Dr. Swain said. “It was, in a lot of places, a completely dry month, which is truly extraordinary.”
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Ann Carlson in Bloomberg Environment: Young Climate Plaintiffs Seek Second Chance in Federal Court
The 21 young plaintiffs who lost their ambitious climate lawsuit against the federal government are seeking another shot to make their case in court, a move that could push the…
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Gregory Okin research featured in UCLA Newsroom: Effort to limit dust pollution in Owens Valley is advancing, but still room to improve
The century-long battle over water between California’s Owens Valley and Los Angeles is nothing short of epic. The latest chapter comes in a more stoic but important form: a 157-page report…
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Daniel Swain in NBC News: Some parts of California had no rain in February — and are already seeing wildfires
Huge swaths of California experienced its driest February on record, with some northern areas of the state recording zero precipitation for the entire month, according to the National Weather Service. …
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Gregory Okin in KUOW NPR: The cutest carbon culprits? Your pets
The United States produces about 8 billion tons of pet food a year. Nearly a third of all climate harm from U.S. agriculture comes from pet food, according to an…
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Daniel Swain in SF Gate: ‘Fuels are record dry’: Weather Service warns of wildfire risk with high winds in forecast
The end of February typically isn’t the time to worry about wildfires in the San Francisco Bay Area, but amid an unusually long dry spell in the middle of winter,…
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Ann Carlson in Nature: Climate lawsuits are breaking new legal ground to protect the planet
Despite recent defeats, activists are optimistic that courts will provide relief from climate change. Carlson and others anticipate that US activists and municipalities will pivot from targeting governments to going…
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Daniel Swain in Laredo Morning Times: Could a Miracle March save us? Here’s how much rain San Francisco needs to make up for the deficit
Most of Northern California is now running below 50% of average precipitation since the start of the rainy season on Oct. 1. In some places, this represents a cumulative deficit…
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Daniel Swain in Brinkwire: California suffers its driest February in 150 YEARS which is causing droughts and wildfires
San Francisco and most of the northern state have received just sprinkles to no rain in what is usually its wettest month of the year – a first in 150…
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Daniel Swain in SF Gate: Could a Miracle March save us? Here’s how much rain San Francisco needs to make up for the deficit
Most of Northern California is now running below 50% of average precipitation since the start of the rainy season on Oct. 1. In some places, this represents a cumulative deficit…
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Daniel Swain in The Los Angeles Times: Small brush fire in Bay Area punctuates Northern California’s driest February on record
“That we’re seeing *any* wildfire activity in northern California is extremely unusual — let alone this kind of very active fire behavior currently occurring <10 miles from downtown San Francisco,”…
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Daniel Swain in The Daily Mail: California suffers its driest February in 150 YEARS which is causing droughts, wildfires and means there will be no superbloom this year
San Francisco and most of the northern state have received just sprinkles to no rain in what is usually its wettest month of the year. Daniel Swain, a climate scientist…
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Aradhna Tripati in UCLA Newsroom: Professor pays it forward by promoting diversity and environmental justice
Aradhna Tripati places such a high value on diversity, mentorship and community. To expand her activities, Tripati formed the Center for Diverse Leadership in Science in 2017, creating the first…
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Alan Barreca quoted in The Daily Bruin: UC’s termination of Elsevier contract has had limited negative impact
The UC’s contract with the publisher Elsevier, which owns over 2,960 journals, expired Jan. 1, 2019, after contract negotiations stalled. Elsevier terminated the UC’s access to recent articles published in…
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Ann Carlson in UCLA Newsroom: UCLA Law conference will explore connection between human rights and the climate crisis
“Human Rights and the Climate Crisis” will bring together leading lawyers, scholars and activists to examine how laws that guarantee the rights to life, health, food, an adequate standard of…
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Daniel Swain in EcoWatch: California’s Rainless February Points to Dangerous Drought, Early Wildfires
California is headed toward drought conditions as February, typically the state’s wettest month, passes without a drop of rain. “This hasn’t happened in 150 years or more,” said Daniel Swain,…
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Daniel Swain in Vallejo Times-Herald: California Drought ‘Pretty Likely’ by Summer as New Report Shows State Growing more dry
Following another week without rain — and none forecast through the end of this month across Northern California — the federal government on Thursday announced that unusually dry conditions are…
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Daniel Swain in SF Gate: How Stressed Should Californians be about the Lack of Rain? Experts Weigh in
Daniel Swain, climate scientist, UCLA, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability: “Parts of California are headed for their driest February on record amidst what was already a very dry rainy…
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Daniel Swain in The Guardian: Dry February Sends California Back to Drought: ‘This Hasn’t Happened in 150 Years’
San Francisco and Sacramento have not seen a drop of rain this February, and climate scientists are expecting that disturbing dry trend to hold, in what is typically one of…
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Daniel Swain Writes for YubaNet.co: Very Dry Conditions to Continue at least Through Late February
Despite an early December reprieve (especially in southern California), conditions have increasingly become increasingly dry across most of the state since August 2019, writes Daniel Swain.