IoES in the News

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"The Ferguson Fire in Maricopa County spread to 9,266 acres, with hundreds of firefighters assisted from the air battling the blaze that is only 2 percent contained... Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California at Los Angeles, believes the fire could pose a major threat to the 1,200 square mile park," wrote Tom Porter and Reuter in Newsweek.

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When the high temperatures hit, people usually do not think of air pollution. UCLA professor, Yifang Zhu, in Health Line explains how "potent and potentially dangerous levels of air pollution" can become during warm months and the importance of being aware of the "Spare the air" days.

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The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, Gundy v. United States, and Kavanaugh may be the deciding vote. "'This is a really important sleeper case,' said Sean Hecht, a law professor at University of California, Los Angeles who has been tracking the Gundy proceedings... If the court rules very broadly, the justices could throw into question numerous legal provisions that currently give the EPA and other agencies latitude to set policy."

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UCLA's Daniel Swain's research found that there will likely be a "really big increase in wet events" because climate change is causing there to be more moisture in the atmosphere. We need to prepare for these severe events. River Partners is a conservation group restoring farmland in the the Central Valley. Their executive vice president, Julie Rentner, said, “there’s always an opportunity to use vegetation and this green infrastructure to lower flood risk — move the water where it will do the most good and redirect it from places that will do the most harm. And you can do that in a way that is durable and sustainable over time.”

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“We urge Governor Brown to show science-based climate leadership and protect California communities by addressing California’s own dirty oil extraction,” said UCLA's Dr. Aradhna Tripati. She is one of the twenty-six climate scientists coming together to call Governor Brown to action to divert from oil and gas to meet Paris Agreement goals and help communities harmed by the industry.

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“This has been an extraordinary heat wave,” said UCLA's climate scientist Daniel Swain in Scientific American. Not only were the high temperatures extraordinary in California for the July heat wave, the time of the year, high temperatures moving into the night, and humidity levels were as well.

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UCLA's Ursula Heise joined A Martinez on KPCC’s Take Two to talk about the thriving population of abut 3,000 Red-Crown parrots in Pasadena, a species that is endangered in Mexico. She explores the possibility of cities as an artificial ecosystem — and how they can be made more hospitable for people and wildlife.

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Paul Ryan reported that his (R-Wisc.) Chevrolet Suburban was home to a family of woodchucks during the winter. During their stay, they bit through the wires and the car no longer runs.  UCLA's professor, Daniel Blumstein, explained why they would in the car and showed them sympathy. “We’ve got marmots climbing in cars and being driven around and sometimes getting killed and eating cars and destroying wiring... But usually they’re going for the radiator fluid, somehow. And it can’t be good for them.” 

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Transforming "green into gold": UCLA economist Magali Delmas joined Zocalo Public Square to discuss how companies can better reach consumers with green products. In her new book, "The Green Bundle: Pairing the Market with the Planet,” she points out that most people are convenient consumers — it's not enough for a product to be simply be good for the planet. The key? Bundling the environment with personal benefits.

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Paul Ryan says his car was eaten by woodchucks. The Verge and UCLA professor, Daniel Blumstein, explore ways to prevent marmots from inhabiting your car and biting through the wires —…

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"[Kavanaugh] tends to be very stingy and cramped in interpreting agency rulemaking authority," said Cara Horowitz, co-director of the UCLA Environmental Law Clinic in Utility Dive about the new Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh. 

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The heat wave hit California in July, breaking temperature records and leaving areas in a blaze. "The overall trend over decades to more intense and more frequent heat waves is definitely a signal of global warming," said UCLA's climate scientist Daniel Swain.

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"Heat waves in recent years have become more intense, a consequence of global warming", Daniel Swain, UCLA climate scientist said in the New York Times, "raising the possibility of ever-deadlier fire seasons."

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“The extreme heat and localized strong offshore winds along the SoCal coastal plain will clearly lead to major fire weather concerns Friday-Saturday [7/6/18-7/7/18],” UCLA climate scientist, Daniel Swain said. “This will be of particular concern given the high degree of ongoing large fire activity in NorCal and subsequent drawdown of firefighting resources, likely fueled in part by our dry winter and the legacy of long-term drought.”

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Daniel Swain's blog post featured in Washington Post article: "The clockwise circulation around the heat dome and resulting offshore winds will force air down mountain slopes adjacent to coastal areas, compressing and heating the air. 'This will likely be a high-impact and memorable heat event.'”

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"You see a storm year like [2016] and you see all the water that ends up going through the L.A. River and Ballona Creek and Dominguez Channel, and you say, 'Wow. That could have been our water supply for the next year,'" said Mark Gold of the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability.

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A study led by UCLA IoES Center for Climate Science postdoc Xingying Huang finds that climate change has already contributed to greater wintertime runoff in the Sierra Nevada, and that flood risk climbs in the future. "Our big dams were designed to capture smaller floods than what we expect in the future," said colleague Daniel Swain in Weather Channel. "...these structures were built for a climate that we no longer have."

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"The idea of sucking water out of the atmosphere is not new", says Eric Hoek in the Smithsonian. “The real innovation [of Yaghi's research] is a materials innovation... These materials pull water out and more easily give it up."

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"Parrots are not uncommon around Los Angeles. More than a dozen different species have established wild populations in the area, descendants of pet birds that escaped at some point and managed to make a home for themselves in some part of the sprawling metropolis," Ursula Heise writes in Elemental.

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Brad Shaffer, a biology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, notes that cities not only destroy habitat, but also create new living spaces for animals and plants. (Wired)

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Published as part of an environmental storytelling partnership with the Laboratory for Environmental Narrative Strategies (LENS) at UCLA, with extensive contributions from faculty and MFA students in UCLA’s documentary film program in…

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José González is the founder of Latino Outdoors and Pritzker nominee. He is an experienced educator as well as a K-12 public education teacher, environmental education advisor, outdoor education instructor…

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“One of the main conservation strategies now is building predator-proof fences,” Daniel Blumstein told Science Magazine.

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“This proposal is an extraordinary repudiation of sensible climate policies, an assault on California’s environmental leadership, and another gift to the fossil fuel industry,” Ann Carlson told Bloomberg.

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"If you put lots of concrete and buildings on the surface, you do change the properties of the local microclimate," Daniel Swain said to Mashable.