Story
Buildings loom large in street-level air quality
David Colgan
L.A. has made progress over the years. The notorious smog that led filmmaker John Waters to remark, “Only in L.A. will you glimpse a green sun or a brown moon,”…
IoES Magazine
Profile
From Star Wars to sugarcane—the journey of Keith Kawaoka
David Colgan
Today, Kawaoka is the deputy director of environmental health for Hawaii. His responsibilities include sanitation, air and water protection, food and drug safety, toxic cleanup and vector-borne diseases. There’s a…
Review
Debate on GMO foods heats up
David Colgan
On Tuesday, a different side of the debate took stage. Four scholars from across the country gathered at UCLA to discuss GMO foods. The event was the latest installment of…
Voices
Earth Day: then and now
Peter Kareiva
The first Earth Day was covered for ten hours by The Today Show in 1970—a time when there was no cable television and network coverage meant a lot more than…
Story
Video: Students get their feet wet with environmental fieldwork
David Colgan
A few weeks ago, we told you the story of UCLA Senior Practicum students who braved wind, high surf and chilly waters to protect marine life. El Niño tossed them…
Review
The curiosity and controversy of GMOs: a Q&A with Ted Parson
David Colgan
On Tuesday, April 19, four experts will debate the environmental, social and health impacts of GMO foods. Are they a solution to global health and food security crises? Or do…
Story
Drought makes life hard for Los Angeles newts
David Colgan
In the southern part of the state, the California newt—Taricha torosa—has been showing up at breeding grounds nearly 20 percent underweight, on average. The drastic change has evolutionary biologist Gary…
Story
The Ridiculously Resilient Ridge and California’s extreme weather future
David Colgan
Daniel Swain elevates weather talk to the stratosphere. He’s a Ph.D student studying atmospheric patterns and extreme weather at Stanford University. He’s also the creator of the California Weather Blog,…
Review
The curtain draws on climate change
David Colgan
The stories of one famous tree—Methuselah, a 4,847 year-old California bristlecone pine—are the inspiration behind “Memory Rings,” an environmentally-themed play that will be staged next weekend by UCLA’s Center for…
Review
Honoring champions of the environment
David Colgan
But taking environmental issues to a global audience requires time, money and personal energy. At its annual gala last Thursday, UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability honored individuals who’ve…
Voices
Are we leaving nature behind?
Peter Kareiva
The crisis is taught in classrooms with phrases such as “species are being lost at one hundred times the background rate.” But concepts like background rate—the rate at which species…
Story
Recycled water is good for your health
David Colgan
For decades, recycling has been a focal point for environmentalists. And yet California—a state known for its progressive, earth-friendly ethos—has been slow to recycle an important and scarce resource: water.…
Story
School’s out for science
David Colgan
Time was of the essence, but they weren’t rushing to a music festival or spring break in Mexico—they just didn’t want to miss low tide. It’s a routine that Denita…
Story
Powering energy policy with big data
David Colgan
The Los Angeles County Energy Atlas is an interactive map that combines utility data, census information and details about buildings—their age, size and whether they’re used for residential or commercial…
Story
Antartica could be headed for major meltdown
David Colgan
It was more than 16 million years ago, so times were different. But there was one important similarity with the world we live in today: The air contained about the…
Review
Renewable energy ignites debate
David Colgan
In front of a sold out crowd at UCLA, four experts debated the future of energy and the environment at Powering Earth 2050: Is California’s 100% Renewable Strategy Globally Viable?…
Review
Geoengineering: one way we might turn out alright
David Colgan
At tonight’s Oppenheim lecture—live streamed here at 7 p.m.—a panel of four experts will debate California’s plan to move to 100 percent renewable energy, and whether the strategy could work…
Voices
The best books for environmentalists: 2015 edition
Peter Kareiva
Environmentalism suffers from some tired old narratives. What’s the antidote? Fresh perspectives, taboo topics, new alliances, and cross-fertilization — because intellectual and conceptual diversity are just as essential as biodiversity.…
Voices
A top 10 environmental thanks
Peter Kareiva
But on the environmental front, we are constantly bombarded with stories of impending crises, environmental disasters, ecosystem collapse and species loss. Not only does this relentless doom-and-gloom depress everyone, such…
Voices
Environment + public health: the new sustainability
Peter Kareiva
HIV, malaria, heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s. When we think about health, we often think about such tragic diseases and how we can avoid them. These diseases have touched my life…
Voices
Back to school: unlearning nine environmental myths
Peter Kareiva
I have taught these introductory courses for 30 years, and have been consistently surprised by the erroneous certainties students bring to the first environmental science lecture. Rooted not in fact…