Story
The $77 billion bug invasion
David Colgan
Ten species of invasive insect account for $77 billion in annual global economic damages, according to the first in-depth study on the subject, published today in Nature Communications. Even that…
IoES Magazine
Review
A planetary perspective from Kathryn Sullivan, head of NOAA
David Colgan
Sullivan is Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the first American woman to walk in space. She’ll be at UCLA on October 18 to deliver the…
Story
Pacific Ocean’s response to greenhouse gases extends California’s drought
Alison Hewitt
Clues from prehistoric droughts and arid periods in California show that today’s increasing greenhouse gas levels could lock the state into drought for centuries, according to a study led by…
Story
Students’ pop-song video parodies teach real science
Pedro Ramirez
It’s also hard to imagine the rapper Macklemore ever reshaping his parody “Thrift Shop” into an ode to the Coriolis effect. But those are two of the entertaining student-made music…
Story
Methane and microbes—making life happen
Belinda Waymouth
But it’s the interaction between the two that truly made life possible—and it may even hold solutions for climate change. As far as greenhouse gases measure up, methane is a…
Voices
College kids: What will their lives be like?
Peter Kareiva
I just finished my first year at UCLA, where I got to know eight graduating seniors quite well. I now feel that “youth as our hope” platitudes have merit. That…
Story
Environmental lobbying’s clean little secret
David Colgan
The public perception is that lobbyists fight for lax regulations, saving businesses money by allowing more pollution—often at great cost to public health and natural resources. That’s only one side…
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
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…
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
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
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…