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The California Report | Tuesday, Jun 19, 2012, 8:50 AM
Bringing California's Dams Up to Date
There are more than 1,400 dams in California. When the earliest of them was built, the goals were clear: store water, control floods and generate electricity. Since then, new priorities have been added, such as protecting endangered species, which makes relicensing the dams a very pricey and lengthy process.
THIS WEEK in Northern California | Friday, Jun 15, 2012, 7:30 PM
Climate Watch Conversation: Physicist Richard Muller
Richard Muller is not a climatologist, yet he is one of the most controversial figures in climate science. Until recently, the UC Berkeley physicist was a sturdy skeptic of the science behind global warming. But last fall, after he conducted a comprehensive analysis of more than two hundred years of global temperature data, he emerged an apparent convert. Now Muller's set to publish a new book that could thrust him in the spotlight again; "Energy for Future Presidents" casts a critical eye on many current "green energy" solutions while championing more controversial methods like nuclear power and natural gas fracturing or "fracking."
The California Report | Monday, Jun 11, 2012, 8:50 AM
Water Needs Power
Here in California we're constantly prodded to save energy -- and to save water, too. But what if we told you that by saving one, you can save both? That's because water and power are inextricably bound together, a fact that is starting to get the attention of policymakers.
The California Report | Friday, Jun 08, 2012, 4:30 PM
The Deadlocked Delta: Is Carbon Farming the Future?
Take a drive around California's Delta and you'll see how it works to create acres of low-lying, fertile farmland. But farming there can be risky business. That same Delta has flooded dozens of farms over the past half century as aging levees have collapsed. Now, scientists are encouraging farmers to switch to a new crop which has all but disappeared in the Delta: wetlands.
The California Report | Wednesday, May 23, 2012, 8:50 AM
Cleaning Up the Cloud
"Cloud" computing sounds so clean. We imagine all our music, apps and photos stored somewhere "out there." In truth, data lives in data centers that run on electricity -- and there's a fight going on between Greenpeace and Apple over the energy source behind Apple's iCloud.
The California Report | Friday, May 11, 2012, 4:30 PM
Easing Pressure on the Delta
California is always just one long drought away from a crisis. At the center of the state's complicated and aging water system is the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Polls show many Californians aren't sure what or where the Delta is -- but the fate of cities, farmers and even fish depends on it. Efforts to relieve some of that pressure on the Delta often result in political deadlock. We look at the latest effort to break the Delta log jam.
THIS WEEK in Northern California | Friday, May 04, 2012, 7:30 PM
Climate Watch Conversation: Margaret Davidson, Coastal Services Director of NOAA
Threats posed by rising sea levels and extreme weather patterns are changing the way California's coastal communities plan for the future. Senior Climate Watch editor Craig Miller talks with National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration's Margaret Davidson about the impact of climate change on Bay Area shoreline, most visibly along San Francisco's Ocean Beach.
The California Report | Friday, May 04, 2012, 8:50 AM
Clear Lake Provides Clues to Future Climate
State and local officials are under increasing pressure to plan for the changes that California will see in the decades ahead with its shifting climate. They need answers about what those changes will look like and mean for the state. Scientists are searching for those answers on several fronts, from marshes to mountaintops, to the bottom of California's oldest lake.
The California Report | Friday, Apr 20, 2012, 4:30 PM
The Changing Sound of Foghorns
For generations they've competed with seagulls as the signature sound of coastal America. But that "signature sound" of the foghorn isn't what it used to be. Listen carefully, and you'll hear the traditional seaside soundscape changing.
Forum | Friday, Apr 20, 2012, 9:00 AM
Is Clean Tech Funding Drying Up?
Federal funding for clean technologies reached an all-time high in 2009, but a new study finds that money will dry up over the next two years. As a result, the report predicts more clean-tech companies are likely to go bankrupt or be consolidated. We talk to the report's authors. What impact is this economic uncertainty having on green innovation, and how will it affect the Bay Area's economy?
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