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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13037\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/01/Sprinkler.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13037\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/01/Sprinkler.jpg\" alt=\"An East Bay MUD conservation program has cut water use by comparing customers with their neighbors. (Craig Miller/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An East Bay MUD conservation program has cut water use by comparing customers with their neighbors. (Craig Miller/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The record dry weather means California water districts are ramping up conservation programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://www.ebmud.com/\">East Bay Municipal Utility District\u003c/a> is encouraging some of its customers to use less by having them compete with their neighbors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 10,000 EBMUD customers have been getting personalized reports in the mail over the past year, summarizing their water use and comparing it to the consumption of similar households in the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It puts it into a context,” says Richard Harris, water conservation manager at EBMUD. “Like: for similar households with three-to-four people and with a [property] lot of this size in this zip code, this is how you compare. It creates an awareness of a benchmark.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The comparison is done anonymously – no neighbors are outed by name — but Harris says the small dose of peer pressure seems to work. An \u003ca href=\"http://californiawaterfoundation.org/uploads/1389391749-Watersmart_evaluation_report_FINAL_12-12-13%2800238356%29.pdf\">independent review\u003c/a> of the program found customers who got the information cut their water use by five percent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13041\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 324px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/01/hwr-anon-ebmud-code-791x1024.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-13041\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/01/hwr-anon-ebmud-code-791x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Click to enlarge - example of WaterSmart's statements for EBMUD customers.\" width=\"324\" height=\"417\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Click to enlarge – example of WaterSmart’s statements for EBMUD customers.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We were targeting two percent,” says Harris. “So five percent is a pretty good savings rate. Compare that to conservation incentives where you’re enticing someone to buy something. If you can do it through behavioral science, it’s much more cost-effective.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reports also make personalized recommendations for conservation measures. EBMUD found that customers getting the peer reports were twice as likely to participate in conservation programs, compared to other average customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pilot program was run by San Francisco start-up \u003ca href=\"http://www.watersmartsoftware.com/\">WaterSmart Software\u003c/a>. It’s similar to \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/2011/10/07/what-makes-us-conserve-energy-6-lessons-from-the-smart-grid/\">what companies like Opower have done\u003c/a> with electricity consumption through “social norms” programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Peer pressure turns out to be the major motivator in changing behavior,” says WaterSmart Software CEO Peter Yolles. “Eight of ten people are more likely to change behavior based on social comparison than they are through saving money or saving the environment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yolles says in these programs, about one-third of the reduction in water consumption comes from home retrofits, like low-flow faucets or toilets. Two-thirds comes from behavioral changes, like shifting outdoor watering habits. WaterSmart is also working on projects in Davis and Newport Beach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”aee988b64727bfb1fb39cd7ce0a8fcac”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s new in my perspective and it’s gaining some traction,” says Harris.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water districts are looking for new conservation techniques in light of California’s plan to cut per-capita water use 20 percent statewide by 2020 – and because of the current drought. 2013 was the driest year on record in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re all feeling that,” says Harris. “As we get through the spring, we’ll see what happens in February and March. If it stays dry, we’ll likely have to enhance conservation measures and we’ll know then if we have to take additional actions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>EBMUD is currently considering expanding the pilot program to more customers.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cp>Environmental groups are generally lauding \u003ca href=\"http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/FullBudgetSummary.pdf\">Governor Jerry Brown’s proposed budget\u003c/a>, which includes an outline for spending revenue from the state’s carbon auctions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2012/11/14/five-reasons-you-should-care-about-california%E2%80%99s-cap-and-trade-carbon-market/\">cap-and-trade program\u003c/a> charges companies for the right to pollute. Fees are then supposed to be used for programs aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions and to shield consumers from any hikes in their electric bill caused by the regulation. Brown’s budget proposes how to spend $850 million from the program:\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12899\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12899\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/01/capandtradebudget.jpg\" alt=\"(Source: Governor's Full Budget Summary)\" width=\"640\" height=\"429\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Source: Governor’s Full Budget Summary)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A quarter of the revenue is required to go towards helping environmentally disadvantaged areas, with one tenth invested within those communities.[contextly_sidebar id=”981f6f2762c3416bfb4ebc29109a638d”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The most vulnerable to climate change are those who are low-income and communities of color,” said Mari Rose Taruc with the \u003ca href=\"http://apen4ej.org/\">Asian Pacific Environmental Network\u003c/a>. “A few of the priority investment areas include energy efficiency for low-income homes. It includes affordable transit-oriented development as part of a broader sustainable communities strategy, as well as urban forestry.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, the governor outraged environmentalists by \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/05/14/enviros-livid-as-brown-diverts-cap-and-trade-funds/\">“borrowing” cap-and-trade revenues\u003c/a> to balance the general fund. This year’s budget includes $100 million being repaid from that loan, plus $750 million in expected revenue from the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The overall budget picture is rosier than in years past, as KQED’s Sacramento bureau chief \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/01/09/happy-days-are-here-again-brown-unveils-106-billion-budget-draft/\">Scott Detrow explains\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Brace yourself, Californians: There’s no state budget crisis this year. Repeat: \u003cem>No crisis. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Jerry Brown didn’t actually say those exact words this morning as he unveiled \u003ca href=\"http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/2014-15/BudgetSummary/BSS/BSS.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">his spending plan\u003c/a> for the next fiscal year, but he did sound a rare note of budget optimism. “For this year, there is very good news,” Brown said. “Good news in the fiscal stability and resources available for the state of California.”\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Other environmental budget items include $785,000 for \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/audio/who-profits-from-proposition-65-part-one/\">Proposition 65 reform\u003c/a>; $655 million for state parks, including $40 million to catch up on deferred maintenance; $6.7 million for oil spill prevention and response, with an eye toward the expected increase in shipments of \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2013/12/04/tank-battle-activists-take-aim-at-bay-area-crude-projects/\">crude oil by rail\u003c/a>; and $618 million for water-related spending, including conservation, infrastructure, flood prevention, drinking water and habitat restoration\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked in a press conference this morning about more immediate water concerns in this \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2014/01/02/2013-californias-big-dry/\">very dry year\u003c/a>, Brown said he’ll do everything “humanly possible” to address water resources, but added, “Governors can’t make it rain.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Environmental groups are generally lauding \u003ca href=\"http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/FullBudgetSummary.pdf\">Governor Jerry Brown’s proposed budget\u003c/a>, which includes an outline for spending revenue from the state’s carbon auctions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2012/11/14/five-reasons-you-should-care-about-california%E2%80%99s-cap-and-trade-carbon-market/\">cap-and-trade program\u003c/a> charges companies for the right to pollute. Fees are then supposed to be used for programs aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions and to shield consumers from any hikes in their electric bill caused by the regulation. Brown’s budget proposes how to spend $850 million from the program:\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12899\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12899\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/01/capandtradebudget.jpg\" alt=\"(Source: Governor's Full Budget Summary)\" width=\"640\" height=\"429\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Source: Governor’s Full Budget Summary)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A quarter of the revenue is required to go towards helping environmentally disadvantaged areas, with one tenth invested within those communities.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The most vulnerable to climate change are those who are low-income and communities of color,” said Mari Rose Taruc with the \u003ca href=\"http://apen4ej.org/\">Asian Pacific Environmental Network\u003c/a>. “A few of the priority investment areas include energy efficiency for low-income homes. It includes affordable transit-oriented development as part of a broader sustainable communities strategy, as well as urban forestry.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, the governor outraged environmentalists by \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/05/14/enviros-livid-as-brown-diverts-cap-and-trade-funds/\">“borrowing” cap-and-trade revenues\u003c/a> to balance the general fund. This year’s budget includes $100 million being repaid from that loan, plus $750 million in expected revenue from the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The overall budget picture is rosier than in years past, as KQED’s Sacramento bureau chief \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/01/09/happy-days-are-here-again-brown-unveils-106-billion-budget-draft/\">Scott Detrow explains\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Brace yourself, Californians: There’s no state budget crisis this year. Repeat: \u003cem>No crisis. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Jerry Brown didn’t actually say those exact words this morning as he unveiled \u003ca href=\"http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/2014-15/BudgetSummary/BSS/BSS.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">his spending plan\u003c/a> for the next fiscal year, but he did sound a rare note of budget optimism. “For this year, there is very good news,” Brown said. “Good news in the fiscal stability and resources available for the state of California.”\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Other environmental budget items include $785,000 for \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/audio/who-profits-from-proposition-65-part-one/\">Proposition 65 reform\u003c/a>; $655 million for state parks, including $40 million to catch up on deferred maintenance; $6.7 million for oil spill prevention and response, with an eye toward the expected increase in shipments of \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2013/12/04/tank-battle-activists-take-aim-at-bay-area-crude-projects/\">crude oil by rail\u003c/a>; and $618 million for water-related spending, including conservation, infrastructure, flood prevention, drinking water and habitat restoration\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked in a press conference this morning about more immediate water concerns in this \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2014/01/02/2013-californias-big-dry/\">very dry year\u003c/a>, Brown said he’ll do everything “humanly possible” to address water resources, but added, “Governors can’t make it rain.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "3 of the World's Best Scientific Aircraft Team Up for Climate Science Research",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12879\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/01/bae146.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-12879\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12879\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/01/bae146.jpg\" alt=\"BAe-146; photo courtesy FAAM\" width=\"600\" height=\"350\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">BAe-146; photo courtesy FAAM\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Of course spacecraft and astronauts and robot rovers are sexy. So are scientific submarines and their dives to the deep seafloor. But today I want to speak up for research aircraft and the plucky geniuses who maintain and fly them. They penetrate hurricanes; they peek high above thunderstorm complexes at night for a glimpse of \u003ca href=\"http://geology.about.com/od/sprites/a/sprites.htm\">sprites\u003c/a>; they fly over the El Niños and the poles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of all, aircraft are an indispensable part of our effort to understand Earth’s climate and the atmosphere that sustains it. They’re worthy of graphic-novel treatment, if there’s an artist out there who’s up for it. Here’s the story line: Next week three of the world’s best scientific aircraft will team up on a six-week mission, called \u003ca href=\"http://www2.acd.ucar.edu/contrast\">CONTRAST\u003c/a>, to explore a key part of the world’s climate system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tropical western Pacific, south of Guam, is the opposite of Antarctica: the warmest part of the ocean. As we shiver through winter, the atmosphere above the Western Pacific Warm Pool is at its most active. The region acts like an immense chimney, with thunderstorms and other deep convective disturbances pushing huge quantities of air some 20 kilometers straight up from the sea surface. Some of this air bursts into the quiet stratosphere, where it stays for years and spreads outward across the entire world. The West Pacific chimney is where most of the stratosphere’s input of surface air happens. Models of global climate need to account for the influence of this great engine of air, but its makeup is poorly known.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One notable ingredient of oceanic air is a set of organic bromine compounds emitted by sea life. Although these gases usually are swiftly neutralized by ozone within 100 meters of the sea surface, the western Pacific chimney is active enough to funnel bromine into the upper atmosphere, where it erodes the stratospheric ozone layer that protects us from damaging ultraviolet radiation. Volcanoes also inject bromine into the stratosphere, but in the Pacific chimney we can study the same process all the way up from the sea surface without dealing with a volcano’s dangers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three state-of-the-art aircraft will team up for \u003ca href=\"http://www2.acd.ucar.edu/contrast\">CONTRAST\u003c/a> (CONvective TRansport of Active Species in the Tropics). Two have human crews while the third, the high-altitude star, is a robot. Between them, they can cover the whole altitude range of this energetic region from the wavetops well into the stratosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The British research aircraft BAe-146, part of the Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements, will handle the low-altitude portion up to about 6 kilometers (20,000 feet). A large plane that can carry 18 people, its focus will be on the rising clouds, where exceptionally low ozone levels allow the bromine gases (and related iodine gases) to survive far beyond their normal lives. Its data will help fill in a large gap between the sea surface and the top of the chimney. Just as important will be the differences it discovers between air inside and outside clouds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tackling the middle part will be the National Science Foundation’s High-Performance Instrumented Airborne Platform for Environmental Research (\u003ca href=\"https://www.eol.ucar.edu/observing_facilities/hiaper\">HIAPER\u003c/a>), a modified Gulfstream business jet that can reach over 15 kilometers (51,000 feet). Its previous special mission was \u003ca href=\"https://www.eol.ucar.edu/field_projects/sprites-ii\">observing sprites over the Midwest last summer\u003c/a>. It will continue the BAe-146’s measurements upward in the atmosphere. It will also gather data during the night as well as the day, because the chemical reactions in the air change dramatically when the sun goes down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12880\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/01/HIAPER.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-12880\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12880\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/01/HIAPER.jpg\" alt=\"HIAPER; photo courtesy Carlye Calvin, UCAR\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">HIAPER; photo courtesy Carlye Calvin, UCAR\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The high extreme, between 14 and 19 kilometers (up to 62,000 feet) will be handled by a large robot plane, NASA’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoLuUrT3_wI\">Global Hawk\u003c/a>, as part of the \u003ca href=\"https://espo.nasa.gov/missions/attrex/\">ATTREX\u003c/a> (Airborne Tropical TRopopause EXperiment) project. This heavily instrumented, pilotless observing platform is stationed at Edwards Air Force Base and has been in use for barely a year. It can make 30-hour flights that exceed the safe limits of any human pilot. Global Hawk will deal with the stratosphere, ranging widely around the West Pacific chimney to trace its injected air and study how it changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12881\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/01/globalhawk.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-12881\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12881\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/01/globalhawk.jpg\" alt=\"Global Hawk; NASA photo by C. Fratello\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Global Hawk; NASA photo by C. Fratello\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>All three aircraft will also be measuring temperature, humidity, and the usual suspects among atmospheric gases: ozone, water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen oxides and more. Each gas has its own story in the stratosphere that must be accounted for in global climate models. The mission is summed up in this diagram.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12883\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/01/contrast-campaign.png\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-12883\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12883\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/01/contrast-campaign.png\" alt=\"CONTRAST campaign\" width=\"600\" height=\"390\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The three CONTRAST aircraft will cover the vertical range of the tropical troposphere. CPT, cold point tropopause; TTL, tropopause transition layer; CBL, convective boundary layer. Diagram by Diane Pendlebury, Univ. Toronto\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can follow this all-star team as it takes on the Chimney during CONTRAST from January 14 to February 28 on NASA’s \u003ca href=\"http://airbornescience.nasa.gov/tracker/\">Aircraft Tracker\u003c/a>: the BAe-146 is “FAAM BAE-146,” HIAPER is “NSF/NCAR G-V,” and Global Hawk is “Global Hawk AV6.” Give the aircraft some respect!\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12879\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/01/bae146.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-12879\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12879\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/01/bae146.jpg\" alt=\"BAe-146; photo courtesy FAAM\" width=\"600\" height=\"350\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">BAe-146; photo courtesy FAAM\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Of course spacecraft and astronauts and robot rovers are sexy. So are scientific submarines and their dives to the deep seafloor. But today I want to speak up for research aircraft and the plucky geniuses who maintain and fly them. They penetrate hurricanes; they peek high above thunderstorm complexes at night for a glimpse of \u003ca href=\"http://geology.about.com/od/sprites/a/sprites.htm\">sprites\u003c/a>; they fly over the El Niños and the poles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of all, aircraft are an indispensable part of our effort to understand Earth’s climate and the atmosphere that sustains it. They’re worthy of graphic-novel treatment, if there’s an artist out there who’s up for it. Here’s the story line: Next week three of the world’s best scientific aircraft will team up on a six-week mission, called \u003ca href=\"http://www2.acd.ucar.edu/contrast\">CONTRAST\u003c/a>, to explore a key part of the world’s climate system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tropical western Pacific, south of Guam, is the opposite of Antarctica: the warmest part of the ocean. As we shiver through winter, the atmosphere above the Western Pacific Warm Pool is at its most active. The region acts like an immense chimney, with thunderstorms and other deep convective disturbances pushing huge quantities of air some 20 kilometers straight up from the sea surface. Some of this air bursts into the quiet stratosphere, where it stays for years and spreads outward across the entire world. The West Pacific chimney is where most of the stratosphere’s input of surface air happens. Models of global climate need to account for the influence of this great engine of air, but its makeup is poorly known.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One notable ingredient of oceanic air is a set of organic bromine compounds emitted by sea life. Although these gases usually are swiftly neutralized by ozone within 100 meters of the sea surface, the western Pacific chimney is active enough to funnel bromine into the upper atmosphere, where it erodes the stratospheric ozone layer that protects us from damaging ultraviolet radiation. Volcanoes also inject bromine into the stratosphere, but in the Pacific chimney we can study the same process all the way up from the sea surface without dealing with a volcano’s dangers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three state-of-the-art aircraft will team up for \u003ca href=\"http://www2.acd.ucar.edu/contrast\">CONTRAST\u003c/a> (CONvective TRansport of Active Species in the Tropics). Two have human crews while the third, the high-altitude star, is a robot. Between them, they can cover the whole altitude range of this energetic region from the wavetops well into the stratosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The British research aircraft BAe-146, part of the Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements, will handle the low-altitude portion up to about 6 kilometers (20,000 feet). A large plane that can carry 18 people, its focus will be on the rising clouds, where exceptionally low ozone levels allow the bromine gases (and related iodine gases) to survive far beyond their normal lives. Its data will help fill in a large gap between the sea surface and the top of the chimney. Just as important will be the differences it discovers between air inside and outside clouds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tackling the middle part will be the National Science Foundation’s High-Performance Instrumented Airborne Platform for Environmental Research (\u003ca href=\"https://www.eol.ucar.edu/observing_facilities/hiaper\">HIAPER\u003c/a>), a modified Gulfstream business jet that can reach over 15 kilometers (51,000 feet). Its previous special mission was \u003ca href=\"https://www.eol.ucar.edu/field_projects/sprites-ii\">observing sprites over the Midwest last summer\u003c/a>. It will continue the BAe-146’s measurements upward in the atmosphere. It will also gather data during the night as well as the day, because the chemical reactions in the air change dramatically when the sun goes down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12880\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/01/HIAPER.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-12880\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12880\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/01/HIAPER.jpg\" alt=\"HIAPER; photo courtesy Carlye Calvin, UCAR\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">HIAPER; photo courtesy Carlye Calvin, UCAR\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The high extreme, between 14 and 19 kilometers (up to 62,000 feet) will be handled by a large robot plane, NASA’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoLuUrT3_wI\">Global Hawk\u003c/a>, as part of the \u003ca href=\"https://espo.nasa.gov/missions/attrex/\">ATTREX\u003c/a> (Airborne Tropical TRopopause EXperiment) project. This heavily instrumented, pilotless observing platform is stationed at Edwards Air Force Base and has been in use for barely a year. It can make 30-hour flights that exceed the safe limits of any human pilot. Global Hawk will deal with the stratosphere, ranging widely around the West Pacific chimney to trace its injected air and study how it changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12881\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/01/globalhawk.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-12881\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12881\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/01/globalhawk.jpg\" alt=\"Global Hawk; NASA photo by C. Fratello\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Global Hawk; NASA photo by C. Fratello\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>All three aircraft will also be measuring temperature, humidity, and the usual suspects among atmospheric gases: ozone, water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen oxides and more. Each gas has its own story in the stratosphere that must be accounted for in global climate models. The mission is summed up in this diagram.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12883\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/01/contrast-campaign.png\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-12883\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12883\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/01/contrast-campaign.png\" alt=\"CONTRAST campaign\" width=\"600\" height=\"390\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The three CONTRAST aircraft will cover the vertical range of the tropical troposphere. CPT, cold point tropopause; TTL, tropopause transition layer; CBL, convective boundary layer. Diagram by Diane Pendlebury, Univ. Toronto\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can follow this all-star team as it takes on the Chimney during CONTRAST from January 14 to February 28 on NASA’s \u003ca href=\"http://airbornescience.nasa.gov/tracker/\">Aircraft Tracker\u003c/a>: the BAe-146 is “FAAM BAE-146,” HIAPER is “NSF/NCAR G-V,” and Global Hawk is “Global Hawk AV6.” Give the aircraft some respect!\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12775\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/01/FolsomLk_Brekke_1401.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-12775\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12775\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/01/FolsomLk_Brekke_1401.jpg\" alt=\"Low water levels leave much of Folsom Lake, east of Sacramento, as a mud flat. (Dan Brekke)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Folsom Lake, a key reservoir on the American River, east of Sacramento, was at just 18 percent of capacity and 37 percent of “normal” as the new year began. (Dan Brekke)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It wasn’t quite the “\u003ca href=\"http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17887572\">millennium drought\u003c/a>” that desiccated Australia for nearly a decade. But for many parts of California, 2013 was the driest year on the books. After above-average rain and snow in November and December of 2012, the tap suddenly shut off just as the calendar turned over to 2013, and there’s been \u003ca title=\"Merc - post\" href=\"http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_24793713/bay-area-christmas-one-warmest-ever-no-end?source=email\">little-to-nothing since\u003c/a>.[contextly_sidebar id=”465156cb80e4a3a64f79eca65dcd6813″]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 5.59 inches that had fallen on San Francisco by New Year’s Eve shattered the previous dry mark of nine inches, set in 1917.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The extended dry spell had water authorities and farmers on alert as early as November, when the state’s Department of Water Resources (DWR) issued its lowest-ever estimate for water deliveries from the State Water Project: five percent of what water contractors are asking for. That number is notoriously fluid, starting out on the conservative side and rising with the winter snows. In 2010, the only other year that started with a five-percent projection, officials eventually upped deliveries to 50 percent. But this season’s first official survey of the Sierra snowpack shows statewide water content at a nail-biting 20 percent of normal. Remote sensors from the northern range clocked in at 11 percent, which is a scant four percent of what water managers like to see on April 1.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Long-range forecasts have not been encouraging. Governor Jerry Brown assembled an interagency drought management task force, which began meeting in late December, and some cities have already \u003ca title=\"SacBee - post\" href=\"http://www.sacbee.com/2013/12/29/6032646/drought-brings-water-rationing.html\">announced water restrictions\u003c/a> — some voluntary, some not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2014/01/02/2013-californias-big-dry/carainfall_noaa/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-12667\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12667\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/12/CArainfall_NOAA-e1388542888761.jpeg\" alt=\"CArainfall_NOAA\" width=\"640\" height=\"487\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Keep in mind that about half of California’s precipitation falls in the months of December, January and February,” said Jeanine Jones, a resource manager at DWR, noting that December is already written off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even at the first of the year, we’re not at the halfway point of the rainfall season,” said Jan Null, consulting meteorologist with Golden Gate Weather Services, adding a note of optimism. “The halfway point of the rainy season is the last week of January.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, with most of the wet season still ahead, “Mother Nature can always throw us a curve ball,” as Jones put it. “By the time we have the February snow survey results in hand, that’s really when you make the call about which way the water year is going.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first winter snow survey found the Sierra snowpack, which provides about a third of the state’s water supply, at just 20 percent of normal. Kelly Redmond, director and climatologist at the Western Regional Climate Center, says that leaves the state with no wiggle room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/127779376&color=ff6600&auto_play=false&show_artwork=true\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NOAA’s latest three-month outlook has California’s drought likely to continue through March. The good news? “The NOAA outlooks are only slightly better than the \u003cem>Farmers’ Almanac\u003c/em>,” said Null. “They’re terrible.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12775\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/01/FolsomLk_Brekke_1401.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-12775\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12775\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/01/FolsomLk_Brekke_1401.jpg\" alt=\"Low water levels leave much of Folsom Lake, east of Sacramento, as a mud flat. (Dan Brekke)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Folsom Lake, a key reservoir on the American River, east of Sacramento, was at just 18 percent of capacity and 37 percent of “normal” as the new year began. (Dan Brekke)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It wasn’t quite the “\u003ca href=\"http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17887572\">millennium drought\u003c/a>” that desiccated Australia for nearly a decade. But for many parts of California, 2013 was the driest year on the books. After above-average rain and snow in November and December of 2012, the tap suddenly shut off just as the calendar turned over to 2013, and there’s been \u003ca title=\"Merc - post\" href=\"http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_24793713/bay-area-christmas-one-warmest-ever-no-end?source=email\">little-to-nothing since\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 5.59 inches that had fallen on San Francisco by New Year’s Eve shattered the previous dry mark of nine inches, set in 1917.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The extended dry spell had water authorities and farmers on alert as early as November, when the state’s Department of Water Resources (DWR) issued its lowest-ever estimate for water deliveries from the State Water Project: five percent of what water contractors are asking for. That number is notoriously fluid, starting out on the conservative side and rising with the winter snows. In 2010, the only other year that started with a five-percent projection, officials eventually upped deliveries to 50 percent. But this season’s first official survey of the Sierra snowpack shows statewide water content at a nail-biting 20 percent of normal. Remote sensors from the northern range clocked in at 11 percent, which is a scant four percent of what water managers like to see on April 1.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Long-range forecasts have not been encouraging. Governor Jerry Brown assembled an interagency drought management task force, which began meeting in late December, and some cities have already \u003ca title=\"SacBee - post\" href=\"http://www.sacbee.com/2013/12/29/6032646/drought-brings-water-rationing.html\">announced water restrictions\u003c/a> — some voluntary, some not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2014/01/02/2013-californias-big-dry/carainfall_noaa/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-12667\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12667\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/12/CArainfall_NOAA-e1388542888761.jpeg\" alt=\"CArainfall_NOAA\" width=\"640\" height=\"487\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Keep in mind that about half of California’s precipitation falls in the months of December, January and February,” said Jeanine Jones, a resource manager at DWR, noting that December is already written off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even at the first of the year, we’re not at the halfway point of the rainfall season,” said Jan Null, consulting meteorologist with Golden Gate Weather Services, adding a note of optimism. “The halfway point of the rainy season is the last week of January.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, with most of the wet season still ahead, “Mother Nature can always throw us a curve ball,” as Jones put it. “By the time we have the February snow survey results in hand, that’s really when you make the call about which way the water year is going.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first winter snow survey found the Sierra snowpack, which provides about a third of the state’s water supply, at just 20 percent of normal. Kelly Redmond, director and climatologist at the Western Regional Climate Center, says that leaves the state with no wiggle room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/127779376&color=ff6600&auto_play=false&show_artwork=true\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NOAA’s latest three-month outlook has California’s drought likely to continue through March. The good news? “The NOAA outlooks are only slightly better than the \u003cem>Farmers’ Almanac\u003c/em>,” said Null. “They’re terrible.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "2013: Progress, But Long Road Ahead to California Climate Goals",
"headTitle": "2013: Progress, But Long Road Ahead to California Climate Goals | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>2013 was a pivotal year for California’s efforts to confront the increasingly ominous threats from climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nation’s broadest cap-and-trade program for carbon pollution kicked in, and Governor Jerry Brown joined in two \u003ca title=\"Q-Sci - post\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2013/10/28/climate-pact-west-coast-states-bc-vow-to-step-up-attack-on-warming/\">new multi-state pacts\u003c/a> aimed at curbing emissions. But seven years after passing its landmark climate law, California’s journey toward attaining its climate goals has just begun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12580\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12580\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/12/traffic.jpg\" alt=\"A key way for California to cut emissions is by boosting low- and zero-emission vehicles. (Deborah Svoboda/KQED) \" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A key way for California to cut emissions is by boosting low- and zero-emission vehicles. (Deborah Svoboda/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After years of effort by California policymakers to shrink the state’s carbon footprint, the darnedest thing happened: the economy rebounded from its three-year recession—and \u003ca title=\"Bloomberg - post\" href=\"http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-04/california-emissions-climb-in-2012-on-low-nuclear-hydro-supply.html\">so did greenhouse gas emissions\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Over the past year, for instance, we’ve begun to see that emissions are rising again,” says Stanley Young with the California Air Resources Board. “But the interesting thing is that they are not rising as fast as the California economy is growing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Young’s agency is charged with \u003ca title=\"CARB - scoping plan\" href=\"http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/scopingplan/scopingplan.htm\">developing rules\u003c/a> to meet the state’s legislated mandate to cut carbon emissions back to 1990 levels, by 2020. Young is not deterred by the post-recession set-back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We will be able to make our 2020 goals,” he said in an interview. “That is clear.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What’s not so clear is what happens after that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our best guess is that we are well on our way to meeting the 2020 standard, so the policies that we have in place do seem to be sufficient for that,” says\u003ca title=\"LBNL - Greenblatt\" href=\"http://eetd.lbl.gov/people/jeffery-greenblatt\"> Jeff Greenblatt\u003c/a>, an energy scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. “But looking to 2030 and beyond, we’re gonna have to do more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The 80 percent solution\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Greenblatt raised some eyebrows in early November when he \u003ca title=\"LBNL - Report\" href=\"http://eetd.lbl.gov/news/article/57123/estimating-policy-driven-greenh\">published projections\u003c/a> of what it will take to hit California’s long-term goal, set by executive order during the Schwarzenegger years: an 80 percent cut in emissions by 2050.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the Air Board’s Young sees it, California is on a roll: “We’re seeing far more electric vehicles on the road, for instance. That’s an important part of the plan.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even with the recent impressive growth of plug-in electric cars, it’s early in the game. California just\u003ca title=\"Q-Sci - post\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2013/10/24/california-joins-eight-state-roadmap-toward-more-electric-cars/\"> joined with seven other states\u003c/a> in a push to get 3.3 million “zero-emission” vehicles on the road by 2025. Depending on what you count, there are 25 to 30 million registered vehicles on the road right now, just in California—and Greenblatt says 80 to 90 percent would have to be zero-emission (electric or otherwise) to get to that 2050 goal, because transportation accounts for the biggest single chunk of California’s carbon footprint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These cars are driving around all over the place, so you can’t capture the CO2 from their tailpipes and store it somewhere,” Greenblatt explained in a recent interview. “So it’s very important to be able to shift to a low-carbon energy carrier like electricity or like hydrogen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Decarbonizing your electrical outlets\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, electric cars are only as clean as the juice that powers them. Regulators say the state is on track to hit another key target for 2020: generating one-third of its electrical power from renewable sources like wind, solar and geothermal. But by Greenblatt’s reckoning, that won’t be enough for the long haul, either.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We essentially need our electricity system to run without any carbon emissions at all in 2050.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yikes. That’s 100 percent carbon-free electricity. But that daunting assertion doesn’t mean all renewable power, which is good because many experts agree that goal may not be possible. Some have calculated that \u003ca title=\"NPR - story\" href=\"http://www.npr.org/2013/12/02/248230187/slashing-fossil-fuel-consumption-comes-with-a-price\">80 percent renewables\u003c/a> may be technically feasible—but not without a major update to the electrical grid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We may still need to burn some natural gas and capture its carbon emissions, so they don’t get into the air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the shutdown of Southern California Edison’s San Onofre nuclear power plant near San Diego, utilities have used natural gas to replace the carbon-free nuclear power lost from the grid. That set off alarms with environmental groups, who took to the streets in San Francisco this month, demanding that state regulators require renewable replacement power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>An optimist in spite of the numbers\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I guess I would say, I’m an optimist but I don’t think this is gonna happen without a lot of trial and challenge, says Greenblatt, who expressed concern that his report was misconstrued in news accounts when it came out in November. He says it’s not that we can’t get to the 2050 goals. It’s that we won’t get there unless we step up our game—even beyond the aggressive policies the state has put in place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why this year, the Air Board rolled out \u003ca href=\"http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/scopingplan/2013_update/discussion_draft.pdf\">a revised playbook\u003c/a> that includes some new initiatives and suggested the state adopt new 2030 goals, moving the target a little closer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need a midpoint,” says the Air Board’s Young. “2050 is too far off to really grasp. From a broad policy perspective, we can take a look at where we need to be. But in terms of the programmatic elements, that’s a harder crystal ball.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Already, the idea of a “midterm” target is raising hackles. Some say the state’s landmark climate law has no authority after 2020. So we might need a whole new law to keep things rolling. And even the state’s pioneering cap-and-trade program remains under legal assault from industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But I refuse to give up,” says Greenblatt, who says he’s had to reassure his nine-year-old daughter that he’s working on the problem as hard as he can. “I want to live to see 2050 happen and to say we actually did this.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>2013 was a pivotal year for California’s efforts to confront the increasingly ominous threats from climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nation’s broadest cap-and-trade program for carbon pollution kicked in, and Governor Jerry Brown joined in two \u003ca title=\"Q-Sci - post\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2013/10/28/climate-pact-west-coast-states-bc-vow-to-step-up-attack-on-warming/\">new multi-state pacts\u003c/a> aimed at curbing emissions. But seven years after passing its landmark climate law, California’s journey toward attaining its climate goals has just begun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12580\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12580\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/12/traffic.jpg\" alt=\"A key way for California to cut emissions is by boosting low- and zero-emission vehicles. (Deborah Svoboda/KQED) \" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A key way for California to cut emissions is by boosting low- and zero-emission vehicles. (Deborah Svoboda/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After years of effort by California policymakers to shrink the state’s carbon footprint, the darnedest thing happened: the economy rebounded from its three-year recession—and \u003ca title=\"Bloomberg - post\" href=\"http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-04/california-emissions-climb-in-2012-on-low-nuclear-hydro-supply.html\">so did greenhouse gas emissions\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Over the past year, for instance, we’ve begun to see that emissions are rising again,” says Stanley Young with the California Air Resources Board. “But the interesting thing is that they are not rising as fast as the California economy is growing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Young’s agency is charged with \u003ca title=\"CARB - scoping plan\" href=\"http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/scopingplan/scopingplan.htm\">developing rules\u003c/a> to meet the state’s legislated mandate to cut carbon emissions back to 1990 levels, by 2020. Young is not deterred by the post-recession set-back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We will be able to make our 2020 goals,” he said in an interview. “That is clear.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What’s not so clear is what happens after that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our best guess is that we are well on our way to meeting the 2020 standard, so the policies that we have in place do seem to be sufficient for that,” says\u003ca title=\"LBNL - Greenblatt\" href=\"http://eetd.lbl.gov/people/jeffery-greenblatt\"> Jeff Greenblatt\u003c/a>, an energy scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. “But looking to 2030 and beyond, we’re gonna have to do more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The 80 percent solution\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Greenblatt raised some eyebrows in early November when he \u003ca title=\"LBNL - Report\" href=\"http://eetd.lbl.gov/news/article/57123/estimating-policy-driven-greenh\">published projections\u003c/a> of what it will take to hit California’s long-term goal, set by executive order during the Schwarzenegger years: an 80 percent cut in emissions by 2050.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the Air Board’s Young sees it, California is on a roll: “We’re seeing far more electric vehicles on the road, for instance. That’s an important part of the plan.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even with the recent impressive growth of plug-in electric cars, it’s early in the game. California just\u003ca title=\"Q-Sci - post\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2013/10/24/california-joins-eight-state-roadmap-toward-more-electric-cars/\"> joined with seven other states\u003c/a> in a push to get 3.3 million “zero-emission” vehicles on the road by 2025. Depending on what you count, there are 25 to 30 million registered vehicles on the road right now, just in California—and Greenblatt says 80 to 90 percent would have to be zero-emission (electric or otherwise) to get to that 2050 goal, because transportation accounts for the biggest single chunk of California’s carbon footprint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These cars are driving around all over the place, so you can’t capture the CO2 from their tailpipes and store it somewhere,” Greenblatt explained in a recent interview. “So it’s very important to be able to shift to a low-carbon energy carrier like electricity or like hydrogen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Decarbonizing your electrical outlets\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, electric cars are only as clean as the juice that powers them. Regulators say the state is on track to hit another key target for 2020: generating one-third of its electrical power from renewable sources like wind, solar and geothermal. But by Greenblatt’s reckoning, that won’t be enough for the long haul, either.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We essentially need our electricity system to run without any carbon emissions at all in 2050.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yikes. That’s 100 percent carbon-free electricity. But that daunting assertion doesn’t mean all renewable power, which is good because many experts agree that goal may not be possible. Some have calculated that \u003ca title=\"NPR - story\" href=\"http://www.npr.org/2013/12/02/248230187/slashing-fossil-fuel-consumption-comes-with-a-price\">80 percent renewables\u003c/a> may be technically feasible—but not without a major update to the electrical grid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We may still need to burn some natural gas and capture its carbon emissions, so they don’t get into the air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the shutdown of Southern California Edison’s San Onofre nuclear power plant near San Diego, utilities have used natural gas to replace the carbon-free nuclear power lost from the grid. That set off alarms with environmental groups, who took to the streets in San Francisco this month, demanding that state regulators require renewable replacement power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>An optimist in spite of the numbers\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I guess I would say, I’m an optimist but I don’t think this is gonna happen without a lot of trial and challenge, says Greenblatt, who expressed concern that his report was misconstrued in news accounts when it came out in November. He says it’s not that we can’t get to the 2050 goals. It’s that we won’t get there unless we step up our game—even beyond the aggressive policies the state has put in place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why this year, the Air Board rolled out \u003ca href=\"http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/scopingplan/2013_update/discussion_draft.pdf\">a revised playbook\u003c/a> that includes some new initiatives and suggested the state adopt new 2030 goals, moving the target a little closer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need a midpoint,” says the Air Board’s Young. “2050 is too far off to really grasp. From a broad policy perspective, we can take a look at where we need to be. But in terms of the programmatic elements, that’s a harder crystal ball.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Already, the idea of a “midterm” target is raising hackles. Some say the state’s landmark climate law has no authority after 2020. So we might need a whole new law to keep things rolling. And even the state’s pioneering cap-and-trade program remains under legal assault from industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But I refuse to give up,” says Greenblatt, who says he’s had to reassure his nine-year-old daughter that he’s working on the problem as hard as he can. “I want to live to see 2050 happen and to say we actually did this.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"headTitle": "Memo to Bay Area Sea Rise Planners: Situation Serious But Not Hopeless | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11841\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/12/kingtide.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11841\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/12/kingtide.jpg\" alt=\"A cyclist pedals on a flooded path in Marin County during a king tide in December, 2012. (Sarah Craig/Flickr) http://www.flickr.com/photos/85951661@N08/8365001059/\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A cyclist pedals on a flooded path in Marin County during a high tide in December, 2012. (\u003ca href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/85951661@N08/8365001059/\">Sarah Craig/Flickr\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The showdown with encroaching seas will be the topic when planners and others gather in San Mateo County Monday to talk about a battle plan for the coming decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Mateo could be “ground zero” for Bay Area impacts. Congresswoman Jackie Speier, whose district includes most of San Mateo County and who is co-sponsoring the conference with county supervisor Dave Pine, lists it among the nation’s “top ten hotspots” for sea rise impacts. “We have got to get serious about anticipating that and doing our level best to prevent catastrophe,” she said in a phone interview.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to a \u003ca title=\"Pac Inst - climate\" href=\"http://www.pacinst.org/issues/climate-change-vulnerability-and-resilience/\">Pacific Institute study\u003c/a>, among California counties, San Mateo is tied with Orange County for having the biggest population at risk from rising seas. And unlike Orange County, San Mateo will get hit from both sides, with coastal erosion on the Pacific coast and more frequent flooding on the Bay side. “By the end of the century, SFO (San Francisco International Airport) will be underwater if we don’t take steps to address this,” Speier says. The question remains: what steps? \u003ca title=\"Q-Sci - post\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2013/12/05/four-bay-area-cities-selected-as-future-models-of-resilience/\">Options abound\u003c/a>, from “hard” measures like sea walls and levees, to “soft” buffers such as expanded wetlands, to what planners euphemistically call “\u003ca title=\"NF - post\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/02/04/ocean-beach-san-francisco-master-plan/\">managed retreat\u003c/a>,” which is to say pulling things back from the shoreline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In sorting that out, local officials will get some tips from \u003ca title=\"John Englander - main\" href=\"http://www.johnenglander.net/\">John Englander\u003c/a>, whose eerily-timed book, \u003ca title=\"HTOMS - main\" href=\"http://hightideonmainstreet.com/hurricane-sandy\">\u003cem>High Tide on Main Street\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, pretty much laid out the whole scenario for Hurricane Sandy–a week before the “superstorm” hit the East Coast last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Englander calls sea level rise the “most profound change” to the planet this century. In an interview, he offered some thoughts for planners confronting the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Don’t let the uncertainties slow you down:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fact that there is such a range to the projections, that official estimates say we could have 1-to-3 feet and some say 2-to-6 feet. That adds to the confusion. But the estimates, it turns out, are actually pretty cautious and I say, timid, because they don’t count some uncertainties–the tipping points, the wildcards, which is the catastrophic melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which is showing signs. And methane, which is a huge accelerant to warming, and is not in the equations because we don’t know how soon it will happen. Yet methane’s escaping from the Arctic now, from the permafrost, from the sea bed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11803\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 371px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/12/BaySLR_grab.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11803 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/12/BaySLR_grab.jpeg\" alt=\"Map showing areas along the Bay that could be inundated by sea level rise\" width=\"371\" height=\"348\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Map showing areas along the Bay that could be inundated by sea level rise. (Click to see a larger version from the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“How much rise by 2100 (or 2050)” is the wrong question:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because we don’t know how quickly things will warm…maybe we should turn the question around and say, “We know we’re gonna get three feet of sea level rise. We just don’t know for certain whether it’s gonna be by 2050 or 2150. And if we plan for three feet now and it doesn’t happen ’til 2100, we’ll be better prepared for storm surge and other events. So we just say, “How will we deal with three feet of sea level rise? Not knowing exactly when it will happen, we challenge ourselves architecturally and engineering-wise and planning-wise, to think bigger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>It’s time to “think different” about real estate:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is unprecedented. It’s never happened before in the history of human civilization. Buildings and infrastructure we amortize, typically over 30 or 40 years. Now that we know that sea level is rising…and can measure the warming and we know that [it] will rise for centuries, we need to think of coastal property almost like it’s leasehold. We just don’t know whether the lease is 50 years or 150 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>It’ll be costly no matter what:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is gonna be hugely expensive and I think we need to start talking about that because when people say it’s gonna be very expensive to get off of coal and fossil fuels, we have to put into the equation the cost of relocating off the coast as the sea rises and the shoreline moves inland. We need to think in economic terms and I believe we should expose people to the choices and the cost because that will help us make intelligent and rational decisions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Bay Area has options:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’ll be very different out here in the Bay Area from, say, Florida. For example, Miami 200 yrs from now probably won’t be there, because it’s only six feet above sea level and it’s porous limestone. Sea walls don’t work there, as I explain in my book. Here in the Bay Area–where you have a steep relief, the cliffs and so on, even though there’s one low-lying reclaimed land–the Bay Area will be here 200 years from now, even if sea level is 10 ft higher, because you will have adapted to it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Englander’s “most important” message:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If we can see where things are headed–like any situation, even if we don’t know the year–we’ll do better planning, because we can plan incrementally if we can see the end, or where things will be 50 years from now. And if we look with a little bit of vision, instead of hiding or delaying or denying something, we can probably come up with some really creative structures that will last and get a better return on investment, and secure the Bay Area’s position as very progressive and forward-thinking and not shying from technical challenge, and charting a brave new path. I think geologically and physically, as well as socially and psychologically, it’s more doable here than anyplace that I’ve visited.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Learn more:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NOAA has an \u003ca href=\"http://csc.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/tools/slrviewer\">interactive mapping tool\u003c/a> where you can see the extent of coastal inundation at various levels of sea rise. And there are photos of encroaching seas in the Bay Area during ultra-high tide events at the \u003ca title=\"CA King Tides - main\" href=\"http://www.californiakingtides.org/\">California King Tides Photo Initiative\u003c/a> website.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11841\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/12/kingtide.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11841\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/12/kingtide.jpg\" alt=\"A cyclist pedals on a flooded path in Marin County during a king tide in December, 2012. (Sarah Craig/Flickr) http://www.flickr.com/photos/85951661@N08/8365001059/\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A cyclist pedals on a flooded path in Marin County during a high tide in December, 2012. (\u003ca href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/85951661@N08/8365001059/\">Sarah Craig/Flickr\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The showdown with encroaching seas will be the topic when planners and others gather in San Mateo County Monday to talk about a battle plan for the coming decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Mateo could be “ground zero” for Bay Area impacts. Congresswoman Jackie Speier, whose district includes most of San Mateo County and who is co-sponsoring the conference with county supervisor Dave Pine, lists it among the nation’s “top ten hotspots” for sea rise impacts. “We have got to get serious about anticipating that and doing our level best to prevent catastrophe,” she said in a phone interview.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to a \u003ca title=\"Pac Inst - climate\" href=\"http://www.pacinst.org/issues/climate-change-vulnerability-and-resilience/\">Pacific Institute study\u003c/a>, among California counties, San Mateo is tied with Orange County for having the biggest population at risk from rising seas. And unlike Orange County, San Mateo will get hit from both sides, with coastal erosion on the Pacific coast and more frequent flooding on the Bay side. “By the end of the century, SFO (San Francisco International Airport) will be underwater if we don’t take steps to address this,” Speier says. The question remains: what steps? \u003ca title=\"Q-Sci - post\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2013/12/05/four-bay-area-cities-selected-as-future-models-of-resilience/\">Options abound\u003c/a>, from “hard” measures like sea walls and levees, to “soft” buffers such as expanded wetlands, to what planners euphemistically call “\u003ca title=\"NF - post\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/02/04/ocean-beach-san-francisco-master-plan/\">managed retreat\u003c/a>,” which is to say pulling things back from the shoreline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In sorting that out, local officials will get some tips from \u003ca title=\"John Englander - main\" href=\"http://www.johnenglander.net/\">John Englander\u003c/a>, whose eerily-timed book, \u003ca title=\"HTOMS - main\" href=\"http://hightideonmainstreet.com/hurricane-sandy\">\u003cem>High Tide on Main Street\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, pretty much laid out the whole scenario for Hurricane Sandy–a week before the “superstorm” hit the East Coast last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Englander calls sea level rise the “most profound change” to the planet this century. In an interview, he offered some thoughts for planners confronting the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Don’t let the uncertainties slow you down:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fact that there is such a range to the projections, that official estimates say we could have 1-to-3 feet and some say 2-to-6 feet. That adds to the confusion. But the estimates, it turns out, are actually pretty cautious and I say, timid, because they don’t count some uncertainties–the tipping points, the wildcards, which is the catastrophic melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which is showing signs. And methane, which is a huge accelerant to warming, and is not in the equations because we don’t know how soon it will happen. Yet methane’s escaping from the Arctic now, from the permafrost, from the sea bed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11803\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 371px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/12/BaySLR_grab.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11803 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/12/BaySLR_grab.jpeg\" alt=\"Map showing areas along the Bay that could be inundated by sea level rise\" width=\"371\" height=\"348\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Map showing areas along the Bay that could be inundated by sea level rise. (Click to see a larger version from the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“How much rise by 2100 (or 2050)” is the wrong question:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because we don’t know how quickly things will warm…maybe we should turn the question around and say, “We know we’re gonna get three feet of sea level rise. We just don’t know for certain whether it’s gonna be by 2050 or 2150. And if we plan for three feet now and it doesn’t happen ’til 2100, we’ll be better prepared for storm surge and other events. So we just say, “How will we deal with three feet of sea level rise? Not knowing exactly when it will happen, we challenge ourselves architecturally and engineering-wise and planning-wise, to think bigger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>It’s time to “think different” about real estate:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is unprecedented. It’s never happened before in the history of human civilization. Buildings and infrastructure we amortize, typically over 30 or 40 years. Now that we know that sea level is rising…and can measure the warming and we know that [it] will rise for centuries, we need to think of coastal property almost like it’s leasehold. We just don’t know whether the lease is 50 years or 150 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>It’ll be costly no matter what:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is gonna be hugely expensive and I think we need to start talking about that because when people say it’s gonna be very expensive to get off of coal and fossil fuels, we have to put into the equation the cost of relocating off the coast as the sea rises and the shoreline moves inland. We need to think in economic terms and I believe we should expose people to the choices and the cost because that will help us make intelligent and rational decisions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Bay Area has options:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’ll be very different out here in the Bay Area from, say, Florida. For example, Miami 200 yrs from now probably won’t be there, because it’s only six feet above sea level and it’s porous limestone. Sea walls don’t work there, as I explain in my book. Here in the Bay Area–where you have a steep relief, the cliffs and so on, even though there’s one low-lying reclaimed land–the Bay Area will be here 200 years from now, even if sea level is 10 ft higher, because you will have adapted to it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Englander’s “most important” message:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If we can see where things are headed–like any situation, even if we don’t know the year–we’ll do better planning, because we can plan incrementally if we can see the end, or where things will be 50 years from now. And if we look with a little bit of vision, instead of hiding or delaying or denying something, we can probably come up with some really creative structures that will last and get a better return on investment, and secure the Bay Area’s position as very progressive and forward-thinking and not shying from technical challenge, and charting a brave new path. I think geologically and physically, as well as socially and psychologically, it’s more doable here than anyplace that I’ve visited.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Learn more:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NOAA has an \u003ca href=\"http://csc.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/tools/slrviewer\">interactive mapping tool\u003c/a> where you can see the extent of coastal inundation at various levels of sea rise. And there are photos of encroaching seas in the Bay Area during ultra-high tide events at the \u003ca title=\"CA King Tides - main\" href=\"http://www.californiakingtides.org/\">California King Tides Photo Initiative\u003c/a> website.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11782\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/12/oak-berk-ala-sfpan.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-11782\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11782\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/12/oak-berk-ala-sfpan.jpg\" alt=\"San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland and Alameda\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland and Alameda make one geographic entity in this view from Corona Heights. Andrew Alden photo\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When you add up the challenges that humanity faces, the brunt of them falls on cities. Rising sea levels, flooding, earthquake/tsunamis, water supplies, transportation, power, jobs, governance—there’s no safety in numbers; instead, with numbers come vulnerability. Speaking as a geologist, I naturally ascribe all this to life on a dynamic planet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many experts have been urging cities to adopt resilience as a goal. Resilience is like robust good health in you or me, helping us avoid injury, cope with health threats, recover quickly and adapt to changes. Resilience is not defined by emergencies, it’s what we do between crises to get ready for them. Resilience is the coursework for which catastrophes are the final exams. \u003ca href=\"http://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/our-work/current-work/resilience\">As the Rockefeller Foundation puts it\u003c/a>, “Resilience is the capacity of individuals, communities and systems to survive, adapt, and grow in the face of stress and shocks, and even transform when conditions require it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the Rockefeller Foundation turned 100 this year, the New York nonprofit decided to launch a $100 million project called 100 Resilient Cities. Applications opened in May, and \u003ca href=\"http://100resilientcities.rockefellerfoundation.org/cities\">the first 33 winning cities were announced on Tuesday\u003c/a>. The geological hazards they face include earthquakes, tsunamis, rising sea level, landslides, drought, flood, erosion and more. These in turn threaten the cities’ human and technological frameworks, on top of the intrinsic instabilities of growing population centers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of these first 33 cities, 11 are in the United States and 5 are in California. One is Los Angeles, of course. The other four are not just in the Bay Area, but have common borders: Alameda, Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco. Instantly, the Bay Area has become a unique and high-stakes experiment. (The remaining six U.S. cities are Boulder, El Paso, Jacksonville, New Orleans, New York and Norfolk.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A hundred million dollars across 100 cities gives each one a million dollars in support. In return, the cities “commit to developing or implementing a city-wide resilience plan” and hire a Chief Resilience Officer in the city government. Those two things should pretty much eat up the seed money. In addition, the cities will be offered “solutions to spur investments and financing for resilient infrastructure, information technology tools, and policy models for resilience-enabling laws and regulations.” Finally, the cities must collaborate with each other, presumably via some online forum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last month the foundation’s president, Judith Rodin, told a New York audience what success might look like, naming five key jobs for the city’s new mayor: (1) appoint a “Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Resilience” to work resilience into every development, (2) get a bus rapid transit system working, (3) invest in new ideas and technology, (4) work the federal funding system more effectively and (5) start a municipal infrastructure bank to jump-start worthy projects. The threat to New York took shape this year as Hurricane Sandy, but those steps hold promise for our own regional threats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://100resilientcities.rockefellerfoundation.org/\">100 Resilient Cities website\u003c/a> has brief descriptions of the 33 winning cities, in which the four Bay Area winners come off like a synergetic superhero squad. Alameda, uniquely vulnerable to tsunamis, is cast as the eager test case. Berkeley, “a pioneering city, research center, and innovation hub,” has the brains. Oakland, “known for its ground-breaking community partnerships,” has the people power. San Francisco, with “a history of devastating earthquakes and fires,” is the can-do Big City.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of these things are true of all four cities: vulnerable to tsunamis, prone to quake and fire, laden with brains and means, and as self-active and innovative as any place in America. All four cities lie between two major fault lines, rely on water and power from distant sources, and have large non-English-speaking populations. Together, this squad of cities could form a tight gang that outfights its weight, or whatever superhero metaphor you prefer. The experiment may also be the key to adding resilience in places similar to the Bay Area, an urban area without a dominant city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This could fizzle or this could boom. A single city officer with a resilience plan is not much by itself, just a spark. Everything depends on the city, government and citizens alike, nurturing that initial spark into something sustainable—a culture of resilience. A key variable that the gang-of-four cities will test is whether being neighbors will make a difference. Their Chief Resilience Officers will be able to collaborate every day, in person if they like, and so will their governments and citizens. Will that be our superpower? Stay tuned.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11782\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/12/oak-berk-ala-sfpan.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-11782\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11782\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/12/oak-berk-ala-sfpan.jpg\" alt=\"San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland and Alameda\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland and Alameda make one geographic entity in this view from Corona Heights. Andrew Alden photo\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When you add up the challenges that humanity faces, the brunt of them falls on cities. Rising sea levels, flooding, earthquake/tsunamis, water supplies, transportation, power, jobs, governance—there’s no safety in numbers; instead, with numbers come vulnerability. Speaking as a geologist, I naturally ascribe all this to life on a dynamic planet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many experts have been urging cities to adopt resilience as a goal. Resilience is like robust good health in you or me, helping us avoid injury, cope with health threats, recover quickly and adapt to changes. Resilience is not defined by emergencies, it’s what we do between crises to get ready for them. Resilience is the coursework for which catastrophes are the final exams. \u003ca href=\"http://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/our-work/current-work/resilience\">As the Rockefeller Foundation puts it\u003c/a>, “Resilience is the capacity of individuals, communities and systems to survive, adapt, and grow in the face of stress and shocks, and even transform when conditions require it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the Rockefeller Foundation turned 100 this year, the New York nonprofit decided to launch a $100 million project called 100 Resilient Cities. Applications opened in May, and \u003ca href=\"http://100resilientcities.rockefellerfoundation.org/cities\">the first 33 winning cities were announced on Tuesday\u003c/a>. The geological hazards they face include earthquakes, tsunamis, rising sea level, landslides, drought, flood, erosion and more. These in turn threaten the cities’ human and technological frameworks, on top of the intrinsic instabilities of growing population centers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of these first 33 cities, 11 are in the United States and 5 are in California. One is Los Angeles, of course. The other four are not just in the Bay Area, but have common borders: Alameda, Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco. Instantly, the Bay Area has become a unique and high-stakes experiment. (The remaining six U.S. cities are Boulder, El Paso, Jacksonville, New Orleans, New York and Norfolk.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A hundred million dollars across 100 cities gives each one a million dollars in support. In return, the cities “commit to developing or implementing a city-wide resilience plan” and hire a Chief Resilience Officer in the city government. Those two things should pretty much eat up the seed money. In addition, the cities will be offered “solutions to spur investments and financing for resilient infrastructure, information technology tools, and policy models for resilience-enabling laws and regulations.” Finally, the cities must collaborate with each other, presumably via some online forum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last month the foundation’s president, Judith Rodin, told a New York audience what success might look like, naming five key jobs for the city’s new mayor: (1) appoint a “Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Resilience” to work resilience into every development, (2) get a bus rapid transit system working, (3) invest in new ideas and technology, (4) work the federal funding system more effectively and (5) start a municipal infrastructure bank to jump-start worthy projects. The threat to New York took shape this year as Hurricane Sandy, but those steps hold promise for our own regional threats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://100resilientcities.rockefellerfoundation.org/\">100 Resilient Cities website\u003c/a> has brief descriptions of the 33 winning cities, in which the four Bay Area winners come off like a synergetic superhero squad. Alameda, uniquely vulnerable to tsunamis, is cast as the eager test case. Berkeley, “a pioneering city, research center, and innovation hub,” has the brains. Oakland, “known for its ground-breaking community partnerships,” has the people power. San Francisco, with “a history of devastating earthquakes and fires,” is the can-do Big City.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of these things are true of all four cities: vulnerable to tsunamis, prone to quake and fire, laden with brains and means, and as self-active and innovative as any place in America. All four cities lie between two major fault lines, rely on water and power from distant sources, and have large non-English-speaking populations. Together, this squad of cities could form a tight gang that outfights its weight, or whatever superhero metaphor you prefer. The experiment may also be the key to adding resilience in places similar to the Bay Area, an urban area without a dominant city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This could fizzle or this could boom. A single city officer with a resilience plan is not much by itself, just a spark. Everything depends on the city, government and citizens alike, nurturing that initial spark into something sustainable—a culture of resilience. A key variable that the gang-of-four cities will test is whether being neighbors will make a difference. Their Chief Resilience Officers will be able to collaborate every day, in person if they like, and so will their governments and citizens. Will that be our superpower? Stay tuned.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Activists Take Aim at Bay Area Crude Oil Projects",
"headTitle": "Activists Take Aim at Bay Area Crude Oil Projects | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11741\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/12/airdistrictprotest.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11741\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/12/airdistrictprotest.jpg\" alt=\"Pennie Opal Plant from the environmental group Idle No More at a rally at the Air District in San Francisco says she's concerned about crude oil from the Tar Sands. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pennie Opal Plant from the environmental group Idle No More at a rally in San Francisco. She says she’s concerned about local refineries bringing in crude oil from Canadian tar sands. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Local community and environmental activists are sounding an alarm over four proposed energy projects in the Bay Area. Demonstrators rallied Wednesday morning outside a \u003ca href=\"http://www.baaqmd.gov/\">Bay Area Air Quality Management District\u003c/a> board meeting, calling on the Air District to put the developments on hold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two of the proposals are for crude-by-rail projects. One would be an addition to the Valero refinery in Benicia; the other would be an oil terminal in Pittsburg that would receive crude by pipeline, rail and ship. Activists are concerned about crude-by-rail because, they say, trains would provide a means to bring in what they call “dirty” oil from the Canadian tar sands.[contextly_sidebar id=”e215254f951b640c3ec1b5e5143e9370″]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other two projects, at Chevron’s Richmond refinery and the Phillips 66 refinery in Rodeo, concern equipment upgrades, which, activists say, will position refiners to process heavier grades of crude.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What’s really at stake here is the public’s health,” said Andres Soto, an organizer with the East Bay group \u003ca href=\"http://www.cbecal.org/\">Communities for a Better Environment\u003c/a>. “We’re asking the District to not issue any more permits until this issue about the quality of the crude is publicly disclosed, publicly discussed, and either mitigation or a moratorium on its processing here in the Bay Area is established.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The oil companies have not disclosed where exactly the oil involved in these projects would be coming from. But, as Valero spokesman Bill Day told me for a \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/audio/valero-rail-project-fuels-tar-sands-speculation-in-bay-area/\">previous story\u003c/a>, they’re all looking for ways to get oil out of the middle of the continent and to the refineries on the coasts:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“Whether it’s in Texas, up in Canada, in the Northeast, in the Marcellus Shale, up in the Dakotas in the Bakken Shale, that’s where the new crude oil is coming from, and there are huge amounts of it,” says Bill Day, a spokesman for the San Antonio-based Valero. “There’s no such thing as dirty oil or clean oil, I want to be very clear about that.”\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Air district engineer Jim Karas, who briefed the Board on the projects at Wednesday’s meeting, told me none of the projects can go ahead without its approval, and the Air District won’t allow the refineries to go over the pollution limits already in place. “That is what we do. That’s our business,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he also pointed out, that with or without oil from the tar sands, the refineries are processing what the environmentalists might call “dirty” crude.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reality is that the refiners already process very heavy crude,” he said. “That’s California crude. That’s what they were built to handle.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Board heard updates but did not make any decisions on the projects at the meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Track the projects:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://www.ci.benicia.ca.us/index.asp?SEC=%7BC45EA667-8D39-4B30-87EB-9110A2F9CE13%7D\">Valero crude-by-rail in Benicia\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://www.ci.pittsburg.ca.us/index.aspx?page=700\">WesPac oil terminal in Pittsburg\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://www.chevronrevisedrenewalproject.com/\">Chevron hydrogen plant and sulfur removal in Richmond\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ca-contracostacounty.civicplus.com/DocumentCenter/Index/2713\">Phillips 66 propane recovery in Rodeo\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11741\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/12/airdistrictprotest.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11741\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/12/airdistrictprotest.jpg\" alt=\"Pennie Opal Plant from the environmental group Idle No More at a rally at the Air District in San Francisco says she's concerned about crude oil from the Tar Sands. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pennie Opal Plant from the environmental group Idle No More at a rally in San Francisco. She says she’s concerned about local refineries bringing in crude oil from Canadian tar sands. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Local community and environmental activists are sounding an alarm over four proposed energy projects in the Bay Area. Demonstrators rallied Wednesday morning outside a \u003ca href=\"http://www.baaqmd.gov/\">Bay Area Air Quality Management District\u003c/a> board meeting, calling on the Air District to put the developments on hold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two of the proposals are for crude-by-rail projects. One would be an addition to the Valero refinery in Benicia; the other would be an oil terminal in Pittsburg that would receive crude by pipeline, rail and ship. Activists are concerned about crude-by-rail because, they say, trains would provide a means to bring in what they call “dirty” oil from the Canadian tar sands.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other two projects, at Chevron’s Richmond refinery and the Phillips 66 refinery in Rodeo, concern equipment upgrades, which, activists say, will position refiners to process heavier grades of crude.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What’s really at stake here is the public’s health,” said Andres Soto, an organizer with the East Bay group \u003ca href=\"http://www.cbecal.org/\">Communities for a Better Environment\u003c/a>. “We’re asking the District to not issue any more permits until this issue about the quality of the crude is publicly disclosed, publicly discussed, and either mitigation or a moratorium on its processing here in the Bay Area is established.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The oil companies have not disclosed where exactly the oil involved in these projects would be coming from. But, as Valero spokesman Bill Day told me for a \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/audio/valero-rail-project-fuels-tar-sands-speculation-in-bay-area/\">previous story\u003c/a>, they’re all looking for ways to get oil out of the middle of the continent and to the refineries on the coasts:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“Whether it’s in Texas, up in Canada, in the Northeast, in the Marcellus Shale, up in the Dakotas in the Bakken Shale, that’s where the new crude oil is coming from, and there are huge amounts of it,” says Bill Day, a spokesman for the San Antonio-based Valero. “There’s no such thing as dirty oil or clean oil, I want to be very clear about that.”\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Air district engineer Jim Karas, who briefed the Board on the projects at Wednesday’s meeting, told me none of the projects can go ahead without its approval, and the Air District won’t allow the refineries to go over the pollution limits already in place. “That is what we do. That’s our business,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he also pointed out, that with or without oil from the tar sands, the refineries are processing what the environmentalists might call “dirty” crude.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reality is that the refiners already process very heavy crude,” he said. “That’s California crude. That’s what they were built to handle.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Board heard updates but did not make any decisions on the projects at the meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Track the projects:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://www.ci.benicia.ca.us/index.asp?SEC=%7BC45EA667-8D39-4B30-87EB-9110A2F9CE13%7D\">Valero crude-by-rail in Benicia\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://www.ci.pittsburg.ca.us/index.aspx?page=700\">WesPac oil terminal in Pittsburg\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://www.chevronrevisedrenewalproject.com/\">Chevron hydrogen plant and sulfur removal in Richmond\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ca-contracostacounty.civicplus.com/DocumentCenter/Index/2713\">Phillips 66 propane recovery in Rodeo\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11280\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/IMG_4397_web.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-11280\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11280\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/IMG_4397_web.jpg\" alt=\"Richmond Pacific Railroad's clean-diesel switch engine, the first of its kind in the U.S.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Richmond Pacific Railroad’s clean-diesel switch engine, the first of its kind in the U.S.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>You gotta start somewhere. In this case, it’s the BNSF switchyard in Richmond, where the \u003ca title=\"RPR - main\" href=\"http://www.levinterminal.com/facilities-and-services/rail-services/\">Richmond Pacific Railroad\u003c/a> is testing the nation’s first “Tier 4” switch engine for certification. Tier 4 is a standard set by the federal Environmental Protection Agency for ultra-low emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The location couldn’t be more appropriate, since Richmond is an industrial town with a major rail hub, a huge oil refinery and with housing right up against it all, a hotspot for air-quality-related health complaints such as asthma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even one locomotive can make a big impact in terms of health,” says Damian Breen, who directs “strategic incentives” for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. The District provided the railroad with a half-million-dollar grant to roll out and test the new switch engine, a smaller locomotive used to shuffle rail cars around in the yard or move them short distances. Breen says the new switcher will eliminate 6,000 tons of emissions per year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, “clean” is a relative term in the railroad biz. Most locomotives are belching volcanoes of black soot, partly because they’re typically powered by a single, huge diesel engine and spend a lot of their time idling. Instead, the new switcher has a series of smaller engines and generators, optimized by computer controls to call up only as much power as the moment demands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really a new design concept,” says Steve Sonni, California rep for the locomotive builder, \u003ca title=\"NRE - main\" href=\"http://www.nationalrailway.com/\">NRE\u003c/a>. He says the combination reduces noise, fuel consumption and stack emissions. “You’re talking 30 to 40 percent for sure,” he says, and adds that it could be 90 percent cleaner than many “legacy” locomotives that have been on the rails for 40 years or more. “I can assure you that there’s hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands of old locomotives that were designed and built in the ’50s and ’60s operating all over the United States,” says Sonni, many without any restrictions on emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11281\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 400px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/IMG_4400_web.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-11281\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11281\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/IMG_4400_web.jpg\" alt=\"Jeff...\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jeff Schwab starts up the new ultra-quiet, low-emissions switch locomotive.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nobody seems more enthused about the new switcher than the guy in the cab. For one thing, “It’s really quiet,” says Jeff Schwab, the railroad’s chief mechanic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have a computer monitoring everything, helping the engineer make decisions,” he notes, such as a kind of traction control, where the computer will redistribute power to wheels to avoid wheels slipping, a common occurrence when switchers are hooked up to heavy loads. “It’s just incredible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Breen says he also expects to see climate benefits from the new engine, as a major component of diesel exhaust is black carbon, which Breen calls “a major forcer of climate.” Based on recent science, state regulators are recommending a stronger focus on black carbon as a greenhouse gas. Breen expects the switcher to save two metric tons of soot each year, reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and use less fuel overall. But with an estimated 550 switch engines operating in California, there would seem to be a long road ahead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are looking to see more of these locomotives deployed by the major railroads,” says Breen, though he concedes that it’s up to them to decide whether to adopt the cleaner engines. The new locomotives will become more widely available in 2015. “We have talked to them quite a bit about reducing risk in these communities,” he added. “We know they are willing to work with us.” At a cost upwards of $1 million for a single locomotive, that can be a tough sell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "\"Clean diesel\" cars are now common on the highways. A new locomotive now takes that concept to the rails--with a few other bells and whistles.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11280\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/IMG_4397_web.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-11280\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11280\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/IMG_4397_web.jpg\" alt=\"Richmond Pacific Railroad's clean-diesel switch engine, the first of its kind in the U.S.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Richmond Pacific Railroad’s clean-diesel switch engine, the first of its kind in the U.S.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>You gotta start somewhere. In this case, it’s the BNSF switchyard in Richmond, where the \u003ca title=\"RPR - main\" href=\"http://www.levinterminal.com/facilities-and-services/rail-services/\">Richmond Pacific Railroad\u003c/a> is testing the nation’s first “Tier 4” switch engine for certification. Tier 4 is a standard set by the federal Environmental Protection Agency for ultra-low emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The location couldn’t be more appropriate, since Richmond is an industrial town with a major rail hub, a huge oil refinery and with housing right up against it all, a hotspot for air-quality-related health complaints such as asthma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even one locomotive can make a big impact in terms of health,” says Damian Breen, who directs “strategic incentives” for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. The District provided the railroad with a half-million-dollar grant to roll out and test the new switch engine, a smaller locomotive used to shuffle rail cars around in the yard or move them short distances. Breen says the new switcher will eliminate 6,000 tons of emissions per year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, “clean” is a relative term in the railroad biz. Most locomotives are belching volcanoes of black soot, partly because they’re typically powered by a single, huge diesel engine and spend a lot of their time idling. Instead, the new switcher has a series of smaller engines and generators, optimized by computer controls to call up only as much power as the moment demands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really a new design concept,” says Steve Sonni, California rep for the locomotive builder, \u003ca title=\"NRE - main\" href=\"http://www.nationalrailway.com/\">NRE\u003c/a>. He says the combination reduces noise, fuel consumption and stack emissions. “You’re talking 30 to 40 percent for sure,” he says, and adds that it could be 90 percent cleaner than many “legacy” locomotives that have been on the rails for 40 years or more. “I can assure you that there’s hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands of old locomotives that were designed and built in the ’50s and ’60s operating all over the United States,” says Sonni, many without any restrictions on emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11281\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 400px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/IMG_4400_web.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-11281\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11281\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/IMG_4400_web.jpg\" alt=\"Jeff...\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jeff Schwab starts up the new ultra-quiet, low-emissions switch locomotive.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nobody seems more enthused about the new switcher than the guy in the cab. For one thing, “It’s really quiet,” says Jeff Schwab, the railroad’s chief mechanic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have a computer monitoring everything, helping the engineer make decisions,” he notes, such as a kind of traction control, where the computer will redistribute power to wheels to avoid wheels slipping, a common occurrence when switchers are hooked up to heavy loads. “It’s just incredible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Breen says he also expects to see climate benefits from the new engine, as a major component of diesel exhaust is black carbon, which Breen calls “a major forcer of climate.” Based on recent science, state regulators are recommending a stronger focus on black carbon as a greenhouse gas. Breen expects the switcher to save two metric tons of soot each year, reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and use less fuel overall. But with an estimated 550 switch engines operating in California, there would seem to be a long road ahead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are looking to see more of these locomotives deployed by the major railroads,” says Breen, though he concedes that it’s up to them to decide whether to adopt the cleaner engines. The new locomotives will become more widely available in 2015. “We have talked to them quite a bit about reducing risk in these communities,” he added. “We know they are willing to work with us.” At a cost upwards of $1 million for a single locomotive, that can be a tough sell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Short Version: Yes, We Need More Rain",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11358\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/shastalevels.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11358\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/shastalevels.jpg\" alt=\"shasta lake reservoir water supply\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shasta Lake, California’s largest reservoir, is at about 62 percent of average for this time of year. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The system that just passed through Northern California \u003ca title=\"NOAA - precip\" href=\"http://www.cnrfc.noaa.gov/awipsProducts/RNORR4RSA.php\">brought a decent “wetting,”\u003c/a> a glimmer of hope and put a damper on the wildfire season. But you’re familiar with the term: “a drop in the bucket?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a rough gauge of how the state is doing, water managers keep a close eye on a network of eight recording stations in the northern Sierra, between Shasta and Tahoe. Right now those stations are reporting about 2 and a half inches of precipitation for October and November, or just about a third of what’s considered “normal” for this date.[contextly_sidebar id=”129024539bde565bf58088ac3351ce07″]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s gonna be hard to make that up,” says Maury Roos, chief hydrologist for the state Department of Water Resources. If we don’t, Roos says he’ll be ready to invoke the dreaded “D-word.” Roos says a second straight dry winter “would put us into what I would consider drought–a real hydrologic drought. I don’t think we’ve reached that threshold yet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is time to catch up. Typically the state gets about half its annual precipitation during the coming two months, December and January. Last year we had a soggy December and then the tap simply shut off, leaving us with an epic dry spell from January through March and overall, a “wet season” that failed to fully recharge key reservoirs. That means that another winter on the dry side would leave us without the “carry-over” storage that helped Californians through this past summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sadly, the chances of that seem pretty good. The winter outlook just released by NOAA’s \u003ca title=\"NCPC - outlook\" href=\"http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/\">National Climate Prediction Center\u003c/a> shows the odds in favor of “persistent or intensified drought” for nearly all of California, through February.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11350\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 551px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/CPC_OutlookMap.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-11350\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11350 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/CPC_OutlookMap.jpg\" alt=\"Current models seem to favor another dry winter for California. (NOAA)\" width=\"551\" height=\"419\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Current models seem to favor another dry winter for California. (NOAA)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There’s been a lot of talk already this fall about whether California is in a “record-dry” year. Peter Gleick of the Oakland-based Pacific Institute \u003ca title=\"HuffPo - Gleick\" href=\"http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-h-gleick/extreme-weather-is-this-c_b_4310418.html\">breaks down that discussion\u003c/a> in his latest post. As usual, the answer is: it depends on what you’re counting. But Gleick isn’t waiting around for any official declarations to roll out the D-word:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>California is in the midst of another severe drought, measured as the weighted average of precipitation around the state. Indeed, the past two years have both been very dry.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>More troubling, writes Gleick, is the long-term trend, which shows flagging precipitation despite California’s wild annual fluctuations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11358\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/shastalevels.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11358\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/shastalevels.jpg\" alt=\"shasta lake reservoir water supply\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shasta Lake, California’s largest reservoir, is at about 62 percent of average for this time of year. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The system that just passed through Northern California \u003ca title=\"NOAA - precip\" href=\"http://www.cnrfc.noaa.gov/awipsProducts/RNORR4RSA.php\">brought a decent “wetting,”\u003c/a> a glimmer of hope and put a damper on the wildfire season. But you’re familiar with the term: “a drop in the bucket?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a rough gauge of how the state is doing, water managers keep a close eye on a network of eight recording stations in the northern Sierra, between Shasta and Tahoe. Right now those stations are reporting about 2 and a half inches of precipitation for October and November, or just about a third of what’s considered “normal” for this date.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s gonna be hard to make that up,” says Maury Roos, chief hydrologist for the state Department of Water Resources. If we don’t, Roos says he’ll be ready to invoke the dreaded “D-word.” Roos says a second straight dry winter “would put us into what I would consider drought–a real hydrologic drought. I don’t think we’ve reached that threshold yet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is time to catch up. Typically the state gets about half its annual precipitation during the coming two months, December and January. Last year we had a soggy December and then the tap simply shut off, leaving us with an epic dry spell from January through March and overall, a “wet season” that failed to fully recharge key reservoirs. That means that another winter on the dry side would leave us without the “carry-over” storage that helped Californians through this past summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sadly, the chances of that seem pretty good. The winter outlook just released by NOAA’s \u003ca title=\"NCPC - outlook\" href=\"http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/\">National Climate Prediction Center\u003c/a> shows the odds in favor of “persistent or intensified drought” for nearly all of California, through February.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11350\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 551px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/CPC_OutlookMap.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-11350\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11350 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/CPC_OutlookMap.jpg\" alt=\"Current models seem to favor another dry winter for California. (NOAA)\" width=\"551\" height=\"419\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Current models seem to favor another dry winter for California. (NOAA)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There’s been a lot of talk already this fall about whether California is in a “record-dry” year. Peter Gleick of the Oakland-based Pacific Institute \u003ca title=\"HuffPo - Gleick\" href=\"http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-h-gleick/extreme-weather-is-this-c_b_4310418.html\">breaks down that discussion\u003c/a> in his latest post. As usual, the answer is: it depends on what you’re counting. But Gleick isn’t waiting around for any official declarations to roll out the D-word:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>California is in the midst of another severe drought, measured as the weighted average of precipitation around the state. Indeed, the past two years have both been very dry.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>More troubling, writes Gleick, is the long-term trend, which shows flagging precipitation despite California’s wild annual fluctuations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11310\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/clathromorphum-compactum.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-11310\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11310\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/clathromorphum-compactum.jpg\" alt=\"Clathromorphum compactum\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u003cem>Clathromorphum compactum\u003c/em> records centuries of climatic data in its thin annual layers. Images courtesy Walter Adey, Smithsonian Institution\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As scientists work on better climate models to help us deal with global warming, there are only two places to gather more data: the present and the past. The present crawls along at its usual pace, producing its daily trickle of information, but the past promises to yield buckets of data in the right archives. A new paper has opened up a long-needed archive for the high northern ocean, recorded in the annual “tree rings” of red coralline algae.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tropical corals most of us are familar with are stony structures, built out of the dissolved minerals in seawater, that are occupied by colonies of tiny animals. But outside the tropics, coral-like structures are built by various species of algae—colonies of one-celled plants. The red coralline alga \u003cem>Clathromorphum compactum\u003c/em> lives on the cold shallow seafloors around the Arctic Ocean and slowly but steadily puts on annual layers as reliably as treetrunks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/11/13/1313775110.abstract\">A paper published this week in the \u003cem>Proceedings of the National Academy of Science\u003c/em>\u003c/a> reports a record of annual sea ice in northeastern Canada, based on \u003cem>C. compactum\u003c/em> layers, that goes back 646 years. This organism joins a select list of “climate proxy” species that include tropical corals, \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/paleoclimatology-data/datasets/coral-sclerosponge\">sclerosponges\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"http://www.sonic.net/bristlecone/intro.html\">bristlecones\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://ltrr.arizona.edu/\">other trees\u003c/a>. Along with annual-scale records from other climate proxies, including \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/2012/10/18/a-new-radiocarbon-yardstick-from-japan/\">lake sediments\u003c/a> and ice from the \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2013/11/07/where-should-we-look-for-the-worlds-oldest-ice/\">polar ice caps\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/2013/04/04/a-new-rosetta-stone-tropical-ice-core/\">tropical glaciers\u003c/a>, we can splice together pictures of prehistoric climate that are accurate enough to use in detailed climate modeling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every climate proxy has its own quirks that can be turned into information. Tree rings vary with the species, the region, and the individual seasons of each year. Glacier ice captures dust from the air, and bubbles of the ancient air itself. In the case of \u003cem>C. compactum\u003c/em>, which lives at 20-meter depths all around the northern seas, the red alga grows at a rate that responds closely to water temperature. Not just the growth rate, but the chemistry of its mineral layer correlates with temperature—more magnesium enters the calcium-carbonate material during warmer weather. And then when sea ice forms, the alga shuts down entirely, thus its annual layers are also a sensitive indicator of the icy season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While tree rings are usually wide enough to measure with calipers under a low-power microscope, the coralline algae layers are measured in microns. The paper’s authors used electron microscopic techniques to image the layers and analyze their chemistry. They also collected many specimens ranging from Maine to Arctic Bay, at the north end of Baffin Island, and painstakingly assembled a year-by-year record of ice cover in these waters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11311\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/algaelayers.gif\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-11311\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11311\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/algaelayers.gif\" alt=\"annual layers in arctic algae\" width=\"500\" height=\"347\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Annual layers in another coralline alga species. The dots are reproductive structures called conceptacles\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The ice record matches what we know and what we suspect from other sources. Notably, during the “little ice age” period from about 1450 to about 1850, thick and long-lasting sea ice corresponded with the spread of cultures based on seal hunting. Since 1850, the sea ice has undergone “a long-term decline distinctly steeper than at any time since the 14th century.” Throughout this time period, sea ice has been highly variable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not so long ago, there was a lot of chatter each year about the fluctuations of the annual Antarctic ozone hole, and then the world took action against the chlorofluorocarbons that were eroding it. Since then the ozone hole has been recovering, gradually and with wide variations, without a lot of discussion. It’s worth remembering as we watch the Arctic sea ice today through satellite imagery. Instead of cheering or bemoaning the state of the ice every year, we would do better to keep our eye on the long-term trend—and long-term action.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "The short list of climate proxy species gains a new member in the critical Arctic Ocean region, a crusty red alga named \u003ci>Clathromorphum compactum\u003c/i>.",
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"description": "The short list of climate proxy species gains a new member in the critical Arctic Ocean region, a crusty red alga named Clathromorphum compactum.",
"title": "Arctic Algae Offer New Insights on Prehistoric Climate Data | KQED",
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"headline": "Arctic Algae Offer New Insights on Prehistoric Climate Data",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11310\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/clathromorphum-compactum.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-11310\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11310\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/clathromorphum-compactum.jpg\" alt=\"Clathromorphum compactum\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u003cem>Clathromorphum compactum\u003c/em> records centuries of climatic data in its thin annual layers. Images courtesy Walter Adey, Smithsonian Institution\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As scientists work on better climate models to help us deal with global warming, there are only two places to gather more data: the present and the past. The present crawls along at its usual pace, producing its daily trickle of information, but the past promises to yield buckets of data in the right archives. A new paper has opened up a long-needed archive for the high northern ocean, recorded in the annual “tree rings” of red coralline algae.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tropical corals most of us are familar with are stony structures, built out of the dissolved minerals in seawater, that are occupied by colonies of tiny animals. But outside the tropics, coral-like structures are built by various species of algae—colonies of one-celled plants. The red coralline alga \u003cem>Clathromorphum compactum\u003c/em> lives on the cold shallow seafloors around the Arctic Ocean and slowly but steadily puts on annual layers as reliably as treetrunks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/11/13/1313775110.abstract\">A paper published this week in the \u003cem>Proceedings of the National Academy of Science\u003c/em>\u003c/a> reports a record of annual sea ice in northeastern Canada, based on \u003cem>C. compactum\u003c/em> layers, that goes back 646 years. This organism joins a select list of “climate proxy” species that include tropical corals, \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/paleoclimatology-data/datasets/coral-sclerosponge\">sclerosponges\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"http://www.sonic.net/bristlecone/intro.html\">bristlecones\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://ltrr.arizona.edu/\">other trees\u003c/a>. Along with annual-scale records from other climate proxies, including \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/2012/10/18/a-new-radiocarbon-yardstick-from-japan/\">lake sediments\u003c/a> and ice from the \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2013/11/07/where-should-we-look-for-the-worlds-oldest-ice/\">polar ice caps\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/2013/04/04/a-new-rosetta-stone-tropical-ice-core/\">tropical glaciers\u003c/a>, we can splice together pictures of prehistoric climate that are accurate enough to use in detailed climate modeling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every climate proxy has its own quirks that can be turned into information. Tree rings vary with the species, the region, and the individual seasons of each year. Glacier ice captures dust from the air, and bubbles of the ancient air itself. In the case of \u003cem>C. compactum\u003c/em>, which lives at 20-meter depths all around the northern seas, the red alga grows at a rate that responds closely to water temperature. Not just the growth rate, but the chemistry of its mineral layer correlates with temperature—more magnesium enters the calcium-carbonate material during warmer weather. And then when sea ice forms, the alga shuts down entirely, thus its annual layers are also a sensitive indicator of the icy season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While tree rings are usually wide enough to measure with calipers under a low-power microscope, the coralline algae layers are measured in microns. The paper’s authors used electron microscopic techniques to image the layers and analyze their chemistry. They also collected many specimens ranging from Maine to Arctic Bay, at the north end of Baffin Island, and painstakingly assembled a year-by-year record of ice cover in these waters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11311\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/algaelayers.gif\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-11311\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11311\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/algaelayers.gif\" alt=\"annual layers in arctic algae\" width=\"500\" height=\"347\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Annual layers in another coralline alga species. The dots are reproductive structures called conceptacles\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The ice record matches what we know and what we suspect from other sources. Notably, during the “little ice age” period from about 1450 to about 1850, thick and long-lasting sea ice corresponded with the spread of cultures based on seal hunting. Since 1850, the sea ice has undergone “a long-term decline distinctly steeper than at any time since the 14th century.” Throughout this time period, sea ice has been highly variable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not so long ago, there was a lot of chatter each year about the fluctuations of the annual Antarctic ozone hole, and then the world took action against the chlorofluorocarbons that were eroding it. Since then the ozone hole has been recovering, gradually and with wide variations, without a lot of discussion. It’s worth remembering as we watch the Arctic sea ice today through satellite imagery. Instead of cheering or bemoaning the state of the ice every year, we would do better to keep our eye on the long-term trend—and long-term action.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Can California Burn its Way Out of its Wildfire Problem?",
"headTitle": "Can California Burn its Way Out of its Wildfire Problem? | KQED",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"audio-wrap\">\n\u003ch2>Listen:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/science/2013/11/20131118science.mp3\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11068\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/nightburn-large.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11068\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/nightburn-large.jpg\" alt=\"A nighttime prescribed burn in the Stanislaus National Forest in California's Sierra Nevada. (Eric Knapp/U.S. Forest Service)\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A nighttime prescribed burn in the Stanislaus National Forest in California’s Sierra Nevada. (Eric Knapp/U.S. Forest Service)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Rim Fire, which consumed more than 250,000 acres in and around Yosemite National Park this summer, is a prime example of America’s dangerous legacy of putting out too many wildfires. After a century of suppressing the flames, firefighting agencies have let the brush and small trees get so thick, that when a fire does get going, it can turn into a monster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People who fight and study fire generally agree that one of the best tools for preventing massive wildfires is prescribed burning: intentionally setting smaller fires before the big ones hit. But there are major challenges to fighting fire with fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Setting the Forest on Fire\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a sunny day earlier this fall, about 50 Forest Service firefighters, mostly men, all wearing the Forest Service uniform of fire-resistant bright yellow shirts and fire-resistant dark green pants, are working a prescribed burn in the Shasta National Forest, near Redding, California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http://www.kqed.org/assets/slideshow/fightfirewithfire/_files/iframe.html?noscale=640x400\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Setting fire to a forest actually requires many of the same tactics as putting one out. The crews are planning today to burn a slope near Shasta Lake, bordered on three sides by fire lines, and on the fourth by the lake itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They had earlier cleared fire lines, strips without brush and leaves, that will contain the flames. As they begin their work this morning, they burn what they call “the black,” an area ahead of and along the edges of the area to be burned that creates a safety zone for them and helps keep the fire from spreading. Then, beginning at the top of the ridge and working their way down (fire travels uphill, so this helps keep it in check), the crews set flame to dead leaves, and let the fire do its work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11079\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/settingfire.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11079\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/settingfire.jpg\" alt=\"A firefighter works a prescribed burn at the Shasta National Forest.(Molly Samuel/KQED)\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A firefighter works a prescribed burn at the Shasta National Forest.(Molly Samuel/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This is not a scene from \u003cem>“Bambi,”\u003c/em> with flames raging and animals fleeing. For the most part, the fire barely reaches a foot high. It kills bushes and smaller trees and clears out leaves and brush. But most of the bigger, older trees survive. Fires like this have, on occasion, gotten out of control and turned into wildfires in their own right. But this one is well under control. It’s the end of the wildfire season, and the firefighters — many of whom are on the elite hotshot teams that fight the biggest fires — are relaxed while monitoring the flames, talking about their kids and their dogs. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I always like seeing fire on the ground,” says Eric Knapp, an ecologist with the Forest Service. He says prescribed burns are good for the environment, for animals, for preventing massive wildfires and for keeping firefighters and the public safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But getting them done is tricky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11081\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/fireline.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11081 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/fireline.jpg\" alt=\"A fire line marks the left-hand side of the burn. (It looks like a hiking trail.) The area to the left of the line burned previously. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A fire line marks the left-hand side of the burn. (It looks like a hiking trail.) The area to the left of the line burned previously. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>It’s Not Easy to Fight Fire with Fire\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The window for conducting prescribed burns is narrow: when it’s dry enough that a fire will start, but not so dry that it will rage. “We have a limited opportunity to burn, maybe a week or two every year,” says Knapp. “And (we have) a limited number of resources to get a lot of acres done.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Often the people conducting the burns are seasonal firefighters, who are only budgeted for six months. “A lot of their seasons are spent dealing with wildfire during the hotter, drier times,” says Knapp. In fact, at the Shasta burn, some of the firefighters are on the second-to-last day of their contracts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then there’s the smoke. “It’s a carcinogen,” Knapp acknowledges. “And there are people who are legitimately strongly affected.” Because of that, regional air quality districts tightly regulate prescribed burns. Another burn, scheduled to take place near Redding on the same day we went to Shasta, was cancelled because of smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11083\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/smoke.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11083\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/smoke.jpg\" alt=\"Smoke rises from the prescribed burn at the Shasta National Forest. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Smoke rises from the prescribed burn at the Shasta National Forest. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And sometimes it just comes down to a public relations issue. Not everyone sees the benefit of starting fires. “There’s a consensus among the scientists and the land managers,” Knapp says. “I don’t believe there’s a consensus in the public.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">It’s like we’re losing the race, we’re just not losing it quite as fast.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>It all adds up to mean that not enough acres burn. “Every year we fall further behind and the fuel continues to build up,” says Knapp. “If it weren’t for prescribed burning, we’d fall behind even more. But it’s like we’re losing the race, we’re just not losing it quite as fast.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Backlog\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California alone, about 15 million acres of forest are in need of some kind of treatment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re in a huge deficit,” says Scott Stephens, a fire scientist at University of California, Berkeley. Before the year 1800, he says, 4.5 million acres burned in California every year. Fires started either by Native Americans or by lightning were generally smaller and less intense, but much more frequent. Many areas burned every ten years or so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11089\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/firefighters.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11089\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/firefighters.jpg\" alt=\"Firefighters monitor the flames and keep the burn on the right side of the fire line. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Firefighters monitor the flames and keep the burn on the right side of the fire line. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But because of aggressive fire suppression policies that managers followed for decades, many places haven’t burned in a century or more. Some forests are so overgrown, they have ten times the number of trees as they had historically. That’s the difference between running through the trees, arms outstretched, maybe with a couple of friends by your side, and not being able to crawl through. Forests like these are more susceptible to giant wildfires, because there’s more fuel to burn and it burns hotter.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">We’re carrying these forests that are incredibly vulnerable forward into climate change. It’s a disaster really.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“We’re carrying these forests that are incredibly vulnerable forward into climate change,” says Stephens. “It’s a disaster really.” Because, he explains, California’s changing climate will make the fire season longer, and the prescribed-burn season shorter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Caught in the middle are the firefighting agencies, each with different approaches and priorities. The National Park Service and the Forest Service both have prescribed burn programs, but while the parks are concerned with conservation, the Forest Service must also take into account logging, and other land uses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state agency, CalFire, has its own constraints, fighting many wildfires close to development in the “wildland-urban interface.” This mingling of forest and residential areas makes prescribed burns still more difficult.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11092\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/burning.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11092\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/burning.jpg\" alt=\"The firefighters set the fire in spots then let it spread uphill. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The firefighters set the fire in spots then let it spread uphill. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>A Success and a Nightmare Scenario\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If this summer’s Rim Fire — the largest known fire in the Sierra Nevada and the third-largest in California history — is a lesson in the dangers of fire suppression, it also offers glimmers of hope about the benefits of prescribed burns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Where I started my division assignment on the Rim Fire, was in areas where the Forest Service had recently completed some prescribed burns,” says Tom Garcia, the fire manager at Whiskeytown National Recreation Area. “And we were able to stall that fire out in that particular area and buy some decision space and some time.” With that extra time, Garcia says, they were able to get ahead of the fire, and save some nearby homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11098\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 308px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/ericknapp.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-11098 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/ericknapp.jpg\" alt=\"Eric Knapp, an ecologist with the Forest Service, says we're going to have to accept more frequent fires. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\" width=\"308\" height=\"431\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Eric Knapp, an ecologist with the Forest Service, says we’re going to have to accept more frequent fires. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“My real nightmare scenario is current conditions going forward,” says Stephens. He says he hopes the Rim Fire will serve as a turning point: a glimpse of the path we’re on, and an opportunity to choose a different path that includes more thinning, more prescribed burns and more ability to manage and take advantage of fires that start naturally. A few of the National Forests in California are currently reviewing their management plans, and Stephens says he sees that as an opportunity to bring in more fire, too. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we don’t do it now we’re going to set people up in the future for less decision space. They’re going to have less options. It’s going to be warmer. It’s going to have longer drier periods,” he says. “50 years from now, 80 years from now, they will just wish that we would have moved.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Knapp, the Forest Service ecologist, says he’s optimistic about the future. But major wildfires will be a part of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re going to have to accept the fact that we live in an environment with occasional fire and that fire is more intense,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because after a century of admonishments from Smokey Bear, even with the best efforts of firefighters, even with prescribed burns and logging and managed wildland fire, the era of catastrophic fires is upon us.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "People who fight and study fire generally agree that one of the best tools for preventing massive wildfires is prescribed burning: intentionally setting smaller fires before the big ones hit. But there are major challenges to fighting fire with fire.",
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"description": "People who fight and study fire generally agree that one of the best tools for preventing massive wildfires is prescribed burning: intentionally setting smaller fires before the big ones hit. But there are major challenges to fighting fire with fire.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/div>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11068\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/nightburn-large.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11068\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/nightburn-large.jpg\" alt=\"A nighttime prescribed burn in the Stanislaus National Forest in California's Sierra Nevada. (Eric Knapp/U.S. Forest Service)\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A nighttime prescribed burn in the Stanislaus National Forest in California’s Sierra Nevada. (Eric Knapp/U.S. Forest Service)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Rim Fire, which consumed more than 250,000 acres in and around Yosemite National Park this summer, is a prime example of America’s dangerous legacy of putting out too many wildfires. After a century of suppressing the flames, firefighting agencies have let the brush and small trees get so thick, that when a fire does get going, it can turn into a monster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People who fight and study fire generally agree that one of the best tools for preventing massive wildfires is prescribed burning: intentionally setting smaller fires before the big ones hit. But there are major challenges to fighting fire with fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Setting the Forest on Fire\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a sunny day earlier this fall, about 50 Forest Service firefighters, mostly men, all wearing the Forest Service uniform of fire-resistant bright yellow shirts and fire-resistant dark green pants, are working a prescribed burn in the Shasta National Forest, near Redding, California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http://www.kqed.org/assets/slideshow/fightfirewithfire/_files/iframe.html?noscale=640x400\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Setting fire to a forest actually requires many of the same tactics as putting one out. The crews are planning today to burn a slope near Shasta Lake, bordered on three sides by fire lines, and on the fourth by the lake itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They had earlier cleared fire lines, strips without brush and leaves, that will contain the flames. As they begin their work this morning, they burn what they call “the black,” an area ahead of and along the edges of the area to be burned that creates a safety zone for them and helps keep the fire from spreading. Then, beginning at the top of the ridge and working their way down (fire travels uphill, so this helps keep it in check), the crews set flame to dead leaves, and let the fire do its work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11079\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/settingfire.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11079\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/settingfire.jpg\" alt=\"A firefighter works a prescribed burn at the Shasta National Forest.(Molly Samuel/KQED)\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A firefighter works a prescribed burn at the Shasta National Forest.(Molly Samuel/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This is not a scene from \u003cem>“Bambi,”\u003c/em> with flames raging and animals fleeing. For the most part, the fire barely reaches a foot high. It kills bushes and smaller trees and clears out leaves and brush. But most of the bigger, older trees survive. Fires like this have, on occasion, gotten out of control and turned into wildfires in their own right. But this one is well under control. It’s the end of the wildfire season, and the firefighters — many of whom are on the elite hotshot teams that fight the biggest fires — are relaxed while monitoring the flames, talking about their kids and their dogs. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I always like seeing fire on the ground,” says Eric Knapp, an ecologist with the Forest Service. He says prescribed burns are good for the environment, for animals, for preventing massive wildfires and for keeping firefighters and the public safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But getting them done is tricky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11081\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/fireline.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11081 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/fireline.jpg\" alt=\"A fire line marks the left-hand side of the burn. (It looks like a hiking trail.) The area to the left of the line burned previously. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A fire line marks the left-hand side of the burn. (It looks like a hiking trail.) The area to the left of the line burned previously. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>It’s Not Easy to Fight Fire with Fire\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The window for conducting prescribed burns is narrow: when it’s dry enough that a fire will start, but not so dry that it will rage. “We have a limited opportunity to burn, maybe a week or two every year,” says Knapp. “And (we have) a limited number of resources to get a lot of acres done.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Often the people conducting the burns are seasonal firefighters, who are only budgeted for six months. “A lot of their seasons are spent dealing with wildfire during the hotter, drier times,” says Knapp. In fact, at the Shasta burn, some of the firefighters are on the second-to-last day of their contracts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then there’s the smoke. “It’s a carcinogen,” Knapp acknowledges. “And there are people who are legitimately strongly affected.” Because of that, regional air quality districts tightly regulate prescribed burns. Another burn, scheduled to take place near Redding on the same day we went to Shasta, was cancelled because of smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11083\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/smoke.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11083\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/smoke.jpg\" alt=\"Smoke rises from the prescribed burn at the Shasta National Forest. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Smoke rises from the prescribed burn at the Shasta National Forest. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And sometimes it just comes down to a public relations issue. Not everyone sees the benefit of starting fires. “There’s a consensus among the scientists and the land managers,” Knapp says. “I don’t believe there’s a consensus in the public.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">It’s like we’re losing the race, we’re just not losing it quite as fast.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>It all adds up to mean that not enough acres burn. “Every year we fall further behind and the fuel continues to build up,” says Knapp. “If it weren’t for prescribed burning, we’d fall behind even more. But it’s like we’re losing the race, we’re just not losing it quite as fast.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Backlog\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California alone, about 15 million acres of forest are in need of some kind of treatment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re in a huge deficit,” says Scott Stephens, a fire scientist at University of California, Berkeley. Before the year 1800, he says, 4.5 million acres burned in California every year. Fires started either by Native Americans or by lightning were generally smaller and less intense, but much more frequent. Many areas burned every ten years or so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11089\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/firefighters.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11089\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/firefighters.jpg\" alt=\"Firefighters monitor the flames and keep the burn on the right side of the fire line. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Firefighters monitor the flames and keep the burn on the right side of the fire line. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But because of aggressive fire suppression policies that managers followed for decades, many places haven’t burned in a century or more. Some forests are so overgrown, they have ten times the number of trees as they had historically. That’s the difference between running through the trees, arms outstretched, maybe with a couple of friends by your side, and not being able to crawl through. Forests like these are more susceptible to giant wildfires, because there’s more fuel to burn and it burns hotter.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">We’re carrying these forests that are incredibly vulnerable forward into climate change. It’s a disaster really.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“We’re carrying these forests that are incredibly vulnerable forward into climate change,” says Stephens. “It’s a disaster really.” Because, he explains, California’s changing climate will make the fire season longer, and the prescribed-burn season shorter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Caught in the middle are the firefighting agencies, each with different approaches and priorities. The National Park Service and the Forest Service both have prescribed burn programs, but while the parks are concerned with conservation, the Forest Service must also take into account logging, and other land uses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state agency, CalFire, has its own constraints, fighting many wildfires close to development in the “wildland-urban interface.” This mingling of forest and residential areas makes prescribed burns still more difficult.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11092\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/burning.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11092\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/burning.jpg\" alt=\"The firefighters set the fire in spots then let it spread uphill. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The firefighters set the fire in spots then let it spread uphill. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>A Success and a Nightmare Scenario\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If this summer’s Rim Fire — the largest known fire in the Sierra Nevada and the third-largest in California history — is a lesson in the dangers of fire suppression, it also offers glimmers of hope about the benefits of prescribed burns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Where I started my division assignment on the Rim Fire, was in areas where the Forest Service had recently completed some prescribed burns,” says Tom Garcia, the fire manager at Whiskeytown National Recreation Area. “And we were able to stall that fire out in that particular area and buy some decision space and some time.” With that extra time, Garcia says, they were able to get ahead of the fire, and save some nearby homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11098\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 308px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/ericknapp.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-11098 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/ericknapp.jpg\" alt=\"Eric Knapp, an ecologist with the Forest Service, says we're going to have to accept more frequent fires. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\" width=\"308\" height=\"431\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Eric Knapp, an ecologist with the Forest Service, says we’re going to have to accept more frequent fires. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“My real nightmare scenario is current conditions going forward,” says Stephens. He says he hopes the Rim Fire will serve as a turning point: a glimpse of the path we’re on, and an opportunity to choose a different path that includes more thinning, more prescribed burns and more ability to manage and take advantage of fires that start naturally. A few of the National Forests in California are currently reviewing their management plans, and Stephens says he sees that as an opportunity to bring in more fire, too. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we don’t do it now we’re going to set people up in the future for less decision space. They’re going to have less options. It’s going to be warmer. It’s going to have longer drier periods,” he says. “50 years from now, 80 years from now, they will just wish that we would have moved.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Knapp, the Forest Service ecologist, says he’s optimistic about the future. But major wildfires will be a part of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re going to have to accept the fact that we live in an environment with occasional fire and that fire is more intense,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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}
},
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"id": "californiareportmagazine",
"title": "The California Report Magazine",
"tagline": "Your state, your stories",
"info": "Every week, The California Report Magazine takes you on a road trip for the ears: to visit the places and meet the people who make California unique. The in-depth storytelling podcast from the California Report.",
"airtime": "FRI 4:30pm-5pm, 6:30pm-7pm, 11pm-11:30pm",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareportmagazine",
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"order": 10
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM3NjkwNjk1OTAz",
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},
"city-arts": {
"id": "city-arts",
"title": "City Arts & Lectures",
"info": "A one-hour radio program to hear celebrated writers, artists and thinkers address contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Please note: tapes or transcripts are not available",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/cityartsandlecture-300x300.jpg",
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"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
"subscribe": {
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/City-Arts-and-Lectures-p692/",
"rss": "https://www.cityarts.net/feed/"
}
},
"closealltabs": {
"id": "closealltabs",
"title": "Close All Tabs",
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"info": "Close All Tabs breaks down how digital culture shapes our world through thoughtful insights and irreverent humor.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
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"order": 1
},
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"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"meta": {
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnByLm9yZy9yc3MvcG9kY2FzdC5waHA_aWQ9NTEwMzEy",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"meta": {
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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},
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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"id": "freakonomics-radio",
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"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
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},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
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},
"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
"title": "Hidden Brain",
"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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},
"how-i-built-this": {
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"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/3zxy",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510313/podcast.xml"
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},
"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
"meta": {
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"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/2p3Fifq96nw9BPcmFdIq0o?si=39209f7b25774f38",
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"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC2275451163"
}
},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1492194549",
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
}
},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
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"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
"subscribe": {
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "On Our Watch from NPR and KQED",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1567098962",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510360/podcast.xml"
}
},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
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"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3pm-4pm",
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