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"content": "\u003cp>When it comes to protecting people and property from rising sea levels and catastrophic storms, it turns out that Mother Nature can often provide a better solution than an expensive engineering project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED’s Stephanie Martin spoke with Stanford ecologist Katie Arkema, who published a \u003ca href=\"http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nclimate1944.html\">national map today\u003c/a> showing where coastal reefs and wetlands are keeping communities safe, and which areas may need more preservation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is an edited transcript of the interview.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_5618\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 299px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/07/Arkema_Fig.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5618 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/07/Arkema_Fig.jpg\" alt=\"(Natural Capital Project)\" width=\"299\" height=\"283\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Natural Capital Project)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ms. Arkema, you’re describing this map as a first-of-its-kind. What does it show that we haven’t seen before?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It shows where coastal ecosystems can play an important role in helping to protect people and property from coastal hazards. It does this by looking not only at where do ecosystems like wetlands and dunes reduce risk to sea level rise and storms, but also by overlaying this with information on populations living along the coastline and residential property value data that we got through a relationship with \u003ca href=\"http://www.zillow.com/\">Zillow\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>So what’s an example of a place here in the Bay Area where people and property have some good natural protection already?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are a number of good spots that provide protection. One example would be around Stinson Beach where there’s high dunes along the shoreline in front of coastal properties. Another example would be in Corte Madera where there’s wetlands that can help to reduce storm waves and erosion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>When your study looked at coastal geography you also took into account vulnerable populations, such as areas where there were more elderly or low-income people and that’s part of how you assessed which areas are most at risk. What’s an example of this in Northern California?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We looked around the Bay Area, and we saw that there were places around Richmond and around Vallejo, for example, in the northern part and eastern part of the Bay where there are disadvantaged populations living along the coastline, but also in some cases where there are coastal ecosystems intact.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_5625\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/07/RS399_IMG_4392-scr-e1373937783821.jpg\" alt=\"Salt marshes along San Francisco Bay can help absorb rising seas, (Molly Samuel/KQED , with aerial support from LightHawk) \" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5625\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Salt marshes along San Francisco Bay can help absorb rising seas, (Molly Samuel/KQED , with aerial support from LightHawk)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>So these places are showing up as being more at-risk due to low elevation, for example, or softer shoreline types like mudflat areas or sandy beaches, but they also have some coastal ecosystems intact. For example up near San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge, there’s an extensive wetland there which could help to provide protection from storms and sea level rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How would you recommend restoring habitat or working with the natural coastline to better protect these vulnerable populations?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a number of local efforts going on in the San Francisco area. 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"content": "\u003cp>Temperatures in parts of the Bay Area topped a hundred degrees Monday, with more hot weather expected this week. The National Weather Service has issued an excessive heat warning for Northern California effective through the July 4\u003csup>th\u003c/sup> holiday. Cities including \u003ca href=\"http://www.sacbee.com/2013/07/01/5536125/sacramento-opens-cooling-centers.htmlhttp://www.sacbee.com/2013/07/01/5536125/sacramento-opens-cooling-centers.html\">Sacramento\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://www.mercurynews.com/san-jose-neighborhoods/ci_23579185/cambrian-residents-offered-cooling-off-center\">San Jose\u003c/a> are running cooling centers for residents seeking relief from the heat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are seeing triple-digit temperatures all the way from south of Mount Shasta to Bakersfield and inland California,” said meteorologist Drew Peterson of the National Weather Service. “And we are expecting triple-digit temperatures to continue throughout most of the Valley through Friday.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Northern Californians aren’t sweating it out alone. The high pressure system causing this heat wave extends from Arizona and Nevada all the way into Canada.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_4987\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4987\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/07/deathvalley-e1372724869280.jpg\" alt=\"Bust it Away Photography/Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/bustitaway/8123665726/in/photostream/\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Death Valley may break its own record for hottest place on Earth. (Bust it Away Photography/Flickr)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And while prolonged triple-digit temperatures are unusual for Northern California, periods of extreme heat have occurred in the recent past. “The last time we had something like this was in 2006,” said Peterson. “There were about 163 deaths here in California, and anywhere from 250,000 to a million livestock were lost.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile tourists in Death Valley are watching the thermometer, hoping to witness the \u003ca href=\"http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/06/death-valley-furnace-creek-heat-record-temperature/66693/\">highest temperature\u003c/a> ever recorded on Earth. Temperatures on Sunday tied the Death Valley record for the month of June. Death Valley holds the current world record at 134 degrees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The heat wave will reach a peak on Tuesday or Wednesday, and meteorologists expect it to subside by the weekend.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Temperatures in parts of the Bay Area topped a hundred degrees Monday, with more hot weather expected this week. The National Weather Service has issued an excessive heat warning for Northern California effective through the July 4\u003csup>th\u003c/sup> holiday. Cities including \u003ca href=\"http://www.sacbee.com/2013/07/01/5536125/sacramento-opens-cooling-centers.htmlhttp://www.sacbee.com/2013/07/01/5536125/sacramento-opens-cooling-centers.html\">Sacramento\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://www.mercurynews.com/san-jose-neighborhoods/ci_23579185/cambrian-residents-offered-cooling-off-center\">San Jose\u003c/a> are running cooling centers for residents seeking relief from the heat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are seeing triple-digit temperatures all the way from south of Mount Shasta to Bakersfield and inland California,” said meteorologist Drew Peterson of the National Weather Service. “And we are expecting triple-digit temperatures to continue throughout most of the Valley through Friday.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Northern Californians aren’t sweating it out alone. The high pressure system causing this heat wave extends from Arizona and Nevada all the way into Canada.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_4987\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4987\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/07/deathvalley-e1372724869280.jpg\" alt=\"Bust it Away Photography/Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/bustitaway/8123665726/in/photostream/\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Death Valley may break its own record for hottest place on Earth. (Bust it Away Photography/Flickr)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And while prolonged triple-digit temperatures are unusual for Northern California, periods of extreme heat have occurred in the recent past. “The last time we had something like this was in 2006,” said Peterson. “There were about 163 deaths here in California, and anywhere from 250,000 to a million livestock were lost.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile tourists in Death Valley are watching the thermometer, hoping to witness the \u003ca href=\"http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/06/death-valley-furnace-creek-heat-record-temperature/66693/\">highest temperature\u003c/a> ever recorded on Earth. Temperatures on Sunday tied the Death Valley record for the month of June. Death Valley holds the current world record at 134 degrees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "What Australia's \"Angry Summer\" May Indicate About California's Future Climate",
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"content": "\u003cp>A new study of climate models concludes that the record-breaking Australian summer of 2012–13 could not have happened without the human disturbances—greenhouse gases, aerosols and ozone—that underlie global warming. \u003ca href=\"http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/grl.50673/abstract\">The paper\u003c/a>, accepted for publication by the journal \u003ci>Geophysical Research Letters\u003c/i> or \u003ci>GRL\u003c/i>, suggests that Australia’s experience is a leading indicator for dry continental areas like our own American West.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a wine drinker, I think of the southern hemisphere as a leading hemisphere because the latest vintages come out of Australia six months before California’s. Similarly, Australia is ahead of California in its vulnerability to global warming. Sustained high temperatures, not just record-setting heat for a day or so, have far-reaching effects: putting forests into extreme fire danger, punishing crops, raising the demand for water and electricity, changing storm tracks and rainfall and just getting on people’s nerves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In that respect the period from December 2012 to February 2013 was truly “\u003ca href=\"http://climatecommission.gov.au/report/the-angry-summer/\">the Angry Summer\u003c/a>,” as documented in an official government report. On January 7, the average high temperature \u003ci>for the whole country\u003c/i> hit a record 40.30°C, or 104.5°F. That was in the middle of an entire week when this figure exceeded 39°C. Deadly bushfires erupted across Australia and burned for months, while deadly flooding occurred in the northern tropics where the hotter air carried more water vapor. Weather records stretching back to 1911 were broken in hundreds of places. Compared with the steady baseline of Australian climate from 1911 to 1940, the \u003ci>GRL\u003c/i> authors said, the Angry Summer was 1.32°C warmer (2.4°F), on average for the whole country and season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_4797\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/angrysummer.png\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4797\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/angrysummer.png\" alt=\"Australia climate map\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4797\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">From “\u003ca href=\"http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/grl.50673/abstract\">Anthropogenic contributions to Australia’s record summer temperatures of 2013\u003c/a>“\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The \u003ci>GRL\u003c/i> paper tested the Angry Summer against a set of computer models from \u003ca href=\"http://cmip-pcmdi.llnl.gov/index.html\">CMIP5\u003c/a>, the latest generation of standardized climate models. These were first fed Australian climate data (monthly averages) from 1850 to 2005; nine models did well in reproducing the actual range of climatic conditions both with and without human influences. Then the models were used to see just how excessive the 2012–13 summer was. The authors’ modeling showed, with 90 percent confidence, that human influence strongly increased the likelihood of that record-setting summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Australian summers are strongly influenced by the El Niño cycle—the oscillation in the tropical Pacific that sends rain and heat to California as well as Australia and many points between. The \u003ci>GRL\u003c/i> study stated that, in fact, El Niño was in a neutral state, which typically brings cool summers. That made the Angry Summer doubly unexpected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without human influences, the authors concluded, the Angry Summer would be some five times less likely. Put another way, the atmosphere of today makes an Angry Summer, the worst on record, five times more likely than a century ago. \u003ca href=\"http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10584-012-0570-x/fulltext.html\">Another study using CMIP5 models\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://www.globalcarbonproject.org/global/pdf/pep/Peters_2012_TheChallengeToKeepGlobalWarmingBelow2C.NatureCC.pdf\">the most current database on human emissions\u003c/a> has stated that by 2080, within the lifetimes of today’s children, such extreme summers may occur two years out of three. Keep that in mind as the American summer sets in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another highlight of the study was the speed at which it was conducted, with high-quality models and data at the ready and a straightforward relationship established between observations and the risk of an abnormal season. The authors found that with their methods, “an assessment of risk could potentially occur in near-real time.” The next Angry Summer, then, may not come as such a surprise.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A new study of climate models concludes that the record-breaking Australian summer of 2012–13 could not have happened without the human disturbances—greenhouse gases, aerosols and ozone—that underlie global warming. \u003ca href=\"http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/grl.50673/abstract\">The paper\u003c/a>, accepted for publication by the journal \u003ci>Geophysical Research Letters\u003c/i> or \u003ci>GRL\u003c/i>, suggests that Australia’s experience is a leading indicator for dry continental areas like our own American West.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a wine drinker, I think of the southern hemisphere as a leading hemisphere because the latest vintages come out of Australia six months before California’s. Similarly, Australia is ahead of California in its vulnerability to global warming. Sustained high temperatures, not just record-setting heat for a day or so, have far-reaching effects: putting forests into extreme fire danger, punishing crops, raising the demand for water and electricity, changing storm tracks and rainfall and just getting on people’s nerves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In that respect the period from December 2012 to February 2013 was truly “\u003ca href=\"http://climatecommission.gov.au/report/the-angry-summer/\">the Angry Summer\u003c/a>,” as documented in an official government report. On January 7, the average high temperature \u003ci>for the whole country\u003c/i> hit a record 40.30°C, or 104.5°F. That was in the middle of an entire week when this figure exceeded 39°C. Deadly bushfires erupted across Australia and burned for months, while deadly flooding occurred in the northern tropics where the hotter air carried more water vapor. Weather records stretching back to 1911 were broken in hundreds of places. Compared with the steady baseline of Australian climate from 1911 to 1940, the \u003ci>GRL\u003c/i> authors said, the Angry Summer was 1.32°C warmer (2.4°F), on average for the whole country and season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_4797\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/angrysummer.png\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4797\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/angrysummer.png\" alt=\"Australia climate map\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4797\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">From “\u003ca href=\"http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/grl.50673/abstract\">Anthropogenic contributions to Australia’s record summer temperatures of 2013\u003c/a>“\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The \u003ci>GRL\u003c/i> paper tested the Angry Summer against a set of computer models from \u003ca href=\"http://cmip-pcmdi.llnl.gov/index.html\">CMIP5\u003c/a>, the latest generation of standardized climate models. These were first fed Australian climate data (monthly averages) from 1850 to 2005; nine models did well in reproducing the actual range of climatic conditions both with and without human influences. Then the models were used to see just how excessive the 2012–13 summer was. The authors’ modeling showed, with 90 percent confidence, that human influence strongly increased the likelihood of that record-setting summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Australian summers are strongly influenced by the El Niño cycle—the oscillation in the tropical Pacific that sends rain and heat to California as well as Australia and many points between. The \u003ci>GRL\u003c/i> study stated that, in fact, El Niño was in a neutral state, which typically brings cool summers. That made the Angry Summer doubly unexpected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without human influences, the authors concluded, the Angry Summer would be some five times less likely. Put another way, the atmosphere of today makes an Angry Summer, the worst on record, five times more likely than a century ago. \u003ca href=\"http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10584-012-0570-x/fulltext.html\">Another study using CMIP5 models\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://www.globalcarbonproject.org/global/pdf/pep/Peters_2012_TheChallengeToKeepGlobalWarmingBelow2C.NatureCC.pdf\">the most current database on human emissions\u003c/a> has stated that by 2080, within the lifetimes of today’s children, such extreme summers may occur two years out of three. Keep that in mind as the American summer sets in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another highlight of the study was the speed at which it was conducted, with high-quality models and data at the ready and a straightforward relationship established between observations and the risk of an abnormal season. The authors found that with their methods, “an assessment of risk could potentially occur in near-real time.” The next Angry Summer, then, may not come as such a surprise.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "California Official Welcomes Obama's Climate Program",
"headTitle": "California Official Welcomes Obama’s Climate Program | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_4727\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 216px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/smokestack-4x3-216x162.jpg\" alt=\"(Craig Miller/KQED)\" width=\"216\" height=\"162\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4727\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Craig Miller/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>President Obama introduced his long-awaited \u003ca href=\"http://www.scribd.com/doc/149882710/President%E2%80%99s-Climate-Action-Plan\">plan to combat climate change\u003c/a> in a speech today at Georgetown. He’s directing the EPA to limit greenhouse gas emissions from new and existing power plants, supporting more renewable energy development and expanding efficiency standards for appliances. He’s also funding local initiatives to build more resilient infrastructure and calling for an end to public financing for new overseas coal plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California officials are welcoming the plan. Mary Nichols, who heads the California Air Resources Board, the agency that regulates pollution, said it’s a good fit with the state’s efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California benefits enormously from having the federal government step up with a climate program,” she said. “It can only enhance our activities if we have a strong federal partner.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/audio/cap-and-trade-101-how-californias-carbon-market-works/\">cap-and-trade program\u003c/a>, which is managed by the Air Board, already limits carbon emissions from power plants in the state. Nichols says she expects Obama’s plan will provide more federal funding for state projects, including one to reduce pollution from \u003ca href=\"http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/onroadhd/onroadhd.htm\">diesel trucks\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED Science managing editor Paul Rogers writes for the \u003ca href=\"http://www.mercurynews.com/politics-government/ci_23532865/obama-announces-sweeping-new-global-warming-plan\">Mercury News\u003c/a> on the impacts the plan will have in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"mceItemEmbedly\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://extras.mercurynews.com/mercurynews-fb.png\" class=\"thumb embedly-thumbnail-small\">\u003ca class=\"embedly-title\" href=\"http://www.mercurynews.com/politics-government/ci_23532865/obama-announces-sweeping-new-global-warming-plan\">Obama announces sweeping new global warming plan\u003c/a>In the largest environmental initiative of his presidency, President Obama will announce this morning the nation’s first mandatory restrictions on greenhouse gases from new and existing power plants. The rules, which be drafted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, are set to be unveiled at a mid-morning speech Obama is scheduled to deliver at Georgetown University.\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"embedly-powered\" style=\"float:right\">\u003ca target=\"_blank\" href=\"http://embed.ly?src=anywhere\" title=\"Powered by Embedly\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"//static.embed.ly/images/logos/embedly-powered-small-light.png\" alt=\"Embedly Powered\">\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"media-attribution\">\u003cspan>via \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://www.mercurynews.com\" class=\"media-attribution-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mercurynews\u003c/a>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>And \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/06/25/195466923/obama-to-lay-out-broad-plan-to-address-climate-change\">NPR has a national perspective\u003c/a> on the plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly\">\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumb embedly-thumbnail-small\" src=\"http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2013/06/25/climate_custom-8d5e9d46bcd08378e49a7871931d62c58cea5d98.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003ca class=\"embedly-title\" href=\"http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/06/25/195466923/obama-to-lay-out-broad-plan-to-address-climate-change\">Obama To Lay Out Broad Plan To Address Climate Change\u003c/a>President Obama is expected to announce a sweeping plan to address climate change this afternoon. Read the plan and a White House fact sheet. The president has framed this issue as a moral responsibility, to leave the Earth in good shape for generations to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"embedly-powered\" style=\"float: right\">\u003ca title=\"Powered by Embedly\" href=\"http://embed.ly?src=anywhere\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"//static.embed.ly/images/logos/embedly-powered-small-light.png\" alt=\"Embedly Powered\">\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"media-attribution\">via \u003ca class=\"media-attribution-link\" href=\"http://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Npr\u003c/a>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_4727\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 216px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/smokestack-4x3-216x162.jpg\" alt=\"(Craig Miller/KQED)\" width=\"216\" height=\"162\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4727\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Craig Miller/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>President Obama introduced his long-awaited \u003ca href=\"http://www.scribd.com/doc/149882710/President%E2%80%99s-Climate-Action-Plan\">plan to combat climate change\u003c/a> in a speech today at Georgetown. He’s directing the EPA to limit greenhouse gas emissions from new and existing power plants, supporting more renewable energy development and expanding efficiency standards for appliances. He’s also funding local initiatives to build more resilient infrastructure and calling for an end to public financing for new overseas coal plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California officials are welcoming the plan. Mary Nichols, who heads the California Air Resources Board, the agency that regulates pollution, said it’s a good fit with the state’s efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California benefits enormously from having the federal government step up with a climate program,” she said. “It can only enhance our activities if we have a strong federal partner.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/audio/cap-and-trade-101-how-californias-carbon-market-works/\">cap-and-trade program\u003c/a>, which is managed by the Air Board, already limits carbon emissions from power plants in the state. Nichols says she expects Obama’s plan will provide more federal funding for state projects, including one to reduce pollution from \u003ca href=\"http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/onroadhd/onroadhd.htm\">diesel trucks\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED Science managing editor Paul Rogers writes for the \u003ca href=\"http://www.mercurynews.com/politics-government/ci_23532865/obama-announces-sweeping-new-global-warming-plan\">Mercury News\u003c/a> on the impacts the plan will have in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"mceItemEmbedly\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://extras.mercurynews.com/mercurynews-fb.png\" class=\"thumb embedly-thumbnail-small\">\u003ca class=\"embedly-title\" href=\"http://www.mercurynews.com/politics-government/ci_23532865/obama-announces-sweeping-new-global-warming-plan\">Obama announces sweeping new global warming plan\u003c/a>In the largest environmental initiative of his presidency, President Obama will announce this morning the nation’s first mandatory restrictions on greenhouse gases from new and existing power plants. The rules, which be drafted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, are set to be unveiled at a mid-morning speech Obama is scheduled to deliver at Georgetown University.\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"embedly-powered\" style=\"float:right\">\u003ca target=\"_blank\" href=\"http://embed.ly?src=anywhere\" title=\"Powered by Embedly\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"//static.embed.ly/images/logos/embedly-powered-small-light.png\" alt=\"Embedly Powered\">\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"media-attribution\">\u003cspan>via \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://www.mercurynews.com\" class=\"media-attribution-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mercurynews\u003c/a>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>And \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/06/25/195466923/obama-to-lay-out-broad-plan-to-address-climate-change\">NPR has a national perspective\u003c/a> on the plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly\">\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumb embedly-thumbnail-small\" src=\"http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2013/06/25/climate_custom-8d5e9d46bcd08378e49a7871931d62c58cea5d98.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003ca class=\"embedly-title\" href=\"http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/06/25/195466923/obama-to-lay-out-broad-plan-to-address-climate-change\">Obama To Lay Out Broad Plan To Address Climate Change\u003c/a>President Obama is expected to announce a sweeping plan to address climate change this afternoon. Read the plan and a White House fact sheet. The president has framed this issue as a moral responsibility, to leave the Earth in good shape for generations to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"embedly-powered\" style=\"float: right\">\u003ca title=\"Powered by Embedly\" href=\"http://embed.ly?src=anywhere\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"//static.embed.ly/images/logos/embedly-powered-small-light.png\" alt=\"Embedly Powered\">\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"media-attribution\">via \u003ca class=\"media-attribution-link\" href=\"http://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Npr\u003c/a>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Opening the Gene Box of a Key Ocean Species",
"headTitle": "Opening the Gene Box of a Key Ocean Species | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_4324\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/EHux.gif\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4324\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/EHux.gif\" alt=\"Emiliania huxleyi\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4324\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u003ci>Emiliania huxleyi\u003c/i> is a one-celled alga that lives inside a shell of coccoliths. Courtesy Gerhard Langer, Alfred Wegener Institute\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This week in the journal \u003ci>Nature\u003c/i>, a worldwide team of 75 scientists revealed the genetic blueprint of the one-celled alga \u003ci>Emiliania huxleyi\u003c/i>, which may be the most important species you’ve never heard of. The genomes of the domestic dog and cat are interesting, but the \u003ci>E. huxleyi\u003c/i> genome is a much bigger story. Some day this organism may become another of our partner species, as vital to us as yeast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oceanographers of all kinds know \u003ci>Emiliania huxleyi\u003c/i> by the nickname “Ehux,” and that’s what I’ll call it too. Among the marine algae, Ehux is classified as a coccolithophore, so named because it builds loose shells around itself made of coccoliths. Coccoliths, in turn, are the intricate disks seen in the photo above at high magnification. The fate of Earth’s changing climate may ride on coccoliths.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the world’s atmospheric carbon cycle, the ocean is ultimately in charge. And in the ocean’s carbon cycle, Ehux is a keystone species. To make coccoliths, Ehux takes carbon dioxide dissolved in seawater and combines it with calcium ions in the water to make calcium carbonate (the mineral calcite), somehow rendering its spiky crystals into shapes elegant enough to inspire new forms of pasta. CO\u003csub>2\u003c/sub> from the air replaces what’s removed from the seawater. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Coccolithophores are the single largest producer of biogenic calcium carbonate on Earth, and Ehux is their leading species. Ehux grows in every part of the ocean except around the frozen poles. It’s prone to enormous blooms—bursts of reproduction that may cover areas as large as California. Ehux blooms, with their uncountable numbers of coccoliths, reflect so much light that they turn the water a milky blue that is easily monitored by satellites. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_4325\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 400px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/ehuxbloom.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4325\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/ehuxbloom.jpg\" alt=\"Ehux bloom\" width=\"400\" height=\"240\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4325\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A large bloom of \u003ci>Emiliania huxleyi\u003c/i> in the North Atlantic. NASA image\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Shed coccoliths drift down to the seafloor, and in favorable times in the geologic past they have formed beds of chalk. (The climax era of the dinosaurs, the Cretaceous Period, got its name from the thick chalk beds of Europe.) Chalk, and the coccoliths that compose it, represent carbon removed from the atmosphere. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another special skill of Ehux is turning sulfur compounds into the gas dimethyl sulfide, a major ingredient in the formation of sea clouds. Its dual roles in cloud formation and CO\u003csub>2\u003c/sub> regulation put Ehux at the crux of global climate. As atmospheric carbon dioxide rises today we need to learn, as fast as possible, exactly how nature handles it. The open-access \u003ci>Nature\u003c/i> paper promises to put our hands on Ehux’s genetic toolkit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What can we do with that? The possible benefits range from pure science to pure technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Emiliania huxleyi\u003c/i>‘s genome turns out to be as big as that of a full-grown land plant, at 141 million bases. That’s one reason the gene-mapping project took ten years. Another reason is that the genome is an extraordinarily diverse “pan genome,” with a core set of genes and a large set of optional ones suited to particular environments. The pan genome enables Ehux to cope with a wide range of limiting conditions like low nutrient levels and strong ultraviolet radiation. The research team found that Ehux strains in different oceans were less than 80 percent similar—compare that to humans, who are 99 percent similar around the world. This is the first pan genome found outside bacteria. And Ehux may also be as adept as bacteria at gene-swapping. These factors make Ehux extremely adaptable and account for its worldwide abundance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We can make use of genes that control so many things. “\u003ci>E. huxleyi\u003c/i> synthesizes unusual lipids that are used as nutritional/feedstock supplements, polymer precursors and petrochemical replacements,” the authors note. If we are to master the science of making \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/audio/biofuels-face-a-reality-check/\">biofuels\u003c/a> and sustainable plastics from algae, we must domesticate Ehux or a species like it. Perhaps we can also train it to build nanostructures other than coccoliths, with possible applications that include optical-electronic technology and medicine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ci>Nature\u003c/i> paper, “Pan genome of the phytoplankton \u003ci>Emiliania\u003c/i> underpins its global distribution,” \u003ca href=\"http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature12221.html\">is available in full to all readers\u003c/a>. It is thick reading, but dense with meaning and promise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The name \u003ci>Emiliania huxleyi\u003c/i> honors achievements of two great polymaths in Earth science: \u003ca href=\"http://www.as.miami.edu/geology/emiliani\">Cesare Emiliani\u003c/a> (1922–1995), founder of paleoclimatology, and \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Huxley\">Thomas Henry Huxley\u003c/a> (1825–1895), discoverer of coccoliths. Learn more about Ehux at the \u003ca>Ehux home page\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several California institutions were part of this effort, most notably the Department of Energy’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.jgi.doe.gov/News/news_13_06_12.html\">Joint Genome Institute\u003c/a> in Walnut Creek. Others included Cal State San Marcos, the Craig Venter Institute, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, UC Santa Barbara and Cal State Chico.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_4324\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/EHux.gif\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4324\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/EHux.gif\" alt=\"Emiliania huxleyi\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4324\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u003ci>Emiliania huxleyi\u003c/i> is a one-celled alga that lives inside a shell of coccoliths. Courtesy Gerhard Langer, Alfred Wegener Institute\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This week in the journal \u003ci>Nature\u003c/i>, a worldwide team of 75 scientists revealed the genetic blueprint of the one-celled alga \u003ci>Emiliania huxleyi\u003c/i>, which may be the most important species you’ve never heard of. The genomes of the domestic dog and cat are interesting, but the \u003ci>E. huxleyi\u003c/i> genome is a much bigger story. Some day this organism may become another of our partner species, as vital to us as yeast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oceanographers of all kinds know \u003ci>Emiliania huxleyi\u003c/i> by the nickname “Ehux,” and that’s what I’ll call it too. Among the marine algae, Ehux is classified as a coccolithophore, so named because it builds loose shells around itself made of coccoliths. Coccoliths, in turn, are the intricate disks seen in the photo above at high magnification. The fate of Earth’s changing climate may ride on coccoliths.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the world’s atmospheric carbon cycle, the ocean is ultimately in charge. And in the ocean’s carbon cycle, Ehux is a keystone species. To make coccoliths, Ehux takes carbon dioxide dissolved in seawater and combines it with calcium ions in the water to make calcium carbonate (the mineral calcite), somehow rendering its spiky crystals into shapes elegant enough to inspire new forms of pasta. CO\u003csub>2\u003c/sub> from the air replaces what’s removed from the seawater. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Coccolithophores are the single largest producer of biogenic calcium carbonate on Earth, and Ehux is their leading species. Ehux grows in every part of the ocean except around the frozen poles. It’s prone to enormous blooms—bursts of reproduction that may cover areas as large as California. Ehux blooms, with their uncountable numbers of coccoliths, reflect so much light that they turn the water a milky blue that is easily monitored by satellites. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_4325\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 400px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/ehuxbloom.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4325\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/ehuxbloom.jpg\" alt=\"Ehux bloom\" width=\"400\" height=\"240\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4325\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A large bloom of \u003ci>Emiliania huxleyi\u003c/i> in the North Atlantic. NASA image\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Shed coccoliths drift down to the seafloor, and in favorable times in the geologic past they have formed beds of chalk. (The climax era of the dinosaurs, the Cretaceous Period, got its name from the thick chalk beds of Europe.) Chalk, and the coccoliths that compose it, represent carbon removed from the atmosphere. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another special skill of Ehux is turning sulfur compounds into the gas dimethyl sulfide, a major ingredient in the formation of sea clouds. Its dual roles in cloud formation and CO\u003csub>2\u003c/sub> regulation put Ehux at the crux of global climate. As atmospheric carbon dioxide rises today we need to learn, as fast as possible, exactly how nature handles it. The open-access \u003ci>Nature\u003c/i> paper promises to put our hands on Ehux’s genetic toolkit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What can we do with that? The possible benefits range from pure science to pure technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Emiliania huxleyi\u003c/i>‘s genome turns out to be as big as that of a full-grown land plant, at 141 million bases. That’s one reason the gene-mapping project took ten years. Another reason is that the genome is an extraordinarily diverse “pan genome,” with a core set of genes and a large set of optional ones suited to particular environments. The pan genome enables Ehux to cope with a wide range of limiting conditions like low nutrient levels and strong ultraviolet radiation. The research team found that Ehux strains in different oceans were less than 80 percent similar—compare that to humans, who are 99 percent similar around the world. This is the first pan genome found outside bacteria. And Ehux may also be as adept as bacteria at gene-swapping. These factors make Ehux extremely adaptable and account for its worldwide abundance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We can make use of genes that control so many things. “\u003ci>E. huxleyi\u003c/i> synthesizes unusual lipids that are used as nutritional/feedstock supplements, polymer precursors and petrochemical replacements,” the authors note. If we are to master the science of making \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/audio/biofuels-face-a-reality-check/\">biofuels\u003c/a> and sustainable plastics from algae, we must domesticate Ehux or a species like it. Perhaps we can also train it to build nanostructures other than coccoliths, with possible applications that include optical-electronic technology and medicine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ci>Nature\u003c/i> paper, “Pan genome of the phytoplankton \u003ci>Emiliania\u003c/i> underpins its global distribution,” \u003ca href=\"http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature12221.html\">is available in full to all readers\u003c/a>. It is thick reading, but dense with meaning and promise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The name \u003ci>Emiliania huxleyi\u003c/i> honors achievements of two great polymaths in Earth science: \u003ca href=\"http://www.as.miami.edu/geology/emiliani\">Cesare Emiliani\u003c/a> (1922–1995), founder of paleoclimatology, and \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Huxley\">Thomas Henry Huxley\u003c/a> (1825–1895), discoverer of coccoliths. Learn more about Ehux at the \u003ca>Ehux home page\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several California institutions were part of this effort, most notably the Department of Energy’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.jgi.doe.gov/News/news_13_06_12.html\">Joint Genome Institute\u003c/a> in Walnut Creek. Others included Cal State San Marcos, the Craig Venter Institute, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, UC Santa Barbara and Cal State Chico.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Eucalyptus: California Icon, Fire Hazard and Invasive Species",
"headTitle": "Eucalyptus: California Icon, Fire Hazard and Invasive Species | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_4236\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/epicormic-bud.small_.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4236\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/epicormic-bud.small_.jpg\" alt='Specialized reproductive structures caleld \"epicormic shoots\" sprout from buds on the bushfire damaged trunk of a Eucalyptus tree, about two years after the 2003 Eastern Victorian alpine bushfires. (Near Anglers Rest, Victoria, Australia./jjron)' width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4236\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Specialized reproductive structures called “epicormic shoots” sprout from buds on the bushfire damaged trunk of a Eucalyptus tree, about two years after the 2003 Eastern Victorian alpine bushfires. Near Anglers Rest, Victoria, Australia. (Photo: jjron)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Biologists now count invasive species as a major threat to biological diversity second only to direct habitat loss and fragmentation. Why do they worry when new species enter an ecosystem? More than 90 percent of introduced plants in California have overcome barriers to survival and reproduction in their new home without harming native species. But a fraction display invasive traits, displacing native species and reshaping the ecological landscape. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tasmanian blue gum eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus), a symbol of California for some, never knew California soil \u003ca href=\"http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/publications/documents/psw_gtr069/psw_gtr069.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">until the 1850s\u003c/a>, when seeds from Australia were planted, first as ornamentals, then mostly for timber and fuel. The California Invasive Plant Council (CAL-IPC) classifies blue gum eucalyptus as a \u003ca href=\"http://www.cal-ipc.org/paf/site/paf/342\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">“moderate” invasive\u003c/a> because the trees need certain conditions to thrive. For the most part, they’re not a problem in the drier regions of Southern California or the Central Valley. But along the coast, where summer fog brings buckets of moisture, it’s a different story. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Blue gum invades neighboring plant communities if adequate moisture is available for propagation, state resource ecologist David Boyd \u003ca href=\"http://www.cal-ipc.org/ip/management/ipcw/pages/detailreport.cfm@usernumber=48&surveynumber=182.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">noted in a report\u003c/a> for CAL-IPC. Once established, the trees can alter local soil moisture, light availability, fire patterns, nitrogen mineralization rates and soil chemistry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Introduced species can disrupt ecological relationships among species that co-evolved over millennia, which is why \u003ca href=\"http://www.elkhornslough.org/habitat-restoration/projects/oak-woodland.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">many groups work\u003c/a> to remove eucalyptus and restore coast live oaks. California’s native oak woodlands still \u003ca href=\"http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/topics/ecosystem_processes/sierra/bio_diversity/habitat_relationship_terrestrial_sub5/abundance_distribution.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sustain more biodiversity\u003c/a> than any other terrestrial landscape even though more than a century of intensive agricultural, rangeland and urban development has claimed some \u003ca href=\"http://www.placer.ca.gov/~/media/cdr/Planning/PCCP/BackgroundData/OakWoodlands/OakWoodlandMgtPlan.ashx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">5 million acres of woodlands\u003c/a>. (While settlers cleared the land of oaks, entrepreneurs planted eucalyptus trees by the millions.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Historic fire risk\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nThat’s why many ecologists welcome \u003ca href=\"http://ebheis.cdmims.com/Files/FAQ%204-1-13.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a plan to remove tens of thousands\u003c/a> of eucalyptus and other non-native trees from the East Bay Hills to reduce fire risk. UC Berkeley, together with the City of Oakland and the East Bay Regional Park District, applied for \u003ca href=\"http://www.fema.gov/news-release/2013/05/17/fema-reviews-bay-area-pre-disaster-funding-applications-invites-public\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">up to $5.6 million\u003c/a> in grants to remove the non-natives—primarily eucalyptus, Monterey pine and acacia—under the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Pre-Disaster Mitigation and Hazard Mitigation Grant programs. The total project would cover just under 1,000 acres and includes plans to encourage regrowth of native oak and bay trees. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ebheis.cdmims.com/Libraries/Site_Documents/Executive_Summary.sflb.ashx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fifteen major fires\u003c/a> roared through 9,000 acres of the East Bay Hills between 1923 and 1992, incinerating some 4,000 homes and killing 26 people. The Oakland “Tunnel” fire, considered the worst in California history, caused an estimated $1.5 billion in damage, destroyed more than 3,000 homes and killed 25 people. Following the Oakland fire, disaster experts urged large landowners in the East Bay Hills to work together to manage vegetation to prevent another catastrophic wildfire, says Tom Klatt, who manages environmental projects for UC Berkeley and serves on the UC Fire Mitigation Committee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Blue gum eucalyptus is one of the most fire-intensive plants,” says Klatt. Trees not only put a lot of fuel on the ground as they shed bark, leaves and twigs, but in intense fires, volatile compounds in foliage cause explosive burning. “Once bark catches fire, it gets blown ahead of the flame front and drops burning embers by the tens of thousands per acre in the urban community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A 1923 fire started at Inspiration Point ran through the eucalyptus trees until it hit the ridgeline at Grizzly Peak, then came down to University and Shattuck before the wind finally changed direction, Klatt says. “It took out 568 homes on the north side of the Berkeley campus in two hours.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the fire risk, the plan remains contentious. Some residents worry about the use of \u003ca href=\"http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/site/fema-plans-clear-cutting-85000-berkeley-and-oakland-trees\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pesticides\u003c/a>, some feel eucalyptus’ \u003ca href=\"http://oaklandlocal.com/2013/06/storm-of-controversy-rages-over-fire-hazard-reduction-plans-for-oakland-hills/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">flammability is overstated \u003c/a>and others who consider the trees cultural icons view the plans as \u003ca href=\"http://rockridge.patch.com/groups/around-town/p/proposal-to-reduce-fire-risk-in-east-bay-hills-by-cutting-85000-trees-draws-a-crowd\">an attack on a species\u003c/a> that’s been here so long we should consider it native. (For the record, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.cnps.org/cnps/archive/exotics.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">California Native Plant Society\u003c/a> defines “native” as any species that predated European contact.) Predicting how an introduced species will behave is complicated by the fact that ecological effects are difficult to observe—and may only appear when it’s too late to control.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ecological impacts of eucalyptus \u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nEvidence of the trees’ impacts on East Bay ecosystems is relatively scarce. A \u003ca href=\"http://elkhornsloughctp.org/uploads/files/1109813068Sax2002.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2002 study\u003c/a> of the Berkeley hills found similar numbers and diversity of species in eucalyptus and native woodlands, but the species themselves were different. Monarchs use groves in Point Pinole as resting spots and several bird species, including \u003ca href=\"http://ebheis.cdmims.com/Libraries/Site_Documents/1_2_3.sflb.ashx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">herons and egrets,\u003c/a> nest in eucalyptus in and near the tree-removal project areas, though how their use affects their reproductive success isn’t clear. (Klatt says that though he hasn’t seen nests in the UCB project areas, the law requires that they take steps to protect nesting birds and any species under state and federal protection.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More evidence comes from the Central Coast. At \u003ca href=\"http://www.elkhornsloughctp.org/training/show_train_detail.php?TRAIN_ID=EcoGYZ22\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a 2004 workshop\u003c/a> on the blue gum’s impact on the ecology of coastal ecosystems, researchers reported conflicting effects. Eucalyptus stands can provide habitat for birds near cities and water bodies, and for overwintering monarch butterflies. But the trees change the composition of insect and bird communities as they invade: the loss of native trees that grow along rivers could spell trouble for \u003ca href=\"http://nationalzoo.si.edu/scbi/migratorybirds/fact_sheets/default.cfm?fxsht=9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">neotropical migratory songbirds\u003c/a> and for species that nest in tree cavities. And when eucalyptus leaves enter streams, aquatic macroinvertebrate communities change, altering the food chain, likely because the chemical content of eucalyptus leaves differs from native foliage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_4243\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/coast-live-oak.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4243\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/coast-live-oak.jpg\" alt=\"Coast Live Oak (Quercus agrifolia) — off Highway 101 in California. Though oak woodlands sustain more wildlife species than any other landscape, only 4 percent of the state’s woodland habitats are protected. The vast majority remain in private hands. (Photo: Peter O'Malley)\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4243\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Blue oak (Quercus douglasii) — off Highway 101 in California. Though oak woodlands sustain more wildlife species than any other landscape, only 4 percent of the state’s woodland habitats are protected. The vast majority remain in private hands. (Photo: Peter O’Malley)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>By the time the eucalyptus trees were planted in the East Bay, typically in 12 foot by 12 foot plots, most native woodlands and perennial native grasslands had already been converted to annual European grasslands, says forest ecologist Joe McBride, professor of environmental science, policy and management at the University of California at Berkeley. “And certainly by now a number of species are using those trees but they were here before the eucalyptus was planted, using oak woodlands, riparian woodlands and redwood forests in the East Bay. They just spread to eucalyptus and Monterey pines when the trees grew big enough. These populations aren’t going to disappear if eucalyptus is removed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But removal has proven difficult. “After two previous removal efforts in the 1970s and again in the 1980s, the trees have grown back,” Klatt says. Successful eradication requires at least 10 years of maintenance and drizzling about 2 ounces of diluted herbicide directly to the cut stump immediately after felling a tree, he explains. “If you do it within the first three minutes, we see 95 percent to 98 percent success with a single treatment.” But if the trees resprout, more applications will be needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plan aims to selectively cut eucalyptus while leaving bay, oaks and other native trees in the understory. “The more understory we preserve, the faster it recovers,” says Klatt. The plan also calls for retaining all the cut wood as chips for erosion control and moisture retention, and to encourage native regrowth, aided by birds and squirrels that plant acorns in chip beds. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McBride hasn’t seen evidence of eucalyptus’ invasive tendencies in the East Bay Hills but worries about its combustible nature. “We imported this plant from Australia but we didn’t import the normal fungus that decays the litter in Australia,” he says. Accumulations of bark and leaf litter under eucalyptus stands have measured up to 100 tons per acre, compared to about 3 tons per acre for coast live oaks. “It’s an enormous increase.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Selected for flammability?\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nSo how does the blue gum act in its native environment? For David Bowman, a forest ecologist at the University of Tasmania in Australia, the question isn’t whether the trees are native or non-native—it’s whether they’re dangerous. “Looking at the eucalyptus forest outside my window in Tasmania, I see a gigantic fire hazard.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At very high temperatures, eucalypt species release a flammable gas that mixes with air to send fireballs exploding out in front of the fire. With eucalyptus, you see these ember attacks, with huge bursts of sparks shooting out of the forests, Bowman says. “It’s just an extraordinary idea for a plant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though it’s difficult to prove, Bowman suspects the trees evolved to be “uber flammable.” Sixty million years ago eucalyptus species hit on a way to recover from intense fire, he explains, using specialized structures hidden deep within their bark that allow rapid recovery through new branches, instead of re-sprouting from the roots like other trees. “They have this adaptive advantage of not having to rebuild their trunk. Whether their oil-rich foliage is also an adaptation, we don’t know.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you aren’t familiar with the idea of a plant designed to burn in its life cycle, you can get fooled by its beauty and nice smell, Bowman says. “But on a really hot day, those things are going to burn like torches and shower our suburbs with sparks. And on an extremely hot day, they’re going to shoot out gas balls.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With tiny pinhead seeds that germinate only in disturbed soils, the trees really aren’t good invaders, Bowman says–with one exception. “Fire opens up the woody capsules that hold the seeds, which love growing on freshly burned soil. Give a hillside a really good torching and the eucalyptus will absolutely dominate. They’ll grow intensively in the first few years of life and outcompete everything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The evolutionary dimensions of fire ecology are controversial, Bowman allows. “But if eucalyptus are these evolutionary freak plants that massively increase fire risk,” he says, it raises a troubling question: Are these intense fires a consequence of climate change or the interaction of climate and biology? “If it’s the latter, then what the hell have humans done? We’ve spread a dangerous plant all over the world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>*****\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For more information:\u003cbr>\nYou can still submit written comments to FEMA until midnight, June 17, 2013: via email at EBH-EIS-FEMA-RIX@fema.dhs.gov, via fax at FAX: (510) 627-7147, or via mail to P.O. Box 72379, Oakland, CA 94612-8579.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ebheis.cdmims.com/Libraries/Site_Documents/Executive_Summary.sflb.ashx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Executive summary of the project.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2013/may/26/firestorm-bushfire-dunalley-holmes-family\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Firestorm: \u003c/a>the story of a catastrophic fire that struck the Tasmanian township of Dunalley January 4, 2013.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "After more than 150 years on the California landscape, eucalyptus trees have iconic status for some Californians. But the stately trees may not only disrupt the native ecology, but seem to have evolved special adaptations that allow them to thrive after intense fires. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_4236\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/epicormic-bud.small_.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4236\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/epicormic-bud.small_.jpg\" alt='Specialized reproductive structures caleld \"epicormic shoots\" sprout from buds on the bushfire damaged trunk of a Eucalyptus tree, about two years after the 2003 Eastern Victorian alpine bushfires. (Near Anglers Rest, Victoria, Australia./jjron)' width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4236\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Specialized reproductive structures called “epicormic shoots” sprout from buds on the bushfire damaged trunk of a Eucalyptus tree, about two years after the 2003 Eastern Victorian alpine bushfires. Near Anglers Rest, Victoria, Australia. (Photo: jjron)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Biologists now count invasive species as a major threat to biological diversity second only to direct habitat loss and fragmentation. Why do they worry when new species enter an ecosystem? More than 90 percent of introduced plants in California have overcome barriers to survival and reproduction in their new home without harming native species. But a fraction display invasive traits, displacing native species and reshaping the ecological landscape. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tasmanian blue gum eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus), a symbol of California for some, never knew California soil \u003ca href=\"http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/publications/documents/psw_gtr069/psw_gtr069.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">until the 1850s\u003c/a>, when seeds from Australia were planted, first as ornamentals, then mostly for timber and fuel. The California Invasive Plant Council (CAL-IPC) classifies blue gum eucalyptus as a \u003ca href=\"http://www.cal-ipc.org/paf/site/paf/342\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">“moderate” invasive\u003c/a> because the trees need certain conditions to thrive. For the most part, they’re not a problem in the drier regions of Southern California or the Central Valley. But along the coast, where summer fog brings buckets of moisture, it’s a different story. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Blue gum invades neighboring plant communities if adequate moisture is available for propagation, state resource ecologist David Boyd \u003ca href=\"http://www.cal-ipc.org/ip/management/ipcw/pages/detailreport.cfm@usernumber=48&surveynumber=182.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">noted in a report\u003c/a> for CAL-IPC. Once established, the trees can alter local soil moisture, light availability, fire patterns, nitrogen mineralization rates and soil chemistry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Introduced species can disrupt ecological relationships among species that co-evolved over millennia, which is why \u003ca href=\"http://www.elkhornslough.org/habitat-restoration/projects/oak-woodland.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">many groups work\u003c/a> to remove eucalyptus and restore coast live oaks. California’s native oak woodlands still \u003ca href=\"http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/topics/ecosystem_processes/sierra/bio_diversity/habitat_relationship_terrestrial_sub5/abundance_distribution.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sustain more biodiversity\u003c/a> than any other terrestrial landscape even though more than a century of intensive agricultural, rangeland and urban development has claimed some \u003ca href=\"http://www.placer.ca.gov/~/media/cdr/Planning/PCCP/BackgroundData/OakWoodlands/OakWoodlandMgtPlan.ashx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">5 million acres of woodlands\u003c/a>. (While settlers cleared the land of oaks, entrepreneurs planted eucalyptus trees by the millions.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Historic fire risk\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nThat’s why many ecologists welcome \u003ca href=\"http://ebheis.cdmims.com/Files/FAQ%204-1-13.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a plan to remove tens of thousands\u003c/a> of eucalyptus and other non-native trees from the East Bay Hills to reduce fire risk. UC Berkeley, together with the City of Oakland and the East Bay Regional Park District, applied for \u003ca href=\"http://www.fema.gov/news-release/2013/05/17/fema-reviews-bay-area-pre-disaster-funding-applications-invites-public\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">up to $5.6 million\u003c/a> in grants to remove the non-natives—primarily eucalyptus, Monterey pine and acacia—under the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Pre-Disaster Mitigation and Hazard Mitigation Grant programs. The total project would cover just under 1,000 acres and includes plans to encourage regrowth of native oak and bay trees. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ebheis.cdmims.com/Libraries/Site_Documents/Executive_Summary.sflb.ashx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fifteen major fires\u003c/a> roared through 9,000 acres of the East Bay Hills between 1923 and 1992, incinerating some 4,000 homes and killing 26 people. The Oakland “Tunnel” fire, considered the worst in California history, caused an estimated $1.5 billion in damage, destroyed more than 3,000 homes and killed 25 people. Following the Oakland fire, disaster experts urged large landowners in the East Bay Hills to work together to manage vegetation to prevent another catastrophic wildfire, says Tom Klatt, who manages environmental projects for UC Berkeley and serves on the UC Fire Mitigation Committee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Blue gum eucalyptus is one of the most fire-intensive plants,” says Klatt. Trees not only put a lot of fuel on the ground as they shed bark, leaves and twigs, but in intense fires, volatile compounds in foliage cause explosive burning. “Once bark catches fire, it gets blown ahead of the flame front and drops burning embers by the tens of thousands per acre in the urban community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A 1923 fire started at Inspiration Point ran through the eucalyptus trees until it hit the ridgeline at Grizzly Peak, then came down to University and Shattuck before the wind finally changed direction, Klatt says. “It took out 568 homes on the north side of the Berkeley campus in two hours.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the fire risk, the plan remains contentious. Some residents worry about the use of \u003ca href=\"http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/site/fema-plans-clear-cutting-85000-berkeley-and-oakland-trees\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pesticides\u003c/a>, some feel eucalyptus’ \u003ca href=\"http://oaklandlocal.com/2013/06/storm-of-controversy-rages-over-fire-hazard-reduction-plans-for-oakland-hills/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">flammability is overstated \u003c/a>and others who consider the trees cultural icons view the plans as \u003ca href=\"http://rockridge.patch.com/groups/around-town/p/proposal-to-reduce-fire-risk-in-east-bay-hills-by-cutting-85000-trees-draws-a-crowd\">an attack on a species\u003c/a> that’s been here so long we should consider it native. (For the record, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.cnps.org/cnps/archive/exotics.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">California Native Plant Society\u003c/a> defines “native” as any species that predated European contact.) Predicting how an introduced species will behave is complicated by the fact that ecological effects are difficult to observe—and may only appear when it’s too late to control.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ecological impacts of eucalyptus \u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nEvidence of the trees’ impacts on East Bay ecosystems is relatively scarce. A \u003ca href=\"http://elkhornsloughctp.org/uploads/files/1109813068Sax2002.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2002 study\u003c/a> of the Berkeley hills found similar numbers and diversity of species in eucalyptus and native woodlands, but the species themselves were different. Monarchs use groves in Point Pinole as resting spots and several bird species, including \u003ca href=\"http://ebheis.cdmims.com/Libraries/Site_Documents/1_2_3.sflb.ashx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">herons and egrets,\u003c/a> nest in eucalyptus in and near the tree-removal project areas, though how their use affects their reproductive success isn’t clear. (Klatt says that though he hasn’t seen nests in the UCB project areas, the law requires that they take steps to protect nesting birds and any species under state and federal protection.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More evidence comes from the Central Coast. At \u003ca href=\"http://www.elkhornsloughctp.org/training/show_train_detail.php?TRAIN_ID=EcoGYZ22\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a 2004 workshop\u003c/a> on the blue gum’s impact on the ecology of coastal ecosystems, researchers reported conflicting effects. Eucalyptus stands can provide habitat for birds near cities and water bodies, and for overwintering monarch butterflies. But the trees change the composition of insect and bird communities as they invade: the loss of native trees that grow along rivers could spell trouble for \u003ca href=\"http://nationalzoo.si.edu/scbi/migratorybirds/fact_sheets/default.cfm?fxsht=9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">neotropical migratory songbirds\u003c/a> and for species that nest in tree cavities. And when eucalyptus leaves enter streams, aquatic macroinvertebrate communities change, altering the food chain, likely because the chemical content of eucalyptus leaves differs from native foliage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_4243\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/coast-live-oak.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4243\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/coast-live-oak.jpg\" alt=\"Coast Live Oak (Quercus agrifolia) — off Highway 101 in California. Though oak woodlands sustain more wildlife species than any other landscape, only 4 percent of the state’s woodland habitats are protected. The vast majority remain in private hands. (Photo: Peter O'Malley)\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4243\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Blue oak (Quercus douglasii) — off Highway 101 in California. Though oak woodlands sustain more wildlife species than any other landscape, only 4 percent of the state’s woodland habitats are protected. The vast majority remain in private hands. (Photo: Peter O’Malley)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>By the time the eucalyptus trees were planted in the East Bay, typically in 12 foot by 12 foot plots, most native woodlands and perennial native grasslands had already been converted to annual European grasslands, says forest ecologist Joe McBride, professor of environmental science, policy and management at the University of California at Berkeley. “And certainly by now a number of species are using those trees but they were here before the eucalyptus was planted, using oak woodlands, riparian woodlands and redwood forests in the East Bay. They just spread to eucalyptus and Monterey pines when the trees grew big enough. These populations aren’t going to disappear if eucalyptus is removed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But removal has proven difficult. “After two previous removal efforts in the 1970s and again in the 1980s, the trees have grown back,” Klatt says. Successful eradication requires at least 10 years of maintenance and drizzling about 2 ounces of diluted herbicide directly to the cut stump immediately after felling a tree, he explains. “If you do it within the first three minutes, we see 95 percent to 98 percent success with a single treatment.” But if the trees resprout, more applications will be needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plan aims to selectively cut eucalyptus while leaving bay, oaks and other native trees in the understory. “The more understory we preserve, the faster it recovers,” says Klatt. The plan also calls for retaining all the cut wood as chips for erosion control and moisture retention, and to encourage native regrowth, aided by birds and squirrels that plant acorns in chip beds. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McBride hasn’t seen evidence of eucalyptus’ invasive tendencies in the East Bay Hills but worries about its combustible nature. “We imported this plant from Australia but we didn’t import the normal fungus that decays the litter in Australia,” he says. Accumulations of bark and leaf litter under eucalyptus stands have measured up to 100 tons per acre, compared to about 3 tons per acre for coast live oaks. “It’s an enormous increase.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Selected for flammability?\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nSo how does the blue gum act in its native environment? For David Bowman, a forest ecologist at the University of Tasmania in Australia, the question isn’t whether the trees are native or non-native—it’s whether they’re dangerous. “Looking at the eucalyptus forest outside my window in Tasmania, I see a gigantic fire hazard.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At very high temperatures, eucalypt species release a flammable gas that mixes with air to send fireballs exploding out in front of the fire. With eucalyptus, you see these ember attacks, with huge bursts of sparks shooting out of the forests, Bowman says. “It’s just an extraordinary idea for a plant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though it’s difficult to prove, Bowman suspects the trees evolved to be “uber flammable.” Sixty million years ago eucalyptus species hit on a way to recover from intense fire, he explains, using specialized structures hidden deep within their bark that allow rapid recovery through new branches, instead of re-sprouting from the roots like other trees. “They have this adaptive advantage of not having to rebuild their trunk. Whether their oil-rich foliage is also an adaptation, we don’t know.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you aren’t familiar with the idea of a plant designed to burn in its life cycle, you can get fooled by its beauty and nice smell, Bowman says. “But on a really hot day, those things are going to burn like torches and shower our suburbs with sparks. And on an extremely hot day, they’re going to shoot out gas balls.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With tiny pinhead seeds that germinate only in disturbed soils, the trees really aren’t good invaders, Bowman says–with one exception. “Fire opens up the woody capsules that hold the seeds, which love growing on freshly burned soil. Give a hillside a really good torching and the eucalyptus will absolutely dominate. They’ll grow intensively in the first few years of life and outcompete everything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The evolutionary dimensions of fire ecology are controversial, Bowman allows. “But if eucalyptus are these evolutionary freak plants that massively increase fire risk,” he says, it raises a troubling question: Are these intense fires a consequence of climate change or the interaction of climate and biology? “If it’s the latter, then what the hell have humans done? We’ve spread a dangerous plant all over the world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>*****\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For more information:\u003cbr>\nYou can still submit written comments to FEMA until midnight, June 17, 2013: via email at EBH-EIS-FEMA-RIX@fema.dhs.gov, via fax at FAX: (510) 627-7147, or via mail to P.O. Box 72379, Oakland, CA 94612-8579.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ebheis.cdmims.com/Libraries/Site_Documents/Executive_Summary.sflb.ashx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Executive summary of the project.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2013/may/26/firestorm-bushfire-dunalley-holmes-family\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Firestorm: \u003c/a>the story of a catastrophic fire that struck the Tasmanian township of Dunalley January 4, 2013.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "De-Extinction Debate: Should Extinct Species Be Revived?",
"headTitle": "De-Extinction Debate: Should Extinct Species Be Revived? | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3950\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/woollymammoth-e1370469708815.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3950\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-3950 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/woollymammoth-e1370469708815.jpg\" alt=\"Woolly mammoths thrived during the last ice age, in the Pleistocene, until planetary warming--which the most recent evidence suggests came from a meteorite--killed them off thousands of years ago. (Image: Mauricio Anton, PLOS Biology)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Woolly mammoths thrived during the last ice age until rapid planetary warming–which the most recent evidence suggests followed a meteor strike–killed them off thousands of years ago. (Image: Mauricio Anton, PLOS Biology)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Last month, hundreds of experts who study human-environment interactions called on policymakers to take immediate action to curb humanity’s ecologically destructive ways. Accelerating trends of human-driven extinction, ecosystem loss, climate change, pollution, and consumption, the scientists wrote in \u003ca href=\"http://mahb.stanford.edu/consensus-statement-from-global-scientists/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a consensus statement\u003c/a>, “are threatening the life-support systems upon which we all depend.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If current rates of extinction continue, the statement warns, we could see the loss of 75 percent of vertebrate species within three centuries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As conservation scientists struggle to stem the \u003ca href=\"http://ib.berkeley.edu/labs/barnosky/Barnosky%20et%20al%20Sixth%20Extinction%20Nature.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">catastrophic loss of biodiversity\u003c/a>, some synthetic biologists are working to bring extinct species back to life. You might think the two groups would be working together. But until recently, most conservation biologists knew little of the so-called “Revive and Restore” movement, which until the TEDxDeExtinction conference in March, had been meeting largely behind closed doors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following a private meeting of “de-extinction” pioneers at Harvard Medical School last February, the National Geographic Society and San Francisco’s Long Now Foundation brought molecular biologists and conservation biologists together in October to discuss strategies for resurrecting extinct species. The organizers admitted just one journalist to the October meeting, and orchestrated media coverage of de-extinction with the \u003ca href=\"http://www.ted.com/tedx/events/7650\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">TEDx conference\u003c/a> and a National Geographic cover story a few weeks later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://longnow.org/revive/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Revive and Restore Project\u003c/a> is the brainchild of \u003ca href=\"http://longnow.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Long Now Foundation\u003c/a> co-founder Stewart Brand and his wife Ryan Phelan, a serial entrepreneur who most recently sold her consumer genetic testing business DNA Direct to Fortune 500 company Medco. Their top candidates for de-extinction include the passenger pigeon and the woolly mammoth. Brand and Phelan promote the project as a way to restore lost genetic diversity with its mission of ensuring “deep ecological enrichment through extinct species revival.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But some working on the front lines of biodiversity conservation are skeptical. In a \u003ca href=\"http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1001530\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">commentary published in April\u003c/a>, leading conservation scientists noted that few of their colleagues had considered synthetic biology’s potential effects on conservation, even though it might “transform…the prospects for maintaining biodiversity.” The authors outlined several ways that recreated extinct organisms could potentially affect strategic biodiversity goals—some positive, many negative. Their point was that no one knows, but conservation biologists better start paying attention (see chart, below).\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3953\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/pbiogoals-e1370477025321.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/pbiogoals-e1370477025321.jpg\" alt=\"Examples of how synthetic biology, promised or developed at even modest scales, could significantly affect the Aichi Biodiversity TargetsExamples of how synthetic biology, promised or developed at even modest scales, could significantly affect the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, adopted by the 2010 Convention on Biodiversity's Conference of the Parties. Click the image to see a larger version. (PLOS Biology, Redford et al.)\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3953\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Examples of how synthetic biology, promised or developed at even modest scales, could significantly affect the Aichi Biodiversity TargetsExamples of how synthetic biology, promised or developed at even modest scales, could significantly affect the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, adopted by the 2010 Convention on Biodiversity’s Conference of the Parties. Click the image to see a larger version. (PLOS Biology, Redford et al.)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Hank Greely, director of Stanford University’s Center for Law and the Biosciences, admits a longstanding fascination with the prospect of reviving extinct species, but couldn’t decide whether it was really a good idea. So he organized a \u003ca href=\"http://www.law.stanford.edu/event/2013/05/31/de-extinction-ethics-law-politics\">conference at Stanford last week\u003c/a> and invited philosophers, lawyers, biologists, and wildlife professionals to think through the complex ethical, legal and political issues de-extinction raises.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think one of the reasons this issue has bubbled to the surface so quickly is that the technology is converging with the coolness of the idea of bringing things back, mixing with a sense of guilt we feel with driving things extinct,” University of Kansas law professor Andrew Torrance told me. But de-extinction raises several “definitional conundrums,” he said in this talk. Are de-extinct organisms GMOs? Invasive species?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And where would a resurrected species fit into environmental law? Conference co-organizer Alex Camacho, director of UC Irvine’s Law Center for Land, Environment and Natural Resources, said the Endangered Species Act has no framework for de-extinction, since its creators couldn’t possibly have imagined the prospect. Shortly after revival of an organism, a species could potentially be listed as endangered, but is it the same species? A new species? An endangered species? The ESA \u003ca href=\"http://www.fws.gov/endangered/improving_esa/SPR_draft_policy_FAQs_FINAL_12-7-11.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">defines endangered\u003c/a> as “in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range.” But what is its range? Does it have a range? Presumably not, if you have one organism sitting in a lab, Camacho said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chuck Bonham, who directs the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife agency but was not representing the agency at the conference, wrestled with the management implications of de-extinction. “How can you be extinct if you’re always available for revival?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>De-extinction technology\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Technologies for recreating extinct species include back-breeding, cloning and genetic engineering. Though all have the potential to accomplish the task, said Beth Shapiro, an evolutionary biologist and ancient-DNA expert at the University of California at Santa Cruz, they also have drawbacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With back-breeding, scientists identify traits in the closest living relative and selectively breed offspring expressing desired traits until the animals resemble their extinct cousins. Sequencing bone and tooth fragments from extinct species speeds up the work of homing in on similar genome sequences in closely related descendants. Scientists in the Netherlands are using this approach to \u003ca href=\"http://www.taurosproject.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recreate the auroch\u003c/a>, giant wild European cattle that went extinct in 1627, from domestic cattle. Cattle have a generation time of three to six years. Trying to revive mammoths from increasingly bigger and hairier elephants, which start reproducing on average at 20 to 25 years, could take centuries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More problematic is cloning, where scientists remove the nucleus of an egg cell, replace it with the nucleus from a donor cell, tweak it to grow as an embryo and implant it in a surrogate mother. The process is highly fraught. Dolly, the famous cloned sheep, was the only lamb \u003ca href=\"http://www.biology.iupui.edu/biocourses/Biol540/12cloningfullCSS.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">born out of 277 attempts\u003c/a>—all the other clones died in utero or shortly after birth. In what’s considered the first successful de-extinction using this method, a Pyrenean ibex (a large wild goat that went extinct less than 15 years ago) carried by a hybrid ibex-goat, lived all of 12 minutes, and all in acute respiratory distress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If researchers attempt this with elephants as surrogates, it’s likely that the much smaller elephant mother would not fare well carrying a mammoth to term.* That doesn’t account for the ethics of turning such highly intelligent social animals, who appear to grieve the death of their kin, into mammoth-resurrection machines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3960\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 256px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/Passenger_Pigeon_001.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3960\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3960\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/Passenger_Pigeon_001.jpg\" alt=\"A specimen of the passenger pigeon, (Ectopistes migratorius), at Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden. Passenger pigeons once numbered in the billions. Overhunting and habitat loss led to a catastrophic decline within 20 years, and extinction by 1914.\" width=\"256\" height=\"354\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A specimen of the passenger pigeon, (Ectopistes migratorius), at Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden. Passenger pigeons once numbered in the billions. Overhunting and habitat loss led to a catastrophic decline within 20 years, and extinction by 1914.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Both methods, however, require intact genomes, which means you’d have to freeze cell lines taken from species before they went extinct. “If we’re going to de-extinct something that’s any older than something that we recently killed, we’re stuck with ancient DNA,” Shapiro said. And that means dealing with tiny fragments of DNA that are often tainted with bacteria and other contaminants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That leaves genome editing, finding the sequences that code for traits of interest and pasting them into an existing genome. But researchers are still refining methods to find the right place in the genome and deliver the DNA without creating problems like cancer. An even bigger problem is figuring out which parts of the genome make a mammoth woolly, the sea cow so big or passenger pigeons flock together, Shapiro said. Even if you could reconstruct the genome of an extinct species, the jump to assigning function to sequences is enormous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given all these issues, Shapiro said, “I think we should consider deeply \u003cem>why\u003c/em> do we want to de-extinct things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that, for many working to conserve biodiversity, is the primary question. “Conservation biologists worry that if people think we can revive species they won’t care about protecting what’s left,” said Kate Jones, joint chair of ecology and biodiversity at University of College London and the Zoological Society of London.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones, who spent most of her career thinking about what makes species go extinct, told me she understands the appeal of de-extinction. “Who wouldn’t be excited about the prospect of seeing a mammoth?” she allowed. “But the practicalities of doing it are actually quite terrifying.” And as a conservation strategy, “it’s a bit useless. It’s dressed up as conservation, but it’s not.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Jones, this isn’t about de-extinction. “It’s about creating new species. They’re just flashy GMOs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some senior conservation biologists refuse to engage with the topic because they think it’s not a legitimate debate, Jones told me. “But I think it’s kind of inevitable that this is going to happen whether it’s Stewart Brand or someone in their back garden.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then there’s the question of what you do with a species you’ve revived. Jamie Rappaport Clark, who served as head of US Fish and Wildlife under the Clinton Administration and now leads Defenders of Wildlife, urged de-extinction proponents to consider the politics of reviving species. De-extinction could justify stalling action on restoring habitat or saving species, for example. That would have doomed the Florida panther, which received an influx of genes from airlifted Texas cougars under her watch in a desperate move to save the big cat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s also worried that de-extinction will provide political cover for defunding conservation. “They’ll say, ‘We shouldn’t be funding recovery and preventing the extinction of species because we have a way out.’ It will undermine the entire integrity of the ESA, which is already under serious distress now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3954\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/Buffalo-Skulls-1870-e1370476943363.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/Buffalo-Skulls-1870-e1370476943363.jpg\" alt=\"Pile of American bison skulls waiting to be ground for fertilizer, circa 1870. (Burton Historical Collection/Detroit Public Library/Public domain)\" width=\"640\" height=\"474\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3954\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pile of American bison skulls waiting to be ground for fertilizer, circa 1870. (Burton Historical Collection/Detroit Public Library/Public domain)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>During a roundtable discussion, Brand raised the prospect of bringing back the saber-toothed cat to California to replace lost ecological roles of predators, at which point Bonham leapt up from his chair, joking, “I’m out of here!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He retrieved a piece a paper from his brief case and returned to tell Brand a story about the public’s uneasy relationship with predators. “We shot the last wolf in California about 100 years ago,” Bonham said. “One month after I came on the job, we got our first wolf back in California in 100 years.” Half the state wants him to create a wolf preserve. The other half wants to see history repeated. “We’re not ready,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bonham read a passage from the 1982 Fish and Wildlife grizzly bear recovery plan. “This is an animal that cannot compromise or adjust its way of life to ours. Could not by its very nature, could not even if we allowed it the opportunity, which we did not.” The only place for the grizzly bear in California remains on the state flag. “How in the world do you expect a saber tooth to fare any better than…the grizzly bear?” he asked Brand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brand did not answer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones asked Brand if any of the concerns conference participants raised about de-extinctinon had altered his vision. “Not yet,” he answered. “It makes me more determined…that we make completely sure that everybody understands that de-extinction and conservation are in no way competitive.” He said there’s now a generation of kids who now want to see woolly mammoths in a zoo. “When they do I think they’ll adopt a non-tragic relationship to nature and conservation with a sense that humans can…undo even serious damage like extinction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elizabeth Hadly, a Stanford paleontologist and Paul S. and Billie Achilles Chair of Environmental Biology, helped craft the recent call to action to policymakers. She thinks laboratory innovation rather than on-the-ground research is behind the de-extinction push. Funding for ecology and conservation pales compared to the big grants funding genomics and synthetic biology. Although she’s at Stanford, Hadly did not attend the conference. It pains her to think about what that money could do to protect the species already here—some hanging on by a thread.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The way we’re killing elephants now, we won’t have any more left in 10 or 20 years, she said. “And people are talking about mammoths? First of all, they were alive in an ice age. This is the completely wrong environment to bring them back to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She calls de-extinction “gee-whiz science at its worst” and thinks justifying it in terms of genetic diversity and ecosystem services makes no sense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Spending money to reintroduce recently lost existing species—even California’s grizzly bear—and restore habitat is a much better use of our time and energy”, she said. “Without habitat restoration”, she added, “the 750 mountain gorillas left on the planet won’t make it. I’d much rather combine the tiger subspecies together to create a better genetic reservoir than bring back some extinct organism.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clark, who spent her career working with species on the brink of extinction, offered a similar view. “The real question,” she told me, “is why would we spend all this energy and effort to bring back ancient animals but let so many others just disappear?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s been spending a lot of time thinking about our moral obligation to future generations. “Is it to create a couple of sad woolly mammoths that live in a zoo? Or is it to save the wolves and the panther and the Delhi sands flower-loving flies and the fisheries?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Clark, there’s no question. “We need to do a better job of stewarding what we have,” she said, “before we go rushing off after cool science experiments.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>*Note: Scientists think woolly mammoths were \u003ca href=\"http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/mammal/mesaxonia/elephantidae.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">roughly the same size as Asian elephants\u003c/a>, though the Columbian mammoth (\u003ca href=\"http://www.nhm.org/site/research-collections/rancho-la-brea/about-zed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">which once lived in California\u003c/a>) was bigger.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "As conservation scientists struggle to stem the catastrophic loss of biodiversity, some synthetic biologists are working to bring extinct species back to life. Some believe it's the right thing to do to atone for driving species extinct. But many conservation biologists say it's far more important to save those still among us.",
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"description": "As conservation scientists struggle to stem the catastrophic loss of biodiversity, some synthetic biologists are working to bring extinct species back to life. Some believe it's the right thing to do to atone for driving species extinct. But many conservation biologists say it's far more important to save those still among us.",
"title": "De-Extinction Debate: Should Extinct Species Be Revived? | KQED",
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"headline": "De-Extinction Debate: Should Extinct Species Be Revived?",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3950\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/woollymammoth-e1370469708815.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3950\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-3950 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/woollymammoth-e1370469708815.jpg\" alt=\"Woolly mammoths thrived during the last ice age, in the Pleistocene, until planetary warming--which the most recent evidence suggests came from a meteorite--killed them off thousands of years ago. (Image: Mauricio Anton, PLOS Biology)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Woolly mammoths thrived during the last ice age until rapid planetary warming–which the most recent evidence suggests followed a meteor strike–killed them off thousands of years ago. (Image: Mauricio Anton, PLOS Biology)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Last month, hundreds of experts who study human-environment interactions called on policymakers to take immediate action to curb humanity’s ecologically destructive ways. Accelerating trends of human-driven extinction, ecosystem loss, climate change, pollution, and consumption, the scientists wrote in \u003ca href=\"http://mahb.stanford.edu/consensus-statement-from-global-scientists/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a consensus statement\u003c/a>, “are threatening the life-support systems upon which we all depend.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If current rates of extinction continue, the statement warns, we could see the loss of 75 percent of vertebrate species within three centuries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As conservation scientists struggle to stem the \u003ca href=\"http://ib.berkeley.edu/labs/barnosky/Barnosky%20et%20al%20Sixth%20Extinction%20Nature.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">catastrophic loss of biodiversity\u003c/a>, some synthetic biologists are working to bring extinct species back to life. You might think the two groups would be working together. But until recently, most conservation biologists knew little of the so-called “Revive and Restore” movement, which until the TEDxDeExtinction conference in March, had been meeting largely behind closed doors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following a private meeting of “de-extinction” pioneers at Harvard Medical School last February, the National Geographic Society and San Francisco’s Long Now Foundation brought molecular biologists and conservation biologists together in October to discuss strategies for resurrecting extinct species. The organizers admitted just one journalist to the October meeting, and orchestrated media coverage of de-extinction with the \u003ca href=\"http://www.ted.com/tedx/events/7650\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">TEDx conference\u003c/a> and a National Geographic cover story a few weeks later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://longnow.org/revive/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Revive and Restore Project\u003c/a> is the brainchild of \u003ca href=\"http://longnow.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Long Now Foundation\u003c/a> co-founder Stewart Brand and his wife Ryan Phelan, a serial entrepreneur who most recently sold her consumer genetic testing business DNA Direct to Fortune 500 company Medco. Their top candidates for de-extinction include the passenger pigeon and the woolly mammoth. Brand and Phelan promote the project as a way to restore lost genetic diversity with its mission of ensuring “deep ecological enrichment through extinct species revival.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But some working on the front lines of biodiversity conservation are skeptical. In a \u003ca href=\"http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1001530\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">commentary published in April\u003c/a>, leading conservation scientists noted that few of their colleagues had considered synthetic biology’s potential effects on conservation, even though it might “transform…the prospects for maintaining biodiversity.” The authors outlined several ways that recreated extinct organisms could potentially affect strategic biodiversity goals—some positive, many negative. Their point was that no one knows, but conservation biologists better start paying attention (see chart, below).\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3953\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/pbiogoals-e1370477025321.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/pbiogoals-e1370477025321.jpg\" alt=\"Examples of how synthetic biology, promised or developed at even modest scales, could significantly affect the Aichi Biodiversity TargetsExamples of how synthetic biology, promised or developed at even modest scales, could significantly affect the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, adopted by the 2010 Convention on Biodiversity's Conference of the Parties. Click the image to see a larger version. (PLOS Biology, Redford et al.)\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3953\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Examples of how synthetic biology, promised or developed at even modest scales, could significantly affect the Aichi Biodiversity TargetsExamples of how synthetic biology, promised or developed at even modest scales, could significantly affect the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, adopted by the 2010 Convention on Biodiversity’s Conference of the Parties. Click the image to see a larger version. (PLOS Biology, Redford et al.)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Hank Greely, director of Stanford University’s Center for Law and the Biosciences, admits a longstanding fascination with the prospect of reviving extinct species, but couldn’t decide whether it was really a good idea. So he organized a \u003ca href=\"http://www.law.stanford.edu/event/2013/05/31/de-extinction-ethics-law-politics\">conference at Stanford last week\u003c/a> and invited philosophers, lawyers, biologists, and wildlife professionals to think through the complex ethical, legal and political issues de-extinction raises.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think one of the reasons this issue has bubbled to the surface so quickly is that the technology is converging with the coolness of the idea of bringing things back, mixing with a sense of guilt we feel with driving things extinct,” University of Kansas law professor Andrew Torrance told me. But de-extinction raises several “definitional conundrums,” he said in this talk. Are de-extinct organisms GMOs? Invasive species?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And where would a resurrected species fit into environmental law? Conference co-organizer Alex Camacho, director of UC Irvine’s Law Center for Land, Environment and Natural Resources, said the Endangered Species Act has no framework for de-extinction, since its creators couldn’t possibly have imagined the prospect. Shortly after revival of an organism, a species could potentially be listed as endangered, but is it the same species? A new species? An endangered species? The ESA \u003ca href=\"http://www.fws.gov/endangered/improving_esa/SPR_draft_policy_FAQs_FINAL_12-7-11.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">defines endangered\u003c/a> as “in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range.” But what is its range? Does it have a range? Presumably not, if you have one organism sitting in a lab, Camacho said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chuck Bonham, who directs the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife agency but was not representing the agency at the conference, wrestled with the management implications of de-extinction. “How can you be extinct if you’re always available for revival?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>De-extinction technology\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Technologies for recreating extinct species include back-breeding, cloning and genetic engineering. Though all have the potential to accomplish the task, said Beth Shapiro, an evolutionary biologist and ancient-DNA expert at the University of California at Santa Cruz, they also have drawbacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With back-breeding, scientists identify traits in the closest living relative and selectively breed offspring expressing desired traits until the animals resemble their extinct cousins. Sequencing bone and tooth fragments from extinct species speeds up the work of homing in on similar genome sequences in closely related descendants. Scientists in the Netherlands are using this approach to \u003ca href=\"http://www.taurosproject.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recreate the auroch\u003c/a>, giant wild European cattle that went extinct in 1627, from domestic cattle. Cattle have a generation time of three to six years. Trying to revive mammoths from increasingly bigger and hairier elephants, which start reproducing on average at 20 to 25 years, could take centuries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More problematic is cloning, where scientists remove the nucleus of an egg cell, replace it with the nucleus from a donor cell, tweak it to grow as an embryo and implant it in a surrogate mother. The process is highly fraught. Dolly, the famous cloned sheep, was the only lamb \u003ca href=\"http://www.biology.iupui.edu/biocourses/Biol540/12cloningfullCSS.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">born out of 277 attempts\u003c/a>—all the other clones died in utero or shortly after birth. In what’s considered the first successful de-extinction using this method, a Pyrenean ibex (a large wild goat that went extinct less than 15 years ago) carried by a hybrid ibex-goat, lived all of 12 minutes, and all in acute respiratory distress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If researchers attempt this with elephants as surrogates, it’s likely that the much smaller elephant mother would not fare well carrying a mammoth to term.* That doesn’t account for the ethics of turning such highly intelligent social animals, who appear to grieve the death of their kin, into mammoth-resurrection machines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3960\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 256px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/Passenger_Pigeon_001.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3960\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3960\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/Passenger_Pigeon_001.jpg\" alt=\"A specimen of the passenger pigeon, (Ectopistes migratorius), at Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden. Passenger pigeons once numbered in the billions. Overhunting and habitat loss led to a catastrophic decline within 20 years, and extinction by 1914.\" width=\"256\" height=\"354\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A specimen of the passenger pigeon, (Ectopistes migratorius), at Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden. Passenger pigeons once numbered in the billions. Overhunting and habitat loss led to a catastrophic decline within 20 years, and extinction by 1914.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Both methods, however, require intact genomes, which means you’d have to freeze cell lines taken from species before they went extinct. “If we’re going to de-extinct something that’s any older than something that we recently killed, we’re stuck with ancient DNA,” Shapiro said. And that means dealing with tiny fragments of DNA that are often tainted with bacteria and other contaminants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That leaves genome editing, finding the sequences that code for traits of interest and pasting them into an existing genome. But researchers are still refining methods to find the right place in the genome and deliver the DNA without creating problems like cancer. An even bigger problem is figuring out which parts of the genome make a mammoth woolly, the sea cow so big or passenger pigeons flock together, Shapiro said. Even if you could reconstruct the genome of an extinct species, the jump to assigning function to sequences is enormous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given all these issues, Shapiro said, “I think we should consider deeply \u003cem>why\u003c/em> do we want to de-extinct things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that, for many working to conserve biodiversity, is the primary question. “Conservation biologists worry that if people think we can revive species they won’t care about protecting what’s left,” said Kate Jones, joint chair of ecology and biodiversity at University of College London and the Zoological Society of London.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones, who spent most of her career thinking about what makes species go extinct, told me she understands the appeal of de-extinction. “Who wouldn’t be excited about the prospect of seeing a mammoth?” she allowed. “But the practicalities of doing it are actually quite terrifying.” And as a conservation strategy, “it’s a bit useless. It’s dressed up as conservation, but it’s not.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Jones, this isn’t about de-extinction. “It’s about creating new species. They’re just flashy GMOs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some senior conservation biologists refuse to engage with the topic because they think it’s not a legitimate debate, Jones told me. “But I think it’s kind of inevitable that this is going to happen whether it’s Stewart Brand or someone in their back garden.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then there’s the question of what you do with a species you’ve revived. Jamie Rappaport Clark, who served as head of US Fish and Wildlife under the Clinton Administration and now leads Defenders of Wildlife, urged de-extinction proponents to consider the politics of reviving species. De-extinction could justify stalling action on restoring habitat or saving species, for example. That would have doomed the Florida panther, which received an influx of genes from airlifted Texas cougars under her watch in a desperate move to save the big cat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s also worried that de-extinction will provide political cover for defunding conservation. “They’ll say, ‘We shouldn’t be funding recovery and preventing the extinction of species because we have a way out.’ It will undermine the entire integrity of the ESA, which is already under serious distress now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3954\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/Buffalo-Skulls-1870-e1370476943363.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/Buffalo-Skulls-1870-e1370476943363.jpg\" alt=\"Pile of American bison skulls waiting to be ground for fertilizer, circa 1870. (Burton Historical Collection/Detroit Public Library/Public domain)\" width=\"640\" height=\"474\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3954\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pile of American bison skulls waiting to be ground for fertilizer, circa 1870. (Burton Historical Collection/Detroit Public Library/Public domain)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>During a roundtable discussion, Brand raised the prospect of bringing back the saber-toothed cat to California to replace lost ecological roles of predators, at which point Bonham leapt up from his chair, joking, “I’m out of here!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He retrieved a piece a paper from his brief case and returned to tell Brand a story about the public’s uneasy relationship with predators. “We shot the last wolf in California about 100 years ago,” Bonham said. “One month after I came on the job, we got our first wolf back in California in 100 years.” Half the state wants him to create a wolf preserve. The other half wants to see history repeated. “We’re not ready,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bonham read a passage from the 1982 Fish and Wildlife grizzly bear recovery plan. “This is an animal that cannot compromise or adjust its way of life to ours. Could not by its very nature, could not even if we allowed it the opportunity, which we did not.” The only place for the grizzly bear in California remains on the state flag. “How in the world do you expect a saber tooth to fare any better than…the grizzly bear?” he asked Brand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brand did not answer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones asked Brand if any of the concerns conference participants raised about de-extinctinon had altered his vision. “Not yet,” he answered. “It makes me more determined…that we make completely sure that everybody understands that de-extinction and conservation are in no way competitive.” He said there’s now a generation of kids who now want to see woolly mammoths in a zoo. “When they do I think they’ll adopt a non-tragic relationship to nature and conservation with a sense that humans can…undo even serious damage like extinction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elizabeth Hadly, a Stanford paleontologist and Paul S. and Billie Achilles Chair of Environmental Biology, helped craft the recent call to action to policymakers. She thinks laboratory innovation rather than on-the-ground research is behind the de-extinction push. Funding for ecology and conservation pales compared to the big grants funding genomics and synthetic biology. Although she’s at Stanford, Hadly did not attend the conference. It pains her to think about what that money could do to protect the species already here—some hanging on by a thread.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The way we’re killing elephants now, we won’t have any more left in 10 or 20 years, she said. “And people are talking about mammoths? First of all, they were alive in an ice age. This is the completely wrong environment to bring them back to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She calls de-extinction “gee-whiz science at its worst” and thinks justifying it in terms of genetic diversity and ecosystem services makes no sense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Spending money to reintroduce recently lost existing species—even California’s grizzly bear—and restore habitat is a much better use of our time and energy”, she said. “Without habitat restoration”, she added, “the 750 mountain gorillas left on the planet won’t make it. I’d much rather combine the tiger subspecies together to create a better genetic reservoir than bring back some extinct organism.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clark, who spent her career working with species on the brink of extinction, offered a similar view. “The real question,” she told me, “is why would we spend all this energy and effort to bring back ancient animals but let so many others just disappear?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s been spending a lot of time thinking about our moral obligation to future generations. “Is it to create a couple of sad woolly mammoths that live in a zoo? Or is it to save the wolves and the panther and the Delhi sands flower-loving flies and the fisheries?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Clark, there’s no question. “We need to do a better job of stewarding what we have,” she said, “before we go rushing off after cool science experiments.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>*Note: Scientists think woolly mammoths were \u003ca href=\"http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/mammal/mesaxonia/elephantidae.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">roughly the same size as Asian elephants\u003c/a>, though the Columbian mammoth (\u003ca href=\"http://www.nhm.org/site/research-collections/rancho-la-brea/about-zed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">which once lived in California\u003c/a>) was bigger.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3830\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 230px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-3830 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/RS441_coho_salmon-4x3-e1370037122796.jpg\" alt=\"A coho salmon in its spawning stage. (US Fish and Wildlife Service)\" width=\"230\" height=\"173\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A coho salmon in its spawning stage. (US Fish and Wildlife Service)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Many freshwater fish species are already in decline in California, because of dams, pumping water out of the Delta or habitat loss in urban areas. A \u003ca href=\"http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0063883\">new study\u003c/a> suggests climate change will make things much worse, driving nearly 100 native species either to extinction, or to very low numbers, by the end of the century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is an issue because, one thing, a lot of these are things like salmon and steelhead,” said \u003ca href=\"https://watershed.ucdavis.edu/people/peter-b-moyle?destination=user/15\">Pete Moyle\u003c/a>, a fish biologist at UC Davis, and lead author of the study. “The other part of it is that most of these fish are species — or runs of salmon, for example — that are found only in California. So we have a very distinctive fish fauna. And it can’t be replaced.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his study, published in PLOS ONE, Moyle found that warmer water temperatures and altered weather patterns are to blame, though some invasive fish stand to benefit from the changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-fish-climate-change-20130531,0,3475642.story\">LA Times\u003c/a> goes into more detail:\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"mceItemEmbedly\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://www.trbimg.com/img-51a7f6f1/turbine/la-sci-sn-fish-climate-change-20130531/400/16x9\" class=\"thumb embedly-thumbnail-small\">\u003ca class=\"embedly-title\" href=\"http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-fish-climate-change-20130531,0,3475642.story\">California native fish could disappear with climate change\u003c/a>The authors of a new study published online in the journal PLOS ONE used 20 metrics — including species population trends, physiological tolerance to temperature increase and ability to disperse — to gauge the vulnerability of native fishes to climate change.\n\u003cp>The results: 82% of 121 native species were deemed highly vulnerable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"embedly-powered\" style=\"float:right\">\u003ca target=\"_blank\" href=\"http://embed.ly?src=anywhere\" title=\"Powered by Embedly\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"//static.embed.ly/images/logos/embedly-powered-small-light.png\" alt=\"Embedly Powered\">\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"media-attribution\">\u003cspan>via \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://www.latimes.com\" class=\"media-attribution-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Latimes\u003c/a>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": " A new study suggests climate change could drive nearly 100 native species either to extinction, or to very low numbers, by the end of the century. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3830\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 230px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-3830 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/RS441_coho_salmon-4x3-e1370037122796.jpg\" alt=\"A coho salmon in its spawning stage. (US Fish and Wildlife Service)\" width=\"230\" height=\"173\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A coho salmon in its spawning stage. (US Fish and Wildlife Service)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Many freshwater fish species are already in decline in California, because of dams, pumping water out of the Delta or habitat loss in urban areas. A \u003ca href=\"http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0063883\">new study\u003c/a> suggests climate change will make things much worse, driving nearly 100 native species either to extinction, or to very low numbers, by the end of the century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is an issue because, one thing, a lot of these are things like salmon and steelhead,” said \u003ca href=\"https://watershed.ucdavis.edu/people/peter-b-moyle?destination=user/15\">Pete Moyle\u003c/a>, a fish biologist at UC Davis, and lead author of the study. “The other part of it is that most of these fish are species — or runs of salmon, for example — that are found only in California. So we have a very distinctive fish fauna. And it can’t be replaced.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his study, published in PLOS ONE, Moyle found that warmer water temperatures and altered weather patterns are to blame, though some invasive fish stand to benefit from the changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-fish-climate-change-20130531,0,3475642.story\">LA Times\u003c/a> goes into more detail:\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"mceItemEmbedly\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://www.trbimg.com/img-51a7f6f1/turbine/la-sci-sn-fish-climate-change-20130531/400/16x9\" class=\"thumb embedly-thumbnail-small\">\u003ca class=\"embedly-title\" href=\"http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-fish-climate-change-20130531,0,3475642.story\">California native fish could disappear with climate change\u003c/a>The authors of a new study published online in the journal PLOS ONE used 20 metrics — including species population trends, physiological tolerance to temperature increase and ability to disperse — to gauge the vulnerability of native fishes to climate change.\n\u003cp>The results: 82% of 121 native species were deemed highly vulnerable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"embedly-powered\" style=\"float:right\">\u003ca target=\"_blank\" href=\"http://embed.ly?src=anywhere\" title=\"Powered by Embedly\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"//static.embed.ly/images/logos/embedly-powered-small-light.png\" alt=\"Embedly Powered\">\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"media-attribution\">\u003cspan>via \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://www.latimes.com\" class=\"media-attribution-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Latimes\u003c/a>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Bay Area Wetlands Slowly Drowning as Seas Rise",
"headTitle": "Bay Area Wetlands Slowly Drowning as Seas Rise | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Rising sea levels are likely to virtually wipe out San Francisco Bay’s remaining wetlands by the end of the century — and \u003ca title=\"USGS - release\" href=\"http://www.usgs.gov/blogs/features/usgs_top_story/san-francisco-bay-could-lose-marshes-to-sea-level-rise-by-2100-2/\">new research\u003c/a> suggests some could be gone much sooner than that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3557\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 634px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/USGS_100_1031.jpeg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3557\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3557\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/USGS_100_1031.jpeg\" alt=\"A USGS researcher takes precise elevation measurements of a marsh on San Francisco Bay. (Photo: USGS)\" width=\"634\" height=\"350\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A USGS researcher takes precise elevation measurements of a marsh on San Francisco Bay. (Photo: USGS)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Using the most precise land measurements and plant data yet assembled, scientists at the US Geological Survey now expect that some of the Bay’s major marshlands, like Marin County’s Corte Madera Marsh, will be gone in 40 years. And by the end of this century, “Well, our results show that none of them are left,” says ecologist Karen Thorne.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thorne is a research ecologist with the USGS \u003ca title=\"USGS - WERC\" href=\"http://www.werc.usgs.gov/\">Western Ecological Research Center\u003c/a> in Sacramento. Her team did \u003ca title=\"USGS - Bay wetlands study\" href=\"http://www.werc.usgs.gov/ProjectSubWebPage.aspx?SubWebPageID=3&ProjectID=238\">extensive ground and air surveys of 12 wetland areas\u003c/a> around the Bay, including GPS readings with equipment that is accurate down to about an inch of elevation. They fed their data into a newly-developed model and concluded that 95% of the Bay’s wetlands are likely to be awash in rising seas by 2100. The advance of rising seas, driven by global warming, will vary up and down the West Coast. Here in the Bay Area, scientists expect water levels to rise 3-to-4 feet by the end of the century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3565\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/IMG_0479.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3565\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3565\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/IMG_0479.jpg\" alt=\"Most of San Francisco Bay's tidal marshes are hemmed in by urban development, making it hard for plants and animals to migrate upslope as seas rise. (Photo: Craig Miller)\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Most of San Francisco Bay’s tidal marshes are hemmed in by urban development, making it hard for plants and animals to migrate upslope as seas rise. (Photo: Craig Miller)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Thorne says two things surprised her most about the findings: first, how widely variable the advance will be at various places around the Bay, and second, how little awareness there was among local planners, of how the impacts were likely to play out. Thorne says that according to her model, wetlands toward the south end of San Francisco Bay could withstand the advancing seas to 2080 or beyond, whereas areas around San Pablo Bay (the north end), look to be drowned by 2060 or thereabout.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thorne says the results, which are based on a representative sampling of 12% of the Bay’s wetlands, provide cues for urban planners. The marshes not only provide habitat for endangered species, but “they also provide flood protection for our cities,” she says. “Most of the Bay is urban and those wetlands are your only protection between you and the water.” The inundation of Corte Madera Marsh, for example, would have implications for major retail centers and Highway 101, which back up to it. Major airports, freeways and other infrastructure around the Bay area also at risk, though perhaps not as soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdXu_cPdzfM\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thorne says the current extensive efforts to restore wetlands around the Bay will buy time for land and urban managers to prepare — but won’t prevent the upward march of advancing seas. She suggests that while existing wetlands at the north end of the Bay are likely to go sooner, they may provide the best opportunity to save some by allowing them to move. “In the [distant] past as sea level rose, our wetlands would move upslope, to higher elevations, and we would keep that buffer area,” Thorne explained. “But [today], most of the Bay Area has an urban interface and there’s nowhere for them to go.” She says the marshes at the extreme north and south ends of the Bay, where there remains some open space, are “key areas for conservation and restoration. Everything else is hemmed in.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Rising sea levels are likely to virtually wipe out San Francisco Bay’s remaining wetlands by the end of the century — and \u003ca title=\"USGS - release\" href=\"http://www.usgs.gov/blogs/features/usgs_top_story/san-francisco-bay-could-lose-marshes-to-sea-level-rise-by-2100-2/\">new research\u003c/a> suggests some could be gone much sooner than that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3557\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 634px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/USGS_100_1031.jpeg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3557\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3557\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/USGS_100_1031.jpeg\" alt=\"A USGS researcher takes precise elevation measurements of a marsh on San Francisco Bay. (Photo: USGS)\" width=\"634\" height=\"350\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A USGS researcher takes precise elevation measurements of a marsh on San Francisco Bay. (Photo: USGS)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Using the most precise land measurements and plant data yet assembled, scientists at the US Geological Survey now expect that some of the Bay’s major marshlands, like Marin County’s Corte Madera Marsh, will be gone in 40 years. And by the end of this century, “Well, our results show that none of them are left,” says ecologist Karen Thorne.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thorne is a research ecologist with the USGS \u003ca title=\"USGS - WERC\" href=\"http://www.werc.usgs.gov/\">Western Ecological Research Center\u003c/a> in Sacramento. Her team did \u003ca title=\"USGS - Bay wetlands study\" href=\"http://www.werc.usgs.gov/ProjectSubWebPage.aspx?SubWebPageID=3&ProjectID=238\">extensive ground and air surveys of 12 wetland areas\u003c/a> around the Bay, including GPS readings with equipment that is accurate down to about an inch of elevation. They fed their data into a newly-developed model and concluded that 95% of the Bay’s wetlands are likely to be awash in rising seas by 2100. The advance of rising seas, driven by global warming, will vary up and down the West Coast. Here in the Bay Area, scientists expect water levels to rise 3-to-4 feet by the end of the century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3565\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/IMG_0479.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3565\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3565\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/IMG_0479.jpg\" alt=\"Most of San Francisco Bay's tidal marshes are hemmed in by urban development, making it hard for plants and animals to migrate upslope as seas rise. (Photo: Craig Miller)\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Most of San Francisco Bay’s tidal marshes are hemmed in by urban development, making it hard for plants and animals to migrate upslope as seas rise. (Photo: Craig Miller)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Thorne says two things surprised her most about the findings: first, how widely variable the advance will be at various places around the Bay, and second, how little awareness there was among local planners, of how the impacts were likely to play out. Thorne says that according to her model, wetlands toward the south end of San Francisco Bay could withstand the advancing seas to 2080 or beyond, whereas areas around San Pablo Bay (the north end), look to be drowned by 2060 or thereabout.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thorne says the results, which are based on a representative sampling of 12% of the Bay’s wetlands, provide cues for urban planners. The marshes not only provide habitat for endangered species, but “they also provide flood protection for our cities,” she says. “Most of the Bay is urban and those wetlands are your only protection between you and the water.” The inundation of Corte Madera Marsh, for example, would have implications for major retail centers and Highway 101, which back up to it. Major airports, freeways and other infrastructure around the Bay area also at risk, though perhaps not as soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/wdXu_cPdzfM'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/wdXu_cPdzfM'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thorne says the current extensive efforts to restore wetlands around the Bay will buy time for land and urban managers to prepare — but won’t prevent the upward march of advancing seas. She suggests that while existing wetlands at the north end of the Bay are likely to go sooner, they may provide the best opportunity to save some by allowing them to move. “In the [distant] past as sea level rose, our wetlands would move upslope, to higher elevations, and we would keep that buffer area,” Thorne explained. “But [today], most of the Bay Area has an urban interface and there’s nowhere for them to go.” She says the marshes at the extreme north and south ends of the Bay, where there remains some open space, are “key areas for conservation and restoration. Everything else is hemmed in.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003ch2>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_55193\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Frog-Golden-Toad-sized-correctly.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-55193\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Frog-Golden-Toad-sized-correctly.jpg\" alt=\"Photo by Tom Hawk\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Frog-Golden-Toad-sized-correctly.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Frog-Golden-Toad-sized-correctly-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u003cem>Watching the golden toad disappear from Costa Rican rainforests had a lasting impression on Figueres. Photo by Tom Hawk\u003c/em>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan style=\"color: #888888\">\u003cstrong>An Expert Opinion: \u003c/strong>\u003c/span>\u003cstrong>Christiana Figueres\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Hailing from a family with two former presidents of Costa Rica, Christiana Figueres was primed to tackle daunting political challenges, head on. Figueres first found her footing as the founder of the Center for Sustainable Development in the Americas. Now, as the executive secretary of the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"http://unfccc.int/2860.php\">\u003cem>United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, she travels internationally helping countries agree upon strategies to limit greenhouse gas emissions.\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem> On \u003cstrong>\u003cem>a recent visit to San Francisco, she attended a \u003ca href=\"http://www.cvent.com/events/navigating-the-american-carbon-world/event-summary-370741f03c8c4363b1865ec6bb8e96c3.aspx?i=b980a317-eb6f-4eb5-b6bd-57c1a0437b45\">carbon market conference\u003c/a> to talk about California's cap and trade program, which went into effect last year.\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_55207\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 184px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Figueres-profile-resized.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-55207 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Figueres-profile-resized.jpg\" alt=\"Figueres profile resized\" width=\"184\" height=\"245\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Figueres-profile-resized.jpg 1417w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Figueres-profile-resized-400x534.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Figueres-profile-resized-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Figueres-profile-resized-1180x1574.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Figueres-profile-resized-960x1280.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 184px) 100vw, 184px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Figueres has been the executive secretary of the UNFCCC since 2010\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What is your role with the U.N. and what are in you in town for?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[My role is] to support governments in their ongoing efforts to reach agreements with each other about how they’re going to address climate change. I’m in California to recognize California’s leadership with their \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/audio/cap-and-trade-101-how-californias-carbon-market-works/\">cap and trade program\u003c/a> because it is quite unique for the U.S. that a state has moved forward with a market-based solution to their climate policy. Covering 85 percent of the state's greenhouse gas emissions, and second in size only to the European Union system, the robustness of California's program cannot be denied.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What is the value of California’s leadership if there are so few followers? Isn’t there a danger that it’s all going to be too little too late?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yes, there is that danger but that’s not the only possibility. We have so many more extreme weather events that are really making this issue no longer a debate. Every single country is being affected and every single country is realizing that—in their own interest—they need to address this. There is no more compelling evidence of this than the joint working group between the United States and China. If you had asked anybody four years ago, three years ago, two years ago: will the United States and China ever come to the table on climate change to try to find joint collaborative solutions, it would have been a hard sell to say yes. Here we have a joint working group of the United States and China, not because they necessarily are looking at the global benefit, but because they are motivated by avoiding the national impacts that they are already seeing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>So you think cap and trade can work as a policy? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_55248\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 362px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/goldenToadMap.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-55248 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/goldenToadMap.jpg\" alt=\"Last seen in 1989, the golden toad is thouught to be extinct due to climate change and disease. Photo courtesy of Conservation International\" width=\"362\" height=\"294\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/goldenToadMap.jpg 603w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/goldenToadMap-400x325.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 362px) 100vw, 362px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Last seen in 1989, the golden toad is thought to be extinct due to climate change and disease. Photo courtesy of Conservation International\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Absolutely, it has been proven to work in the \u003ca href=\"http://europa.eu/about-eu/index_en.htm\">European Union\u003c/a>, that is the oldest cap and trade system, and it is a model that is being experimented with in many other countries as well. So yes, I think it is a policy of choice that will be used by many countries, and many subnational governments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Many would suggest that with the pace of climate change, that there’s just no way we’re going to reign in warming at the two-degree level, what’s your take on that?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There have been, over the past 12 months, at least four studies that have looked at this issue and looked at the fact that greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise and that should this continue as a business as usual scenario, that it would be impossible to reach that two-degree target. However, every single one of those studies also says that there is no reason why we have to continue along that business as usual route. Every single one of those studies says we have number one, the technology, number two, the capital and number three, the human ingenuity to change business as usual and make a serious dent in addressing climate change. So I still am heartened that we will be able to do that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Was environmental sustainability something that you remember discussing around the family dinner table at an early age?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the dinner table--no, because I don’t think the concept of sustainability was something that was around in the 1960s and ’70s. That came later. What was always a discussion at the dinner table was how do you structure societies and economic systems in order to benefit those that are most vulnerable. That is not very different from what we’re doing in the climate arena. It’s very clear that there are a group of countries that are least responsible for climate change and they are the most vulnerable. The \u003ca href=\"http://aosis.org/\">low-lying island states\u003c/a> are those that have the least responsibility and they are the most vulnerable because of \u003ca href=\"http://www.csc.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/tools/slrviewer/\">sea level rise\u003c/a>. And so our progress and our success in meeting climate change needs to be measured against how well are we protecting the future of those that are most vulnerable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Climate change is unlike other environmental issues because it’s intangible. What’s—\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[INTERRUPTS]\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>Intangible? It is anything but intangible. Tangible is \u003ca href=\"http://www.srh.noaa.gov/mfl/?n=sandy\">[Hurricane] Sandy\u003c/a>, tangible is sea level rise that is completely swamping populations. Tangible is the fact that the farming belt in the United States went bankrupt last year and that had a huge \u003ca href=\"http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2012/08/30/severe-droughts-drive-food-prices-higher-threatening-poor\">spike in food prices\u003c/a> across the world. So it’s very tangible, it’s just very distributed across the world. In that sense it’s difficult to pinpoint with one single finger because the effects are not just seen in one single country, they are seen everywhere.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>When was first time you feel like you really saw the impact of climate change?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I was about 12 or 13 and my parents took me to a rainforest in Costa Rica where there was an endemic \u003ca href=\"http://ecos.fws.gov/speciesProfile/profile/speciesProfile.action?spcode=D00A\">golden frog\u003c/a> that was a beautiful species. By the time I was married and had children, the species of frog had disappeared because of the increasing temperatures [caused by climate change]. The fact that I have seen the disappearance of a species in my lifetime has left me marked. I now realize that the planet I am leaving to my children is visibly diminished from the planet I inherited.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>To that point, what would you say to students—the generations that will inherit the problems we’re facing now?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re going to have to finish fixing this problem. The only things we oldies can do right now is identify the possibilities of what the solutions will be, but there is no doubt we’re handing over a very serious problem to the next generation and they’re going to have to step up and be the ones that finish the solution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>*This interview has been condensed and edited. Science Editor Craig Miller contributed to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "A United Nations expert recalls the exact moment she first witnessed the impact of climate change–and sees a concerted global effort as the only way to turn down the heat.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003ch2>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_55193\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Frog-Golden-Toad-sized-correctly.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-55193\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Frog-Golden-Toad-sized-correctly.jpg\" alt=\"Photo by Tom Hawk\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Frog-Golden-Toad-sized-correctly.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Frog-Golden-Toad-sized-correctly-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u003cem>Watching the golden toad disappear from Costa Rican rainforests had a lasting impression on Figueres. Photo by Tom Hawk\u003c/em>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan style=\"color: #888888\">\u003cstrong>An Expert Opinion: \u003c/strong>\u003c/span>\u003cstrong>Christiana Figueres\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Hailing from a family with two former presidents of Costa Rica, Christiana Figueres was primed to tackle daunting political challenges, head on. Figueres first found her footing as the founder of the Center for Sustainable Development in the Americas. Now, as the executive secretary of the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"http://unfccc.int/2860.php\">\u003cem>United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, she travels internationally helping countries agree upon strategies to limit greenhouse gas emissions.\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem> On \u003cstrong>\u003cem>a recent visit to San Francisco, she attended a \u003ca href=\"http://www.cvent.com/events/navigating-the-american-carbon-world/event-summary-370741f03c8c4363b1865ec6bb8e96c3.aspx?i=b980a317-eb6f-4eb5-b6bd-57c1a0437b45\">carbon market conference\u003c/a> to talk about California's cap and trade program, which went into effect last year.\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_55207\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 184px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Figueres-profile-resized.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-55207 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Figueres-profile-resized.jpg\" alt=\"Figueres profile resized\" width=\"184\" height=\"245\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Figueres-profile-resized.jpg 1417w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Figueres-profile-resized-400x534.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Figueres-profile-resized-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Figueres-profile-resized-1180x1574.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/Figueres-profile-resized-960x1280.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 184px) 100vw, 184px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Figueres has been the executive secretary of the UNFCCC since 2010\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What is your role with the U.N. and what are in you in town for?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[My role is] to support governments in their ongoing efforts to reach agreements with each other about how they’re going to address climate change. I’m in California to recognize California’s leadership with their \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/audio/cap-and-trade-101-how-californias-carbon-market-works/\">cap and trade program\u003c/a> because it is quite unique for the U.S. that a state has moved forward with a market-based solution to their climate policy. Covering 85 percent of the state's greenhouse gas emissions, and second in size only to the European Union system, the robustness of California's program cannot be denied.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What is the value of California’s leadership if there are so few followers? Isn’t there a danger that it’s all going to be too little too late?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yes, there is that danger but that’s not the only possibility. We have so many more extreme weather events that are really making this issue no longer a debate. Every single country is being affected and every single country is realizing that—in their own interest—they need to address this. There is no more compelling evidence of this than the joint working group between the United States and China. If you had asked anybody four years ago, three years ago, two years ago: will the United States and China ever come to the table on climate change to try to find joint collaborative solutions, it would have been a hard sell to say yes. Here we have a joint working group of the United States and China, not because they necessarily are looking at the global benefit, but because they are motivated by avoiding the national impacts that they are already seeing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>So you think cap and trade can work as a policy? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_55248\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 362px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/goldenToadMap.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-55248 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/goldenToadMap.jpg\" alt=\"Last seen in 1989, the golden toad is thouught to be extinct due to climate change and disease. Photo courtesy of Conservation International\" width=\"362\" height=\"294\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/goldenToadMap.jpg 603w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/04/goldenToadMap-400x325.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 362px) 100vw, 362px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Last seen in 1989, the golden toad is thought to be extinct due to climate change and disease. Photo courtesy of Conservation International\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Absolutely, it has been proven to work in the \u003ca href=\"http://europa.eu/about-eu/index_en.htm\">European Union\u003c/a>, that is the oldest cap and trade system, and it is a model that is being experimented with in many other countries as well. So yes, I think it is a policy of choice that will be used by many countries, and many subnational governments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Many would suggest that with the pace of climate change, that there’s just no way we’re going to reign in warming at the two-degree level, what’s your take on that?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There have been, over the past 12 months, at least four studies that have looked at this issue and looked at the fact that greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise and that should this continue as a business as usual scenario, that it would be impossible to reach that two-degree target. However, every single one of those studies also says that there is no reason why we have to continue along that business as usual route. Every single one of those studies says we have number one, the technology, number two, the capital and number three, the human ingenuity to change business as usual and make a serious dent in addressing climate change. So I still am heartened that we will be able to do that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Was environmental sustainability something that you remember discussing around the family dinner table at an early age?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the dinner table--no, because I don’t think the concept of sustainability was something that was around in the 1960s and ’70s. That came later. What was always a discussion at the dinner table was how do you structure societies and economic systems in order to benefit those that are most vulnerable. That is not very different from what we’re doing in the climate arena. It’s very clear that there are a group of countries that are least responsible for climate change and they are the most vulnerable. The \u003ca href=\"http://aosis.org/\">low-lying island states\u003c/a> are those that have the least responsibility and they are the most vulnerable because of \u003ca href=\"http://www.csc.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/tools/slrviewer/\">sea level rise\u003c/a>. And so our progress and our success in meeting climate change needs to be measured against how well are we protecting the future of those that are most vulnerable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Climate change is unlike other environmental issues because it’s intangible. What’s—\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[INTERRUPTS]\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>Intangible? It is anything but intangible. Tangible is \u003ca href=\"http://www.srh.noaa.gov/mfl/?n=sandy\">[Hurricane] Sandy\u003c/a>, tangible is sea level rise that is completely swamping populations. Tangible is the fact that the farming belt in the United States went bankrupt last year and that had a huge \u003ca href=\"http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2012/08/30/severe-droughts-drive-food-prices-higher-threatening-poor\">spike in food prices\u003c/a> across the world. So it’s very tangible, it’s just very distributed across the world. In that sense it’s difficult to pinpoint with one single finger because the effects are not just seen in one single country, they are seen everywhere.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>When was first time you feel like you really saw the impact of climate change?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I was about 12 or 13 and my parents took me to a rainforest in Costa Rica where there was an endemic \u003ca href=\"http://ecos.fws.gov/speciesProfile/profile/speciesProfile.action?spcode=D00A\">golden frog\u003c/a> that was a beautiful species. By the time I was married and had children, the species of frog had disappeared because of the increasing temperatures [caused by climate change]. The fact that I have seen the disappearance of a species in my lifetime has left me marked. I now realize that the planet I am leaving to my children is visibly diminished from the planet I inherited.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>To that point, what would you say to students—the generations that will inherit the problems we’re facing now?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re going to have to finish fixing this problem. The only things we oldies can do right now is identify the possibilities of what the solutions will be, but there is no doubt we’re handing over a very serious problem to the next generation and they’re going to have to step up and be the ones that finish the solution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3405\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 288px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/Calbug-moth-288x162.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3405\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3405\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/Calbug-moth-288x162.jpg\" alt=\" A Brazilian skipper, one of the specimens in the Calbug project. (Image: Essig Museum of Entomology)\" width=\"288\" height=\"162\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Brazilian skipper, one of the specimens in the Calbug project. (Image: Essig Museum of Entomology)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Scientists at UC Berkeley are asking the public to help with a problem that’s been bugging them – their century-old insect collection needs to be digitized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC Berkeley’s \u003ca href=\"http://essig.berkeley.edu/\">Essig Museum of Entomology\u003c/a> has been gathering insect specimens since the 1880s. With 10,000 drawers filled with bugs, no one’s exactly sure how many there are.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nobody’s really counted them,” says collections manager Peter Oboyski, “but we estimate that we have over five million specimens in our collection.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of those insects are preserved on pinheads, attached to small labels that say where and when they were collected. Those field notes hold a valuable record of California’s natural history, but the information has never been transcribed into a database.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3407\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 198px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/Calbug-beetle-198x162.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3407\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3407\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/Calbug-beetle-198x162.jpg\" alt=\"Members of the public help transcribe the labels on each insect. (Image: Essig Museum of Entomology)\" width=\"198\" height=\"162\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Members of the public transcribe the labels on each insect. (Image: Essig Museum of Entomology)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We estimate it would take decades, if not a hundred years, for us to go one-by-one and enter the data from every specimen,” Oboyski says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s where the public comes in. Through a new online citizen science project called \u003ca href=\"http://www.notesfromnature.org/#/archives/calbug\">Calbug\u003c/a>, the public can pitch in by reviewing photos of the specimens and transcribing the field notes online. UC Berkeley has uploaded almost 100,000 specimens, with several other institutions soon to join in, like the California Academy of Sciences, UC Davis, San Diego Natural History Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If this project works well for our museum, then it can be adapted for all the other collections across the country and even across the world, because there are millions of specimens out there waiting to be transcribed,” says Oboyski.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With each insect a unique data point, the collection provides a detailed look at California’s habitat. “They are a record of the past of California,” Oboyski says. “They give us a glimpse into the past of what the habitat might have looked, what the climate might have looked like.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">There are more species of ants in the world than there are of birds\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Collections like this will become particularly valuable as scientists track how wildlife and plants shift with a changing climate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People have used our collection in the past to look at individual species and how they’ve changed in distribution over time,” he says. “Now we have the capacity to look at entire communities and how they move and change over time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Insects are a crucial part of preserving biodiversity, Oboyski says. “There are more species of ants in the world than there are of birds, and that’s just one family of insects.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://www.notesfromnature.org/#/archives/calbug\">How to pitch in\u003c/a> on the Calbug project\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>How insects help track climate change in KQED QUEST’s \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/video/some-bugs-like-it-hot-climate-change-and-agricultural-pests/\">Heat and Harvest\u003c/a> documentary\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Scientists at UC Berkeley are asking the public to help transcribe field notes from millions of insect specimens.",
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"title": "UC Berkeley Enlists Citizen Scientists in a Buggy Data Problem | KQED",
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"headline": "UC Berkeley Enlists Citizen Scientists in a Buggy Data Problem",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3405\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 288px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/Calbug-moth-288x162.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3405\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3405\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/Calbug-moth-288x162.jpg\" alt=\" A Brazilian skipper, one of the specimens in the Calbug project. (Image: Essig Museum of Entomology)\" width=\"288\" height=\"162\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Brazilian skipper, one of the specimens in the Calbug project. (Image: Essig Museum of Entomology)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Scientists at UC Berkeley are asking the public to help with a problem that’s been bugging them – their century-old insect collection needs to be digitized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC Berkeley’s \u003ca href=\"http://essig.berkeley.edu/\">Essig Museum of Entomology\u003c/a> has been gathering insect specimens since the 1880s. With 10,000 drawers filled with bugs, no one’s exactly sure how many there are.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nobody’s really counted them,” says collections manager Peter Oboyski, “but we estimate that we have over five million specimens in our collection.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of those insects are preserved on pinheads, attached to small labels that say where and when they were collected. Those field notes hold a valuable record of California’s natural history, but the information has never been transcribed into a database.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3407\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 198px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/Calbug-beetle-198x162.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3407\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3407\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/Calbug-beetle-198x162.jpg\" alt=\"Members of the public help transcribe the labels on each insect. (Image: Essig Museum of Entomology)\" width=\"198\" height=\"162\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Members of the public transcribe the labels on each insect. (Image: Essig Museum of Entomology)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We estimate it would take decades, if not a hundred years, for us to go one-by-one and enter the data from every specimen,” Oboyski says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s where the public comes in. Through a new online citizen science project called \u003ca href=\"http://www.notesfromnature.org/#/archives/calbug\">Calbug\u003c/a>, the public can pitch in by reviewing photos of the specimens and transcribing the field notes online. UC Berkeley has uploaded almost 100,000 specimens, with several other institutions soon to join in, like the California Academy of Sciences, UC Davis, San Diego Natural History Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If this project works well for our museum, then it can be adapted for all the other collections across the country and even across the world, because there are millions of specimens out there waiting to be transcribed,” says Oboyski.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With each insect a unique data point, the collection provides a detailed look at California’s habitat. “They are a record of the past of California,” Oboyski says. “They give us a glimpse into the past of what the habitat might have looked, what the climate might have looked like.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">There are more species of ants in the world than there are of birds\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Collections like this will become particularly valuable as scientists track how wildlife and plants shift with a changing climate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People have used our collection in the past to look at individual species and how they’ve changed in distribution over time,” he says. “Now we have the capacity to look at entire communities and how they move and change over time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Insects are a crucial part of preserving biodiversity, Oboyski says. “There are more species of ants in the world than there are of birds, and that’s just one family of insects.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://www.notesfromnature.org/#/archives/calbug\">How to pitch in\u003c/a> on the Calbug project\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>How insects help track climate change in KQED QUEST’s \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/video/some-bugs-like-it-hot-climate-change-and-agricultural-pests/\">Heat and Harvest\u003c/a> documentary\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "California’s Vanishing Glaciers: A Defining Moment",
"headTitle": "California’s Vanishing Glaciers: A Defining Moment | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3328\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3328\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/Lyell_Stock_p921-e1369354344722.jpg\" alt=\"Geologist Greg Stock climbs the Lyell Glacier in Yosemite. (Photo: Tim Palmer)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Geologist Greg Stock climbs the Lyell Glacier in Yosemite. (Photo: Tim Palmer)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Last September, I climbed with a team of scientists and volunteers into the remote high country of Yosemite National Park, onto the ashen hide of the park’s largest ice sheet, the Lyell Glacier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I was there to report but also to assist Greg Stock, Yosemite’s geologist, and Robert Anderson, a glacier researcher from the University of Colorado, in a four-year survey of the \u003ca title=\"Wiki - Lyell Glacier\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyell_Glacier\">Lyell\u003c/a> and neighboring \u003ca title=\"Wiki - Maclure Glacier\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maclure_Glacier\">Maclure Glacier\u003c/a>. The objective was to measure the rate of the Lyell and Maclure’s downhill advance by surveying an array of PVC stakes Stock and his team had driven into the ice over the last few summers. On an earlier trip, in July, we drilled in several new stakes with a six-foot ice auger. Two months of ferocious melting had uprooted many of these. The ones that remained in place were bent like reeds, barely anchored to the ice.\u003c/p>\n\u003ctable border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"10\" align=\"alignright\">\n\u003ctbody>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003c/tbody>\n\u003c/table>\n\u003cp>The story of disappearing ice is \u003ca title=\"Science Daily - post\" href=\"http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130513174811.htm\">a global narrative\u003c/a>. The Lyell and Maclure – like glaciers and ice sheets worldwide – are in rapid state of retreat. Before the trip, the Lyell and Maclure were presumed to be “true” glaciers – that is, thick slabs of ice dragged downhill under their own weight, scouring the land as they move.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But after we came down from the ice, Stock would come to a sober realization. Amid decades of rising average temperatures, the Lyell and Maclure have lost roughly 65 percent of their surface area and an even greater proportion of their volume. As a result of this mass melting, the Lyell Glacier \u003ca title=\"NPS - release\" href=\"http://www.nps.gov/yose/parknews/lyellglacier.htm\">has stopped moving\u003c/a> altogether – transformed from a “living” glacier to a dead patch of ice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which is to say, the Lyell Glacier is a glacier no more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is not just a matter of semantics. Meltwater from the Lyell and Maclure feeds the Tuolomne River, the main artery of Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, which supplies water to 2.4 million residents in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003ctable border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"10\" align=\"left\">\n\u003ctbody>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003c/tbody>\n\u003c/table>\n\u003cp>Though the total volume of water they contribute to Hetch Hetchy is minimal, the glaciers and permanent snowfields of the Sierra act as important buffers. In late summer, many High Sierra streams go dry. But glacier-fed streams like the Tuolomne supply year-round water to numerous plants, animals – not to mention thirsty hikers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beyond local effects, glaciers respond to long-term changes in average temperature and precipitation, and serve as powerful barometers of climate change. One or two cold or warm years won’t have much effect. But string a decade or two of warm years together and you will see dramatic reductions in ice cover. This warming trend corresponds to a diminution of the state’s snowpack. As of May 1, the state’s snowpack stood at a meager \u003ca title=\"DWR - release\" href=\"http://www.water.ca.gov/news/newsreleases/2013/050213.pdf\">17 percent of average\u003c/a>. Statewide, snowpack is expected to dwindle by 25 percent by the middle of the century, according to the Department of Water Resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3331\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3331\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/yosemite_glaciers_900-e1369354643426.jpg\" alt=\"(Yael Braha/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"407\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Yael Braha/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ice-Fueled Heated Debate\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beyond their vital ecological roles, these glaciers were also the stage for one of the greatest scientific feuds in California history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the great wanderer and chronicler of the Sierra, John Muir, traveled to Lyell and Maclure in the 1870s, he was in a heated debate with Josiah Whitney, California’s eminent state geologist, who derided Muir as “a mere sheepherder” for venturing into a field in which he had no formal training. Whitney believed a great earthquake was responsible for the formation of Yosemite Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Muir, however, postulated that Ice Age glaciers had sculpted Yosemite’s characteristic cliffs and smooth granite faces. Moreover, he knew small glaciers still existed in high recesses of the Sierra. To prove his point, he set out for Mount Maclure on August 21, 1872. When he arrived, he drove tall stakes of whitebark pine into the ice, surveying them with a makeshift plumb-bob to ensure they’d been set in a straight line. If the stakes had moved when he returned, Muir would have powerful evidence that Maclure’s ice sheet was, in fact, a “living” glacier, moving downhill under its own weight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Muir returned in October and found that the stakes set near the glacier’s edge had shifted little, but those in the center showed significant movement. As Muir related in an 1875 \u003cem>Harper’s Magazine\u003c/em> article called “The Living Glaciers of California,” that stake had traveled “forty-seven inches in forty-six days, or about one inch every twenty-four hours.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though his debate with Whitney would rage long after his discovery, Muir’s ideas today have been mostly vindicated. Around 10 million years ago, the granite of Yosemite Valley was uplifted and simultaneously \u003ca title=\"Yosemite\" href=\"http://www.yosemite.ca.us/formation/\">cut by the Merced River\u003c/a>. Then, about 2 or 3 million years ago, during the Ice Age, Earth’s climate cooled rapidly and the glaciers took over – scouring the undulating granite canyons, or “yosemites”– including its most famous, Yosemite Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3322\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/yosemitemap-e1369353940264.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3322 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/yosemitemap-e1369353940264.jpg\" alt=\"(Map: USGS)\" width=\"640\" height=\"371\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Map: USGS)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In Muir’s time, the Sierra’s glaciers were near their maximum extent from the so-called Little Ice Age glaciation, a period of cooling and glacial advance that began around 700 years ago. If Stock and Anderson’s estimates hold, these great shapers of the Sierra may be gone within decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of Yosemite’s glaciers have already vanished. In August, I hiked up Illilouette Creek and into the Clark Range, to the site of the Black Mountain Glacier, the first “discovered” by Muir in 1871. He wrote of descending into a deep crevasse known as a \u003cem>bergschrund \u003c/em>along the glacier’s uppermost reaches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>\u003cem>Its chambered hollows were hung with a multitude of clustered icicles, amidst which thin subdued light pulsed and shimmered with indescribable loveliness. Water dripped and tinkled overhead, and from far below came strange, solemn murmurs from currents feeding their way among veins and fissures on the bottom. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Today nothing remains of the Black Mountain Glacier but a few ellipses of snow in a vast basin of gray talus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Death Throes of a Glacier\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3032\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 251px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/MG_5390-Edit.jpeg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3032\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-3032 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/MG_5390-Edit.jpeg\" alt=\"Lyell Glacier (Photo: Kirk Keeler)\" width=\"251\" height=\"512\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lyell Glacier (Photo: Kirk Keeler)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Lyell Glacier is rapidly approaching a similar fate. \u003ca title=\"UCSD - image\" href=\"http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2009/05/images/icemelt01.jpg\">A photograph from 1903\u003c/a> shows the Lyell Glacier as an unbroken swath of white. In the 110 years of melting since, the Lyell has been cleaved into two separate ice fields. The indications of disappearance are even more dramatic from the Lyell’s surface. High on a cliff on Mt. Lyell is a hand-painted orange letter “K.” When Point K was established in the 1930s, it was at the level of the ice; today, more than 120 feet of bare rock separate it from the glacier’s surface.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fading glaciers signal serious problems for the state’s already strained water supplies. A 2008 study conducted by a former hydrologist for Hetch Hetchy Water and Power, for example, predicted that 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming would trigger an uphill shift of snowpack by 2,000 feet by the end of the century – rendering nearly 60 percent of the Hetch Hetchy watershed snow-free by 2100. The Feather River, the main tributary of the Sacramento River, the state’s largest river (and key source of water to the State Water Project) is particularly vulnerable, says Michael Anderson, California’s state climatologist, since much of its snowpack is held at “lower” elevations between 5,000 and 6,000 feet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Movement Can Be Deceiving\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The day after Stock’s findings on the Lyell, we climbed into the ragged basin of the Maclure Glacier. Unlike the surface of the Lyell, the Maclure bears deep, dark crevasses – signs of a still active glacier. At the Maclure’s edge, dozens of wooden stakes from previous surveys were strewn in the rubble – spat out over the decades from the surging tongue of ice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the steep slopes of the Maclure, the team set out as they had on the Lyell – scouring the ice for the white PVC stakes and re-surveying them. As afternoon temperatures climbed, runoff from the glacier rose to a dull roar, pouring through vibrant blue fissures into the glacier’s recesses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the last of the stakes had been surveyed, the team descended. Stock and Anderson pored over the data, performing a few quick calculations. What they found was stunning. The Maclure was not only still moving, it was moving at almost the exact rate Muir calculated back in 1872 – “\u003cem>one inch every twenty four hours.”\u003c/em> Somehow, in spite of its loss of ice, the Maclure continues to move at nearly the same velocity that Muir detected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stock and Anderson may have a solution to the conundrum: The mechanics of the Maclure’s motion may have shifted over a century-and-a-half. Turns out glaciers move by one of two possible mechanisms: deformation and sliding. Deformation is the way the world’s very large glaciers move, with the ice moving in layers or “sheets,” the uppermost sheets moving fastest and farthest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sliding, on the other hand is not dictated by thickness but the steepness and structure of the rock under the ice as well as the amount of meltwater coating the glacial bed. This meltwater, Stock explains, can come from one of two sources — melting snow and ice on the surface and “pressure melting” of ice at the bed of the glacier as it is forced around bumps in the bedrock. This water acts as a kind of lubricant, allowing the whole glacier to slide at once.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stock and Anderson suspect that while the extreme loss of ice has caused deformation to cease, sliding continues to move the Maclure at the same rate measured by Muir. But this scenario may not be a sign of the Maclure’s health. “You can move even a thin carapace of ice if you’ve just got a lubricant underneath it,” says Stock, careful to point out that under a critical threshold thickness – one that the Lyell Glacier seems to have crossed and one the Maclure may be fast approaching – movement stops altogether.\u003c/p>\n\u003ctable border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"10\" align=\"alignright\">\n\u003ctbody>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003c/tbody>\n\u003c/table>\n\u003cp>The best evidence for sliding can be seen from \u003cem>underneath\u003c/em> the Maclure. At the glacier’s edge, a lip of ice cantilevers precariously over the talus. Stock, Anderson and the rest of the team quickly duck under, revealing a cave of ice, in most places no more than three feet high and extending perhaps 150 feet beneath the glacier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cavern was adorned with surreal stalactites and colonnades of contorted ice, some of which probably derived from snow that fell hundreds of years before the first Europeans arrived on the continent. Above our heads, long straight grooves glittered with ice crystals – clear marks of a glacier actively grinding down its rocky bed. Though I knew the Maclure’s footprint was vastly different from when Muir visited 140 years earlier, I couldn’t help but imagine him here, slithering on hands and knees in this magnificent hollow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our reverie was soon broken. In less than a half-hour, our body heat had discernibly raised the temperature in the cave. Small droplets fell from the low ceiling, making the floor slippery and the tug of gravity more pronounced. It was getting late and we had a long hike back to camp. There was a bright doorway, a glowing oval, where the sun was shining. I snapped a final photograph and slid toward the light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A longer version of this article appears in \u003ca title=\"Earth Island Journal - main\" href=\"http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/eij/article/the_dying_glaciers_of_california/\">Earth Island Journal\u003c/a>. Our thanks to EIJ for sharing Jeremy Miller’s work with us. 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"excerpt": "The Lyell and Maclure glaciers in Yosemite – like glaciers and ice sheets worldwide – are in rapid state of retreat. The Lyell and Maclure were presumed to be “true” glaciers – that is, thick slabs of ice dragged downhill under their own weight, scouring the land as they move – but scientists are discovering that the Maclure is deteriorating as it moves, and the Lyell is no longer moving at all.",
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"description": "The Lyell and Maclure glaciers in Yosemite – like glaciers and ice sheets worldwide – are in rapid state of retreat. The Lyell and Maclure were presumed to be “true” glaciers – that is, thick slabs of ice dragged downhill under their own weight, scouring the land as they move – but scientists are discovering that the Maclure is deteriorating as it moves, and the Lyell is no longer moving at all.",
"title": "California’s Vanishing Glaciers: A Defining Moment | KQED",
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"description": "Jeremy Miller is a contributing editor for High Country News, and his stories have appeared in numerous publications including Harper's, Orion, Men's Journal, Earth Island Journal, The Boston Globe and The San Francisco Chronicle Sunday Magazine. He currently lives in the East Bay with his wife, Emma, and children, Deirdre and Owen.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3328\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3328\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/Lyell_Stock_p921-e1369354344722.jpg\" alt=\"Geologist Greg Stock climbs the Lyell Glacier in Yosemite. (Photo: Tim Palmer)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Geologist Greg Stock climbs the Lyell Glacier in Yosemite. (Photo: Tim Palmer)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Last September, I climbed with a team of scientists and volunteers into the remote high country of Yosemite National Park, onto the ashen hide of the park’s largest ice sheet, the Lyell Glacier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I was there to report but also to assist Greg Stock, Yosemite’s geologist, and Robert Anderson, a glacier researcher from the University of Colorado, in a four-year survey of the \u003ca title=\"Wiki - Lyell Glacier\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyell_Glacier\">Lyell\u003c/a> and neighboring \u003ca title=\"Wiki - Maclure Glacier\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maclure_Glacier\">Maclure Glacier\u003c/a>. The objective was to measure the rate of the Lyell and Maclure’s downhill advance by surveying an array of PVC stakes Stock and his team had driven into the ice over the last few summers. On an earlier trip, in July, we drilled in several new stakes with a six-foot ice auger. Two months of ferocious melting had uprooted many of these. The ones that remained in place were bent like reeds, barely anchored to the ice.\u003c/p>\n\u003ctable border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"10\" align=\"alignright\">\n\u003ctbody>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003c/tbody>\n\u003c/table>\n\u003cp>The story of disappearing ice is \u003ca title=\"Science Daily - post\" href=\"http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130513174811.htm\">a global narrative\u003c/a>. The Lyell and Maclure – like glaciers and ice sheets worldwide – are in rapid state of retreat. Before the trip, the Lyell and Maclure were presumed to be “true” glaciers – that is, thick slabs of ice dragged downhill under their own weight, scouring the land as they move.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But after we came down from the ice, Stock would come to a sober realization. Amid decades of rising average temperatures, the Lyell and Maclure have lost roughly 65 percent of their surface area and an even greater proportion of their volume. As a result of this mass melting, the Lyell Glacier \u003ca title=\"NPS - release\" href=\"http://www.nps.gov/yose/parknews/lyellglacier.htm\">has stopped moving\u003c/a> altogether – transformed from a “living” glacier to a dead patch of ice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which is to say, the Lyell Glacier is a glacier no more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is not just a matter of semantics. Meltwater from the Lyell and Maclure feeds the Tuolomne River, the main artery of Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, which supplies water to 2.4 million residents in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003ctable border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"10\" align=\"left\">\n\u003ctbody>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003c/tbody>\n\u003c/table>\n\u003cp>Though the total volume of water they contribute to Hetch Hetchy is minimal, the glaciers and permanent snowfields of the Sierra act as important buffers. In late summer, many High Sierra streams go dry. But glacier-fed streams like the Tuolomne supply year-round water to numerous plants, animals – not to mention thirsty hikers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beyond local effects, glaciers respond to long-term changes in average temperature and precipitation, and serve as powerful barometers of climate change. One or two cold or warm years won’t have much effect. But string a decade or two of warm years together and you will see dramatic reductions in ice cover. This warming trend corresponds to a diminution of the state’s snowpack. As of May 1, the state’s snowpack stood at a meager \u003ca title=\"DWR - release\" href=\"http://www.water.ca.gov/news/newsreleases/2013/050213.pdf\">17 percent of average\u003c/a>. Statewide, snowpack is expected to dwindle by 25 percent by the middle of the century, according to the Department of Water Resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3331\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3331\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/yosemite_glaciers_900-e1369354643426.jpg\" alt=\"(Yael Braha/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"407\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Yael Braha/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ice-Fueled Heated Debate\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beyond their vital ecological roles, these glaciers were also the stage for one of the greatest scientific feuds in California history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the great wanderer and chronicler of the Sierra, John Muir, traveled to Lyell and Maclure in the 1870s, he was in a heated debate with Josiah Whitney, California’s eminent state geologist, who derided Muir as “a mere sheepherder” for venturing into a field in which he had no formal training. Whitney believed a great earthquake was responsible for the formation of Yosemite Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Muir, however, postulated that Ice Age glaciers had sculpted Yosemite’s characteristic cliffs and smooth granite faces. Moreover, he knew small glaciers still existed in high recesses of the Sierra. To prove his point, he set out for Mount Maclure on August 21, 1872. When he arrived, he drove tall stakes of whitebark pine into the ice, surveying them with a makeshift plumb-bob to ensure they’d been set in a straight line. If the stakes had moved when he returned, Muir would have powerful evidence that Maclure’s ice sheet was, in fact, a “living” glacier, moving downhill under its own weight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Muir returned in October and found that the stakes set near the glacier’s edge had shifted little, but those in the center showed significant movement. As Muir related in an 1875 \u003cem>Harper’s Magazine\u003c/em> article called “The Living Glaciers of California,” that stake had traveled “forty-seven inches in forty-six days, or about one inch every twenty-four hours.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though his debate with Whitney would rage long after his discovery, Muir’s ideas today have been mostly vindicated. Around 10 million years ago, the granite of Yosemite Valley was uplifted and simultaneously \u003ca title=\"Yosemite\" href=\"http://www.yosemite.ca.us/formation/\">cut by the Merced River\u003c/a>. Then, about 2 or 3 million years ago, during the Ice Age, Earth’s climate cooled rapidly and the glaciers took over – scouring the undulating granite canyons, or “yosemites”– including its most famous, Yosemite Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3322\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/yosemitemap-e1369353940264.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3322 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/yosemitemap-e1369353940264.jpg\" alt=\"(Map: USGS)\" width=\"640\" height=\"371\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Map: USGS)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In Muir’s time, the Sierra’s glaciers were near their maximum extent from the so-called Little Ice Age glaciation, a period of cooling and glacial advance that began around 700 years ago. If Stock and Anderson’s estimates hold, these great shapers of the Sierra may be gone within decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of Yosemite’s glaciers have already vanished. In August, I hiked up Illilouette Creek and into the Clark Range, to the site of the Black Mountain Glacier, the first “discovered” by Muir in 1871. He wrote of descending into a deep crevasse known as a \u003cem>bergschrund \u003c/em>along the glacier’s uppermost reaches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>\u003cem>Its chambered hollows were hung with a multitude of clustered icicles, amidst which thin subdued light pulsed and shimmered with indescribable loveliness. Water dripped and tinkled overhead, and from far below came strange, solemn murmurs from currents feeding their way among veins and fissures on the bottom. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Today nothing remains of the Black Mountain Glacier but a few ellipses of snow in a vast basin of gray talus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Death Throes of a Glacier\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3032\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 251px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/MG_5390-Edit.jpeg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3032\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-3032 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/05/MG_5390-Edit.jpeg\" alt=\"Lyell Glacier (Photo: Kirk Keeler)\" width=\"251\" height=\"512\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lyell Glacier (Photo: Kirk Keeler)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Lyell Glacier is rapidly approaching a similar fate. \u003ca title=\"UCSD - image\" href=\"http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/thisweek/2009/05/images/icemelt01.jpg\">A photograph from 1903\u003c/a> shows the Lyell Glacier as an unbroken swath of white. In the 110 years of melting since, the Lyell has been cleaved into two separate ice fields. The indications of disappearance are even more dramatic from the Lyell’s surface. High on a cliff on Mt. Lyell is a hand-painted orange letter “K.” When Point K was established in the 1930s, it was at the level of the ice; today, more than 120 feet of bare rock separate it from the glacier’s surface.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fading glaciers signal serious problems for the state’s already strained water supplies. A 2008 study conducted by a former hydrologist for Hetch Hetchy Water and Power, for example, predicted that 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming would trigger an uphill shift of snowpack by 2,000 feet by the end of the century – rendering nearly 60 percent of the Hetch Hetchy watershed snow-free by 2100. The Feather River, the main tributary of the Sacramento River, the state’s largest river (and key source of water to the State Water Project) is particularly vulnerable, says Michael Anderson, California’s state climatologist, since much of its snowpack is held at “lower” elevations between 5,000 and 6,000 feet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Movement Can Be Deceiving\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The day after Stock’s findings on the Lyell, we climbed into the ragged basin of the Maclure Glacier. Unlike the surface of the Lyell, the Maclure bears deep, dark crevasses – signs of a still active glacier. At the Maclure’s edge, dozens of wooden stakes from previous surveys were strewn in the rubble – spat out over the decades from the surging tongue of ice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the steep slopes of the Maclure, the team set out as they had on the Lyell – scouring the ice for the white PVC stakes and re-surveying them. As afternoon temperatures climbed, runoff from the glacier rose to a dull roar, pouring through vibrant blue fissures into the glacier’s recesses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the last of the stakes had been surveyed, the team descended. Stock and Anderson pored over the data, performing a few quick calculations. What they found was stunning. The Maclure was not only still moving, it was moving at almost the exact rate Muir calculated back in 1872 – “\u003cem>one inch every twenty four hours.”\u003c/em> Somehow, in spite of its loss of ice, the Maclure continues to move at nearly the same velocity that Muir detected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stock and Anderson may have a solution to the conundrum: The mechanics of the Maclure’s motion may have shifted over a century-and-a-half. Turns out glaciers move by one of two possible mechanisms: deformation and sliding. Deformation is the way the world’s very large glaciers move, with the ice moving in layers or “sheets,” the uppermost sheets moving fastest and farthest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sliding, on the other hand is not dictated by thickness but the steepness and structure of the rock under the ice as well as the amount of meltwater coating the glacial bed. This meltwater, Stock explains, can come from one of two sources — melting snow and ice on the surface and “pressure melting” of ice at the bed of the glacier as it is forced around bumps in the bedrock. This water acts as a kind of lubricant, allowing the whole glacier to slide at once.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stock and Anderson suspect that while the extreme loss of ice has caused deformation to cease, sliding continues to move the Maclure at the same rate measured by Muir. But this scenario may not be a sign of the Maclure’s health. “You can move even a thin carapace of ice if you’ve just got a lubricant underneath it,” says Stock, careful to point out that under a critical threshold thickness – one that the Lyell Glacier seems to have crossed and one the Maclure may be fast approaching – movement stops altogether.\u003c/p>\n\u003ctable border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"10\" align=\"alignright\">\n\u003ctbody>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003c/tbody>\n\u003c/table>\n\u003cp>The best evidence for sliding can be seen from \u003cem>underneath\u003c/em> the Maclure. At the glacier’s edge, a lip of ice cantilevers precariously over the talus. Stock, Anderson and the rest of the team quickly duck under, revealing a cave of ice, in most places no more than three feet high and extending perhaps 150 feet beneath the glacier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cavern was adorned with surreal stalactites and colonnades of contorted ice, some of which probably derived from snow that fell hundreds of years before the first Europeans arrived on the continent. Above our heads, long straight grooves glittered with ice crystals – clear marks of a glacier actively grinding down its rocky bed. Though I knew the Maclure’s footprint was vastly different from when Muir visited 140 years earlier, I couldn’t help but imagine him here, slithering on hands and knees in this magnificent hollow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our reverie was soon broken. In less than a half-hour, our body heat had discernibly raised the temperature in the cave. Small droplets fell from the low ceiling, making the floor slippery and the tug of gravity more pronounced. It was getting late and we had a long hike back to camp. There was a bright doorway, a glowing oval, where the sun was shining. I snapped a final photograph and slid toward the light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A longer version of this article appears in \u003ca title=\"Earth Island Journal - main\" href=\"http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/eij/article/the_dying_glaciers_of_california/\">Earth Island Journal\u003c/a>. Our thanks to EIJ for sharing Jeremy Miller’s work with us. Photos in the sound modules are by Jonathan Byers and Kirk Keeler.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BBC-World-Service-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/bbc-world-service",
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"rss": "https://podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk/p02nq0gn.rss"
}
},
"californiareport": {
"id": "californiareport",
"title": "The California Report",
"tagline": "California, day by day",
"info": "KQED’s statewide radio news program providing daily coverage of issues, trends and public policy decisions.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-California-Report-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareport",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 8
},
"link": "/californiareport",
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}
},
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"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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"order": 10
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM3NjkwNjk1OTAz",
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},
"city-arts": {
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"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": {
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"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
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"rss": "https://www.cityarts.net/feed/"
}
},
"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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"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.",
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"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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"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.",
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"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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"freakonomics-radio": {
"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",
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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",
"title": "Fresh Air",
"info": "Hosted by Terry Gross, \u003cem>Fresh Air from WHYY\u003c/em> is the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues. One of public radio's most popular programs, Fresh Air features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries.",
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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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"here-and-now": {
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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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},
"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.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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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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"order": 15
},
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},
"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",
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"order": 18
},
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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/",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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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"
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},
"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",
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"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",
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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": {
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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