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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985305\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1300px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985305\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/fema-1_custom-b66ce655e4b269118416609d9fcc1af1f259f12a-s1300-c85.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1300\" height=\"867\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/fema-1_custom-b66ce655e4b269118416609d9fcc1af1f259f12a-s1300-c85.jpg 1300w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/fema-1_custom-b66ce655e4b269118416609d9fcc1af1f259f12a-s1300-c85-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/fema-1_custom-b66ce655e4b269118416609d9fcc1af1f259f12a-s1300-c85-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/fema-1_custom-b66ce655e4b269118416609d9fcc1af1f259f12a-s1300-c85-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/fema-1_custom-b66ce655e4b269118416609d9fcc1af1f259f12a-s1300-c85-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1300px) 100vw, 1300px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Climate change causes tens of billions of dollars in economic damage in the United States every year, according to a new assessment. Many survivors of climate-driven disasters, including hurricanes, floods and wildfires, struggle for months or even years to repair their homes or find new stable housing. Here, a Louisiana home damaged by a hurricane sits waiting for unaffordable repairs. \u003ccite>(Ryan Kellman/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Climate change is expensive, deadly and preventable, according to the new National Climate Assessment, the most sweeping, sophisticated federal analysis of climate change compiled to date.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Released every five years, the National Climate Assessment is a congressionally mandated evaluation of the effects of climate change on American life. This new fifth edition paints a picture of a nation simultaneously beset by climate-driven disasters and capable of dramatically reducing emissions of planet-warming gasses in the near future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is the first time the assessment includes standalone chapters about climate change’s toll on the American economy, as well as the complex social factors driving climate change and the nation’s responses. And, unlike past installments, the new assessment draws heavily from social science, including history, sociology, philosophy and Indigenous studies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new approach adds context and relevance to the assessment’s robust scientific findings and underscores the disproportionate danger that climate change poses to poor people, marginalized communities, older Americans, and those who work outdoors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Climate change affects us all, but it doesn’t affect us all equally,” says climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe, one of the authors of the assessment. But threaded throughout the report are case studies and research summaries highlighting ways “climate action can create a more resilient and just country,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is also the first time the National Climate Assessment will be translated into Spanish, although the Spanish-language version won’t be available until the spring, according to the White House.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The National Climate Assessment is extremely influential in legal and policy circles, and affects everything from court cases about who should foot the bill for wildfire damage to local decisions about how tall to build coastal flood barriers. “It really shapes the way that people understand, and therefore act, in relation to climate change,” says Michael Burger, the director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hundreds of scientists from universities, industry, and federal agencies contributed to the report. They reviewed cutting-edge research published since the last report and contextualized it in decades of foundational climate research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fifth edition of the assessment arrives as millions of Americans struggle with the effects of a hotter Earth. Dramatic and deadly wildfires, floods and heat waves killed hundreds of people in the United States in 2023.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, while federal spending on renewable energy and disaster preparedness has increased, the U.S. is also \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/03/29/1166802809/gulf-of-mexico-oil-gas-leases-drilling\">investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure\u003c/a> that is incompatible with avoiding catastrophic warming later this century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here are the three big takeaways from the \u003ca href=\"https://nca2023.globalchange.gov/\">Fifth National Climate Assessment\u003c/a>. More information about the specific effects of climate change in your area can be found in the assessment’s \u003ca href=\"https://nca2023.globalchange.gov/chapter/22/\">regional chapters\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985296\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985296\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/ap20216281153675_custom-1d05a45fb29ce62970daa40e712f1e61d079949e-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Windmills is seen on a backdrop of orange skies.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/ap20216281153675_custom-1d05a45fb29ce62970daa40e712f1e61d079949e-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/ap20216281153675_custom-1d05a45fb29ce62970daa40e712f1e61d079949e-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/ap20216281153675_custom-1d05a45fb29ce62970daa40e712f1e61d079949e-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/ap20216281153675_custom-1d05a45fb29ce62970daa40e712f1e61d079949e-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/ap20216281153675_custom-1d05a45fb29ce62970daa40e712f1e61d079949e-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/ap20216281153675_custom-1d05a45fb29ce62970daa40e712f1e61d079949e-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/ap20216281153675_custom-1d05a45fb29ce62970daa40e712f1e61d079949e-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/ap20216281153675_custom-1d05a45fb29ce62970daa40e712f1e61d079949e-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Windmills near Whitewater, Calif., in 2020. Reducing fossil fuel use and investing more in renewable energy sources such as wind will help the U.S. avoid billions of dollars of economic costs and help Americans live longer, healthier lives, according to the Fifth National Climate Assessment. \u003ccite>(AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Climate change makes life more expensive\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Food, housing, labor — it all gets pricier as the Earth heats up, according to the National Climate Assessment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Climate-driven weather disasters, like heat waves, floods, hurricanes and wildfires, are particularly expensive. They destroy homes and businesses, wreck crops and create supply shortages by delaying trucks, ships and trains. Such disasters make it more likely that families will go bankrupt, and that municipal governments will run deficits, the authors note.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Weather-related disasters in the U.S. cause about $150 billion each year in direct losses, according to the report. That’s a lot of money — roughly equal to the annual budget for the Energy Department — and it’s only expected to go up as the Earth gets hotter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://apps.npr.org/dailygraphics/graphics/billion-dollar-disasters-us-20231107/?initialWidth=1288&childId=responsive-embed-billion-dollar-disasters-us-20231107&parentTitle=How%20climate%20change%20affects%20life%20in%20the%20U.S.%20%3A%20NPR&parentUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.npr.org%2F2023%2F11%2F14%2F1206506962%2Fclimate-change-affects-your-life-in-3-big-ways-a-new-report-warns\" width=\"1000\" height=\"850\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that’s all before factoring in the less obvious or tangible costs of climate change. For example, healthcare bills for people who are sicker because of extreme heat or have respiratory illness brought on by breathing in mold after a flood. Exposure to wildfire smoke alone costs billions of dollars a year in lost earnings, the assessment notes — a burden that falls disproportionately on poor people who work outdoors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The research indicates that people who are lower income have more trouble adapting [to climate change] because adaptation comes at a cost,” says Solomon Hsiang, a climate economist at the University of California, Berkeley and a lead author of the assessment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, one of the simplest ways to adapt to severe heat waves is to run your air conditioner more. But “if people can’t pay for it, then [they] can’t protect themselves,” explains Hsiang.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the hotter it gets, the more profound the economic harm, assessment warns. Twice as much planetary warming leads to more than twice as much economic harm, the assessment warns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1985298\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/20230825-_dsc8063_slide-4e6669f7eb264958eac6f36ad2bfc98e49e293db-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1706\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/20230825-_dsc8063_slide-4e6669f7eb264958eac6f36ad2bfc98e49e293db-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/20230825-_dsc8063_slide-4e6669f7eb264958eac6f36ad2bfc98e49e293db-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/20230825-_dsc8063_slide-4e6669f7eb264958eac6f36ad2bfc98e49e293db-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/20230825-_dsc8063_slide-4e6669f7eb264958eac6f36ad2bfc98e49e293db-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/20230825-_dsc8063_slide-4e6669f7eb264958eac6f36ad2bfc98e49e293db-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/20230825-_dsc8063_slide-4e6669f7eb264958eac6f36ad2bfc98e49e293db-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/20230825-_dsc8063_slide-4e6669f7eb264958eac6f36ad2bfc98e49e293db-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/20230825-_dsc8063_slide-4e6669f7eb264958eac6f36ad2bfc98e49e293db-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Climate change makes people sick and often kills them\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Since the previous NCA was released five years ago, the health costs of climate change have gone from theoretical to personal for many Americans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most obvious risk? Extreme weather, particularly heat, says Mary Hayden, the lead author of the chapter examining human health. Heat waves have become hotter, longer, and more dangerous, and they’re hitting areas that aren’t ready for them — like the “record-shattering” heat dome that descended on the Pacific Northwest in 2021 and caused hundreds of deaths.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s not just heat. Wildfire smoke can send people thousands of miles from the fires to hospitals with respiratory problems and heart disease complications. Hurricanes can disrupt people’s access to healthcare: when a clinic is flooded or people are displaced, for example, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9529177/\">kidney patients can’t get dialysis treatment\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In most cases, the people who bear the brunt of the disasters are those already at risk: poor communities, communities of color, women, people with disabilities, and other marginalized groups. Temperatures in formerly redlined neighborhoods in cities across the country can\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/01/14/795961381/racist-housing-practices-from-the-1930s-linked-to-hotter-neighborhoods-today\"> soar nearly 15 degrees Fahrenheit hotter\u003c/a> than wealthier areas just blocks away, putting residents at a much higher risk of heat exposure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The assessment also homes in on research tracking less-obvious health impacts. Living through climate disasters, for example, can leave lasting emotional scars. “We’re not just talking about [people’s] physical health — we’re talking about their mental health. We’re talking about their spiritual health. We’re talking about the health and well-being of communities that are being affected by this,” Hayden says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That means recognizing the long-term effects on communities like Paradise, California, where people still deal with \u003ca href=\"https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/4/1487\">deep emotional trauma\u003c/a> five years after their town burned in the 2018 Camp Fire. The report also flags the growing emotional toll on children and young people, for whom anxiety about the future of the planet is bleeding into all parts of their lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1985299\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/mg_2639-enhanced-nr-e29d7c7e3b36de7b81d92f4533a05120d38427f0.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2220\" height=\"1665\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/mg_2639-enhanced-nr-e29d7c7e3b36de7b81d92f4533a05120d38427f0.jpg 2220w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/mg_2639-enhanced-nr-e29d7c7e3b36de7b81d92f4533a05120d38427f0-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/mg_2639-enhanced-nr-e29d7c7e3b36de7b81d92f4533a05120d38427f0-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/mg_2639-enhanced-nr-e29d7c7e3b36de7b81d92f4533a05120d38427f0-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/mg_2639-enhanced-nr-e29d7c7e3b36de7b81d92f4533a05120d38427f0-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/mg_2639-enhanced-nr-e29d7c7e3b36de7b81d92f4533a05120d38427f0-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/mg_2639-enhanced-nr-e29d7c7e3b36de7b81d92f4533a05120d38427f0-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/mg_2639-enhanced-nr-e29d7c7e3b36de7b81d92f4533a05120d38427f0-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2220px) 100vw, 2220px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Climate change threatens people’s special, sacred places and practices\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The places, cultural practices, and traditions that anchor many communities are also in flux because of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fishing communities are seeing their livelihoods shift or collapse. The Northeast’s iconic lobster fishery, the single most economically valuable in the country, has\u003ca href=\"https://nca5preview.globalchange.gov/chapter/10/#key-message-2\"> withered as marine heatwaves sweep through the regional seas\u003c/a>. Shrinking snowpack and too-warm temperatures are interrupting opportunities for beloved recreational activities,\u003ca href=\"https://nca5preview.globalchange.gov/chapter/27/#key-message-3\"> like skiing or ice fishing\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indigenous communities are being forced to adjust to new climate realities, which are disrupting traditional food-gathering traditions. In Palau, a monthly tradition of catching fish at a particularly low tide has been upset by sea-level rise, which keeps water levels too high to trap fish in the historically used\u003ca href=\"https://nca5preview.globalchange.gov/chapter/30/#fig-30-6\"> places\u003c/a>. Sea-level rise is also forcing coastal communities to \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/11/06/1204923950/arizona-california-new-jersey-climate-flood-wildfire-drought-building-homes\">re-think their very existence,\u003c/a> pulling apart the social fabric that has developed over generations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But many communities — Indigenous people, farmers and fishers, groups that have lived tightly connected to their environments for a long time — have deep stores of resilience from which to draw, says Elizabeth Marino, a sociologist and the lead author of the chapter on social transformations. “There is quite a lot of wisdom in place to adapt to and even mitigate climate change,” she says. “It allows people to come up with solutions that fit the lives that they lead, and that’s also a place of hope.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The fixes to climate change can make Americans’ lives better\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The fifth assessment lays out a stark picture of the climate challenges the U.S. faces. Keeping planetary warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), the goal of the international Paris Agreement will require immediate, enormous cuts to fossil fuel emissions in the U.S. and beyond. Keeping warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), an ambitious target written into the Agreement, will be even harder, the report says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it also points out many successful efforts underway to adapt to the new reality and to prevent worse outcomes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not the message that if we don’t hit 1.5 degrees, we’re all going to die,” Hayhoe says. “It’s the message that everything we do matters. Every 10th of a degree of warming we avoid, there’s a benefit to that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Addressing fossil fuel-driven climate change can also help people live healthier lives, stresses J. Jason West, the lead author of a chapter on air quality. Dialing back fossil fuel emissions would help prevent further climate change and also lessen the kinds of air pollution most harmful to human health.” There really is a lot of opportunity to take action that would resolve both of those problems at the same time,” West says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s been a subtle shift in the report’s perspective since the last one, says Candis Callison, a sociologist and author of the report. There’s now a clear acknowledgment, developed through years of rigorous research, that the fossil fuel-powered society the U.S. built over generations was profoundly unjust. Many pollution-producing coal or gas power plants were \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/12/05/1061600376/communities-of-color-face-disproportionate-exposure-to-pollution\">sited in communities of color\u003c/a> rather than white communities, affecting people’s health outcomes for generations. And decisions about land and water use for energy extraction \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/04/27/1172273665/tribal-nations-were-once-excluded-from-colorado-river-talks-now-theyre-key-playe\">often excluded tribal communities\u003c/a>, with consequences still playing out today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The transition forward can look different, she says. “Climate change actually provides us with an opportunity to address some of those inequities and injustices — and to respond to these impacts,” Callison says. “That’s really a powerful thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Climate+change+affects+your+life+in+3+big+ways%2C+a+new+report+warns&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985305\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1300px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985305\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/fema-1_custom-b66ce655e4b269118416609d9fcc1af1f259f12a-s1300-c85.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1300\" height=\"867\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/fema-1_custom-b66ce655e4b269118416609d9fcc1af1f259f12a-s1300-c85.jpg 1300w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/fema-1_custom-b66ce655e4b269118416609d9fcc1af1f259f12a-s1300-c85-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/fema-1_custom-b66ce655e4b269118416609d9fcc1af1f259f12a-s1300-c85-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/fema-1_custom-b66ce655e4b269118416609d9fcc1af1f259f12a-s1300-c85-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/fema-1_custom-b66ce655e4b269118416609d9fcc1af1f259f12a-s1300-c85-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1300px) 100vw, 1300px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Climate change causes tens of billions of dollars in economic damage in the United States every year, according to a new assessment. Many survivors of climate-driven disasters, including hurricanes, floods and wildfires, struggle for months or even years to repair their homes or find new stable housing. Here, a Louisiana home damaged by a hurricane sits waiting for unaffordable repairs. \u003ccite>(Ryan Kellman/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Climate change is expensive, deadly and preventable, according to the new National Climate Assessment, the most sweeping, sophisticated federal analysis of climate change compiled to date.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Released every five years, the National Climate Assessment is a congressionally mandated evaluation of the effects of climate change on American life. This new fifth edition paints a picture of a nation simultaneously beset by climate-driven disasters and capable of dramatically reducing emissions of planet-warming gasses in the near future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is the first time the assessment includes standalone chapters about climate change’s toll on the American economy, as well as the complex social factors driving climate change and the nation’s responses. And, unlike past installments, the new assessment draws heavily from social science, including history, sociology, philosophy and Indigenous studies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new approach adds context and relevance to the assessment’s robust scientific findings and underscores the disproportionate danger that climate change poses to poor people, marginalized communities, older Americans, and those who work outdoors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Climate change affects us all, but it doesn’t affect us all equally,” says climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe, one of the authors of the assessment. But threaded throughout the report are case studies and research summaries highlighting ways “climate action can create a more resilient and just country,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is also the first time the National Climate Assessment will be translated into Spanish, although the Spanish-language version won’t be available until the spring, according to the White House.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The National Climate Assessment is extremely influential in legal and policy circles, and affects everything from court cases about who should foot the bill for wildfire damage to local decisions about how tall to build coastal flood barriers. “It really shapes the way that people understand, and therefore act, in relation to climate change,” says Michael Burger, the director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hundreds of scientists from universities, industry, and federal agencies contributed to the report. They reviewed cutting-edge research published since the last report and contextualized it in decades of foundational climate research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fifth edition of the assessment arrives as millions of Americans struggle with the effects of a hotter Earth. Dramatic and deadly wildfires, floods and heat waves killed hundreds of people in the United States in 2023.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, while federal spending on renewable energy and disaster preparedness has increased, the U.S. is also \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/03/29/1166802809/gulf-of-mexico-oil-gas-leases-drilling\">investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure\u003c/a> that is incompatible with avoiding catastrophic warming later this century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here are the three big takeaways from the \u003ca href=\"https://nca2023.globalchange.gov/\">Fifth National Climate Assessment\u003c/a>. More information about the specific effects of climate change in your area can be found in the assessment’s \u003ca href=\"https://nca2023.globalchange.gov/chapter/22/\">regional chapters\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985296\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985296\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/ap20216281153675_custom-1d05a45fb29ce62970daa40e712f1e61d079949e-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Windmills is seen on a backdrop of orange skies.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/ap20216281153675_custom-1d05a45fb29ce62970daa40e712f1e61d079949e-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/ap20216281153675_custom-1d05a45fb29ce62970daa40e712f1e61d079949e-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/ap20216281153675_custom-1d05a45fb29ce62970daa40e712f1e61d079949e-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/ap20216281153675_custom-1d05a45fb29ce62970daa40e712f1e61d079949e-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/ap20216281153675_custom-1d05a45fb29ce62970daa40e712f1e61d079949e-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/ap20216281153675_custom-1d05a45fb29ce62970daa40e712f1e61d079949e-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/ap20216281153675_custom-1d05a45fb29ce62970daa40e712f1e61d079949e-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/ap20216281153675_custom-1d05a45fb29ce62970daa40e712f1e61d079949e-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Windmills near Whitewater, Calif., in 2020. Reducing fossil fuel use and investing more in renewable energy sources such as wind will help the U.S. avoid billions of dollars of economic costs and help Americans live longer, healthier lives, according to the Fifth National Climate Assessment. \u003ccite>(AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Climate change makes life more expensive\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Food, housing, labor — it all gets pricier as the Earth heats up, according to the National Climate Assessment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Climate-driven weather disasters, like heat waves, floods, hurricanes and wildfires, are particularly expensive. They destroy homes and businesses, wreck crops and create supply shortages by delaying trucks, ships and trains. Such disasters make it more likely that families will go bankrupt, and that municipal governments will run deficits, the authors note.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Weather-related disasters in the U.S. cause about $150 billion each year in direct losses, according to the report. That’s a lot of money — roughly equal to the annual budget for the Energy Department — and it’s only expected to go up as the Earth gets hotter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://apps.npr.org/dailygraphics/graphics/billion-dollar-disasters-us-20231107/?initialWidth=1288&childId=responsive-embed-billion-dollar-disasters-us-20231107&parentTitle=How%20climate%20change%20affects%20life%20in%20the%20U.S.%20%3A%20NPR&parentUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.npr.org%2F2023%2F11%2F14%2F1206506962%2Fclimate-change-affects-your-life-in-3-big-ways-a-new-report-warns\" width=\"1000\" height=\"850\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that’s all before factoring in the less obvious or tangible costs of climate change. For example, healthcare bills for people who are sicker because of extreme heat or have respiratory illness brought on by breathing in mold after a flood. Exposure to wildfire smoke alone costs billions of dollars a year in lost earnings, the assessment notes — a burden that falls disproportionately on poor people who work outdoors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The research indicates that people who are lower income have more trouble adapting [to climate change] because adaptation comes at a cost,” says Solomon Hsiang, a climate economist at the University of California, Berkeley and a lead author of the assessment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, one of the simplest ways to adapt to severe heat waves is to run your air conditioner more. But “if people can’t pay for it, then [they] can’t protect themselves,” explains Hsiang.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the hotter it gets, the more profound the economic harm, assessment warns. Twice as much planetary warming leads to more than twice as much economic harm, the assessment warns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1985298\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/20230825-_dsc8063_slide-4e6669f7eb264958eac6f36ad2bfc98e49e293db-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1706\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/20230825-_dsc8063_slide-4e6669f7eb264958eac6f36ad2bfc98e49e293db-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/20230825-_dsc8063_slide-4e6669f7eb264958eac6f36ad2bfc98e49e293db-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/20230825-_dsc8063_slide-4e6669f7eb264958eac6f36ad2bfc98e49e293db-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/20230825-_dsc8063_slide-4e6669f7eb264958eac6f36ad2bfc98e49e293db-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/20230825-_dsc8063_slide-4e6669f7eb264958eac6f36ad2bfc98e49e293db-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/20230825-_dsc8063_slide-4e6669f7eb264958eac6f36ad2bfc98e49e293db-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/20230825-_dsc8063_slide-4e6669f7eb264958eac6f36ad2bfc98e49e293db-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/20230825-_dsc8063_slide-4e6669f7eb264958eac6f36ad2bfc98e49e293db-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Climate change makes people sick and often kills them\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Since the previous NCA was released five years ago, the health costs of climate change have gone from theoretical to personal for many Americans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most obvious risk? Extreme weather, particularly heat, says Mary Hayden, the lead author of the chapter examining human health. Heat waves have become hotter, longer, and more dangerous, and they’re hitting areas that aren’t ready for them — like the “record-shattering” heat dome that descended on the Pacific Northwest in 2021 and caused hundreds of deaths.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s not just heat. Wildfire smoke can send people thousands of miles from the fires to hospitals with respiratory problems and heart disease complications. Hurricanes can disrupt people’s access to healthcare: when a clinic is flooded or people are displaced, for example, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9529177/\">kidney patients can’t get dialysis treatment\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In most cases, the people who bear the brunt of the disasters are those already at risk: poor communities, communities of color, women, people with disabilities, and other marginalized groups. Temperatures in formerly redlined neighborhoods in cities across the country can\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/01/14/795961381/racist-housing-practices-from-the-1930s-linked-to-hotter-neighborhoods-today\"> soar nearly 15 degrees Fahrenheit hotter\u003c/a> than wealthier areas just blocks away, putting residents at a much higher risk of heat exposure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The assessment also homes in on research tracking less-obvious health impacts. Living through climate disasters, for example, can leave lasting emotional scars. “We’re not just talking about [people’s] physical health — we’re talking about their mental health. We’re talking about their spiritual health. We’re talking about the health and well-being of communities that are being affected by this,” Hayden says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That means recognizing the long-term effects on communities like Paradise, California, where people still deal with \u003ca href=\"https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/4/1487\">deep emotional trauma\u003c/a> five years after their town burned in the 2018 Camp Fire. The report also flags the growing emotional toll on children and young people, for whom anxiety about the future of the planet is bleeding into all parts of their lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1985299\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/mg_2639-enhanced-nr-e29d7c7e3b36de7b81d92f4533a05120d38427f0.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2220\" height=\"1665\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/mg_2639-enhanced-nr-e29d7c7e3b36de7b81d92f4533a05120d38427f0.jpg 2220w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/mg_2639-enhanced-nr-e29d7c7e3b36de7b81d92f4533a05120d38427f0-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/mg_2639-enhanced-nr-e29d7c7e3b36de7b81d92f4533a05120d38427f0-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/mg_2639-enhanced-nr-e29d7c7e3b36de7b81d92f4533a05120d38427f0-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/mg_2639-enhanced-nr-e29d7c7e3b36de7b81d92f4533a05120d38427f0-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/mg_2639-enhanced-nr-e29d7c7e3b36de7b81d92f4533a05120d38427f0-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/mg_2639-enhanced-nr-e29d7c7e3b36de7b81d92f4533a05120d38427f0-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/mg_2639-enhanced-nr-e29d7c7e3b36de7b81d92f4533a05120d38427f0-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2220px) 100vw, 2220px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Climate change threatens people’s special, sacred places and practices\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The places, cultural practices, and traditions that anchor many communities are also in flux because of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fishing communities are seeing their livelihoods shift or collapse. The Northeast’s iconic lobster fishery, the single most economically valuable in the country, has\u003ca href=\"https://nca5preview.globalchange.gov/chapter/10/#key-message-2\"> withered as marine heatwaves sweep through the regional seas\u003c/a>. Shrinking snowpack and too-warm temperatures are interrupting opportunities for beloved recreational activities,\u003ca href=\"https://nca5preview.globalchange.gov/chapter/27/#key-message-3\"> like skiing or ice fishing\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indigenous communities are being forced to adjust to new climate realities, which are disrupting traditional food-gathering traditions. In Palau, a monthly tradition of catching fish at a particularly low tide has been upset by sea-level rise, which keeps water levels too high to trap fish in the historically used\u003ca href=\"https://nca5preview.globalchange.gov/chapter/30/#fig-30-6\"> places\u003c/a>. Sea-level rise is also forcing coastal communities to \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/11/06/1204923950/arizona-california-new-jersey-climate-flood-wildfire-drought-building-homes\">re-think their very existence,\u003c/a> pulling apart the social fabric that has developed over generations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But many communities — Indigenous people, farmers and fishers, groups that have lived tightly connected to their environments for a long time — have deep stores of resilience from which to draw, says Elizabeth Marino, a sociologist and the lead author of the chapter on social transformations. “There is quite a lot of wisdom in place to adapt to and even mitigate climate change,” she says. “It allows people to come up with solutions that fit the lives that they lead, and that’s also a place of hope.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The fixes to climate change can make Americans’ lives better\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The fifth assessment lays out a stark picture of the climate challenges the U.S. faces. Keeping planetary warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), the goal of the international Paris Agreement will require immediate, enormous cuts to fossil fuel emissions in the U.S. and beyond. Keeping warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), an ambitious target written into the Agreement, will be even harder, the report says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it also points out many successful efforts underway to adapt to the new reality and to prevent worse outcomes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not the message that if we don’t hit 1.5 degrees, we’re all going to die,” Hayhoe says. “It’s the message that everything we do matters. Every 10th of a degree of warming we avoid, there’s a benefit to that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Addressing fossil fuel-driven climate change can also help people live healthier lives, stresses J. Jason West, the lead author of a chapter on air quality. Dialing back fossil fuel emissions would help prevent further climate change and also lessen the kinds of air pollution most harmful to human health.” There really is a lot of opportunity to take action that would resolve both of those problems at the same time,” West says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s been a subtle shift in the report’s perspective since the last one, says Candis Callison, a sociologist and author of the report. There’s now a clear acknowledgment, developed through years of rigorous research, that the fossil fuel-powered society the U.S. built over generations was profoundly unjust. Many pollution-producing coal or gas power plants were \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/12/05/1061600376/communities-of-color-face-disproportionate-exposure-to-pollution\">sited in communities of color\u003c/a> rather than white communities, affecting people’s health outcomes for generations. And decisions about land and water use for energy extraction \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/04/27/1172273665/tribal-nations-were-once-excluded-from-colorado-river-talks-now-theyre-key-playe\">often excluded tribal communities\u003c/a>, with consequences still playing out today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The transition forward can look different, she says. “Climate change actually provides us with an opportunity to address some of those inequities and injustices — and to respond to these impacts,” Callison says. “That’s really a powerful thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Climate+change+affects+your+life+in+3+big+ways%2C+a+new+report+warns&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update 5:38 p.m. Monday:\u003c/strong> A storm swirling off the Bay Area’s coast will bring rain to the region this week, albeit much less than meteorologists at the National Weather Service originally forecasted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The storm stayed further offshore than last week’s forecast anticipated. Meteorologists say that shift will mean less rainfall for the Bay Area and the Central Coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While the overall week can be categorized as wet, there will likely be breaks in the precip throughout,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.weather.gov/wrh/TextProduct?product=afdmtr\">NWS’s Bay Area office in its latest forecast discussion\u003c/a>, noting that they expect the wettest period for the Bay Area to be Wednesday afternoon into the evening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area’s coastal mountains could see up to 2 inches of rain through Saturday, the North Bay and coastal areas 1 to 1.5 inches and inland valleys up to an inch, according to the latest forecast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/NWSBayArea/status/1724207494904385922\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the NWS is confident in a soaking rain this week, meteorologists note that there is still a lot of uncertainty about this slow-moving storm — meaning the forecast could significantly change in the coming days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They said the spinning low-pressure system off the coast “adds a level of uncertainty to the forecast,” which they described as “not a slam dunk forecast by any means.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Original November 8 story below:\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The National Weather Service is forecasting the Bay Area’s first \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11936674/how-to-prepare-for-this-weeks-atmospheric-river-storm-sandbags-emergency-kits-and-more\">major atmospheric river\u003c/a> of the season next week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Between Tuesday and Thursday, a storm could drop as much as 2 inches of rain from Marin to Santa Cruz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some of the higher peaks in the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Sonoma Coast could get even more,” NWS meteorologist Dalton Behringer said. “It looks like it’s going to hit everyone, even as far down south as Big Sur and Central Coast.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This weather is forecast to hit during \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11965942\">the 2023 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference in San Francisco\u003c/a> — an event that was already predicted to disrupt traffic and public transit as world leaders gather in the city for the high-security event.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The storm follows a deep, low-pressure system coming from the Gulf of Alaska. It is supposed to drop down the West Coast, and it’s part of an active, progressive pattern that could last into the middle of the month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/NWSBayArea/status/1721997248576585801\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The atmospheric river is also expected to drop ample snow in the Sierra Nevada. Still, snowfall totals this early are hard to forecast, Behringer said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As of now, it looks to be the first big snowpack producer for them as well,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/UCB_CSSL/status/1721934240177373649?s=20\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the end of the century, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212094722000275\">climate change may make these deluges from the sky up to 37% wetter\u003c/a>, according to a June 2022 study by Bay Area climate scientists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The storm is on par with a traditional winter storm event, and Behringer said while there is an active pattern in the atmosphere, he is unsure if additional storms will follow suit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can tell that things are going to come through, but it’s almost impossible to nail down details of exactly how strong they will be or where they’ll set up,” Behringer said. “But this will be the first major event of the season.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Behringer said he does not expect widespread flooding from this storm and said it is too early to provide other details like wind speeds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That could change if this system decides to stall in one area versus another,” he said. “The silver lining is that we’re not nearly as saturated as we were when we had these rapid succession events last year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the storm would likely move pretty quickly over the Bay Area, but if last winter’s storms taught Behringer anything, it’s that movements within a weather pattern can change fast. He advises Californians to pay close attention to weather reports as the storm progresses and to prepare their homes for what could be the first of many Bay Area-wide storms this fall and winter. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11936674/how-to-prepare-for-this-weeks-atmospheric-river-storm-sandbags-emergency-kits-and-more\">Read more about how to prepare your home for a storm.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“\u003ca href=\"https://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?format=CI&glossary=1&issuedby=MTR&product=AFD&site=MTR&version=1\">Keeping up with the forecast right now\u003c/a> is the best preparation you can make,” Behringer said. “We’re still putting the finishing touches on the changes to the forecast.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update 5:38 p.m. Monday:\u003c/strong> A storm swirling off the Bay Area’s coast will bring rain to the region this week, albeit much less than meteorologists at the National Weather Service originally forecasted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The storm stayed further offshore than last week’s forecast anticipated. Meteorologists say that shift will mean less rainfall for the Bay Area and the Central Coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While the overall week can be categorized as wet, there will likely be breaks in the precip throughout,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.weather.gov/wrh/TextProduct?product=afdmtr\">NWS’s Bay Area office in its latest forecast discussion\u003c/a>, noting that they expect the wettest period for the Bay Area to be Wednesday afternoon into the evening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area’s coastal mountains could see up to 2 inches of rain through Saturday, the North Bay and coastal areas 1 to 1.5 inches and inland valleys up to an inch, according to the latest forecast.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>While the NWS is confident in a soaking rain this week, meteorologists note that there is still a lot of uncertainty about this slow-moving storm — meaning the forecast could significantly change in the coming days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They said the spinning low-pressure system off the coast “adds a level of uncertainty to the forecast,” which they described as “not a slam dunk forecast by any means.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Original November 8 story below:\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The National Weather Service is forecasting the Bay Area’s first \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11936674/how-to-prepare-for-this-weeks-atmospheric-river-storm-sandbags-emergency-kits-and-more\">major atmospheric river\u003c/a> of the season next week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Between Tuesday and Thursday, a storm could drop as much as 2 inches of rain from Marin to Santa Cruz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some of the higher peaks in the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Sonoma Coast could get even more,” NWS meteorologist Dalton Behringer said. “It looks like it’s going to hit everyone, even as far down south as Big Sur and Central Coast.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This weather is forecast to hit during \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11965942\">the 2023 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference in San Francisco\u003c/a> — an event that was already predicted to disrupt traffic and public transit as world leaders gather in the city for the high-security event.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The storm follows a deep, low-pressure system coming from the Gulf of Alaska. It is supposed to drop down the West Coast, and it’s part of an active, progressive pattern that could last into the middle of the month.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>The atmospheric river is also expected to drop ample snow in the Sierra Nevada. Still, snowfall totals this early are hard to forecast, Behringer said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As of now, it looks to be the first big snowpack producer for them as well,” he said.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>By the end of the century, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212094722000275\">climate change may make these deluges from the sky up to 37% wetter\u003c/a>, according to a June 2022 study by Bay Area climate scientists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The storm is on par with a traditional winter storm event, and Behringer said while there is an active pattern in the atmosphere, he is unsure if additional storms will follow suit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can tell that things are going to come through, but it’s almost impossible to nail down details of exactly how strong they will be or where they’ll set up,” Behringer said. “But this will be the first major event of the season.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Behringer said he does not expect widespread flooding from this storm and said it is too early to provide other details like wind speeds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That could change if this system decides to stall in one area versus another,” he said. “The silver lining is that we’re not nearly as saturated as we were when we had these rapid succession events last year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the storm would likely move pretty quickly over the Bay Area, but if last winter’s storms taught Behringer anything, it’s that movements within a weather pattern can change fast. He advises Californians to pay close attention to weather reports as the storm progresses and to prepare their homes for what could be the first of many Bay Area-wide storms this fall and winter. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11936674/how-to-prepare-for-this-weeks-atmospheric-river-storm-sandbags-emergency-kits-and-more\">Read more about how to prepare your home for a storm.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“\u003ca href=\"https://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?format=CI&glossary=1&issuedby=MTR&product=AFD&site=MTR&version=1\">Keeping up with the forecast right now\u003c/a> is the best preparation you can make,” Behringer said. “We’re still putting the finishing touches on the changes to the forecast.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "insurance-in-california-is-changing-heres-how-it-may-affect-you",
"title": "Insurance In California Is Changing. Here's How It May Affect You",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of the third season of KQED’s podcast Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America. You can \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/podcasts/soldout\">find that series here\u003c/a> and read about why \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1984697/why-kqed-focused-a-season-of-its-housing-podcast-on-climate-change#:~:text=Sold%20Out%20Is%20Back%20With%20Season%203&text=Host%20Erin%20Baldassari%20leads%20a,an%20affordable%20place%20to%20live.\">KQED chose to focus a season of its housing podcast on climate change\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For most people, insurance is the first line of defense against climate change. When struck by wildfire, flooding or other calamity, an adequate insurance policy can come to the rescue. It’s like a financial first responder, an ambulance full of money to help people back onto their feet. Insurance is the reason something bad happening to you, like losing your home in a wildfire, doesn’t guarantee a slide into poverty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the industry is in serious trouble. Climate disasters around the state, especially worsening wildfires, threaten the current business model and millions of middle-class Californians. Climate risks exist everywhere. However, California is notable for companies racing out of Dodge. Seven of the top 12 insurance companies in the state, including Allstate, State Farm, Farmers Insurance and American International Group (AIG), have left California or pulled back from offering new policies in the last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the Golden State grapples with the devastating consequences of increasingly frequent and intense wildfires, California officials are crafting a major overhaul to insurance regulations. It is meant to stop the exodus of companies and promote market stability, but it will almost certainly mean that insurance premiums will rise. Here is what we know, what to expect, and how it may affect you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC3046460401&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Jump straight to:\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"list-style-type: none\">\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\n\u003ch5>\u003ca href=\"#action\">\u003cstrong>California announces action, at last\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h5>\n\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\n\u003ch5>\u003ca href=\"#trouble\">\u003cstrong>Why the insurance market is in trouble\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h5>\n\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\n\u003ch5>\u003ca href=\"#afoot\">\u003cstrong>Change is afoot\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h5>\n\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\n\u003ch5>\u003ca href=\"#deep\">\u003cstrong>Dive deep: How insurance works\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h5>\n\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\n\u003ch5>\u003ca href=\"#fair\">\u003cstrong>The FAIR plan: California’s least-loved insurer\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h5>\n\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\n\u003ch5>\u003ca href=\"#mean\">\u003cstrong>What will the changes mean?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h5>\n\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\n\u003ch5>\u003ca href=\"#next\">\u003cstrong>What comes next\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h5>\n\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"action\">\u003c/a>California announces action, at last\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>For the better part of the last year, California did not make any structural changes to its insurance marketplace despite the ballooning crisis and the urgency of the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Structural changes are not sexy,” said Sashi Sabaratnam, former mayor of Mill Valley and manager of Sonoma County’s UC Cooperative Extension wildfire vegetation mitigation program. “Making those changes [won’t] win anybody big fans or win elections. You need somebody with the kind of political courage to look at the problem and really be able to take the heat for making those structural changes.”[pullquote align='right' citation='State Sen. Bill Dodd']‘To state the obvious, we do not have a stable insurance market. And when you don’t have that, a lot of things can go awfully wrong.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some members of the state legislature considered putting forth a bill to fix some of the many problems. But the effort dissolved at the last minute before the close of the legislative session. Some officials were reportedly afraid they would not be seen as being tough enough on insurance companies and felt that maintaining the status quo would be politically safer.[pullquote align='right' citation='Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara']‘Modernizing our insurance market is not going to be easy or happen overnight. We are in really unchartered territory, and we must make difficult choices when the world is changing rapidly.’[/pullquote]State Sen. Bill Dodd (D-Napa) said he was disappointed when the legislative effort fell through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To state the obvious, we do not have a stable insurance market. And when you don’t have that, a lot of things can go awfully wrong,” he said in the hours after the legislative collapse. “High costs force people to go naked without insurance. That’s happening all over my district. It’s going to affect home and business mortgages because if you can’t get insurance, your mortgages will get called in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the state legislature stepped back from the problem, it placed increased pressure on California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, who had mostly avoided talking about making big regulatory changes all year. Instead, he largely focused on talking about reducing the risk of wildfire through mitigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As important as mitigation is, Sabaratnam said, “It means nothing if you do not deal with those structural issues.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Insurance commissioner is an elected position, but Lara was re-elected in 2022, so his seat is secure until his term ends in 2026. That ought to give him a little room to breathe, suggested Sabaratnam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, an \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2023/09/21/governor-newsom-signs-executive-order-to-strengthen-property-insurance-market/\">executive order from Gov. Gavin Newsom urging the insurance commission to take swift action\u003c/a> to strengthen the property market apparently gave Lara enough political cover to announce changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In September, he announced that a significant regulatory overhaul would be in place by the end of next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California’s current regulatory framework does not meet our needs,” Lara said. “We need to update regulations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All that is to say, policymakers felt strongly that someone needed to do something. Just who would do what took the better part of a year to figure out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, as anticipated by policy experts, few people cheered. Some TV news outlets framed the announced changes as a win for the insurance industry. Advocacy groups personally attacked Lara. The powerful Consumer Watchdog even attacked other advocacy groups who expressed some support for Lara’s changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985224\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985224\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/IMG_9350-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A couple embraces next to a Weed Community Center sign made of wood.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/IMG_9350-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/IMG_9350-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/IMG_9350-qut-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/IMG_9350-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/IMG_9350-qut-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/IMG_9350-qut-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">After losing two homes in the Mill Fire of 2022, Chester and Denise Hopkins are working to help the Lincoln Heights neighborhood of Weed rebuild. Many of their neighbors were underinsured or had no insurance. That’s part of what’s determining who can stay and rebuild. They’re committed to staying but don’t know how many of their neighbors will. “We’re putting our trust in God that we have at least 50 % [coming back],” Denise Hopkins said. \u003ccite>(Danielle Venton/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"trouble\">\u003c/a>Why the insurance market is in trouble\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Perhaps curiously, home insurance in California \u003ca href=\"https://www.forbes.com/advisor/homeowners-insurance/average-cost-homeowners-insurance/\">actually costs less than in other states with the same sorts of climate risks\u003c/a>. From the insurance industry’s point of view, this is a sign that risk in California is not priced accurately.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Companies trace this situation back to 1988, when voters approved a law limiting how much insurance companies could raise rates and said the state has to approve. It was a voter-backed initiative that attempted to improve insurance for consumers, protecting them from arbitrary insurance rate hikes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Groups that did not like a proposed rate hike could intervene and recoup the legal and administrative costs of doing so. Insurance companies had to set rates tied to historical data from the past 20 years of losses, but they could not look forward to estimates of future losses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 1988 measure — Proposition 103 — was prompted by skyrocketing auto insurance, but it also worked on home insurance. The \u003ca href=\"https://consumerfed.org/press_release/30-years-and-154-billion-of-savings-californias-proposition-103-insurance-reforms-still-saving-drivers-money/\">law has saved Californians billions of dollars\u003c/a>, but insurance companies, who have had to shell out tens of billions of dollars to cover losses from the Camp, Tubbs, Thomas, LNU Lightning Complex, Dixie and other major fires in recent years, hate this rule. Many have effectively said, ‘Hey, we are not doing this anymore.’\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parr Schoolman, Allstate’s chief risk officer, told California insurance officials at a hearing this year that the company needs to be able to raise prices or else it would drop more individual customers or even totally leave the state’s home insurance market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The current system makes it very difficult for insurance companies to get rate increases of anything more than 7%. It can take years. Typically, the state does not grant requests in total.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, from an insurance company’s perspective, their rates lag years behind the actual price of the risk they are insuring. Meanwhile, reinsurance, which is insurance for insurers, has skyrocketed, along with construction costs and other expenses impacted by inflation. That is all laid against the backdrop of jaw-slackening wildfire losses, which have wiped out decades of profits, particularly in 2017 and 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"afoot\">\u003c/a>Change is afoot\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The big elements of Lara’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.insurance.ca.gov/0400-news/0100-press-releases/2023/release051-2023.cfm\">announced changes\u003c/a> include:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"list-style-type: none\">\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>An agreement with insurance companies to write more policies and collectively offer coverage to at least 85% of homeowners in high wildfire-risk areas. This would allow homeowners currently on the state’s insurer of last resort, the FAIR plan, to transition back to the normal market.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Allowing insurance companies to use forward-looking climate catastrophe models instead of historical data about risk.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Letting companies pass on California-related reinsurance costs.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Increase California Department of Insurance staffing to allow rate increases to be approved faster.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Some consumer advocates and ensuing news coverage suggested it was a victory and bailout for the insurance industry. One of the most strident opposing voices comes from Consumer Watchdog, which has spent years attacking not only the insurance industry but the insurance commissioner himself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The consumer protection organizations painted Lara as an industry insider and said the deal would not guarantee coverage and would increase premiums. In response, the commission pointed out in recently released data that Consumer Watchdog has also benefited from collecting $8.9 million over a decade in compensation for its work-challenging rate increases. Proposition 103 allows members of the public to intervene on behalf of ratepayers and apply for compensation for the expenses of doing so. That money \u003ca href=\"https://www.insurance.ca.gov/01-consumers/150-other-prog/01-intervenor/upload/CDI_Public-Chart_Total-Compensations-Awarder-to-Intervenors.pdf\">comes from insurers, who pass those costs on to their customers\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Amy Bach, executive director of United Policyholders, an organization that advocates for insurance customers, dismissed Consumer Watchdog’s view as ignoring the very real threats to the market. Some of the announced changes will likely mean higher premiums. But what is most important, Bach said, was that a compromise would be workable for both consumers and insurers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t like [all the changes],” Bach said. “Using catastrophe models and passing on some reinsurance costs? As far as I know, every other state in the union does that — it is not the end of the world. But what is the end of the world if [the insurance flight] keeps going on like this?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While public utilities are legally required to serve customers, insurance companies can do business in the state or not, as they please.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To stop selling insurance entirely the way that [insurance companies are] doing suggests to me that they are genuinely worried about the adequacy of their rates,” Bach said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the insurance market collapses in the state, people can’t buy homes or sell homes. Most homes have mortgages, and banks won’t lend money unless it’s insured. If the real estate industry collapses, it will reverberate through the entire economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California is not the only market with insurance troubles. Around the nation, climate-driven disasters are accelerating price hikes, coverage withdrawals and instability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If insurance market trends continue on the current path, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island), speaking at a congressional hearing this year, said it puts the global economy at systemic risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The term “global systemic risk,” he said, “has a rather bland quality to it. But it describes something that is anything but bland.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is bland in the way talking about subprime mortgages seemed in 2007, just before they triggered a global financial meltdown. The current insurance market situation poses the same kind of risk to the economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983896\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983896\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/230810-JASON-MAJORS-DV-KQED_1.jpg\" alt=\"A man in sunglasses stands in an outdoor setting.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/230810-JASON-MAJORS-DV-KQED_1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/230810-JASON-MAJORS-DV-KQED_1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/230810-JASON-MAJORS-DV-KQED_1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/230810-JASON-MAJORS-DV-KQED_1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/230810-JASON-MAJORS-DV-KQED_1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/230810-JASON-MAJORS-DV-KQED_1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/230810-JASON-MAJORS-DV-KQED_1-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jason Majors in front of the creek bordering his former property. His home outside Santa Rosa survived nearly half a dozen fires in recent years. Despite his efforts to mitigate hazards around his house, Majors was dropped by insurance carriers numerous times. And when he decided to sell his house, prospective buyers had trouble finding insurance coverage. He had to drop the price four times before the home was sold. \u003ccite>(Danielle Venton/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"deep\">\u003c/a>Dive deep: How insurance works\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>There are three different ways you can get home insurance in California. By way of a high school lunchroom analogy: You can eat with the “the cool kids,” the “not-cool kids,” or the vice principal, who is your last choice, but it might be better than having lunch alone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cool kids are the “admitted market.” They are licensed to sell in the state, California has to approve rate increases, and if the company fails, California will pay out the claims. Being a cool kid comes with a lot of rules, but if you are a company that wants to sell in bulk to Californians, this is the route you need to go. These companies, like Allstate, State Farm or Farmers, are generally best to have your insurance with. But they have scaled back their offerings in wildfire-prone parts of the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then there’s the “not-cool-kids.” These are specialty or surplus lines of coverage from companies such as Lloyds of London, Chubb Custom Insurance Company or Spinnaker Specialty Insurance. They’ll write riskier policies for homeowners or businesses, but they are also more high-risk themselves. They’re not guaranteed if they fail, which means more exposure for a consumer. And they can basically charge what they want. These rates are typically more expensive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The vice principal is the FAIR Plan, the state’s insurer of last resort. It is expensive, and the coverage is lousy. But you can get some coverage when no one else will take you.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"fair\">\u003c/a>The FAIR plan: California’s least-loved insurer\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.cfpnet.com/about-fair-plan/\">FAIR plan\u003c/a> stands for Fair Access to Insurance Requirements, and it’s derisively known as “the un-fair plan” by some of its customers, who feel frustrated they have to use it. It was one of those well-intentioned solutions created to fill a need, but it has ballooned and taken on the dimensions of its own problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The FAIR plan now has 330,000 policyholders. That’s up from 140,000 in 2018 before insurance companies began their flight from California. More people are using it today than were ever intended to. This places the financial foundation of the plan on really shaky ground. And the more people who join, the worse it gets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The FAIR plan is regulated by the state but it’s funding is guaranteed by private insurers. California\u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-watts-riots-explainer-20150715-htmlstory.html\"> created it after the Watts Riots in the 1960s\u003c/a>, when years of simmering anger and distrust had built up between mostly Black residents of the Watts neighborhood and police around Los Angeles exploded for days of unrest. Following those days, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/04/business/riots-raise-concerns-about-insurance-redlining.html\">insurance companies began canceling policies for homeowners and businesses\u003c/a>. The FAIR plan was crafted to provide homeowners and businesses some coverage when nothing else was available. Most states have their own version.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Fair Plan, which is supposed to be sort of a temporary last resort insurance policy, is becoming a permanent insurance policy for many people in high fire risk areas in California,” said Michael Wara, a climate and energy lawyer and researcher at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The economic structure of the FAIR plan is that homeowners pay a lot more money for less insurance,” he added. “And hopefully that’s enough. The reality is it’s not.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Apart from offering fairly poor coverage, the FAIR plan is just about one big disaster away from not having enough money to pay claims to its customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If the FAIR plan were a regular insurer, the insurance department would have to step in and shut it down because it’s so undercapitalized,” Wara said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If there were a big fire, something on the scale of the Tubbs Fire or Camp Fire, in an area where the FAIR Plan covered many homes, the plan would then charge insurers in the admitted market, aka the “cool kids,” for the rest of the money. In insurance jargon, this is called “levying an assessment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here is the scary thing: insurance companies do not have the money saved for this, and they are not allowed to make up the deficit by charging their customers more, so many of them would probably go bankrupt. Other companies would offload policies, basically firing their customers, to try to become financially stable again. The whole market could collapse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That would stop the buying and selling of homes and also the building of any new ones. California is doing a lot to build more houses, but if the insurance market collapses, that progress will evaporate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One entity that is going to sell a lot of houses is a builder,” Wara said. “And if they can’t sell their houses because the people that want to buy them with a mortgage can’t get insurance. It threatens everything that we’re trying to do to make the state more affordable and more equitable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985222\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985222\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230815-BlueForestInitiative-29-BL-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230815-BlueForestInitiative-29-BL-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230815-BlueForestInitiative-29-BL-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230815-BlueForestInitiative-29-BL-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230815-BlueForestInitiative-29-BL-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230815-BlueForestInitiative-29-BL-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230815-BlueForestInitiative-29-BL-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An area of the National Forest is thinned as a fuel management technique, removing brush and understory vegetation and allowing water to go into ground storage rather than feeding vegetation, near Camptonville, Calif., on Aug. 15, 2023. Fuel management includes thinning, chipping, burning, and removing fuels to reduce the amount of burnable vegetation. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"mean\">\u003c/a>What will the changes mean?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The changes coming to California’s market are a start, but no one seems to think they’re sufficient on their own, least of all officials at the state’s insurance department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Modernizing our insurance market is not going to be easy or happen overnight,” Lara said. “We are in really unchartered territory, and we must make difficult choices when the world is changing rapidly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While no consumers, elected officials, or consumer advocates want to see prices increase, there is a sense that the era of cheap insurance is over for good.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Do I like the days when people were paying a thousand bucks a year for their home insurance? Of course, everybody liked it,” said Bach from United Policyholders. “But we don’t have that option anymore, so something has to change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, how much rates may increase is an open question. One of the few people who has studied how rates rise using historical data versus catastrophic data is \u003ca href=\"https://www.milliman.com/en/insight/wildfire-catastrophe-models-california-ratemaking\">Nancy Watkins, an actuary at Milliman, an independent consulting firm\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.milliman.com/-/media/milliman/pdfs/2022-articles/10-19-22_pci-pifc-cdi-summary.ashx\">2022 study she did indicated that using catastrophic models did not necessarily mean higher rates\u003c/a>. Her work also found that rates were more stable using modeling and, crucially, that models could incorporate wildfire preparation into risk estimates — something historic data fails at.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That can \u003ca href=\"https://www.carriermanagement.com/features/2023/08/29/252411.htm?bypass=9c98e38eb4bd3d9fa4d836afcadbaa24\">incentivize home- and community-level fire mitigation work\u003c/a>, something she and many fire and insurance experts hope is the way of the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985179\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985179\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Bear-Trap-Prescribed-Burn_Nevada-County_05-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A person in a yellow jacket brings a hand tool down in a sweeping motion to the ground. \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Bear-Trap-Prescribed-Burn_Nevada-County_05-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Bear-Trap-Prescribed-Burn_Nevada-County_05-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Bear-Trap-Prescribed-Burn_Nevada-County_05-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Bear-Trap-Prescribed-Burn_Nevada-County_05-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Bear-Trap-Prescribed-Burn_Nevada-County_05-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Bear-Trap-Prescribed-Burn_Nevada-County_05-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Crewmembers from the Fire Safe Council of Nevada County walk to the site where they performed ” mop-up” after a prescribed burn on June 21, 2023. Controlled burns like this are one of the best ways communities can reduce the risk from megafire. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"next\">\u003c/a>What comes next\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In the coming months, the state’s insurance department will shape the new regulations and implement reforms. Michael Soller, spokesperson for the department, said this work would focus on a couple of fronts, with some tasks being administrative in nature and some taking place through public meetings and hearings. The state will:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"list-style-type: none\">\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Create maps of where they will require insurance companies to write more policies, offering coverage to 85% of homeowners.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Evaluate catastrophe models and consider the creation of a new public model, owned by the state, versus adopting existing models made by companies.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Consider incorporating some California-related reinsurance costs into rates.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Hire more staff.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Deny intervenor petitions by advocacy groups that replicate the work already being done by staff.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Bach said following the announcement of coming reforms, she hoped the exodus would be staunched. But she said many companies still seem wary of offering coverage. She thinks they’re afraid advocates, like Consumer Watchdog, will sue to block the changes. “I think that’s part of the problem of why nothing has really shifted since the announcement,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nature of hard problems is that there are no easy, short-term wins, policy expert Sabratnam said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If these changes are made and people’s rates go up and some people still lose their insurance and some people still go on the FAIR Plan, people will then turn around and say, ‘Well look, you didn’t succeed, you failed,’” Sabaratnam said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, she added, structural change is what is needed, even if it is unpopular.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everything else is just a Band-Aid,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of the third season of KQED’s podcast Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America. You can \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/podcasts/soldout\">find that series here\u003c/a> and read about why \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1984697/why-kqed-focused-a-season-of-its-housing-podcast-on-climate-change#:~:text=Sold%20Out%20Is%20Back%20With%20Season%203&text=Host%20Erin%20Baldassari%20leads%20a,an%20affordable%20place%20to%20live.\">KQED chose to focus a season of its housing podcast on climate change\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For most people, insurance is the first line of defense against climate change. When struck by wildfire, flooding or other calamity, an adequate insurance policy can come to the rescue. It’s like a financial first responder, an ambulance full of money to help people back onto their feet. Insurance is the reason something bad happening to you, like losing your home in a wildfire, doesn’t guarantee a slide into poverty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the industry is in serious trouble. Climate disasters around the state, especially worsening wildfires, threaten the current business model and millions of middle-class Californians. Climate risks exist everywhere. However, California is notable for companies racing out of Dodge. Seven of the top 12 insurance companies in the state, including Allstate, State Farm, Farmers Insurance and American International Group (AIG), have left California or pulled back from offering new policies in the last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the Golden State grapples with the devastating consequences of increasingly frequent and intense wildfires, California officials are crafting a major overhaul to insurance regulations. It is meant to stop the exodus of companies and promote market stability, but it will almost certainly mean that insurance premiums will rise. Here is what we know, what to expect, and how it may affect you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC3046460401&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Jump straight to:\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"list-style-type: none\">\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\n\u003ch5>\u003ca href=\"#action\">\u003cstrong>California announces action, at last\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h5>\n\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\n\u003ch5>\u003ca href=\"#trouble\">\u003cstrong>Why the insurance market is in trouble\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h5>\n\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\n\u003ch5>\u003ca href=\"#afoot\">\u003cstrong>Change is afoot\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h5>\n\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\n\u003ch5>\u003ca href=\"#deep\">\u003cstrong>Dive deep: How insurance works\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h5>\n\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\n\u003ch5>\u003ca href=\"#fair\">\u003cstrong>The FAIR plan: California’s least-loved insurer\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h5>\n\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\n\u003ch5>\u003ca href=\"#mean\">\u003cstrong>What will the changes mean?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h5>\n\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\n\u003ch5>\u003ca href=\"#next\">\u003cstrong>What comes next\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h5>\n\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"action\">\u003c/a>California announces action, at last\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>For the better part of the last year, California did not make any structural changes to its insurance marketplace despite the ballooning crisis and the urgency of the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Structural changes are not sexy,” said Sashi Sabaratnam, former mayor of Mill Valley and manager of Sonoma County’s UC Cooperative Extension wildfire vegetation mitigation program. “Making those changes [won’t] win anybody big fans or win elections. You need somebody with the kind of political courage to look at the problem and really be able to take the heat for making those structural changes.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘To state the obvious, we do not have a stable insurance market. And when you don’t have that, a lot of things can go awfully wrong.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some members of the state legislature considered putting forth a bill to fix some of the many problems. But the effort dissolved at the last minute before the close of the legislative session. Some officials were reportedly afraid they would not be seen as being tough enough on insurance companies and felt that maintaining the status quo would be politically safer.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘Modernizing our insurance market is not going to be easy or happen overnight. We are in really unchartered territory, and we must make difficult choices when the world is changing rapidly.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>State Sen. Bill Dodd (D-Napa) said he was disappointed when the legislative effort fell through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To state the obvious, we do not have a stable insurance market. And when you don’t have that, a lot of things can go awfully wrong,” he said in the hours after the legislative collapse. “High costs force people to go naked without insurance. That’s happening all over my district. It’s going to affect home and business mortgages because if you can’t get insurance, your mortgages will get called in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the state legislature stepped back from the problem, it placed increased pressure on California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, who had mostly avoided talking about making big regulatory changes all year. Instead, he largely focused on talking about reducing the risk of wildfire through mitigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As important as mitigation is, Sabaratnam said, “It means nothing if you do not deal with those structural issues.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Insurance commissioner is an elected position, but Lara was re-elected in 2022, so his seat is secure until his term ends in 2026. That ought to give him a little room to breathe, suggested Sabaratnam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, an \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2023/09/21/governor-newsom-signs-executive-order-to-strengthen-property-insurance-market/\">executive order from Gov. Gavin Newsom urging the insurance commission to take swift action\u003c/a> to strengthen the property market apparently gave Lara enough political cover to announce changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In September, he announced that a significant regulatory overhaul would be in place by the end of next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California’s current regulatory framework does not meet our needs,” Lara said. “We need to update regulations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All that is to say, policymakers felt strongly that someone needed to do something. Just who would do what took the better part of a year to figure out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, as anticipated by policy experts, few people cheered. Some TV news outlets framed the announced changes as a win for the insurance industry. Advocacy groups personally attacked Lara. The powerful Consumer Watchdog even attacked other advocacy groups who expressed some support for Lara’s changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985224\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985224\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/IMG_9350-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A couple embraces next to a Weed Community Center sign made of wood.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/IMG_9350-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/IMG_9350-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/IMG_9350-qut-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/IMG_9350-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/IMG_9350-qut-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/IMG_9350-qut-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">After losing two homes in the Mill Fire of 2022, Chester and Denise Hopkins are working to help the Lincoln Heights neighborhood of Weed rebuild. Many of their neighbors were underinsured or had no insurance. That’s part of what’s determining who can stay and rebuild. They’re committed to staying but don’t know how many of their neighbors will. “We’re putting our trust in God that we have at least 50 % [coming back],” Denise Hopkins said. \u003ccite>(Danielle Venton/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"trouble\">\u003c/a>Why the insurance market is in trouble\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Perhaps curiously, home insurance in California \u003ca href=\"https://www.forbes.com/advisor/homeowners-insurance/average-cost-homeowners-insurance/\">actually costs less than in other states with the same sorts of climate risks\u003c/a>. From the insurance industry’s point of view, this is a sign that risk in California is not priced accurately.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Companies trace this situation back to 1988, when voters approved a law limiting how much insurance companies could raise rates and said the state has to approve. It was a voter-backed initiative that attempted to improve insurance for consumers, protecting them from arbitrary insurance rate hikes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Groups that did not like a proposed rate hike could intervene and recoup the legal and administrative costs of doing so. Insurance companies had to set rates tied to historical data from the past 20 years of losses, but they could not look forward to estimates of future losses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 1988 measure — Proposition 103 — was prompted by skyrocketing auto insurance, but it also worked on home insurance. The \u003ca href=\"https://consumerfed.org/press_release/30-years-and-154-billion-of-savings-californias-proposition-103-insurance-reforms-still-saving-drivers-money/\">law has saved Californians billions of dollars\u003c/a>, but insurance companies, who have had to shell out tens of billions of dollars to cover losses from the Camp, Tubbs, Thomas, LNU Lightning Complex, Dixie and other major fires in recent years, hate this rule. Many have effectively said, ‘Hey, we are not doing this anymore.’\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parr Schoolman, Allstate’s chief risk officer, told California insurance officials at a hearing this year that the company needs to be able to raise prices or else it would drop more individual customers or even totally leave the state’s home insurance market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The current system makes it very difficult for insurance companies to get rate increases of anything more than 7%. It can take years. Typically, the state does not grant requests in total.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, from an insurance company’s perspective, their rates lag years behind the actual price of the risk they are insuring. Meanwhile, reinsurance, which is insurance for insurers, has skyrocketed, along with construction costs and other expenses impacted by inflation. That is all laid against the backdrop of jaw-slackening wildfire losses, which have wiped out decades of profits, particularly in 2017 and 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"afoot\">\u003c/a>Change is afoot\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The big elements of Lara’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.insurance.ca.gov/0400-news/0100-press-releases/2023/release051-2023.cfm\">announced changes\u003c/a> include:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"list-style-type: none\">\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>An agreement with insurance companies to write more policies and collectively offer coverage to at least 85% of homeowners in high wildfire-risk areas. This would allow homeowners currently on the state’s insurer of last resort, the FAIR plan, to transition back to the normal market.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Allowing insurance companies to use forward-looking climate catastrophe models instead of historical data about risk.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Letting companies pass on California-related reinsurance costs.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Increase California Department of Insurance staffing to allow rate increases to be approved faster.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Some consumer advocates and ensuing news coverage suggested it was a victory and bailout for the insurance industry. One of the most strident opposing voices comes from Consumer Watchdog, which has spent years attacking not only the insurance industry but the insurance commissioner himself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The consumer protection organizations painted Lara as an industry insider and said the deal would not guarantee coverage and would increase premiums. In response, the commission pointed out in recently released data that Consumer Watchdog has also benefited from collecting $8.9 million over a decade in compensation for its work-challenging rate increases. Proposition 103 allows members of the public to intervene on behalf of ratepayers and apply for compensation for the expenses of doing so. That money \u003ca href=\"https://www.insurance.ca.gov/01-consumers/150-other-prog/01-intervenor/upload/CDI_Public-Chart_Total-Compensations-Awarder-to-Intervenors.pdf\">comes from insurers, who pass those costs on to their customers\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Amy Bach, executive director of United Policyholders, an organization that advocates for insurance customers, dismissed Consumer Watchdog’s view as ignoring the very real threats to the market. Some of the announced changes will likely mean higher premiums. But what is most important, Bach said, was that a compromise would be workable for both consumers and insurers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t like [all the changes],” Bach said. “Using catastrophe models and passing on some reinsurance costs? As far as I know, every other state in the union does that — it is not the end of the world. But what is the end of the world if [the insurance flight] keeps going on like this?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While public utilities are legally required to serve customers, insurance companies can do business in the state or not, as they please.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To stop selling insurance entirely the way that [insurance companies are] doing suggests to me that they are genuinely worried about the adequacy of their rates,” Bach said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the insurance market collapses in the state, people can’t buy homes or sell homes. Most homes have mortgages, and banks won’t lend money unless it’s insured. If the real estate industry collapses, it will reverberate through the entire economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California is not the only market with insurance troubles. Around the nation, climate-driven disasters are accelerating price hikes, coverage withdrawals and instability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If insurance market trends continue on the current path, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island), speaking at a congressional hearing this year, said it puts the global economy at systemic risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The term “global systemic risk,” he said, “has a rather bland quality to it. But it describes something that is anything but bland.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is bland in the way talking about subprime mortgages seemed in 2007, just before they triggered a global financial meltdown. The current insurance market situation poses the same kind of risk to the economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983896\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983896\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/230810-JASON-MAJORS-DV-KQED_1.jpg\" alt=\"A man in sunglasses stands in an outdoor setting.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/230810-JASON-MAJORS-DV-KQED_1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/230810-JASON-MAJORS-DV-KQED_1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/230810-JASON-MAJORS-DV-KQED_1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/230810-JASON-MAJORS-DV-KQED_1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/230810-JASON-MAJORS-DV-KQED_1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/230810-JASON-MAJORS-DV-KQED_1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/230810-JASON-MAJORS-DV-KQED_1-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jason Majors in front of the creek bordering his former property. His home outside Santa Rosa survived nearly half a dozen fires in recent years. Despite his efforts to mitigate hazards around his house, Majors was dropped by insurance carriers numerous times. And when he decided to sell his house, prospective buyers had trouble finding insurance coverage. He had to drop the price four times before the home was sold. \u003ccite>(Danielle Venton/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"deep\">\u003c/a>Dive deep: How insurance works\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>There are three different ways you can get home insurance in California. By way of a high school lunchroom analogy: You can eat with the “the cool kids,” the “not-cool kids,” or the vice principal, who is your last choice, but it might be better than having lunch alone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cool kids are the “admitted market.” They are licensed to sell in the state, California has to approve rate increases, and if the company fails, California will pay out the claims. Being a cool kid comes with a lot of rules, but if you are a company that wants to sell in bulk to Californians, this is the route you need to go. These companies, like Allstate, State Farm or Farmers, are generally best to have your insurance with. But they have scaled back their offerings in wildfire-prone parts of the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then there’s the “not-cool-kids.” These are specialty or surplus lines of coverage from companies such as Lloyds of London, Chubb Custom Insurance Company or Spinnaker Specialty Insurance. They’ll write riskier policies for homeowners or businesses, but they are also more high-risk themselves. They’re not guaranteed if they fail, which means more exposure for a consumer. And they can basically charge what they want. These rates are typically more expensive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The vice principal is the FAIR Plan, the state’s insurer of last resort. It is expensive, and the coverage is lousy. But you can get some coverage when no one else will take you.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"fair\">\u003c/a>The FAIR plan: California’s least-loved insurer\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.cfpnet.com/about-fair-plan/\">FAIR plan\u003c/a> stands for Fair Access to Insurance Requirements, and it’s derisively known as “the un-fair plan” by some of its customers, who feel frustrated they have to use it. It was one of those well-intentioned solutions created to fill a need, but it has ballooned and taken on the dimensions of its own problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The FAIR plan now has 330,000 policyholders. That’s up from 140,000 in 2018 before insurance companies began their flight from California. More people are using it today than were ever intended to. This places the financial foundation of the plan on really shaky ground. And the more people who join, the worse it gets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The FAIR plan is regulated by the state but it’s funding is guaranteed by private insurers. California\u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-watts-riots-explainer-20150715-htmlstory.html\"> created it after the Watts Riots in the 1960s\u003c/a>, when years of simmering anger and distrust had built up between mostly Black residents of the Watts neighborhood and police around Los Angeles exploded for days of unrest. Following those days, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/04/business/riots-raise-concerns-about-insurance-redlining.html\">insurance companies began canceling policies for homeowners and businesses\u003c/a>. The FAIR plan was crafted to provide homeowners and businesses some coverage when nothing else was available. Most states have their own version.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Fair Plan, which is supposed to be sort of a temporary last resort insurance policy, is becoming a permanent insurance policy for many people in high fire risk areas in California,” said Michael Wara, a climate and energy lawyer and researcher at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The economic structure of the FAIR plan is that homeowners pay a lot more money for less insurance,” he added. “And hopefully that’s enough. The reality is it’s not.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Apart from offering fairly poor coverage, the FAIR plan is just about one big disaster away from not having enough money to pay claims to its customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If the FAIR plan were a regular insurer, the insurance department would have to step in and shut it down because it’s so undercapitalized,” Wara said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If there were a big fire, something on the scale of the Tubbs Fire or Camp Fire, in an area where the FAIR Plan covered many homes, the plan would then charge insurers in the admitted market, aka the “cool kids,” for the rest of the money. In insurance jargon, this is called “levying an assessment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here is the scary thing: insurance companies do not have the money saved for this, and they are not allowed to make up the deficit by charging their customers more, so many of them would probably go bankrupt. Other companies would offload policies, basically firing their customers, to try to become financially stable again. The whole market could collapse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That would stop the buying and selling of homes and also the building of any new ones. California is doing a lot to build more houses, but if the insurance market collapses, that progress will evaporate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One entity that is going to sell a lot of houses is a builder,” Wara said. “And if they can’t sell their houses because the people that want to buy them with a mortgage can’t get insurance. It threatens everything that we’re trying to do to make the state more affordable and more equitable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985222\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985222\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230815-BlueForestInitiative-29-BL-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230815-BlueForestInitiative-29-BL-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230815-BlueForestInitiative-29-BL-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230815-BlueForestInitiative-29-BL-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230815-BlueForestInitiative-29-BL-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230815-BlueForestInitiative-29-BL-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230815-BlueForestInitiative-29-BL-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An area of the National Forest is thinned as a fuel management technique, removing brush and understory vegetation and allowing water to go into ground storage rather than feeding vegetation, near Camptonville, Calif., on Aug. 15, 2023. Fuel management includes thinning, chipping, burning, and removing fuels to reduce the amount of burnable vegetation. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"mean\">\u003c/a>What will the changes mean?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The changes coming to California’s market are a start, but no one seems to think they’re sufficient on their own, least of all officials at the state’s insurance department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Modernizing our insurance market is not going to be easy or happen overnight,” Lara said. “We are in really unchartered territory, and we must make difficult choices when the world is changing rapidly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While no consumers, elected officials, or consumer advocates want to see prices increase, there is a sense that the era of cheap insurance is over for good.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Do I like the days when people were paying a thousand bucks a year for their home insurance? Of course, everybody liked it,” said Bach from United Policyholders. “But we don’t have that option anymore, so something has to change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, how much rates may increase is an open question. One of the few people who has studied how rates rise using historical data versus catastrophic data is \u003ca href=\"https://www.milliman.com/en/insight/wildfire-catastrophe-models-california-ratemaking\">Nancy Watkins, an actuary at Milliman, an independent consulting firm\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.milliman.com/-/media/milliman/pdfs/2022-articles/10-19-22_pci-pifc-cdi-summary.ashx\">2022 study she did indicated that using catastrophic models did not necessarily mean higher rates\u003c/a>. Her work also found that rates were more stable using modeling and, crucially, that models could incorporate wildfire preparation into risk estimates — something historic data fails at.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That can \u003ca href=\"https://www.carriermanagement.com/features/2023/08/29/252411.htm?bypass=9c98e38eb4bd3d9fa4d836afcadbaa24\">incentivize home- and community-level fire mitigation work\u003c/a>, something she and many fire and insurance experts hope is the way of the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985179\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985179\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Bear-Trap-Prescribed-Burn_Nevada-County_05-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A person in a yellow jacket brings a hand tool down in a sweeping motion to the ground. \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Bear-Trap-Prescribed-Burn_Nevada-County_05-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Bear-Trap-Prescribed-Burn_Nevada-County_05-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Bear-Trap-Prescribed-Burn_Nevada-County_05-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Bear-Trap-Prescribed-Burn_Nevada-County_05-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Bear-Trap-Prescribed-Burn_Nevada-County_05-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Bear-Trap-Prescribed-Burn_Nevada-County_05-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Crewmembers from the Fire Safe Council of Nevada County walk to the site where they performed ” mop-up” after a prescribed burn on June 21, 2023. Controlled burns like this are one of the best ways communities can reduce the risk from megafire. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"next\">\u003c/a>What comes next\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In the coming months, the state’s insurance department will shape the new regulations and implement reforms. Michael Soller, spokesperson for the department, said this work would focus on a couple of fronts, with some tasks being administrative in nature and some taking place through public meetings and hearings. The state will:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"list-style-type: none\">\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Create maps of where they will require insurance companies to write more policies, offering coverage to 85% of homeowners.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Evaluate catastrophe models and consider the creation of a new public model, owned by the state, versus adopting existing models made by companies.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Consider incorporating some California-related reinsurance costs into rates.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Hire more staff.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Deny intervenor petitions by advocacy groups that replicate the work already being done by staff.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Bach said following the announcement of coming reforms, she hoped the exodus would be staunched. But she said many companies still seem wary of offering coverage. She thinks they’re afraid advocates, like Consumer Watchdog, will sue to block the changes. “I think that’s part of the problem of why nothing has really shifted since the announcement,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nature of hard problems is that there are no easy, short-term wins, policy expert Sabratnam said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If these changes are made and people’s rates go up and some people still lose their insurance and some people still go on the FAIR Plan, people will then turn around and say, ‘Well look, you didn’t succeed, you failed,’” Sabaratnam said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, she added, structural change is what is needed, even if it is unpopular.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everything else is just a Band-Aid,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "2 Big Takeaways from a State Senator’s Climate Change Exchange with France",
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"content": "\u003cp>State Sen. Bill Dodd (D-Napa) and a delegation of other California leaders are shaking off jet lag after returning from a privately funded trip to France, where they swapped ideas on addressing the climate crisis with French officials and industry leaders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dodd said California could draw lessons from France’s high-speed rail system and the interest its leaders are showing in nuclear energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A legacy of high-speed rail\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Delegates zipped from city to city on high-speed rail and visited train manufacturers, some of whom touted hydrogen fuel-cell-powered trains as the future of clean transportation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65687665\">France banned\u003c/a> domestic short-haul flights if the same trip can be made by train in under two-and-a-half hours. The goal is to cut the substantial carbon emissions from air travel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the tour of France on its train system reinforced one of Dodd’s goals: finishing California’s high-speed train from Los Angeles through the Central Valley and on to San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m still a zealot for finishing high-speed rail in California,” Dodd said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have 40 million people in this state,” Dodd said. “We’re not going to be able to environmentally site any more international airports. This is something that I think is important for us to do in the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985115\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985115 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Bill-Dodd-and-Scott-Wilk-in-France-2023-800x1067.jpg\" alt=\"Two men in blue jackets stand in a church.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1067\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Bill-Dodd-and-Scott-Wilk-in-France-2023-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Bill-Dodd-and-Scott-Wilk-in-France-2023-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Bill-Dodd-and-Scott-Wilk-in-France-2023-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Bill-Dodd-and-Scott-Wilk-in-France-2023-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Bill-Dodd-and-Scott-Wilk-in-France-2023-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Bill-Dodd-and-Scott-Wilk-in-France-2023.jpg 1512w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California State Sens. Scott Wilk (R-Santa Clarita) and Bill Dodd (D-Napa) at Hospices de Beaune, in Beaune, France. The hospital was built to serve the poor in 1443.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Nuclear in the toolbox\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Dodd was also intrigued by how eager the French government was to deploy more nuclear energy. “They just believe we are not going to hit our climate goals without nuclear energy,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dodd said French officials plan to reconstruct nuclear plants at the end of their useful life and that the next phase of French nuclear technology lies in small modular reactors, as opposed to larger facilities like California’s Diablo Canyon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Diablo Canyon is the state’s last working nuclear power plant, \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/news/2023-02/cec-determines-diablo-canyon-power-plant-needed-support-grid-reliability#:~:text=Located%20in%20San%20Luis%20Obispo,9%20percent%20of%20total%20electricity.\">supplying 9% of the state’s total electricity\u003c/a>. It’s located on the coast of San Luis Obispo County, partway between Los Angeles and San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The power plant was slated to close in 2025, but Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state would need the electricity the plant produces to prevent blackouts as the state transitions to renewable energy sources. State lawmakers approved a $1.4 billion loan to the plant’s operator, Pacific Gas & Electric, to keep the plant open until 2030.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E is seeking permission from the federal government to keep the plant operating for up to 20 additional years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, environmentalists have sued, so far unsuccessfully, to force the power plants’ immediate closure. Opponents of the plant say Diablo Canyon is a safety and security risk for those living nearby should there be an accident and caution that the plant produces a lot of radioactive waste, \u003ca href=\"https://www.pge.com/en_US/safety/how-the-system-works/diablo-canyon-power-plant/diablo-canyon-power-plant/decommissioning-used-fuel.page#:~:text=Used%20fuel%20storage&text=After%20nuclear%20fuel%20is%20used,in%20a%20dry%20storage%20format.\">which is currently stored on-site\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are potential benefits to the smaller reactors touted by French officials, such as lower upfront costs, greater scalability and more flexibility in where to put them. Some are small enough to fit into a backyard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These small reactors are not without drawbacks, according to Edwin Lyman, who heads the nuclear power safety program for the Union of Concerned Scientists. He said the energy they create is more expensive than that produced by a large reactor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union doesn’t take a position on nuclear power programs, “but we do think that it has to meet very high standards of safety and security in order to be a viable technology,” Lyman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nuclear may have a role in the climate transition, but you can’t ignore the safety, security, cost and waste problems that it brings to the table,” Lyman said, and “the fact that it is a more dangerous source of energy than renewables.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Small reactors, like large ones, also produce highly radioactive nuclear waste, which makes their construction a nonstarter in California. A \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PRC§ionNum=25524.2.\">1976 state law\u003c/a> bars the construction of new nuclear power plants in the state if there is no way to dispose of the resulting high-level nuclear waste, which there is not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That was true in the 1970s, and it’s still true in the U.S. today. There is no solution,” Lyman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dodd said he’d like “to look at getting that policy changed, to allow our agencies to at least be able to explore, discuss, investigate and hold hearings and have our state agencies make those determinations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dodd said that California should be open to having conversations about new nuclear ideas, including considering smaller reactors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What are we going to do in the future to reduce 40% of the energy that we have online now, which is natural gas?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dodd said he understands people are concerned about nuclear safety and that they should be. At the same time, “We’re not talking about a weapons-grade type of nuclear. We are talking about nuclear for a clean energy future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To address climate change, Dodd said California needs a “toolbox that includes everything” if the state is going to reduce emissions based on its ambitious climate change targets.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Sponsored trips are not without controversy\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Dodd was one of 10 state legislators on the trip, paid for by the San Francisco-based nonprofit \u003ca href=\"https://www.cfee.net/about\" rel=\"noopener\">the California Foundation on the Environment and the Economy\u003c/a>. The trip also included people representing the California state government, labor unions, environmental groups, and oil and gas companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Government transparency groups criticize these kinds of trips, arguing that the travel is unofficial lobbying. They disagree with lawmakers taking free trips during which industry and business groups have exclusive access to them. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2023/05/california-legislature-trips-bills/\">Legislation has resulted from this type of travel in the past.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Senator Dodd said that was not what the travel was about. “This trip was a great opportunity for lawmakers to learn about important innovations and government policies that could help California,” Dodd said. “There is a real value in looking beyond our borders for best practices, which is why I went, and I certainly didn’t get lobbied on this trip.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People attending the trips come from various sectors, including representatives from environmental groups and the oil and gas industry. Dodd said it’s important for lawmakers to talk with stakeholders, even those in the fossil fuel industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are people out there that do not want oil companies, anybody having to deal with the internal combustion engine cars or anything to be involved in our clean energy future. I think that might be short-sighted,” Dodd said. “I think that we should use their engineering prowess and their money to help get us to where we need to be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Finding ways to communicate, finding ways to work together towards our energy future is going to be more productive than continuing to fight.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>State Sen. Bill Dodd (D-Napa) and a delegation of other California leaders are shaking off jet lag after returning from a privately funded trip to France, where they swapped ideas on addressing the climate crisis with French officials and industry leaders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dodd said California could draw lessons from France’s high-speed rail system and the interest its leaders are showing in nuclear energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A legacy of high-speed rail\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Delegates zipped from city to city on high-speed rail and visited train manufacturers, some of whom touted hydrogen fuel-cell-powered trains as the future of clean transportation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65687665\">France banned\u003c/a> domestic short-haul flights if the same trip can be made by train in under two-and-a-half hours. The goal is to cut the substantial carbon emissions from air travel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the tour of France on its train system reinforced one of Dodd’s goals: finishing California’s high-speed train from Los Angeles through the Central Valley and on to San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m still a zealot for finishing high-speed rail in California,” Dodd said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have 40 million people in this state,” Dodd said. “We’re not going to be able to environmentally site any more international airports. This is something that I think is important for us to do in the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985115\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985115 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Bill-Dodd-and-Scott-Wilk-in-France-2023-800x1067.jpg\" alt=\"Two men in blue jackets stand in a church.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1067\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Bill-Dodd-and-Scott-Wilk-in-France-2023-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Bill-Dodd-and-Scott-Wilk-in-France-2023-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Bill-Dodd-and-Scott-Wilk-in-France-2023-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Bill-Dodd-and-Scott-Wilk-in-France-2023-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Bill-Dodd-and-Scott-Wilk-in-France-2023-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Bill-Dodd-and-Scott-Wilk-in-France-2023.jpg 1512w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California State Sens. Scott Wilk (R-Santa Clarita) and Bill Dodd (D-Napa) at Hospices de Beaune, in Beaune, France. The hospital was built to serve the poor in 1443.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Nuclear in the toolbox\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Dodd was also intrigued by how eager the French government was to deploy more nuclear energy. “They just believe we are not going to hit our climate goals without nuclear energy,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dodd said French officials plan to reconstruct nuclear plants at the end of their useful life and that the next phase of French nuclear technology lies in small modular reactors, as opposed to larger facilities like California’s Diablo Canyon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Diablo Canyon is the state’s last working nuclear power plant, \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/news/2023-02/cec-determines-diablo-canyon-power-plant-needed-support-grid-reliability#:~:text=Located%20in%20San%20Luis%20Obispo,9%20percent%20of%20total%20electricity.\">supplying 9% of the state’s total electricity\u003c/a>. It’s located on the coast of San Luis Obispo County, partway between Los Angeles and San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The power plant was slated to close in 2025, but Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state would need the electricity the plant produces to prevent blackouts as the state transitions to renewable energy sources. State lawmakers approved a $1.4 billion loan to the plant’s operator, Pacific Gas & Electric, to keep the plant open until 2030.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E is seeking permission from the federal government to keep the plant operating for up to 20 additional years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, environmentalists have sued, so far unsuccessfully, to force the power plants’ immediate closure. Opponents of the plant say Diablo Canyon is a safety and security risk for those living nearby should there be an accident and caution that the plant produces a lot of radioactive waste, \u003ca href=\"https://www.pge.com/en_US/safety/how-the-system-works/diablo-canyon-power-plant/diablo-canyon-power-plant/decommissioning-used-fuel.page#:~:text=Used%20fuel%20storage&text=After%20nuclear%20fuel%20is%20used,in%20a%20dry%20storage%20format.\">which is currently stored on-site\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are potential benefits to the smaller reactors touted by French officials, such as lower upfront costs, greater scalability and more flexibility in where to put them. Some are small enough to fit into a backyard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These small reactors are not without drawbacks, according to Edwin Lyman, who heads the nuclear power safety program for the Union of Concerned Scientists. He said the energy they create is more expensive than that produced by a large reactor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union doesn’t take a position on nuclear power programs, “but we do think that it has to meet very high standards of safety and security in order to be a viable technology,” Lyman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nuclear may have a role in the climate transition, but you can’t ignore the safety, security, cost and waste problems that it brings to the table,” Lyman said, and “the fact that it is a more dangerous source of energy than renewables.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Small reactors, like large ones, also produce highly radioactive nuclear waste, which makes their construction a nonstarter in California. A \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PRC§ionNum=25524.2.\">1976 state law\u003c/a> bars the construction of new nuclear power plants in the state if there is no way to dispose of the resulting high-level nuclear waste, which there is not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That was true in the 1970s, and it’s still true in the U.S. today. There is no solution,” Lyman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dodd said he’d like “to look at getting that policy changed, to allow our agencies to at least be able to explore, discuss, investigate and hold hearings and have our state agencies make those determinations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dodd said that California should be open to having conversations about new nuclear ideas, including considering smaller reactors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What are we going to do in the future to reduce 40% of the energy that we have online now, which is natural gas?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dodd said he understands people are concerned about nuclear safety and that they should be. At the same time, “We’re not talking about a weapons-grade type of nuclear. We are talking about nuclear for a clean energy future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To address climate change, Dodd said California needs a “toolbox that includes everything” if the state is going to reduce emissions based on its ambitious climate change targets.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Sponsored trips are not without controversy\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Dodd was one of 10 state legislators on the trip, paid for by the San Francisco-based nonprofit \u003ca href=\"https://www.cfee.net/about\" rel=\"noopener\">the California Foundation on the Environment and the Economy\u003c/a>. The trip also included people representing the California state government, labor unions, environmental groups, and oil and gas companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Government transparency groups criticize these kinds of trips, arguing that the travel is unofficial lobbying. They disagree with lawmakers taking free trips during which industry and business groups have exclusive access to them. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2023/05/california-legislature-trips-bills/\">Legislation has resulted from this type of travel in the past.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Senator Dodd said that was not what the travel was about. “This trip was a great opportunity for lawmakers to learn about important innovations and government policies that could help California,” Dodd said. “There is a real value in looking beyond our borders for best practices, which is why I went, and I certainly didn’t get lobbied on this trip.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People attending the trips come from various sectors, including representatives from environmental groups and the oil and gas industry. Dodd said it’s important for lawmakers to talk with stakeholders, even those in the fossil fuel industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are people out there that do not want oil companies, anybody having to deal with the internal combustion engine cars or anything to be involved in our clean energy future. I think that might be short-sighted,” Dodd said. “I think that we should use their engineering prowess and their money to help get us to where we need to be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Finding ways to communicate, finding ways to work together towards our energy future is going to be more productive than continuing to fight.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Update, 11:30 a.m., Jan. 31\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Citizen scientists and volunteers have counted over 233,300 monarch butterflies across the western United States as part of \u003ca href=\"https://westernmonarchcount.org/western-monarch-count-tallies-233394-butterflies/\">Xerces Society’s 27th annual count\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This total, calculated from Nov. 11 through Dec. 3, 2023, is slightly lower than last year’s count — and remains at just 5% of their \u003ca href=\"https://www.xerces.org/blog/current-status-of-western-monarch-butterflies-by-numbers\">numbers from the 1980s when the monarch population was in the millions\u003c/a>. But it is far better than \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1971791/only-2000-monarch-butterflies-remain-in-california-but-they-still-dont-have-protection\">2020’s record-low count of just 2,000 butterflies \u003c/a>or \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1956190/just-29000-western-monarch-butterflies-are-left-in-california-thats-down-from-millions\">2021’s meager 29,000.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite ongoing efforts to save the butterflies, western monarchs face a decades-long severe decline. “A lot of insect loss — not just for monarchs — is linked to habitat loss, and part of the solution is widespread rewilding and habitat restoration,” said Emma Pelton, a monarch conservation biologist with the Xerces Society.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The use of pesticides, disease and a changing climate may also have contributed to the decline in monarch butterflies, Pelton said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over 400 volunteers and partners participated in the annual Thanksgiving count coordinated by the Xerces Society. “Volunteers and partners are the heartbeat of the Western Monarch Count community science effort,” said Isis Howard, who coordinates the count for the Xerces Society. “They embody a collective commitment to the conservation of western monarch butterflies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://xerces.org/volunteer/wmc\">Read more about volunteering for the monarch butterfly count\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Original story from Nov. 3, 2023, continues:\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fall and winter are when western monarch butterflies get all the spotlight here in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the fall, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11901374/how-you-can-help-save-the-monarch-butterfly-and-other-pollinators\">these brilliant fluttering insects in hues of orange and black\u003c/a> make their way from west of the Rocky Mountain Range to the many overwintering sites in coastal California. Our coastal forests provide a mild seaside climate and suitable microhabitat for them to cluster to stay warm before leaving again in early spring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The annual monarch butterfly migration cycle is one of the most spectacular events in the insect world. Western monarchs usually start showing up here in coastal California right around mid-October. This year, some of the very first clusters were reported at the very beginning of October — which is a little earlier than in the past few years, according to Emma Pelton, a conservation biologist at Xerces Society, a wildlife organization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In really warm fall years, we see later aggregating and clustering,” Pelton said. But because the Pacific coast has had more “chaotic weather patterns” in recent years due to climate change, she noted, it’s not always easy to predict precisely when the monarch clustering will occur. And it’s local weather conditions that really drive a lot of these butterflies to cluster or then break up, Pelton said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985064\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2124px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985064\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/GettyImages-184945669.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2124\" height=\"1411\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/GettyImages-184945669.jpg 2124w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/GettyImages-184945669-800x531.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/GettyImages-184945669-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/GettyImages-184945669-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/GettyImages-184945669-768x510.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/GettyImages-184945669-1536x1020.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/GettyImages-184945669-2048x1361.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/GettyImages-184945669-1920x1275.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2124px) 100vw, 2124px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) resting on a tree branch in their winter nesting area. Taken in Santa Cruz, California. \u003ccite>(GomezDavid/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Where to see monarchs near the Bay Area\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Coastal groves and eucalyptus trees provide a temperate and protected environment for the butterflies during their hibernation. So, if you want to see their bright colors, you’ll want to head south on Hwy 1 from the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few places in California where monarchs frequently find refuge in colder winter months:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.pgmuseum.org/monarch-viewing/\">Pacific Grove’s butterfly grove\u003c/a> near Monterey\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=541\">Natural Bridges State Beach\u003c/a> in Santa Cruz\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=550\">Lighthouse Field State Beach\u003c/a> in Santa Cruz\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=595\">Pismo State Beach\u003c/a> in San Luis Obispo\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Some lesser-known sites in Alameda county in the Bay Area where monarchs have been seen in the past include:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ebparks.org/parks/ardenwood\">The Ardenwood Historic Farm\u003c/a> in Fremont\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://berkeleyca.gov/community-recreation/parks-recreation/parks/aquatic-park\">Berkeley Aquatic Park\u003c/a> in Berkeley\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.albanyca.org/Home/Components/FacilityDirectory/FacilityDirectory/56/1670\">Albany Hill Park\u003c/a> in Albany\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Xerces has a \u003ca href=\"https://westernmonarchcount.org/map-of-overwintering-sites/\">map of all the monarch butterfly overwintering sites in California\u003c/a>, but note that some of these locations might not be open to the public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Western monarch numbers over the years\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='science_1980427,news_11901374,science_1956190' label='Related coverage']In the 1980s, \u003ca href=\"https://www.calparks.org/monarchs\">over 4 million western monarch butterflies migrated to the coast annually\u003c/a>. But by the mid-2010s, the population had declined to around 200,000 butterflies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In both 2018 and 2019, volunteers counted under 30,000 monarchs. That downward pattern continued in 2020, when volunteers counted a record low of less than 2,000 monarchs, according to Xerces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some good news, however, has come in more recent years. In 2021 and 2022, the numbers went back up to around the 300,000 mark.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think this has inspired a lot more hope that the migration can be saved. And we need to double down on our conservation actions,” said Pelton, with the Xerces Society.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reasons like \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1956190/just-29000-western-monarch-butterflies-are-left-in-california-thats-down-from-millions\">habitat loss, use of pesticides, disease, and a changing climate\u003c/a> may have contributed to the decline in monarch butterflies.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How can I help monarch butterflies?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The easiest way to get involved is to log your monarch sightings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you see a monarch, Pelton encourages folks to record that on community science applications like \u003ca href=\"https://www.inaturalist.org/\">iNaturalist\u003c/a>. Not only that, you can also help by logging sightings of milkweed, \u003ca href=\"https://www.xerces.org/milkweed-faq\">the plant monarch butterfly’s need for their caterpillars\u003c/a>. The data from iNaturalist feeds into the \u003ca href=\"https://www.monarchmilkweedmapper.org/\">Western Monarch Milkweed Mapper\u003c/a>, which is used by researchers in the monarch world to “understand where and when butterflies are, where and when milkweed is,” Pelton said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another way people can help with monarch butterfly conservation is by planting more native milkweed in their home gardens or neighborhoods, like in community gardens, schools or at places of worship. “I think everyone has a role in planting nectar plants that support monarchs,” Pelton said. Through programs like the \u003ca href=\"https://xerces.org/pollinator-conservation/habitat-kits\">Xerces Habitat Kit\u003c/a>, folks can apply for free native milkweed and other host plants for other butterflies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DC8INr7tvQ\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One thing to note: Pelton advises avoiding the tropical milkweed species Asclepias Curassavica. Tropical milkweed can potentially interrupt monarch migration and help spread disease caused by a parasite called Ophryocystis elektroscirrha, or OE.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s increasing evidence showing that pesticides may be contributing to the declining monarch populations, Pelton said. This means that thinking about ways to lower our reliance on pesticides in general, both in our agricultural and urban areas, can be a significant way to support the habitat for monarchs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pelton advocates for focusing on “the bigger picture issues like climate change policies, pesticide regulation and registration — things that support wildlife, native plants, and native habitats on our landscape.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How can I take part in the annual Thanksgiving and New Year’s count of monarchs?[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Emma Pelton, a conservation biologist at Xerces Society\"]“I like to think of monarchs as a little bit of a Trojan horse. We’re going to get people hooked, and then really we’re going to get them into all these other conservation [efforts].”[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peak numbers for monarch butterflies begin in November — which is also the time when Xerces conducts their annual Thanksgiving monarch count.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year will be the 27th annual \u003ca href=\"https://westernmonarchcount.org/\">Western Monarch Count\u003c/a>, and volunteers can take part between Nov. 11 and Dec. 3 during the Thanksgiving count and again between Dec. 23 and Jan. 7 during the New Year’s count.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can \u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdILTQuNbV0SOT7IJ7MaGqHtTrBU8NlCCxeupxtmjtzb7xa9w/viewform\">sign up\u003c/a> to join a \u003ca href=\"https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sunrise-monarch-count-training-with-zach-zito-and-the-xerces-society-tickets-740309725317?utm_source=eventbrite&utm_medium=email&utm_content=follow_notification&utm_campaign=following_published_event&utm_term=Sunrise+Monarch+Count+Training+with+Zach+Zito+and+the+Xerces+Society&aff=ebemoffollowpublishemail\">free training on Nov. 4\u003c/a>. You’ll also have access to \u003ca href=\"https://www.westernmonarchcount.org/training-videos/\">online training videos\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Next step for conservation enthusiasts\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Pelton hopes that some of the excitement around western monarch conservation can spread to other insects that are maybe less beloved. “I like to think of monarchs as a little bit of a Trojan horse,” she said. “We’re going to get people hooked, and then really we’re going to get them into all these other conservation [efforts].”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like the conservation of California’s beautiful black and yellow bumble bees, for example. The California Bumble Bee Atlas is a community science effort to track and conserve the species, which Pelton calls “big, fuzzy, beautiful.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They have very clear patterns on them,” she said — and it doesn’t take a ton of training or time to start to be able to identify individual species of the bumblebee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The biodiversity crisis and how that intersects with the climate change crisis is something that we also all should be thinking about, Pelton said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Habitat is just one of those really great ways where we can tackle the problem — by creating refuges and creating a diversity of habitats [wildlife] can use, so they can adapt in a changing climate,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Update, 11:30 a.m., Jan. 31\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Citizen scientists and volunteers have counted over 233,300 monarch butterflies across the western United States as part of \u003ca href=\"https://westernmonarchcount.org/western-monarch-count-tallies-233394-butterflies/\">Xerces Society’s 27th annual count\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This total, calculated from Nov. 11 through Dec. 3, 2023, is slightly lower than last year’s count — and remains at just 5% of their \u003ca href=\"https://www.xerces.org/blog/current-status-of-western-monarch-butterflies-by-numbers\">numbers from the 1980s when the monarch population was in the millions\u003c/a>. But it is far better than \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1971791/only-2000-monarch-butterflies-remain-in-california-but-they-still-dont-have-protection\">2020’s record-low count of just 2,000 butterflies \u003c/a>or \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1956190/just-29000-western-monarch-butterflies-are-left-in-california-thats-down-from-millions\">2021’s meager 29,000.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite ongoing efforts to save the butterflies, western monarchs face a decades-long severe decline. “A lot of insect loss — not just for monarchs — is linked to habitat loss, and part of the solution is widespread rewilding and habitat restoration,” said Emma Pelton, a monarch conservation biologist with the Xerces Society.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The use of pesticides, disease and a changing climate may also have contributed to the decline in monarch butterflies, Pelton said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over 400 volunteers and partners participated in the annual Thanksgiving count coordinated by the Xerces Society. “Volunteers and partners are the heartbeat of the Western Monarch Count community science effort,” said Isis Howard, who coordinates the count for the Xerces Society. “They embody a collective commitment to the conservation of western monarch butterflies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://xerces.org/volunteer/wmc\">Read more about volunteering for the monarch butterfly count\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Original story from Nov. 3, 2023, continues:\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fall and winter are when western monarch butterflies get all the spotlight here in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the fall, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11901374/how-you-can-help-save-the-monarch-butterfly-and-other-pollinators\">these brilliant fluttering insects in hues of orange and black\u003c/a> make their way from west of the Rocky Mountain Range to the many overwintering sites in coastal California. Our coastal forests provide a mild seaside climate and suitable microhabitat for them to cluster to stay warm before leaving again in early spring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The annual monarch butterfly migration cycle is one of the most spectacular events in the insect world. Western monarchs usually start showing up here in coastal California right around mid-October. This year, some of the very first clusters were reported at the very beginning of October — which is a little earlier than in the past few years, according to Emma Pelton, a conservation biologist at Xerces Society, a wildlife organization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In really warm fall years, we see later aggregating and clustering,” Pelton said. But because the Pacific coast has had more “chaotic weather patterns” in recent years due to climate change, she noted, it’s not always easy to predict precisely when the monarch clustering will occur. And it’s local weather conditions that really drive a lot of these butterflies to cluster or then break up, Pelton said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985064\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2124px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985064\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/GettyImages-184945669.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2124\" height=\"1411\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/GettyImages-184945669.jpg 2124w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/GettyImages-184945669-800x531.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/GettyImages-184945669-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/GettyImages-184945669-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/GettyImages-184945669-768x510.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/GettyImages-184945669-1536x1020.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/GettyImages-184945669-2048x1361.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/GettyImages-184945669-1920x1275.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2124px) 100vw, 2124px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) resting on a tree branch in their winter nesting area. Taken in Santa Cruz, California. \u003ccite>(GomezDavid/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Where to see monarchs near the Bay Area\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Coastal groves and eucalyptus trees provide a temperate and protected environment for the butterflies during their hibernation. So, if you want to see their bright colors, you’ll want to head south on Hwy 1 from the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few places in California where monarchs frequently find refuge in colder winter months:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.pgmuseum.org/monarch-viewing/\">Pacific Grove’s butterfly grove\u003c/a> near Monterey\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=541\">Natural Bridges State Beach\u003c/a> in Santa Cruz\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=550\">Lighthouse Field State Beach\u003c/a> in Santa Cruz\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=595\">Pismo State Beach\u003c/a> in San Luis Obispo\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Some lesser-known sites in Alameda county in the Bay Area where monarchs have been seen in the past include:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ebparks.org/parks/ardenwood\">The Ardenwood Historic Farm\u003c/a> in Fremont\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://berkeleyca.gov/community-recreation/parks-recreation/parks/aquatic-park\">Berkeley Aquatic Park\u003c/a> in Berkeley\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.albanyca.org/Home/Components/FacilityDirectory/FacilityDirectory/56/1670\">Albany Hill Park\u003c/a> in Albany\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Xerces has a \u003ca href=\"https://westernmonarchcount.org/map-of-overwintering-sites/\">map of all the monarch butterfly overwintering sites in California\u003c/a>, but note that some of these locations might not be open to the public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Western monarch numbers over the years\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In the 1980s, \u003ca href=\"https://www.calparks.org/monarchs\">over 4 million western monarch butterflies migrated to the coast annually\u003c/a>. But by the mid-2010s, the population had declined to around 200,000 butterflies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In both 2018 and 2019, volunteers counted under 30,000 monarchs. That downward pattern continued in 2020, when volunteers counted a record low of less than 2,000 monarchs, according to Xerces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some good news, however, has come in more recent years. In 2021 and 2022, the numbers went back up to around the 300,000 mark.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think this has inspired a lot more hope that the migration can be saved. And we need to double down on our conservation actions,” said Pelton, with the Xerces Society.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reasons like \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1956190/just-29000-western-monarch-butterflies-are-left-in-california-thats-down-from-millions\">habitat loss, use of pesticides, disease, and a changing climate\u003c/a> may have contributed to the decline in monarch butterflies.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How can I help monarch butterflies?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The easiest way to get involved is to log your monarch sightings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you see a monarch, Pelton encourages folks to record that on community science applications like \u003ca href=\"https://www.inaturalist.org/\">iNaturalist\u003c/a>. Not only that, you can also help by logging sightings of milkweed, \u003ca href=\"https://www.xerces.org/milkweed-faq\">the plant monarch butterfly’s need for their caterpillars\u003c/a>. The data from iNaturalist feeds into the \u003ca href=\"https://www.monarchmilkweedmapper.org/\">Western Monarch Milkweed Mapper\u003c/a>, which is used by researchers in the monarch world to “understand where and when butterflies are, where and when milkweed is,” Pelton said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another way people can help with monarch butterfly conservation is by planting more native milkweed in their home gardens or neighborhoods, like in community gardens, schools or at places of worship. “I think everyone has a role in planting nectar plants that support monarchs,” Pelton said. Through programs like the \u003ca href=\"https://xerces.org/pollinator-conservation/habitat-kits\">Xerces Habitat Kit\u003c/a>, folks can apply for free native milkweed and other host plants for other butterflies.\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/3DC8INr7tvQ'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/3DC8INr7tvQ'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One thing to note: Pelton advises avoiding the tropical milkweed species Asclepias Curassavica. Tropical milkweed can potentially interrupt monarch migration and help spread disease caused by a parasite called Ophryocystis elektroscirrha, or OE.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s increasing evidence showing that pesticides may be contributing to the declining monarch populations, Pelton said. This means that thinking about ways to lower our reliance on pesticides in general, both in our agricultural and urban areas, can be a significant way to support the habitat for monarchs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pelton advocates for focusing on “the bigger picture issues like climate change policies, pesticide regulation and registration — things that support wildlife, native plants, and native habitats on our landscape.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How can I take part in the annual Thanksgiving and New Year’s count of monarchs?\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "“I like to think of monarchs as a little bit of a Trojan horse. We’re going to get people hooked, and then really we’re going to get them into all these other conservation [efforts].”",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peak numbers for monarch butterflies begin in November — which is also the time when Xerces conducts their annual Thanksgiving monarch count.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year will be the 27th annual \u003ca href=\"https://westernmonarchcount.org/\">Western Monarch Count\u003c/a>, and volunteers can take part between Nov. 11 and Dec. 3 during the Thanksgiving count and again between Dec. 23 and Jan. 7 during the New Year’s count.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can \u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdILTQuNbV0SOT7IJ7MaGqHtTrBU8NlCCxeupxtmjtzb7xa9w/viewform\">sign up\u003c/a> to join a \u003ca href=\"https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sunrise-monarch-count-training-with-zach-zito-and-the-xerces-society-tickets-740309725317?utm_source=eventbrite&utm_medium=email&utm_content=follow_notification&utm_campaign=following_published_event&utm_term=Sunrise+Monarch+Count+Training+with+Zach+Zito+and+the+Xerces+Society&aff=ebemoffollowpublishemail\">free training on Nov. 4\u003c/a>. You’ll also have access to \u003ca href=\"https://www.westernmonarchcount.org/training-videos/\">online training videos\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Next step for conservation enthusiasts\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Pelton hopes that some of the excitement around western monarch conservation can spread to other insects that are maybe less beloved. “I like to think of monarchs as a little bit of a Trojan horse,” she said. “We’re going to get people hooked, and then really we’re going to get them into all these other conservation [efforts].”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like the conservation of California’s beautiful black and yellow bumble bees, for example. The California Bumble Bee Atlas is a community science effort to track and conserve the species, which Pelton calls “big, fuzzy, beautiful.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They have very clear patterns on them,” she said — and it doesn’t take a ton of training or time to start to be able to identify individual species of the bumblebee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The biodiversity crisis and how that intersects with the climate change crisis is something that we also all should be thinking about, Pelton said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Habitat is just one of those really great ways where we can tackle the problem — by creating refuges and creating a diversity of habitats [wildlife] can use, so they can adapt in a changing climate,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Skeptical State Regulators Delay Vote on PG&E’s $6 Billion Plan to Bury Power Lines",
"headTitle": "Skeptical State Regulators Delay Vote on PG&E’s $6 Billion Plan to Bury Power Lines | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>California regulators have punted a vote on whether to approve PG&E’s ambitious proposal to bury 2,000 miles of its power lines by 2026, which the utility claims is necessary to prevent the next big California wildfire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The commission intended to vote on the proposal this Thursday but will instead take up the issue at its next meeting on Nov. 16. It did not offer any explanation for the delay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The utility needs state approval to raise customer rates to pay for the incredibly costly project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials at the California Public Utilities Commission have balked at the utility’s plan with a nearly $6 billion estimated price tag — which would result in an estimated monthly average customer rate increase of about $40. The commission has also cast serious doubt on the company’s ability to complete the undergrounding work on time. PG&E says the plan would also fund investments in other wildfire mitigation work and the growth of clean energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Commissioner John Reynolds grilled PG&E executives in a testy exchange at a hearing last month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are, again, in a circumstance where you’ve proposed a scale of this kind of work that you have no track record of delivering on,” he said. “The certainty around your ability to deliver is an important and large question mark surrounding your proposal as it stands.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s uncontroverted here that PG&E has never delivered the scale of undergrounding that you’ve proposed here,” Reynolds said. “I have concerns that any failure to meet the plans as you propose them will result in customers paying for work that doesn’t get done.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Equipment from PG&E, California’s largest utility, is responsible for starting some of the state’s largest and most destructive megafires in recent years, including the 2021 Dixie Fire — California’s largest individual wildfire on record, which burned one million acres and crossed the Sierra Nevada — and the 2018 Camp Fire that killed 85 people and torched much of the town of Paradise, destroying more than 13,900 homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"related coverage\" tag=\"pge\"]Faced with paying tens of billions of dollars in damages to victims of wildfires that were started by its equipment, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11721763/pge-just-filed-for-bankruptcy-heres-what-happens-next\">PG&E filed for bankruptcy\u003c/a> in Jan. 2019. The following year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-03-23/pge-pleads-guilty-to-84-counts-of-manslaughter-over-paradise-fire\">it pleaded guilty\u003c/a> to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter for its role in sparking the Camp Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1950703/climate-change-is-driving-californias-wildfires-the-kincade-fire-not-so-much\">Climate change has greatly amplified\u003c/a> California’s wildfire risk. Meanwhile, the state’s longtime fire suppression policies of trying to stomp out every fire has helped load forests with fuel to burn, further exacerbating the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E’s power lines zigzag across these tinderbox forests, and the utility — as part of a last-ditch effort to prevent wildfires — has begun cutting power to communities in vulnerable areas for days at a time during strong wind storms, a policy it calls “public safety power shutoffs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The utility argues that burying the equipment underground is a safer alternative that would obviate the need for these planned outages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the commission hearing in October, PG&E Chief Operating Officer Sumeet Singh argued the company needs to underground its lines to ensure the safety and reliability of its energy services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is critical that we have the needed funding to continue to make our systems safer for our customers and our hometowns that we have the privilege to serve,” Singh said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a shockingly expensive plan and it will have major impacts on retail rates,” said Severin Borenstein, a UC Berkeley energy economist. “And, of course, everyone is concerned about that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In asking ratepayers to foot the bill for this project, he added, PG&E has little incentive to try to minimize the costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If they can do something that involves a lot of capital expenditures, they get to earn a rate of return on that,” Borenstein said. “And the rates of return that utilities have been earning are likely well above the real cost of raising funds. And so there’s profit in there and they have an incentive to over-invest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Utilities all over the country, particularly in fire-prone regions, face similar challenges, he noted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think there’s a very valid question of what to do and whether doing this primarily through undergrounding lines is the right policy,” Borenstein said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No matter what path utilities take, the larger debate is over who should bear the costs: company shareholders, ratepayers or the state. “The real question is, does society bear them through raising utility rates or does society bear them through paying for them through the state budget,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Regulators have also floated two less-costly, alternate plans — which they will also consider later this month — in which the company would keep more of its lines above ground but install protective covers to insulate them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One plan would allow the company to bury just 200 miles of line and install 1,800 miles of insulation and other safety measures, while the second would let it put 1,230 miles underground — resulting in an estimated average monthly bill increase of just over $30, or about $10 less per month than PG&E’s plan, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/-/media/cpuc-website/industries-and-topics/documents/pge/grcs/updated_faq-pge-grc-103023.pdf\">according to a commission fact sheet\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Singh, at last month’s hearing, pushed back on the alternate proposals, contending that burying the lines would be significantly safer and that the company could drive down project costs by purchasing equipment in bulk and guaranteeing work for its contractors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Consumer groups have also pushed back hard on PG&E’s plan, saying it would be too expensive for ratepayers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are deeply concerned that double-digit rate increases will affect the financial security of older adults and their families,” said Michael Murray, director of business integration for AARP. “Particularly at a time when housing, food, health care prices are climbing. And if PG&E gets what it’s asking for, that’s what would happen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>AARP members delivered 14,000 petitions to state regulators last spring voicing concerns about the potential rate increase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s PG&E’s responsibility to improve wildfire safety without placing an even heavier financial burden on its customers,” Murray said.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California regulators have punted a vote on whether to approve PG&E’s ambitious proposal to bury 2,000 miles of its power lines by 2026, which the utility claims is necessary to prevent the next big California wildfire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The commission intended to vote on the proposal this Thursday but will instead take up the issue at its next meeting on Nov. 16. It did not offer any explanation for the delay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The utility needs state approval to raise customer rates to pay for the incredibly costly project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials at the California Public Utilities Commission have balked at the utility’s plan with a nearly $6 billion estimated price tag — which would result in an estimated monthly average customer rate increase of about $40. The commission has also cast serious doubt on the company’s ability to complete the undergrounding work on time. PG&E says the plan would also fund investments in other wildfire mitigation work and the growth of clean energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Commissioner John Reynolds grilled PG&E executives in a testy exchange at a hearing last month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are, again, in a circumstance where you’ve proposed a scale of this kind of work that you have no track record of delivering on,” he said. “The certainty around your ability to deliver is an important and large question mark surrounding your proposal as it stands.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s uncontroverted here that PG&E has never delivered the scale of undergrounding that you’ve proposed here,” Reynolds said. “I have concerns that any failure to meet the plans as you propose them will result in customers paying for work that doesn’t get done.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Equipment from PG&E, California’s largest utility, is responsible for starting some of the state’s largest and most destructive megafires in recent years, including the 2021 Dixie Fire — California’s largest individual wildfire on record, which burned one million acres and crossed the Sierra Nevada — and the 2018 Camp Fire that killed 85 people and torched much of the town of Paradise, destroying more than 13,900 homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Faced with paying tens of billions of dollars in damages to victims of wildfires that were started by its equipment, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11721763/pge-just-filed-for-bankruptcy-heres-what-happens-next\">PG&E filed for bankruptcy\u003c/a> in Jan. 2019. The following year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-03-23/pge-pleads-guilty-to-84-counts-of-manslaughter-over-paradise-fire\">it pleaded guilty\u003c/a> to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter for its role in sparking the Camp Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1950703/climate-change-is-driving-californias-wildfires-the-kincade-fire-not-so-much\">Climate change has greatly amplified\u003c/a> California’s wildfire risk. Meanwhile, the state’s longtime fire suppression policies of trying to stomp out every fire has helped load forests with fuel to burn, further exacerbating the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E’s power lines zigzag across these tinderbox forests, and the utility — as part of a last-ditch effort to prevent wildfires — has begun cutting power to communities in vulnerable areas for days at a time during strong wind storms, a policy it calls “public safety power shutoffs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The utility argues that burying the equipment underground is a safer alternative that would obviate the need for these planned outages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the commission hearing in October, PG&E Chief Operating Officer Sumeet Singh argued the company needs to underground its lines to ensure the safety and reliability of its energy services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is critical that we have the needed funding to continue to make our systems safer for our customers and our hometowns that we have the privilege to serve,” Singh said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a shockingly expensive plan and it will have major impacts on retail rates,” said Severin Borenstein, a UC Berkeley energy economist. “And, of course, everyone is concerned about that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In asking ratepayers to foot the bill for this project, he added, PG&E has little incentive to try to minimize the costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If they can do something that involves a lot of capital expenditures, they get to earn a rate of return on that,” Borenstein said. “And the rates of return that utilities have been earning are likely well above the real cost of raising funds. And so there’s profit in there and they have an incentive to over-invest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Utilities all over the country, particularly in fire-prone regions, face similar challenges, he noted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think there’s a very valid question of what to do and whether doing this primarily through undergrounding lines is the right policy,” Borenstein said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No matter what path utilities take, the larger debate is over who should bear the costs: company shareholders, ratepayers or the state. “The real question is, does society bear them through raising utility rates or does society bear them through paying for them through the state budget,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Regulators have also floated two less-costly, alternate plans — which they will also consider later this month — in which the company would keep more of its lines above ground but install protective covers to insulate them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One plan would allow the company to bury just 200 miles of line and install 1,800 miles of insulation and other safety measures, while the second would let it put 1,230 miles underground — resulting in an estimated average monthly bill increase of just over $30, or about $10 less per month than PG&E’s plan, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/-/media/cpuc-website/industries-and-topics/documents/pge/grcs/updated_faq-pge-grc-103023.pdf\">according to a commission fact sheet\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Singh, at last month’s hearing, pushed back on the alternate proposals, contending that burying the lines would be significantly safer and that the company could drive down project costs by purchasing equipment in bulk and guaranteeing work for its contractors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Consumer groups have also pushed back hard on PG&E’s plan, saying it would be too expensive for ratepayers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are deeply concerned that double-digit rate increases will affect the financial security of older adults and their families,” said Michael Murray, director of business integration for AARP. “Particularly at a time when housing, food, health care prices are climbing. And if PG&E gets what it’s asking for, that’s what would happen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>AARP members delivered 14,000 petitions to state regulators last spring voicing concerns about the potential rate increase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s PG&E’s responsibility to improve wildfire safety without placing an even heavier financial burden on its customers,” Murray said.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "electric-avenue-one-oakland-blocks-improbable-journey-to-ditch-gas",
"title": "Electric Avenue: One Oakland Block's Improbable Journey to Ditch Gas",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of the third season of KQED’s podcast Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America. You can \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/podcasts/soldout\">find that series here\u003c/a> and read about why \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1984697/why-kqed-focused-a-season-of-its-housing-podcast-on-climate-change#:~:text=Sold%20Out%20Is%20Back%20With%20Season%203&text=Host%20Erin%20Baldassari%20leads%20a,an%20affordable%20place%20to%20live.\">KQED chose to focus a season of its housing podcast on climate change\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The residents of one block in East Oakland have been quietly writing a rough draft of how to ditch natural gas on a neighborhood scale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/building-decarbonization\">A quarter of California’s carbon emissions\u003c/a> come from homes, businesses and the energy used to power them. It’s a steady stream of planet-warming gasses pouring from our furnaces, water heaters, clothes dryers and ovens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To slash those emissions and meet \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2022/11/16/california-releases-worlds-first-plan-to-achieve-net-zero-carbon-pollution/\">the state’s climate targets\u003c/a>, Californians need to replace fossil-fuel-powered appliances with electric ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The status quo for electrification is to replace those appliances home-by-home at the end of their useful life. The approach is expensive, excludes people who cannot afford these upgrades and will take decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, there’s growing interest in a different option: neighborhood-scale electrification. It can drive down costs as neighbors purchase electric stoves, heat pumps and solar panels in bulk and guarantee work for contractors. That’s the idea, anyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What follows is the story of one group of neighbors in Oakland who spent the last four years trying to electrify their homes collectively as part of a research project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here is what they have learned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jump straight to:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"list-style-type: none\">\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#thevision\">\u003cstrong>The vision\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#theinitiators\">\u003cstrong>The initiators\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#thehomeowners\">\u003cstrong>The homeowners\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#therenters\">\u003cstrong>The renters\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#theholdouts\">\u003cstrong>The holdouts\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#theutility\">\u003cstrong>The utility\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#theresearchers\">\u003cstrong>The researchers\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#thetakeaways\">\u003cstrong>The takeaways\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC5614009078&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"thevision\">\u003c/a>The vision\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The project is called \u003ca href=\"https://ecoblock.berkeley.edu/\">EcoBlock\u003c/a>, and it is a partnership between academics, professionals, government, utilities, private donors and residents. Its primary goal is to help an entire city block cut emissions through insulation upgrades, electric appliances and solar panels meant to “improve resilience, sustainability and quality of life.”\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003cbr>\nOriginally, project leaders even intended to transform the block into a microgrid — a self-contained electricity system that can run even if power from PG&E shuts off — although funding for that portion of the project remains uncertain.[pullquote align='right' citation='Therese Peffer, UC Berkeley']‘New construction is easy. It’s sexy, and it’s fun, but it’s not where the biggest problem is. If we’re going to try to really combat climate change, it is looking at the existing buildings in this country.’[/pullquote]All these perks are free to homeowners who sign up. In turn, researchers get to learn from the pilot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project is funded to the tune of $8 million — \u003ca href=\"https://ecoblock.berkeley.edu/about/frequently-asked-questions/\">five of which\u003c/a> come from the \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/programs-and-topics/programs/electric-program-investment-charge-epic-program\">California Energy Commission\u003c/a>, the other three come from an anonymous donor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The block in East Oakland is a cul-de-sac, with the busy thoroughfare of Fruitvale Avenue on one end and a peaceful creek on the other. There’s a mix of Victorian homes that date back more than 100 years and more recently built duplexes and apartment buildings.[pullquote align='right' citation='Vivian Santana Pacheco']‘All of this is helping us remember that we’re interconnected and that we can rely on each other. That’s the only way that we’re going to solve this climate crisis.’[/pullquote]KQED is not disclosing the name of the block to protect the privacy of the residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The people who live here are a mashup of homeowners and renters, socioeconomic classes, races, and ethnicities. Despite their differences, the residents come together annually for a block party, and have a WhatsApp group where topics range from safety to backyard fruit giveaways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After navigating years of pandemic delays, inflation and onerous regulation, construction began this fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents hope to connect their new electric appliances to the larger grid this winter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We think that this is scalable,” said Therese Peffer, a researcher from UC Berkeley’s California Institute for Energy and Environment CITRIS Climate initiative, who heads EcoBlock. “We think addressing the urban residential [housing sector] is a huge, huge win because no one else is doing that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the project may be cutting-edge, it hasn’t been without setbacks. EcoBlock managers had hoped to cap off the street’s gas line, which, based on how utilities interpret \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PUC§ionNum=451.\">state energy code\u003c/a>, would require 100% of residents to agree to swap out their gas appliances for electric ones. Ten out of the 25 neighbors have not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Building a new green home is fairly straightforward. In recent years, futuristic \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1982984/californias-first-all-electric-neighborhood-may-be-future-of-green-living\">communities have popped up\u003c/a> with this as their express purpose. Instead of using natural gas to heat space and water, dry clothes and cook, these homes are going electric and pulling power from renewable sources like solar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But what happens to the places already built? In California, that’s \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2022-12/2022-sp.pdf\">14 million existing homes, three-quarters of which\u003c/a> were built before energy efficiency standards requiring things like insulation were developed in 1978.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“New construction is easy,” Peffer, EcoBlock’s principal investigator, said. “It’s sexy, and it’s fun, but it’s not where the biggest problem is. If we’re going to try to really combat climate change, it is looking at the existing buildings in this country.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Increasingly, it’s becoming clear that we need to be taking more of a utility-scale or a neighborhood-scale approach to building decarbonization instead of waiting for an individual appliance to break and then trying through education and bribery to cajole people to make the right choice,” said Panama Bartholomy, who heads the Building Decarbonization Coalition, a national nonprofit that advocates to remove fossil fuels from buildings.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"theinitiators\">\u003c/a>The initiators\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984911\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2400px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984911\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-03-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Two photos side by side: one of two people and one of a blue house.\" width=\"2400\" height=\"1094\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-03-KQED.jpg 2400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-03-KQED-800x365.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-03-KQED-1020x465.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-03-KQED-160x73.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-03-KQED-768x350.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-03-KQED-1536x700.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-03-KQED-2048x934.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-03-KQED-1920x875.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2400px) 100vw, 2400px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Vivian Santana Pacheco and Isaac Zones and their home in Oakland on Oct. 19, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isaac Zones, 42, and Vivian Santana Pacheco, 39\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003cbr>\nIsaac Zones learned about the Oakland EcoBlock in 2019 from a friend, who’d sent along an email with the subject line, “This looks cool.” The email linked to \u003ca href=\"https://citris-uc.org/oakland-ecoblock-looking-for-interested-neighborhoods/\">a UC Berkeley EcoBlock project\u003c/a> page asked a question: “Do you and your neighbors want to save money on your energy bills, reduce carbon emissions, and survive the next power outage?”[pullquote align='right' citation='Vivian Santana Pacheco']‘Already I feel like we’re behind and that I’m not doing enough. Honestly, this feels more tangible than showing up to a protest.’[/pullquote]“Basically, I read it as like free solar for everybody on my block,” said Zones, a musician. “This sounds great.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Zones applied and went door-to-door, reaching out to his neighbors to gauge interest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vivian Santana Pacheco, who is married to Zones, was also intrigued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santana Pacheco regularly thinks about the climate crisis. “Already I feel like we’re behind and that I’m not doing enough,” she said. “Honestly, this feels more tangible than showing up to a protest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In many ways, the two were an ideal pair to champion the project at its start. They’d spent the past several years building community on their block through the street’s annual party. Zones easily strikes up conversations with neighbors, and knocks on doors and calls them to check in. Santana Pacheco, a health educator, shares her own vegetable starts with neighbors who have garden boxes that lay fallow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s also one of five neighbors on a steering committee for the newly formed homeowner’s association, created to manage the project’s shared assets, like an electric vehicle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They are motivated by their 4-year-old son. “We want this world to be a habitable one for him, being able to say we did as much as we could to be part of that,” said Santana Pacheco.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"thehomeowners\">\u003c/a>The homeowners\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984912\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2400px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984912\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Two photos side by side: One of two people and a child and one of a house.\" width=\"2400\" height=\"1094\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-04-KQED.jpg 2400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-04-KQED-800x365.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-04-KQED-1020x465.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-04-KQED-160x73.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-04-KQED-768x350.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-04-KQED-1536x700.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-04-KQED-2048x934.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-04-KQED-1920x875.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2400px) 100vw, 2400px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(From left) Ivan Sharamok, Gavin Sharamok (2) and Jarinya Phansathin and their home in Oakland on Oct. 19, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ivan Sharamok, 39; Jarinya Phansathin, 32; and Gavin Sharamok, 2\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Homeowner Ivan Sharamok, a solutions architect for an IT startup, jokes that he lives in a museum, given that his white Victorian was constructed in 1900. He’s curious how a team of EcoBlock researchers will bring it to the forefront of home electrification.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also can’t wait to see how he’ll actually like living in a home warmed and cooled by a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1981511/how-the-unassuming-heat-pump-can-stave-off-warming\">heat pump\u003c/a> or how cooking on an induction stove will feel. Sharamok dove into research on the latest technologies, and while he’s excited, he’s also skeptical.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s kind of like a game,” Sharamok said. “Once it gets installed and I try it, would it actually be to my satisfaction?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Growing up in Ukraine, he recalls winters with tons of snow. But over his lifetime, the winters have gotten milder and milder, which he attributes to climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m very skeptical that, on a global scale, society can tackle this problem. But I’m hopeful that we can,” Sharamok said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sharamok has taken on a role in the steering committee for the EcoBlock homeowner’s association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a super long process, but I also understand why,” Sharamok said. Just creating agreements for the homeowners association took time. “It’s pretty awesome to see what goes into the design, what you need to think about when you’re trying to do something like that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984910\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2400px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984910\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Two photos side by side: one of a person with glasses and one of a house.\" width=\"2400\" height=\"1094\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-02-KQED.jpg 2400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-02-KQED-800x365.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-02-KQED-1020x465.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-02-KQED-160x73.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-02-KQED-768x350.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-02-KQED-1536x700.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-02-KQED-2048x934.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-02-KQED-1920x875.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2400px) 100vw, 2400px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nick Corlett and his home in Oakland on Oct. 12, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nick Corlett, 38\u003c/b>\u003cbr>\n“I love humanity with all our flaws and all our ugliness. We’ve pulled off some amazing things, and I hate to see us collectively failing to act [on climate change],” said Nick Corlett, a tutor for high school students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before EcoBlock came to his street, Corlett’s house was the only one with solar panels. Now, he’s gearing up for his roof to be covered with even more.[pullquote align='right' citation='Nick Corlett']‘If their power is out and ours is on, and they want to come over and microwave a burrito or something, they’re welcome to do it.’[/pullquote]He’s taken an active role in the homeowners association, and offered his backyard as a place for the back-up, shared battery, or what he calls the “the energy shack.” If it comes through, Corlett would get some financial compensation from the homeowners association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s learned a lot about collaboration through the process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had to design it so that anyone who’s joining couldn’t just get all the free stuff and back out immediately. We put together all the agreements to incentivize people to stay in the project,” Corlett said. “I think we’ve got something that hopefully everyone will be happy to be a part of.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Corlett is excited about EcoBlock, and he’s happy to help neighbors who didn’t sign up. “If their power is out and ours is on, and they want to come over and microwave a burrito or something, they’re welcome to do it,” Corlett said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"therenters\">\u003c/a>The renters\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984913\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2400px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984913\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Two photos side by side: One of a family of four and one of a pink house.\" width=\"2400\" height=\"1094\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-05-KQED.jpg 2400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-05-KQED-800x365.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-05-KQED-1020x465.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-05-KQED-160x73.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-05-KQED-768x350.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-05-KQED-1536x700.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-05-KQED-2048x934.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-05-KQED-1920x875.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2400px) 100vw, 2400px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(From left) Cheryls Kleinsmith, Ismael Plasencia, Isla Rose Plasencia (9), and Ismal Plasencia Jr. (6) and their home in Oakland on Oct. 19, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Cheryl Kleinsmith, 45; Ismael Plasencia, 49; Isla Rose Plasencia, 9; and Ismael Plasencia Jr., 6\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cheryl Kleinsmith and Ismael Plasencia love all the natural light their apartment gets from all its windows. They do not love how vulnerable that makes them to the weather.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When it’s hot, it’s hot. When it’s cold, it’s very cold,” said Kleinsmith. EcoBlock would insulate their home and provide heat pumps, electric appliances that can heat and cool space inside a home, and serve as a water heater.[pullquote align='right' citation='Ismael Plasencia']‘It presented this opportunity to transform Oakland in a way that I don’t think most folks would have prioritized.’[/pullquote]But Kleinsmith and Plasencia are renters. They had to convince their property owners to join, who thought it sounded too good to be true.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was like, it does kind of sound too good to be true,” Plasencia said. “I get that. But what do you have to lose? It’s going to increase your property value.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The owners eventually agreed, as long as Kleinsmith and Plasencia would go to the meetings and share relevant information.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was super interested in the project,” Plasencia said. “Just for educational purposes, I’d love to just sit at all these meetings.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kleinsmith and Plasencia, who hope to buy their own home in the future, both grew up in Oakland. They both work here: she’s a scheduler in a surgeon’s office, and he runs community programs for an art school. Even as rents have increased, they’ve made it work to stay here and raise their kids here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What they saw in EcoBlock was a commitment to all of Oakland, not just the wealthier parts of the city, where people could probably afford to upgrade their own homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It presented this opportunity to transform Oakland in a way that I don’t think most folks would have prioritized,” Plasencia said. “But projects like this are inspiring to me: just to know that we can transform a neighborhood that could potentially transform a whole community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"theholdouts\">\u003c/a>The holdouts\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984909\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2400px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984909\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Two photos side by side: one of a person leaning on a railing and one of a white house.\" width=\"2400\" height=\"1094\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-01-KQED.jpg 2400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-01-KQED-800x365.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-01-KQED-1020x465.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-01-KQED-160x73.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-01-KQED-768x350.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-01-KQED-1536x700.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-01-KQED-2048x934.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-01-KQED-1920x875.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2400px) 100vw, 2400px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Steven Johnson and his home in Oakland on Oct. 12, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Steve Johnson, 70\u003c/b>\u003cbr>\nNot all neighbors are enthusiastic about EcoBlock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Steve Johnson lives in a wooden home that’s been in his family for nearly a century. He’s reminded of them in every spot: the room where his mother was born on newspapers or the backyard tree that’s grown from the sapling his grandmother planted 90 years ago.[pullquote align='right' citation='Steve Johnson']‘It’s just they were overwhelmingly, sweepingly changing everything in my life that I wanted.’[/pullquote]Johnson, a retired contractor, bought the house from his grandmother in the 1970s, and has spent decades rebuilding it: he put in insulation, skylights and even a greywater system that runs water from his drain straight to his garden.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just finally got it completely remodeled and for my tastes,” Johnson said. The idea of outside contractors coming into his home felt overwhelming and unnecessary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just didn’t want to go through a lot of new construction all over again because I really don’t need it,” Johnson said. He already uses very little energy, plus, he didn’t want to part with his gas stove.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Any time we have a family party, I do all the cooking for everybody. I just can’t imagine not cooking on gas. And the whole EcoBlock wanted to take away the gas,” Johnson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Johnson cares about reducing carbon emissions. But he thinks society should tackle other sources of it before homes, like air travel or shipping. He also has concerns about the energy supply, the cost, and what would happen to an all-electric home during a power outage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And Johnson has another feeling, too. “It’s just they were overwhelmingly, sweepingly changing everything in my life that I wanted.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"theutility\">\u003c/a>The utility\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jeremy Donnell, 47\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E provides the backbone for EcoBlock, as the project will use the utility’s electric grid to support upgraded appliances, solar panels and a potential backup storage battery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jeremy Donnell is a senior manager who works on microgrids for PG&E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Donnell says the utility “fully supports” EcoBlock and is working with the UC Berkeley team to make it come to pass, but acknowledged that “it is a challenge on multiple levels to do a project of this size.”[pullquote align='right' citation='Jeremy Donnell']‘When you reach for the stars, sometimes you don’t make it all the way, but maybe you make it to the moon.’[/pullquote]Donnell said that because not all of the neighbors bought into the project, it creates challenges when designing a microgrid: it’s hard to exclude some customers. While he believes the state should be funding projects like this, he cautions that they are not free to implement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are always gaps when you move from theory to reality, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you reach for the stars, sometimes you don’t make it all the way, but maybe you make it to the moon. And so that’s progress in and of itself,” Donnell said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983907\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1983907 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67854_20230810-BlossomStreet-24-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A woman with red curly hair and a blue shirt stands in front of a tree. \" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67854_20230810-BlossomStreet-24-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67854_20230810-BlossomStreet-24-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67854_20230810-BlossomStreet-24-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67854_20230810-BlossomStreet-24-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67854_20230810-BlossomStreet-24-JY-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67854_20230810-BlossomStreet-24-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67854_20230810-BlossomStreet-24-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Associate Director of the California Institute for Energy and Environment at UC Berkeley Therese Peffer stands for a portrait in Oakland on Friday, Aug. 11, 2023. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"theresearchers\">\u003c/a>The researchers\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Therese Peffer, 56\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers at UC Berkeley’s California Institute for Energy and Environment \u003ca href=\"https://citris-uc.org/research/climate/\">CITRIS\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://citris-uc.org/research/climate/\">Climate\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://citris-uc.org/research/climate/\">initiative\u003c/a> are studying the EcoBlock in real time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pulling off a project like EcoBlock is akin to directing a synchronized swim with several different marine animals. A lot of Peffer’s time is not spent on the grand ideas but on communicating them. Peffer is coordinating a team of dozens: contractors, architects, civil engineers, urban planners, experts in mobility, energy, and solar, and lawyers of all stripes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They don’t have the same language to talk to each other,” Peffer said. “It takes a lot of meetings to kind of figure that out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peffer also spends her days working through minute details, like where to place a charger for a shared electric vehicle for the block. She’s well versed in the labyrinth of city and state code and requirements from a utility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peffer leans into this level of head-spinning detail. She feels she is trying to solve a real problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I really do like the approach of targeting the hard-to-reach customers and low-to-middle income [people] because I feel like more wealthy neighborhoods, you’re going to figure it out,” Peffer said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"thetakeaways\">\u003c/a>The takeaways\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Initiative should come from residents\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Choosing a place with strong social ties that volunteered itself for the project was “one of the smartest things we did because they were invested,” said Peffer. “That continues to be the biggest success story, that neighbor-to-neighbor, peer-to-peer communication and selling it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peffer said it was far faster and more powerful when residents championed the idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents of a previous Oakland EcoBlock pilot on another street chosen by researchers \u003ca href=\"https://efiling.energy.ca.gov/GetDocument.aspx?tn=228742&DocumentContentId=59996\">never fully bought in\u003c/a>, and the project fell apart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Timing is everything\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ecoblock has been hampered by pandemic-era supply chain shortages, which has slowed down construction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Delays also stem from regulatory and technical hurdles from the city and PG&E. For example, the utility recently decided to upgrade the electric lines on the street to support a bigger load. While PG&E fast-tracked the process, it will still take six more months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On top of that, the project has had to scale back its plans for a microgrid and other ambitions because of inflation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Frustration can be good\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ram Rajagopal, an engineering professor at Stanford University who is not involved in EcoBlock but has worked on similar ones, views the setbacks EcoBlock has faced as positive. He argues that as a society, we’re past the first phase of electrification when it was a niche hobby, “the super-rich dude in Palo Alto,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fact that we are all frustrated now is a good sign because we’re frustrated by the right thing,” Rajagopal said. “We’re really trying to replace these things, and we are now seeing the roadblocks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It would be a mistake to say, okay, we’re not going to support this EcoBlock project because things are too slow,” Rajagopal said. “Actually, I would say we now need to give them money to figure out how to make it go fast.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>A shared project leads to resilience\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the block is not a utopia, numerous residents said participating in EcoBlock brought them closer to their neighbors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve struck a chord here, we just need to finish it,” Peffer said. “But I think there’s something exciting about working with your neighbors. You’re building those relationships and building that ‘social resilience’ I call it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/9/1583\">Research shows\u003c/a> that communities with strong relationships and those that work on shared projects often fare better in the face of climate-related disasters than those that do not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All of this is helping us remember that we’re interconnected and that we can rely on each other,” said Vivian Santana Pacheco. “That’s the only way that we’re going to solve this climate crisis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "These Bay Area neighbors have written a rough draft of how to drop natural gas on a bigger scale. ",
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"title": "Electric Avenue: One Oakland Block's Improbable Journey to Ditch Gas | KQED",
"description": "These Bay Area neighbors have written a rough draft of how to drop natural gas on a bigger scale. ",
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"headline": "Electric Avenue: One Oakland Block's Improbable Journey to Ditch Gas",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of the third season of KQED’s podcast Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America. You can \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/podcasts/soldout\">find that series here\u003c/a> and read about why \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1984697/why-kqed-focused-a-season-of-its-housing-podcast-on-climate-change#:~:text=Sold%20Out%20Is%20Back%20With%20Season%203&text=Host%20Erin%20Baldassari%20leads%20a,an%20affordable%20place%20to%20live.\">KQED chose to focus a season of its housing podcast on climate change\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The residents of one block in East Oakland have been quietly writing a rough draft of how to ditch natural gas on a neighborhood scale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/building-decarbonization\">A quarter of California’s carbon emissions\u003c/a> come from homes, businesses and the energy used to power them. It’s a steady stream of planet-warming gasses pouring from our furnaces, water heaters, clothes dryers and ovens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To slash those emissions and meet \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2022/11/16/california-releases-worlds-first-plan-to-achieve-net-zero-carbon-pollution/\">the state’s climate targets\u003c/a>, Californians need to replace fossil-fuel-powered appliances with electric ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The status quo for electrification is to replace those appliances home-by-home at the end of their useful life. The approach is expensive, excludes people who cannot afford these upgrades and will take decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, there’s growing interest in a different option: neighborhood-scale electrification. It can drive down costs as neighbors purchase electric stoves, heat pumps and solar panels in bulk and guarantee work for contractors. That’s the idea, anyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What follows is the story of one group of neighbors in Oakland who spent the last four years trying to electrify their homes collectively as part of a research project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here is what they have learned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jump straight to:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"list-style-type: none\">\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#thevision\">\u003cstrong>The vision\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#theinitiators\">\u003cstrong>The initiators\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#thehomeowners\">\u003cstrong>The homeowners\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#therenters\">\u003cstrong>The renters\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#theholdouts\">\u003cstrong>The holdouts\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#theutility\">\u003cstrong>The utility\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#theresearchers\">\u003cstrong>The researchers\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#thetakeaways\">\u003cstrong>The takeaways\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC5614009078&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"thevision\">\u003c/a>The vision\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The project is called \u003ca href=\"https://ecoblock.berkeley.edu/\">EcoBlock\u003c/a>, and it is a partnership between academics, professionals, government, utilities, private donors and residents. Its primary goal is to help an entire city block cut emissions through insulation upgrades, electric appliances and solar panels meant to “improve resilience, sustainability and quality of life.”\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cbr>\nOriginally, project leaders even intended to transform the block into a microgrid — a self-contained electricity system that can run even if power from PG&E shuts off — although funding for that portion of the project remains uncertain.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘New construction is easy. It’s sexy, and it’s fun, but it’s not where the biggest problem is. If we’re going to try to really combat climate change, it is looking at the existing buildings in this country.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>All these perks are free to homeowners who sign up. In turn, researchers get to learn from the pilot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project is funded to the tune of $8 million — \u003ca href=\"https://ecoblock.berkeley.edu/about/frequently-asked-questions/\">five of which\u003c/a> come from the \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/programs-and-topics/programs/electric-program-investment-charge-epic-program\">California Energy Commission\u003c/a>, the other three come from an anonymous donor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The block in East Oakland is a cul-de-sac, with the busy thoroughfare of Fruitvale Avenue on one end and a peaceful creek on the other. There’s a mix of Victorian homes that date back more than 100 years and more recently built duplexes and apartment buildings.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘All of this is helping us remember that we’re interconnected and that we can rely on each other. That’s the only way that we’re going to solve this climate crisis.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>KQED is not disclosing the name of the block to protect the privacy of the residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The people who live here are a mashup of homeowners and renters, socioeconomic classes, races, and ethnicities. Despite their differences, the residents come together annually for a block party, and have a WhatsApp group where topics range from safety to backyard fruit giveaways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After navigating years of pandemic delays, inflation and onerous regulation, construction began this fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents hope to connect their new electric appliances to the larger grid this winter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We think that this is scalable,” said Therese Peffer, a researcher from UC Berkeley’s California Institute for Energy and Environment CITRIS Climate initiative, who heads EcoBlock. “We think addressing the urban residential [housing sector] is a huge, huge win because no one else is doing that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the project may be cutting-edge, it hasn’t been without setbacks. EcoBlock managers had hoped to cap off the street’s gas line, which, based on how utilities interpret \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PUC§ionNum=451.\">state energy code\u003c/a>, would require 100% of residents to agree to swap out their gas appliances for electric ones. Ten out of the 25 neighbors have not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Building a new green home is fairly straightforward. In recent years, futuristic \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1982984/californias-first-all-electric-neighborhood-may-be-future-of-green-living\">communities have popped up\u003c/a> with this as their express purpose. Instead of using natural gas to heat space and water, dry clothes and cook, these homes are going electric and pulling power from renewable sources like solar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But what happens to the places already built? In California, that’s \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2022-12/2022-sp.pdf\">14 million existing homes, three-quarters of which\u003c/a> were built before energy efficiency standards requiring things like insulation were developed in 1978.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“New construction is easy,” Peffer, EcoBlock’s principal investigator, said. “It’s sexy, and it’s fun, but it’s not where the biggest problem is. If we’re going to try to really combat climate change, it is looking at the existing buildings in this country.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Increasingly, it’s becoming clear that we need to be taking more of a utility-scale or a neighborhood-scale approach to building decarbonization instead of waiting for an individual appliance to break and then trying through education and bribery to cajole people to make the right choice,” said Panama Bartholomy, who heads the Building Decarbonization Coalition, a national nonprofit that advocates to remove fossil fuels from buildings.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"theinitiators\">\u003c/a>The initiators\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984911\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2400px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984911\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-03-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Two photos side by side: one of two people and one of a blue house.\" width=\"2400\" height=\"1094\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-03-KQED.jpg 2400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-03-KQED-800x365.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-03-KQED-1020x465.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-03-KQED-160x73.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-03-KQED-768x350.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-03-KQED-1536x700.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-03-KQED-2048x934.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-03-KQED-1920x875.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2400px) 100vw, 2400px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Vivian Santana Pacheco and Isaac Zones and their home in Oakland on Oct. 19, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isaac Zones, 42, and Vivian Santana Pacheco, 39\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003cbr>\nIsaac Zones learned about the Oakland EcoBlock in 2019 from a friend, who’d sent along an email with the subject line, “This looks cool.” The email linked to \u003ca href=\"https://citris-uc.org/oakland-ecoblock-looking-for-interested-neighborhoods/\">a UC Berkeley EcoBlock project\u003c/a> page asked a question: “Do you and your neighbors want to save money on your energy bills, reduce carbon emissions, and survive the next power outage?”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘Already I feel like we’re behind and that I’m not doing enough. Honestly, this feels more tangible than showing up to a protest.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Basically, I read it as like free solar for everybody on my block,” said Zones, a musician. “This sounds great.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Zones applied and went door-to-door, reaching out to his neighbors to gauge interest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vivian Santana Pacheco, who is married to Zones, was also intrigued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santana Pacheco regularly thinks about the climate crisis. “Already I feel like we’re behind and that I’m not doing enough,” she said. “Honestly, this feels more tangible than showing up to a protest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In many ways, the two were an ideal pair to champion the project at its start. They’d spent the past several years building community on their block through the street’s annual party. Zones easily strikes up conversations with neighbors, and knocks on doors and calls them to check in. Santana Pacheco, a health educator, shares her own vegetable starts with neighbors who have garden boxes that lay fallow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s also one of five neighbors on a steering committee for the newly formed homeowner’s association, created to manage the project’s shared assets, like an electric vehicle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They are motivated by their 4-year-old son. “We want this world to be a habitable one for him, being able to say we did as much as we could to be part of that,” said Santana Pacheco.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"thehomeowners\">\u003c/a>The homeowners\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984912\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2400px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984912\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Two photos side by side: One of two people and a child and one of a house.\" width=\"2400\" height=\"1094\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-04-KQED.jpg 2400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-04-KQED-800x365.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-04-KQED-1020x465.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-04-KQED-160x73.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-04-KQED-768x350.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-04-KQED-1536x700.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-04-KQED-2048x934.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-04-KQED-1920x875.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2400px) 100vw, 2400px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(From left) Ivan Sharamok, Gavin Sharamok (2) and Jarinya Phansathin and their home in Oakland on Oct. 19, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ivan Sharamok, 39; Jarinya Phansathin, 32; and Gavin Sharamok, 2\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Homeowner Ivan Sharamok, a solutions architect for an IT startup, jokes that he lives in a museum, given that his white Victorian was constructed in 1900. He’s curious how a team of EcoBlock researchers will bring it to the forefront of home electrification.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also can’t wait to see how he’ll actually like living in a home warmed and cooled by a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1981511/how-the-unassuming-heat-pump-can-stave-off-warming\">heat pump\u003c/a> or how cooking on an induction stove will feel. Sharamok dove into research on the latest technologies, and while he’s excited, he’s also skeptical.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s kind of like a game,” Sharamok said. “Once it gets installed and I try it, would it actually be to my satisfaction?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Growing up in Ukraine, he recalls winters with tons of snow. But over his lifetime, the winters have gotten milder and milder, which he attributes to climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m very skeptical that, on a global scale, society can tackle this problem. But I’m hopeful that we can,” Sharamok said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sharamok has taken on a role in the steering committee for the EcoBlock homeowner’s association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a super long process, but I also understand why,” Sharamok said. Just creating agreements for the homeowners association took time. “It’s pretty awesome to see what goes into the design, what you need to think about when you’re trying to do something like that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984910\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2400px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984910\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Two photos side by side: one of a person with glasses and one of a house.\" width=\"2400\" height=\"1094\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-02-KQED.jpg 2400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-02-KQED-800x365.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-02-KQED-1020x465.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-02-KQED-160x73.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-02-KQED-768x350.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-02-KQED-1536x700.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-02-KQED-2048x934.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-02-KQED-1920x875.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2400px) 100vw, 2400px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nick Corlett and his home in Oakland on Oct. 12, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nick Corlett, 38\u003c/b>\u003cbr>\n“I love humanity with all our flaws and all our ugliness. We’ve pulled off some amazing things, and I hate to see us collectively failing to act [on climate change],” said Nick Corlett, a tutor for high school students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before EcoBlock came to his street, Corlett’s house was the only one with solar panels. Now, he’s gearing up for his roof to be covered with even more.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>He’s taken an active role in the homeowners association, and offered his backyard as a place for the back-up, shared battery, or what he calls the “the energy shack.” If it comes through, Corlett would get some financial compensation from the homeowners association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s learned a lot about collaboration through the process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had to design it so that anyone who’s joining couldn’t just get all the free stuff and back out immediately. We put together all the agreements to incentivize people to stay in the project,” Corlett said. “I think we’ve got something that hopefully everyone will be happy to be a part of.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Corlett is excited about EcoBlock, and he’s happy to help neighbors who didn’t sign up. “If their power is out and ours is on, and they want to come over and microwave a burrito or something, they’re welcome to do it,” Corlett said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"therenters\">\u003c/a>The renters\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984913\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2400px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984913\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Two photos side by side: One of a family of four and one of a pink house.\" width=\"2400\" height=\"1094\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-05-KQED.jpg 2400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-05-KQED-800x365.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-05-KQED-1020x465.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-05-KQED-160x73.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-05-KQED-768x350.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-05-KQED-1536x700.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-05-KQED-2048x934.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-05-KQED-1920x875.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2400px) 100vw, 2400px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(From left) Cheryls Kleinsmith, Ismael Plasencia, Isla Rose Plasencia (9), and Ismal Plasencia Jr. (6) and their home in Oakland on Oct. 19, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Cheryl Kleinsmith, 45; Ismael Plasencia, 49; Isla Rose Plasencia, 9; and Ismael Plasencia Jr., 6\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cheryl Kleinsmith and Ismael Plasencia love all the natural light their apartment gets from all its windows. They do not love how vulnerable that makes them to the weather.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When it’s hot, it’s hot. When it’s cold, it’s very cold,” said Kleinsmith. EcoBlock would insulate their home and provide heat pumps, electric appliances that can heat and cool space inside a home, and serve as a water heater.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But Kleinsmith and Plasencia are renters. They had to convince their property owners to join, who thought it sounded too good to be true.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was like, it does kind of sound too good to be true,” Plasencia said. “I get that. But what do you have to lose? It’s going to increase your property value.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The owners eventually agreed, as long as Kleinsmith and Plasencia would go to the meetings and share relevant information.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was super interested in the project,” Plasencia said. “Just for educational purposes, I’d love to just sit at all these meetings.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kleinsmith and Plasencia, who hope to buy their own home in the future, both grew up in Oakland. They both work here: she’s a scheduler in a surgeon’s office, and he runs community programs for an art school. Even as rents have increased, they’ve made it work to stay here and raise their kids here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What they saw in EcoBlock was a commitment to all of Oakland, not just the wealthier parts of the city, where people could probably afford to upgrade their own homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It presented this opportunity to transform Oakland in a way that I don’t think most folks would have prioritized,” Plasencia said. “But projects like this are inspiring to me: just to know that we can transform a neighborhood that could potentially transform a whole community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"theholdouts\">\u003c/a>The holdouts\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984909\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2400px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984909\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Two photos side by side: one of a person leaning on a railing and one of a white house.\" width=\"2400\" height=\"1094\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-01-KQED.jpg 2400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-01-KQED-800x365.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-01-KQED-1020x465.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-01-KQED-160x73.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-01-KQED-768x350.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-01-KQED-1536x700.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-01-KQED-2048x934.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/102321-ELECTRIC-AVE-DIPTYCH-MD-01-KQED-1920x875.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2400px) 100vw, 2400px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Steven Johnson and his home in Oakland on Oct. 12, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Steve Johnson, 70\u003c/b>\u003cbr>\nNot all neighbors are enthusiastic about EcoBlock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Steve Johnson lives in a wooden home that’s been in his family for nearly a century. He’s reminded of them in every spot: the room where his mother was born on newspapers or the backyard tree that’s grown from the sapling his grandmother planted 90 years ago.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Johnson, a retired contractor, bought the house from his grandmother in the 1970s, and has spent decades rebuilding it: he put in insulation, skylights and even a greywater system that runs water from his drain straight to his garden.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just finally got it completely remodeled and for my tastes,” Johnson said. The idea of outside contractors coming into his home felt overwhelming and unnecessary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just didn’t want to go through a lot of new construction all over again because I really don’t need it,” Johnson said. He already uses very little energy, plus, he didn’t want to part with his gas stove.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Any time we have a family party, I do all the cooking for everybody. I just can’t imagine not cooking on gas. And the whole EcoBlock wanted to take away the gas,” Johnson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Johnson cares about reducing carbon emissions. But he thinks society should tackle other sources of it before homes, like air travel or shipping. He also has concerns about the energy supply, the cost, and what would happen to an all-electric home during a power outage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And Johnson has another feeling, too. “It’s just they were overwhelmingly, sweepingly changing everything in my life that I wanted.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"theutility\">\u003c/a>The utility\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jeremy Donnell, 47\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E provides the backbone for EcoBlock, as the project will use the utility’s electric grid to support upgraded appliances, solar panels and a potential backup storage battery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jeremy Donnell is a senior manager who works on microgrids for PG&E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Donnell says the utility “fully supports” EcoBlock and is working with the UC Berkeley team to make it come to pass, but acknowledged that “it is a challenge on multiple levels to do a project of this size.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Donnell said that because not all of the neighbors bought into the project, it creates challenges when designing a microgrid: it’s hard to exclude some customers. While he believes the state should be funding projects like this, he cautions that they are not free to implement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are always gaps when you move from theory to reality, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you reach for the stars, sometimes you don’t make it all the way, but maybe you make it to the moon. And so that’s progress in and of itself,” Donnell said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983907\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1983907 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67854_20230810-BlossomStreet-24-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A woman with red curly hair and a blue shirt stands in front of a tree. \" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67854_20230810-BlossomStreet-24-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67854_20230810-BlossomStreet-24-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67854_20230810-BlossomStreet-24-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67854_20230810-BlossomStreet-24-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67854_20230810-BlossomStreet-24-JY-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67854_20230810-BlossomStreet-24-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/RS67854_20230810-BlossomStreet-24-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Associate Director of the California Institute for Energy and Environment at UC Berkeley Therese Peffer stands for a portrait in Oakland on Friday, Aug. 11, 2023. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"theresearchers\">\u003c/a>The researchers\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Therese Peffer, 56\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers at UC Berkeley’s California Institute for Energy and Environment \u003ca href=\"https://citris-uc.org/research/climate/\">CITRIS\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://citris-uc.org/research/climate/\">Climate\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://citris-uc.org/research/climate/\">initiative\u003c/a> are studying the EcoBlock in real time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pulling off a project like EcoBlock is akin to directing a synchronized swim with several different marine animals. A lot of Peffer’s time is not spent on the grand ideas but on communicating them. Peffer is coordinating a team of dozens: contractors, architects, civil engineers, urban planners, experts in mobility, energy, and solar, and lawyers of all stripes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They don’t have the same language to talk to each other,” Peffer said. “It takes a lot of meetings to kind of figure that out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peffer also spends her days working through minute details, like where to place a charger for a shared electric vehicle for the block. She’s well versed in the labyrinth of city and state code and requirements from a utility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peffer leans into this level of head-spinning detail. She feels she is trying to solve a real problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I really do like the approach of targeting the hard-to-reach customers and low-to-middle income [people] because I feel like more wealthy neighborhoods, you’re going to figure it out,” Peffer said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca id=\"thetakeaways\">\u003c/a>The takeaways\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Initiative should come from residents\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Choosing a place with strong social ties that volunteered itself for the project was “one of the smartest things we did because they were invested,” said Peffer. “That continues to be the biggest success story, that neighbor-to-neighbor, peer-to-peer communication and selling it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peffer said it was far faster and more powerful when residents championed the idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents of a previous Oakland EcoBlock pilot on another street chosen by researchers \u003ca href=\"https://efiling.energy.ca.gov/GetDocument.aspx?tn=228742&DocumentContentId=59996\">never fully bought in\u003c/a>, and the project fell apart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Timing is everything\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ecoblock has been hampered by pandemic-era supply chain shortages, which has slowed down construction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Delays also stem from regulatory and technical hurdles from the city and PG&E. For example, the utility recently decided to upgrade the electric lines on the street to support a bigger load. While PG&E fast-tracked the process, it will still take six more months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On top of that, the project has had to scale back its plans for a microgrid and other ambitions because of inflation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Frustration can be good\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ram Rajagopal, an engineering professor at Stanford University who is not involved in EcoBlock but has worked on similar ones, views the setbacks EcoBlock has faced as positive. He argues that as a society, we’re past the first phase of electrification when it was a niche hobby, “the super-rich dude in Palo Alto,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fact that we are all frustrated now is a good sign because we’re frustrated by the right thing,” Rajagopal said. “We’re really trying to replace these things, and we are now seeing the roadblocks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It would be a mistake to say, okay, we’re not going to support this EcoBlock project because things are too slow,” Rajagopal said. “Actually, I would say we now need to give them money to figure out how to make it go fast.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>A shared project leads to resilience\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the block is not a utopia, numerous residents said participating in EcoBlock brought them closer to their neighbors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve struck a chord here, we just need to finish it,” Peffer said. “But I think there’s something exciting about working with your neighbors. You’re building those relationships and building that ‘social resilience’ I call it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/9/1583\">Research shows\u003c/a> that communities with strong relationships and those that work on shared projects often fare better in the face of climate-related disasters than those that do not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All of this is helping us remember that we’re interconnected and that we can rely on each other,” said Vivian Santana Pacheco. “That’s the only way that we’re going to solve this climate crisis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "What Does 'Unavoidable' West Antarctic Ice Shelf Melt Mean for the Bay Area?",
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"content": "\u003cp>No matter how fast the world reduces carbon emissions, some amount of rapid ice melt from human-caused climate change in West Antarctica is inevitable by the end of the century, which could have enormous ramifications for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1982800/new-map-exposes-critical-gaps-in-bay-areas-readiness-for-sea-level-rise\">coastal regions like San Francisco Bay\u003c/a>, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-023-01818-x#Sec6\">a new study published by researchers at the British Antarctic Survey\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It looks like we’ve lost control of melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet,” said study lead author Dr. Kaitlin Naughten \u003ca href=\"https://www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/increased-west-antarctic-ice-sheet-melting-unavoidable/\">in an online statement. \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists have known that as oceans absorb heat, their temperature rises, and water expands, contributing to rising sea levels. But this study is one of the first to model exactly how ocean warming might cause the Antarctic ice shelves to melt, releasing much more water into the ocean and pushing them up further.\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pullquote align='right' citation='Mark Lubell, UC Davis']‘We can’t predict the future perfectly, but this puts more weight into the likelihood of more severe rapid sea-level rise, which means that we need to think more seriously about adaptation in the Bay Area.’[/pullquote]\u003c/span>If the West Antarctic ice sheet melts completely — which would only happen in the direst scenario — oceans around the globe could push up by more than 16 feet. The scientists found that over the 21st century, ocean warming will likely occur at triple the historical rate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These results suggest that mitigation of greenhouse gasses now has limited power to prevent ocean warming,” the authors noted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The seas on the West Coast of California have risen by 8 inches since the 1880s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Previous research has shown this extreme melting would take place over centuries. The new study found melting — in all plausible climate scenarios — is likely to be more severe and will continue this century, even if significant emissions cuts come in the coming decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the authors note they “cannot quantify the sea-level rise contribution implied by our findings.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC Davis professor Mark Lubell said the study is like “a time machine” for the impacts of sea-level rise, even if it doesn’t have granular estimates for exactly how much sea-level rise the Bay Area can expect in the coming decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can’t predict the future perfectly, but this puts more weight into the likelihood of more severe rapid sea-level rise, which means that we need to think more seriously about adaptation in the Bay Area,” said Lubell, who studies governance and sea-level rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Violet Wulf-Saena read the news about the study, she wasn’t surprised. She directs Climate Resilient Communities, advocating for communities facing climate vulnerabilities in flood-prone areas like East Palo Alto.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said the study shows it’s imperative to finish \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1973805/climate-solutions-in-east-palo-alto\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">existing sea-level rise projects\u003c/a> early, not decades into the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Communities want to see things happening now because even though the science and the data are showing us that sea-level rise will impact us, communities are already impacted,” she said, referring to flooding from recent storms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The findings were not shocking for UC Berkeley’s Kristina Hill, who \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1979603/california-overhauls-its-sea-level-rise-plan-as-climate-change-reshapes-coastal-life\">works on California’s updated sea level guidance.\u003c/a> Still, they should be considered a warning of what’s to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not just the West Antarctic ice shelves that are melting. Ice in polar regions around the globe is thawing, and Hill said the findings “confirm” the state’s recent guidance of preparing for \u003ca href=\"https://www.opc.ca.gov/webmaster/_media_library/2022/08/SLR-Action-Plan-2022-508.pdf\">1 foot of sea-level rise by 2050 and 3.5 feet of sea-level rise by 2100\u003c/a>. And she added that the Bay Area needs to prepare for potentially even more water, two to three feet over the next three decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not like it’s all going to start in 2050; we’re going to see more flooding along the way from high groundwater and sea level events,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hill is concerned that rising groundwater — shallow surface water pushed up by rising seas — will come in contact with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1983106/map-more-than-5000-toxic-sites-along-sf-bay-are-threatened-by-rising-groundwater-new-study-finds\">buried contaminants around the lip of the bay.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re going to be increasingly waking up to how rising groundwater could cause health risks for people in urban areas,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mark Stacey, an environmental engineer at UC Berkeley, said while the findings are alarming, people should treat them cautiously.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t think it necessarily implies more or less sea-level rise than was anticipated, but it makes clear that for all but the highest of high emissions scenarios, sea-level rise will proceed pretty similarly through the end of the century,” he said in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For state agencies, like the Bay Conservation and Development Commission, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1981687/the-bay-could-soon-have-its-first-region-wide-sea-level-rise-plan-but-no-one-to-enforce-it\">preparing a regional sea-level rise plan\u003c/a>, the study “amplifies a sense of urgency” behind completing their project as soon as possible, said Dana Brechwald, assistant planning director for climate adaptation with the group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This study can light a fire under decision makers to maybe do something about it when they would have formerly waited,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>No matter how fast the world reduces carbon emissions, some amount of rapid ice melt from human-caused climate change in West Antarctica is inevitable by the end of the century, which could have enormous ramifications for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1982800/new-map-exposes-critical-gaps-in-bay-areas-readiness-for-sea-level-rise\">coastal regions like San Francisco Bay\u003c/a>, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-023-01818-x#Sec6\">a new study published by researchers at the British Antarctic Survey\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It looks like we’ve lost control of melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet,” said study lead author Dr. Kaitlin Naughten \u003ca href=\"https://www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/increased-west-antarctic-ice-sheet-melting-unavoidable/\">in an online statement. \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists have known that as oceans absorb heat, their temperature rises, and water expands, contributing to rising sea levels. But this study is one of the first to model exactly how ocean warming might cause the Antarctic ice shelves to melt, releasing much more water into the ocean and pushing them up further.\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>If the West Antarctic ice sheet melts completely — which would only happen in the direst scenario — oceans around the globe could push up by more than 16 feet. The scientists found that over the 21st century, ocean warming will likely occur at triple the historical rate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These results suggest that mitigation of greenhouse gasses now has limited power to prevent ocean warming,” the authors noted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The seas on the West Coast of California have risen by 8 inches since the 1880s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Previous research has shown this extreme melting would take place over centuries. The new study found melting — in all plausible climate scenarios — is likely to be more severe and will continue this century, even if significant emissions cuts come in the coming decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the authors note they “cannot quantify the sea-level rise contribution implied by our findings.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC Davis professor Mark Lubell said the study is like “a time machine” for the impacts of sea-level rise, even if it doesn’t have granular estimates for exactly how much sea-level rise the Bay Area can expect in the coming decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can’t predict the future perfectly, but this puts more weight into the likelihood of more severe rapid sea-level rise, which means that we need to think more seriously about adaptation in the Bay Area,” said Lubell, who studies governance and sea-level rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Violet Wulf-Saena read the news about the study, she wasn’t surprised. She directs Climate Resilient Communities, advocating for communities facing climate vulnerabilities in flood-prone areas like East Palo Alto.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said the study shows it’s imperative to finish \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1973805/climate-solutions-in-east-palo-alto\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">existing sea-level rise projects\u003c/a> early, not decades into the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Communities want to see things happening now because even though the science and the data are showing us that sea-level rise will impact us, communities are already impacted,” she said, referring to flooding from recent storms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The findings were not shocking for UC Berkeley’s Kristina Hill, who \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1979603/california-overhauls-its-sea-level-rise-plan-as-climate-change-reshapes-coastal-life\">works on California’s updated sea level guidance.\u003c/a> Still, they should be considered a warning of what’s to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not just the West Antarctic ice shelves that are melting. Ice in polar regions around the globe is thawing, and Hill said the findings “confirm” the state’s recent guidance of preparing for \u003ca href=\"https://www.opc.ca.gov/webmaster/_media_library/2022/08/SLR-Action-Plan-2022-508.pdf\">1 foot of sea-level rise by 2050 and 3.5 feet of sea-level rise by 2100\u003c/a>. And she added that the Bay Area needs to prepare for potentially even more water, two to three feet over the next three decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not like it’s all going to start in 2050; we’re going to see more flooding along the way from high groundwater and sea level events,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hill is concerned that rising groundwater — shallow surface water pushed up by rising seas — will come in contact with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1983106/map-more-than-5000-toxic-sites-along-sf-bay-are-threatened-by-rising-groundwater-new-study-finds\">buried contaminants around the lip of the bay.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re going to be increasingly waking up to how rising groundwater could cause health risks for people in urban areas,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mark Stacey, an environmental engineer at UC Berkeley, said while the findings are alarming, people should treat them cautiously.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t think it necessarily implies more or less sea-level rise than was anticipated, but it makes clear that for all but the highest of high emissions scenarios, sea-level rise will proceed pretty similarly through the end of the century,” he said in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For state agencies, like the Bay Conservation and Development Commission, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1981687/the-bay-could-soon-have-its-first-region-wide-sea-level-rise-plan-but-no-one-to-enforce-it\">preparing a regional sea-level rise plan\u003c/a>, the study “amplifies a sense of urgency” behind completing their project as soon as possible, said Dana Brechwald, assistant planning director for climate adaptation with the group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This study can light a fire under decision makers to maybe do something about it when they would have formerly waited,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "'Don't Look Up' Director’s Nonprofit Roasts Stanford for Fossil Fuel Funding",
"headTitle": "‘Don’t Look Up’ Director’s Nonprofit Roasts Stanford for Fossil Fuel Funding | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>The nonprofit founded by Adam McKay — writer and director of the popular climate film “Don’t Look Up” — has released a video lambasting Stanford University’s new climate school for its stance on accepting money from the fossil fuel industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the tongue-in-cheek short film, \u003ca href=\"https://yellowdotstudios.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Yellow Dot Studio\u003c/a> videographers, alongside students and staff, call out \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/weareyellowdot/status/1709607101646180592\">what they say is a point of hypocrisy\u003c/a> — officials with the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability saying it would take funds from oil and gas companies like Chevron or Exxon to pay for research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The video, which has been viewed more than 200,000 times online, starts with school back in session and a recognition that the new college was founded two summers ago with a promise to come up with ways to combat climate change. But then comes the irony.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So, we’re calling on the help of all our friends at Big Oil,” the narrator said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/weareyellowdot/status/1709607101646180592\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since its inception in the summer of 2022, the sustainability school — launched with a $1.1 billion gift from John and Ann Doerr, the largest gift in university history — hasn’t been able to shake this kind of criticism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The school’s then-incoming inaugural dean, Arun Majumdar,\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/04/climate/john-doerr-stanford-climate.html\"> told the New York Times that the school would accept funding and work with fossil fuel companies\u003c/a>. Later in the year, he clarified that the dollars would not be used for general operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If there are companies that are making measurably meaningful efforts to be part of the solution, I feel it would be prudent to be open to engaging such companies while remaining vigilant that their values align with ours,” Majumdar \u003ca href=\"https://sustainability.stanford.edu/news/message-arun-majumdar-looking-forward\">said in a statement from 2022\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The goal of the new college is \u003ca href=\"https://news.stanford.edu/2022/05/04/stanford-doerr-school-sustainability-universitys-first-new-school-70-years-will-accelerate-solutions-global-climate-crisis/\">to aid in coming up with climate solutions\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the past year, Stanford researchers have \u003ca href=\"https://sustainability.stanford.edu/news/research\">released studies on everything from water vulnerability to solar power to wildfire prevention.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, some students and staff think accepting money from fossil fuel companies is a slippery slope that could shape research agendas. And argue that burning fossil fuels directly creates human-caused climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On their website, the Coalition for a True School of Sustainability lists Stanford programs with past or current \u003ca href=\"https://www.truesustainabilityschool.com/big-oil-entanglements\">‘\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.truesustainabilityschool.com/big-oil-entanglements\">Big Oil Entanglements.\u003c/a>’ The group represents a coalition of Stanford scientists who believe fossil fuel money invested for research undercuts swift climate action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fossil fuel industry for decades has misled the public on the reality of climate change,” said Mallory Harris, a graduate student in biology at the university and a member of the coalition. “When they’re talking about bringing them into this research space, it undermines the quality and integrity of the research that we’re doing\u003cem>.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The advocates have pressed Stanford to be more transparent in disclosing the origins of their funding and to ensure that every corporate donor has a credible energy transition pathway. They also want to know if these companies are lobbying for or against climate legislation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group would like a third-party enforcement board to analyze funding from fossil fuel companies, especially for those who plan to continue expanding extraction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If by those criteria they find those companies are not trustworthy partners, then the university should dissociate from partnering with them,” said \u003ca href=\"https://stanforddaily.com/2022/06/02/from-the-community-should-any-fossil-fuel-company-qualify-for-funding-stanfords-school-of-sustainability-a-response-to-dean-majumdars-letter/\">Thom Hersbach\u003c/a>, a researcher at Stanford and member of the coalition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://news.stanford.edu/report/2023/02/24/members-named-committee-reviewing-fossil-fuel-funding-research/\">university created a working group in late 2022\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://news.stanford.edu/report/2023/02/24/members-named-committee-reviewing-fossil-fuel-funding-research/\"> \u003c/a>to assess Stanford’s approach to funding research with money from fossil fuel companies. The committee’s job is to evaluate current funding, review the process of other universities and provide pros and cons of continuing accepting funds or different paths.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We recognize this is an impassioned topic for members in our community, and the university is approaching this matter with the seriousness and rigor it deserves,” Amy Adams, associate dean of marketing and communications, told KQED in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We look forward to the results from the thoughtful process being carried out by the committee,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students and staff said they plan to continue to make a fuss over the issue because they want the college to succeed at reducing carbon emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m doing this because this school can do so much good, and I want to ensure it does,” Hersbach said.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"subhead": "In the tongue-in-cheek short film, videographers, alongside students and staff, call out what they say is a point of hypocrisy — the university accepting funds from oil and gas companies.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The nonprofit founded by Adam McKay — writer and director of the popular climate film “Don’t Look Up” — has released a video lambasting Stanford University’s new climate school for its stance on accepting money from the fossil fuel industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the tongue-in-cheek short film, \u003ca href=\"https://yellowdotstudios.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Yellow Dot Studio\u003c/a> videographers, alongside students and staff, call out \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/weareyellowdot/status/1709607101646180592\">what they say is a point of hypocrisy\u003c/a> — officials with the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability saying it would take funds from oil and gas companies like Chevron or Exxon to pay for research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The video, which has been viewed more than 200,000 times online, starts with school back in session and a recognition that the new college was founded two summers ago with a promise to come up with ways to combat climate change. But then comes the irony.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So, we’re calling on the help of all our friends at Big Oil,” the narrator said.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since its inception in the summer of 2022, the sustainability school — launched with a $1.1 billion gift from John and Ann Doerr, the largest gift in university history — hasn’t been able to shake this kind of criticism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The school’s then-incoming inaugural dean, Arun Majumdar,\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/04/climate/john-doerr-stanford-climate.html\"> told the New York Times that the school would accept funding and work with fossil fuel companies\u003c/a>. Later in the year, he clarified that the dollars would not be used for general operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If there are companies that are making measurably meaningful efforts to be part of the solution, I feel it would be prudent to be open to engaging such companies while remaining vigilant that their values align with ours,” Majumdar \u003ca href=\"https://sustainability.stanford.edu/news/message-arun-majumdar-looking-forward\">said in a statement from 2022\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The goal of the new college is \u003ca href=\"https://news.stanford.edu/2022/05/04/stanford-doerr-school-sustainability-universitys-first-new-school-70-years-will-accelerate-solutions-global-climate-crisis/\">to aid in coming up with climate solutions\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the past year, Stanford researchers have \u003ca href=\"https://sustainability.stanford.edu/news/research\">released studies on everything from water vulnerability to solar power to wildfire prevention.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, some students and staff think accepting money from fossil fuel companies is a slippery slope that could shape research agendas. And argue that burning fossil fuels directly creates human-caused climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On their website, the Coalition for a True School of Sustainability lists Stanford programs with past or current \u003ca href=\"https://www.truesustainabilityschool.com/big-oil-entanglements\">‘\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.truesustainabilityschool.com/big-oil-entanglements\">Big Oil Entanglements.\u003c/a>’ The group represents a coalition of Stanford scientists who believe fossil fuel money invested for research undercuts swift climate action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fossil fuel industry for decades has misled the public on the reality of climate change,” said Mallory Harris, a graduate student in biology at the university and a member of the coalition. “When they’re talking about bringing them into this research space, it undermines the quality and integrity of the research that we’re doing\u003cem>.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The advocates have pressed Stanford to be more transparent in disclosing the origins of their funding and to ensure that every corporate donor has a credible energy transition pathway. They also want to know if these companies are lobbying for or against climate legislation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group would like a third-party enforcement board to analyze funding from fossil fuel companies, especially for those who plan to continue expanding extraction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If by those criteria they find those companies are not trustworthy partners, then the university should dissociate from partnering with them,” said \u003ca href=\"https://stanforddaily.com/2022/06/02/from-the-community-should-any-fossil-fuel-company-qualify-for-funding-stanfords-school-of-sustainability-a-response-to-dean-majumdars-letter/\">Thom Hersbach\u003c/a>, a researcher at Stanford and member of the coalition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://news.stanford.edu/report/2023/02/24/members-named-committee-reviewing-fossil-fuel-funding-research/\">university created a working group in late 2022\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://news.stanford.edu/report/2023/02/24/members-named-committee-reviewing-fossil-fuel-funding-research/\"> \u003c/a>to assess Stanford’s approach to funding research with money from fossil fuel companies. The committee’s job is to evaluate current funding, review the process of other universities and provide pros and cons of continuing accepting funds or different paths.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We recognize this is an impassioned topic for members in our community, and the university is approaching this matter with the seriousness and rigor it deserves,” Amy Adams, associate dean of marketing and communications, told KQED in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We look forward to the results from the thoughtful process being carried out by the committee,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students and staff said they plan to continue to make a fuss over the issue because they want the college to succeed at reducing carbon emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m doing this because this school can do so much good, and I want to ensure it does,” Hersbach said.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "California Mandates Coastal Cities Plan for Future Sea-Level Rise",
"headTitle": "California Mandates Coastal Cities Plan for Future Sea-Level Rise | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>For the first time in California history, all coastal cities, including those in the Bay Area, must plan for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1979603/california-overhauls-its-sea-level-rise-plan-as-climate-change-reshapes-coastal-life\">sea-level rise, a looming climate impact yet to be fully experienced\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new law — \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB272\">SB\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB272\"> 272\u003c/a> — requires big cities like San Francisco and small towns like Strawberry along Richardson Bay to develop strategies and recommend projects to address future sea-level rise by 2034. While seas have risen only about 8 inches since the 1880s, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1979603/california-overhauls-its-sea-level-rise-plan-as-climate-change-reshapes-coastal-life#:~:text=The%20draft%20report%2C%20set%20to,regardless%20of%20future%20emissions%20reductions.\">ocean and the bay could rise by about a foot by midcentury\u003c/a> — thanks mainly to human-caused climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sen. John Laird (D-Santa Cruz) authored the bill recently signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The governor vetoed a similar bill last fall, noting budget constraints. Laird said his team worked with Newsom’s office to ensure there are dollars in the budget for local planning on sea-level rise. California’s final budget included \u003ca href=\"https://ebudget.ca.gov/2023-24/pdf/Enacted/BudgetSummary/ClimateChange.pdf\">$1.1 billion in investments for coastal resilience programs\u003c/a> over multiple years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are lots of discussions, and the hope is we have these discussions before it’s a crisis and before these big extreme events happen,” Laird said, referring to significant flooding from storms that sea-level rise could exacerbate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The storms that we just had [last winter] changed the equation for people who didn’t even realize they had some of the coming impacts,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law requires local governments to create sea-level rise plans based on the best available science, conduct vulnerability assessments — including for at-risk communities — determine adaptation strategies and sketch out a list of recommended projects with timelines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"science_1982800,science_1982875,news_11961003\" label=\"Related Stories\"]Laird said the new law stops short of declaring exactly where state funding will come from for sea-level rise plans and adaptation projects. But the state will prioritize funding for cities and counties with plans in place, Laird said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I expect that there will be pushback in certain places because some people are going to have to come to grips with the reality of the challenge to their homes or businesses,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982816\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1020px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/gettyimages-1315066305-1020x573/\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1982816 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/GettyImages-1315066305-1020x573-1.jpg\" alt=\"A shot of the coastline in California with houses and the bay.\" width=\"1020\" height=\"573\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/GettyImages-1315066305-1020x573-1.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/GettyImages-1315066305-1020x573-1-800x449.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/GettyImages-1315066305-1020x573-1-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/GettyImages-1315066305-1020x573-1-768x431.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1020px) 100vw, 1020px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sea levels along coastlines in the U.S. will rise up to 1 foot by the year 2050, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). \u003ccite>(Jason Doiy/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Walking slowly and with too small a stick \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law does not lay out any punishment for cities that don’t comply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Larry Goldzband, executive director, BCDC\"]‘There’s going to be huge amounts of social and economic dislocation due to flooding if we don’t adapt.’[/pullquote]While the bill is an excellent starting point for sea-level rise planning, John Gioia, a supervisor from Contra Costa County, said the law should have come with more of a stick for local governments that don’t comply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A bill like this gets the ball rolling,” he said. “We’ll soon realize it’s not fast enough.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He holds fast to his perspective that the region needs a stronger, central authority on sea-level rise to match the dire consequences of not adequately preparing for rising seas. Currently, the Bay Area is governed by a patchwork quilt of local and state authorities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Direct authority gets things done faster and more effectively than voluntary action,” he said. “Given the urgency of this issue in the Bay Area and the speed of development, we need to act now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Len Materman, CEO of OneShoreline, San Mateo County’s flood and sea-level rise resiliency district, applauds the bill’s passing but wishes the law went further to include specific requirements for places like airports, hospitals and harbors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No local government can address this or most other climate threats, so resilience activities should align protection across multiple jurisdictions,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state expects local governments to cooperate. Coastal regulators with the California Coastal Commission and the Bay Conservation Development Commission, or BCDC, have the power to approve or deny plans for adaptation projects and development along the shoreline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sea level is already rising on our shorelines and more is already ‘baked in,’” said Zachary Wasserman, chair of BCDC, in a letter of support for the bill. “The only questions are how fast the oceans will rise and whether or not California will be prepared.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency is creating \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1981687/the-bay-could-soon-have-its-first-region-wide-sea-level-rise-plan-but-no-one-to-enforce-it\">a regional sea-level rise plan\u003c/a>, with a first draft supposedly available by the end of 2024. Larry Goldzband, executive director of BCDC, said the plan is vital because it will cost at least \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1982800/new-map-exposes-critical-gaps-in-bay-areas-readiness-for-sea-level-rise\">$110 billion for the Bay Area\u003c/a> to adapt to mid-century flooding caused by rising sea levels. But if leaders fail to act, the price could be much higher at around $230 billion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local governments have until January 2034 to develop sea-level rise plans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everybody now sees that deadline ten years from now and recognizes that this is real,” Goldzband said. “There’s going to be huge amounts of social and economic dislocation due to flooding if we don’t adapt.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His team plans to follow up with all local governments around the region to ensure they are on board so the Bay Area of tomorrow isn’t overwhelmed by water. The agency is holding community and government meetings across the area to get input on the plan, said Dana Brechwald, assistant planning director for climate adaptation with BCDC.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new law comes at a perfect time, she said, as the state’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1979603/california-overhauls-its-sea-level-rise-plan-as-climate-change-reshapes-coastal-life\">updated sea-level rise standards\u003c/a> could come out in the next few months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a trifecta of initiatives we’ve never seen before,” she said. “I think it’s going to accelerate action throughout the state. We’re excited. This is what we live for.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>For the first time in California history, all coastal cities, including those in the Bay Area, must plan for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1979603/california-overhauls-its-sea-level-rise-plan-as-climate-change-reshapes-coastal-life\">sea-level rise, a looming climate impact yet to be fully experienced\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new law — \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB272\">SB\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB272\"> 272\u003c/a> — requires big cities like San Francisco and small towns like Strawberry along Richardson Bay to develop strategies and recommend projects to address future sea-level rise by 2034. While seas have risen only about 8 inches since the 1880s, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1979603/california-overhauls-its-sea-level-rise-plan-as-climate-change-reshapes-coastal-life#:~:text=The%20draft%20report%2C%20set%20to,regardless%20of%20future%20emissions%20reductions.\">ocean and the bay could rise by about a foot by midcentury\u003c/a> — thanks mainly to human-caused climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sen. John Laird (D-Santa Cruz) authored the bill recently signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The governor vetoed a similar bill last fall, noting budget constraints. Laird said his team worked with Newsom’s office to ensure there are dollars in the budget for local planning on sea-level rise. California’s final budget included \u003ca href=\"https://ebudget.ca.gov/2023-24/pdf/Enacted/BudgetSummary/ClimateChange.pdf\">$1.1 billion in investments for coastal resilience programs\u003c/a> over multiple years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are lots of discussions, and the hope is we have these discussions before it’s a crisis and before these big extreme events happen,” Laird said, referring to significant flooding from storms that sea-level rise could exacerbate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The storms that we just had [last winter] changed the equation for people who didn’t even realize they had some of the coming impacts,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law requires local governments to create sea-level rise plans based on the best available science, conduct vulnerability assessments — including for at-risk communities — determine adaptation strategies and sketch out a list of recommended projects with timelines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Laird said the new law stops short of declaring exactly where state funding will come from for sea-level rise plans and adaptation projects. But the state will prioritize funding for cities and counties with plans in place, Laird said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I expect that there will be pushback in certain places because some people are going to have to come to grips with the reality of the challenge to their homes or businesses,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982816\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1020px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/gettyimages-1315066305-1020x573/\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1982816 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/GettyImages-1315066305-1020x573-1.jpg\" alt=\"A shot of the coastline in California with houses and the bay.\" width=\"1020\" height=\"573\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/GettyImages-1315066305-1020x573-1.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/GettyImages-1315066305-1020x573-1-800x449.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/GettyImages-1315066305-1020x573-1-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/GettyImages-1315066305-1020x573-1-768x431.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1020px) 100vw, 1020px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sea levels along coastlines in the U.S. will rise up to 1 foot by the year 2050, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). \u003ccite>(Jason Doiy/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Walking slowly and with too small a stick \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law does not lay out any punishment for cities that don’t comply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘There’s going to be huge amounts of social and economic dislocation due to flooding if we don’t adapt.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>While the bill is an excellent starting point for sea-level rise planning, John Gioia, a supervisor from Contra Costa County, said the law should have come with more of a stick for local governments that don’t comply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A bill like this gets the ball rolling,” he said. “We’ll soon realize it’s not fast enough.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He holds fast to his perspective that the region needs a stronger, central authority on sea-level rise to match the dire consequences of not adequately preparing for rising seas. Currently, the Bay Area is governed by a patchwork quilt of local and state authorities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Direct authority gets things done faster and more effectively than voluntary action,” he said. “Given the urgency of this issue in the Bay Area and the speed of development, we need to act now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Len Materman, CEO of OneShoreline, San Mateo County’s flood and sea-level rise resiliency district, applauds the bill’s passing but wishes the law went further to include specific requirements for places like airports, hospitals and harbors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No local government can address this or most other climate threats, so resilience activities should align protection across multiple jurisdictions,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state expects local governments to cooperate. Coastal regulators with the California Coastal Commission and the Bay Conservation Development Commission, or BCDC, have the power to approve or deny plans for adaptation projects and development along the shoreline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sea level is already rising on our shorelines and more is already ‘baked in,’” said Zachary Wasserman, chair of BCDC, in a letter of support for the bill. “The only questions are how fast the oceans will rise and whether or not California will be prepared.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency is creating \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1981687/the-bay-could-soon-have-its-first-region-wide-sea-level-rise-plan-but-no-one-to-enforce-it\">a regional sea-level rise plan\u003c/a>, with a first draft supposedly available by the end of 2024. Larry Goldzband, executive director of BCDC, said the plan is vital because it will cost at least \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1982800/new-map-exposes-critical-gaps-in-bay-areas-readiness-for-sea-level-rise\">$110 billion for the Bay Area\u003c/a> to adapt to mid-century flooding caused by rising sea levels. But if leaders fail to act, the price could be much higher at around $230 billion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local governments have until January 2034 to develop sea-level rise plans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everybody now sees that deadline ten years from now and recognizes that this is real,” Goldzband said. “There’s going to be huge amounts of social and economic dislocation due to flooding if we don’t adapt.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His team plans to follow up with all local governments around the region to ensure they are on board so the Bay Area of tomorrow isn’t overwhelmed by water. The agency is holding community and government meetings across the area to get input on the plan, said Dana Brechwald, assistant planning director for climate adaptation with BCDC.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new law comes at a perfect time, she said, as the state’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1979603/california-overhauls-its-sea-level-rise-plan-as-climate-change-reshapes-coastal-life\">updated sea-level rise standards\u003c/a> could come out in the next few months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a trifecta of initiatives we’ve never seen before,” she said. “I think it’s going to accelerate action throughout the state. We’re excited. This is what we live for.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "El Niño’s Return: What It Means for California’s Winter Weather",
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"content": "\u003cp>Climate scientists and weather forecasters suspect \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1982079/this-winters-floods-may-be-only-a-taste-of-the-megafloods-to-come-climate-scientists-warn\">this winter could be as wet or wetter\u003c/a> than last year’s torrential downpours. But just how wet will this winter become?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The answer isn’t quite as simple as forecasters pumping various inputs into computer models that then spit out what we can definitively expect. The Bay Area’s weather patterns are created by global patterns in the atmosphere, everything from interactions with the ocean, landscape and sun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of those natural factors is\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1982822/6-common-misconceptions-about-el-nino-and-its-impact-on-california-weather\"> the climate pattern known as El Niño\u003c/a>, which has returned after a four-year hiatus, ushering in the possibility of yet another stormy winter. \u003ca href=\"https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/ninonina.html\">This weather system\u003c/a> has a \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/enso_advisory/ensodisc.shtml\">75%–85% chance of becoming a strong system\u003c/a> from November to January, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What is El Niño?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>El Niño — the opposite of La Niña, which recently ended a cycle — generally occurs every three to five years when ocean waters along the equator in the eastern Pacific warm by at least a half-degree Fahrenheit. That, in turn, can reposition the jet stream and funnel storms toward the West Coast of the U.S., often resulting in increased rainfall across thousands of miles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=science_1982822 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/GettyImages-504730186-1180x849.jpg']Climate forecasters predict a range of strengths for the current El Niño — everything from a moderate to a super El Niño — which can often be characterized by intense warmer downpours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is potential for a lot of strong storms with coastal issues, and we just do not have extensive flood systems on the coast of California,” said Gary Lippner, deputy director for flood management and dam safety with the California Department of Water Resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With winter just a few months away, climate and weather experts suggest preparing our homes and lives for the worst — major flooding. Keep reading for what to know about 2023’s El Niño, from its impact on California’s snow forecast to the timing of weather predictions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jump straight to:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#superelnino\">What are the chances of a super El Niño?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#elninosnowforecast\">Does a wet winter always mean snow in the forecast?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#climatechangeelnino\">Is climate change intensifying El Niño?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#homeflooding\">How can I prepare my home for potential storms?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>Is it possible to predict what winter 2023 will be like in California?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Kind of. It’s not possible to predict the day-to-day weather this far in advance. However, meteorologists are able to forecast possible climate changes that might happen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Right now, it is still too far out and our seasonal forecasting capabilities are very limited,” said Michael Anderson, California’s state climatologist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a 30% chance of a “historically strong” El Niño event, which could rival the ferocity of the 1997–98 years, according to NOAA’s latest El Niño Advisory, which saw flooding rains across the state. The scientists note that while a stronger El Niño can increase the likelihood of weather anomalies, it does “not necessarily equate to strong impacts locally.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because it’s usually only in the worst El Niño years that the entire state gets soaked — Southern California, on the other hand, has a slight tendency toward wetter conditions even in moderate El Niño years. (More on this below.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11936674 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS63686_002_KQED_AtmosphericRiver_03142023-qut-1020x680.jpg']Jan Null, a meteorologist with Golden Gate Weather Services, said the relationship between El Niño and Bay Area impacts is not always clear and that the best thing to do as a California resident is to prepare for the worst outcome.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Climate models are showing this ambivalent pattern for California this winter,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for a timeline, researchers think that peak impacts — \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1935067/rivers-in-the-sky-what-you-need-to-know-about-atmospheric-river-storms\">big atmospheric rivers that drop a ton of rain\u003c/a> — could arrive in the New Year through early spring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The closer we are to that winter rainy season forecast, obviously the better the prediction will be,” said John Chiang, a UC Berkeley climate scientist.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"superelnino\">\u003c/a>What are the chances of a super El Niño?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While most predictions of the intensity of El Niño range from moderate to strong this year, \u003ca href=\"https://news.ucar.edu/132912/ncar-experimental-prediction-system-calls-super-el-nino-winter\">one forecasting group is predicting what they classify as a super El Niño\u003c/a> on par with 1997–98. That winter saw a great deluge across the state, as rivers swelled, mudslides destroyed homes and roads filled with debris. At the end of it, 17 people had died and the state suffered nearly $1 billion in damage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s only been seen three times previously in the historical record,” said Stephen Yeager, project scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research. “We are looking at the potential of a major season-long event that could impact people and their livelihoods.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Yeager’s model, he and his team analyzed historical conditions from 1970 to 2019. They took atmospheric conditions into account — warmth, humidity and wind— as well as the state of oceans, ice and land. They then compared that historical data with computer model forecasts, which unveiled the potential for a super El Niño this winter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our system is predicting a warmer event than many other [models],” Yeager said. “But it isn’t out of the realm of possibilities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984766\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984766\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/RS61930_GettyImages-1244621487-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A bright yellow snowplow drives on a snowy country road surrounded by pine trees.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/RS61930_GettyImages-1244621487-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/RS61930_GettyImages-1244621487-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/RS61930_GettyImages-1244621487-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/RS61930_GettyImages-1244621487-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/RS61930_GettyImages-1244621487-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/RS61930_GettyImages-1244621487-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A snowplow is seen as snow blankets Route 237 in Stateline, Nevada, on Nov. 8, 2022.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Does a strong El Niño prediction mean a wet winter?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>No, not all El Niños are the same. And even a strong system doesn’t mean California will get walloped by atmospheric rivers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When looking at the historical record, Null said El Niño years have almost equally had above-average and below-average rainfall. For instance, the years of 2015–16 produced a very strong El Niño event but were relatively dry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Trying to say this is going to be a strong or very strong event doesn’t equate directly to ‘it’s going to be a wet year in California,’” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He adds that an alphabet soup of other natural phenomena factor into the strength of El Niño and its potential effects, including the Madden-Julian Oscillation, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and the North Atlantic Oscillation.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"elninosnowforecast\">\u003c/a>Does a wet winter always bring snow to California?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A wet winter does not always mean \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11937204/lake-tahoe-weather-forecast-road-conditions-snow-chains\">ample snow\u003c/a>. Chiang, with UC Berkeley, said that El Niño tends to have warmer weather patterns, which can actually decrease snow amounts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That does play a role — but if you are high enough and cold enough, it will snow rather than rain,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chiang adds that the effects of El Niño are not ubiquitous across the world, country or even one state. The climate system can mean wetter weather patterns in California and the Southwest and warmer weather in the Northwest.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>At what point in the year do we begin to get firmer predictions for winter?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The only time we can really know what winter will be like is the moment that it ends, said Null, tongue in cheek.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, the seasonal forecast for California’s winter was an even split for a wet or dry winter — and a few months later, torrential rain pounded the state for months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around mid-November, Yeager said the forecast will come into better clarity, when updates to weather predictions come out. Around that time, forecasters will outline the potential weather possibilities for the next few months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if last winter’s storms taught him anything, said Yeager, predictions can change rapidly, meaning storms could become more intense or back off in severity. Because of the varying predictions — and his super El Niño forecast — he thinks all Californians should prepare for a wet winter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If I were living in San Francisco and considering repairing my roof, I might do it based on this information,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"climatechangeelnino\">\u003c/a>Is climate change intensifying El Niño?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The impact of human-caused climate change on El Niño conditions is hard to pinpoint. Scientists hypothesize it is having an effect, making the impacts from it and La Niña more extreme.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Basically, the wets will become even wetter in California. But the science is still not settled on that, said Yeager.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With ocean temperatures soaring and record warmth this past summer, scientists like Null see a correlation with climate change — but say that it needs to be further proven and studied.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every weather event, whether during El Niño or La Niña, has some climate change DNA,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1932772\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 3623px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1932772\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/GettyImages-504730186.jpg\" alt=\"A large wave crashes onto seaside houses.\" width=\"3623\" height=\"2606\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/GettyImages-504730186.jpg 3623w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/GettyImages-504730186-160x115.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/GettyImages-504730186-800x575.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/GettyImages-504730186-768x552.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/GettyImages-504730186-1020x734.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/GettyImages-504730186-1200x863.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/GettyImages-504730186-1920x1381.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/GettyImages-504730186-1180x849.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/GettyImages-504730186-960x691.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/GettyImages-504730186-240x173.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/GettyImages-504730186-375x270.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/GettyImages-504730186-520x374.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 3623px) 100vw, 3623px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">El Niño-generated storm waves crash onto seaside houses at Mondos Beach, Ventura County, on Jan. 12, 2016. \u003ccite>(Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"homeflooding\">\u003c/a>How should we prepare for a wet year?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>First up, understand just how much you — and your home — could be affected by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11936674/how-to-prepare-for-this-weeks-atmospheric-river-storm-sandbags-emergency-kits-and-more\">a winter storm of the magnitude we saw earlier this year\u003c/a>. Previous storms in the Bay Area have knocked down trees, flooded roads and cut power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses, and contributed to several deaths.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flooding could mean you have to evacuate your home, or live without crucial services for an extended period. Besides flashlights, experts recommend having\u003ca href=\"https://www.ready.gov/floods#prepare\"> an emergency supply kit\u003c/a> ready in both your home and car, should you need to evacuate. Previous storms in the Bay Area have also resulted in \u003ca href=\"https://pgealerts.alerts.pge.com/outagecenter/\">power outages that affected over 100,000 PG&E customers\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11936674/how-to-prepare-for-this-weeks-atmospheric-river-storm-sandbags-emergency-kits-and-more#poweroutages\">Read more about preparing your home for a potential power outage.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC Berkeley’s Chiang suggests California property owners should be especially prepared for potential torrential downpours, and consider preemptive measures like fixing leaky roofs, clearing drains and cleaning gutters. Last winter, parts of Chiang’s own Bay Area home flooded and his roof leaked. This year, he prepared by fixing drainage issues around his house and replacing the roof on his home. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11936674/how-to-prepare-for-this-weeks-atmospheric-river-storm-sandbags-emergency-kits-and-more#start\">Read more about preparing your home for potential flooding.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you are a homeowner, keep in mind that most home insurance plans do not cover damage caused by flooding. However, \u003ca href=\"https://floodsmart.gov/\">you can buy an additional policy with the National Flood Insurance Program\u003c/a> through your existing insurance provider. It’s important to mention that if you decide to buy a plan now, there is a 30-day wait period for the benefits to begin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If your home experienced flooding during previous storms this year — or in storms from years past — officials recommend having sandbags, plastic sheeting and other flood control materials ready. Counties, public utilities and even community organizations across the Bay Area will often distribute \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11936674/how-to-prepare-for-this-weeks-atmospheric-river-storm-sandbags-emergency-kits-and-more#sandbags\">free sandbags during the rainy season\u003c/a> or ahead of a big forecast storm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following the atmospheric river storms that hit Northern California over the 2022–2023 winter, officials around the Bay Area doubled down on efforts to keep waterways and storm drains clear to reduce the risk of flooding in residential areas. Both \u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandca.gov/services/adopt-a-drain\">Oakland\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://sfpuc.org/learning/how-you-can-help/adopt-drain-sf\">San Francisco \u003c/a>have\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13923319/you-can-adopt-a-drain-in-san-francisco-with-naming-rights-included\"> programs where residents can “adopt” a storm drain\u003c/a> in their community and help remove leaves and other debris.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>FEMA also has created a tool that tracks which parts of a city are under flood risk — and to what extent. You can \u003ca href=\"https://msc.fema.gov/portal/home\">input your address in the FEMA Flood Map Service Center\u003c/a>. Once the map tool locates your address, you can select the “Dynamic Map” option to see a more detailed map that may have certain neighborhoods or blocks color coded to represent flood risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí, Emma Silvers, Carly Severn, Daisy Nguyen and Erin Baldassari contributed \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11936674/how-to-prepare-for-this-weeks-atmospheric-river-storm-sandbags-emergency-kits-and-more#start\">flood preparation reporting\u003c/a> to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "From snow forecasts to wet storms, how could El Niño impact California's weather in winter 2023? Climate experts weigh in on the predictability of El Niño.",
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"title": "El Niño's Impact on California: Rain & Snow Ahead | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Climate scientists and weather forecasters suspect \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1982079/this-winters-floods-may-be-only-a-taste-of-the-megafloods-to-come-climate-scientists-warn\">this winter could be as wet or wetter\u003c/a> than last year’s torrential downpours. But just how wet will this winter become?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The answer isn’t quite as simple as forecasters pumping various inputs into computer models that then spit out what we can definitively expect. The Bay Area’s weather patterns are created by global patterns in the atmosphere, everything from interactions with the ocean, landscape and sun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of those natural factors is\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1982822/6-common-misconceptions-about-el-nino-and-its-impact-on-california-weather\"> the climate pattern known as El Niño\u003c/a>, which has returned after a four-year hiatus, ushering in the possibility of yet another stormy winter. \u003ca href=\"https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/ninonina.html\">This weather system\u003c/a> has a \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/enso_advisory/ensodisc.shtml\">75%–85% chance of becoming a strong system\u003c/a> from November to January, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What is El Niño?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>El Niño — the opposite of La Niña, which recently ended a cycle — generally occurs every three to five years when ocean waters along the equator in the eastern Pacific warm by at least a half-degree Fahrenheit. That, in turn, can reposition the jet stream and funnel storms toward the West Coast of the U.S., often resulting in increased rainfall across thousands of miles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Climate forecasters predict a range of strengths for the current El Niño — everything from a moderate to a super El Niño — which can often be characterized by intense warmer downpours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is potential for a lot of strong storms with coastal issues, and we just do not have extensive flood systems on the coast of California,” said Gary Lippner, deputy director for flood management and dam safety with the California Department of Water Resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With winter just a few months away, climate and weather experts suggest preparing our homes and lives for the worst — major flooding. Keep reading for what to know about 2023’s El Niño, from its impact on California’s snow forecast to the timing of weather predictions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jump straight to:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#superelnino\">What are the chances of a super El Niño?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#elninosnowforecast\">Does a wet winter always mean snow in the forecast?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#climatechangeelnino\">Is climate change intensifying El Niño?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#homeflooding\">How can I prepare my home for potential storms?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>Is it possible to predict what winter 2023 will be like in California?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Kind of. It’s not possible to predict the day-to-day weather this far in advance. However, meteorologists are able to forecast possible climate changes that might happen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Right now, it is still too far out and our seasonal forecasting capabilities are very limited,” said Michael Anderson, California’s state climatologist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a 30% chance of a “historically strong” El Niño event, which could rival the ferocity of the 1997–98 years, according to NOAA’s latest El Niño Advisory, which saw flooding rains across the state. The scientists note that while a stronger El Niño can increase the likelihood of weather anomalies, it does “not necessarily equate to strong impacts locally.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because it’s usually only in the worst El Niño years that the entire state gets soaked — Southern California, on the other hand, has a slight tendency toward wetter conditions even in moderate El Niño years. (More on this below.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Jan Null, a meteorologist with Golden Gate Weather Services, said the relationship between El Niño and Bay Area impacts is not always clear and that the best thing to do as a California resident is to prepare for the worst outcome.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Climate models are showing this ambivalent pattern for California this winter,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for a timeline, researchers think that peak impacts — \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1935067/rivers-in-the-sky-what-you-need-to-know-about-atmospheric-river-storms\">big atmospheric rivers that drop a ton of rain\u003c/a> — could arrive in the New Year through early spring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The closer we are to that winter rainy season forecast, obviously the better the prediction will be,” said John Chiang, a UC Berkeley climate scientist.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"superelnino\">\u003c/a>What are the chances of a super El Niño?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While most predictions of the intensity of El Niño range from moderate to strong this year, \u003ca href=\"https://news.ucar.edu/132912/ncar-experimental-prediction-system-calls-super-el-nino-winter\">one forecasting group is predicting what they classify as a super El Niño\u003c/a> on par with 1997–98. That winter saw a great deluge across the state, as rivers swelled, mudslides destroyed homes and roads filled with debris. At the end of it, 17 people had died and the state suffered nearly $1 billion in damage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s only been seen three times previously in the historical record,” said Stephen Yeager, project scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research. “We are looking at the potential of a major season-long event that could impact people and their livelihoods.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Yeager’s model, he and his team analyzed historical conditions from 1970 to 2019. They took atmospheric conditions into account — warmth, humidity and wind— as well as the state of oceans, ice and land. They then compared that historical data with computer model forecasts, which unveiled the potential for a super El Niño this winter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our system is predicting a warmer event than many other [models],” Yeager said. “But it isn’t out of the realm of possibilities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984766\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1984766\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/RS61930_GettyImages-1244621487-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A bright yellow snowplow drives on a snowy country road surrounded by pine trees.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/RS61930_GettyImages-1244621487-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/RS61930_GettyImages-1244621487-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/RS61930_GettyImages-1244621487-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/RS61930_GettyImages-1244621487-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/RS61930_GettyImages-1244621487-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/RS61930_GettyImages-1244621487-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A snowplow is seen as snow blankets Route 237 in Stateline, Nevada, on Nov. 8, 2022.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Does a strong El Niño prediction mean a wet winter?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>No, not all El Niños are the same. And even a strong system doesn’t mean California will get walloped by atmospheric rivers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When looking at the historical record, Null said El Niño years have almost equally had above-average and below-average rainfall. For instance, the years of 2015–16 produced a very strong El Niño event but were relatively dry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Trying to say this is going to be a strong or very strong event doesn’t equate directly to ‘it’s going to be a wet year in California,’” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He adds that an alphabet soup of other natural phenomena factor into the strength of El Niño and its potential effects, including the Madden-Julian Oscillation, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and the North Atlantic Oscillation.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"elninosnowforecast\">\u003c/a>Does a wet winter always bring snow to California?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A wet winter does not always mean \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11937204/lake-tahoe-weather-forecast-road-conditions-snow-chains\">ample snow\u003c/a>. Chiang, with UC Berkeley, said that El Niño tends to have warmer weather patterns, which can actually decrease snow amounts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That does play a role — but if you are high enough and cold enough, it will snow rather than rain,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chiang adds that the effects of El Niño are not ubiquitous across the world, country or even one state. The climate system can mean wetter weather patterns in California and the Southwest and warmer weather in the Northwest.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>At what point in the year do we begin to get firmer predictions for winter?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The only time we can really know what winter will be like is the moment that it ends, said Null, tongue in cheek.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, the seasonal forecast for California’s winter was an even split for a wet or dry winter — and a few months later, torrential rain pounded the state for months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around mid-November, Yeager said the forecast will come into better clarity, when updates to weather predictions come out. Around that time, forecasters will outline the potential weather possibilities for the next few months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if last winter’s storms taught him anything, said Yeager, predictions can change rapidly, meaning storms could become more intense or back off in severity. Because of the varying predictions — and his super El Niño forecast — he thinks all Californians should prepare for a wet winter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If I were living in San Francisco and considering repairing my roof, I might do it based on this information,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"climatechangeelnino\">\u003c/a>Is climate change intensifying El Niño?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The impact of human-caused climate change on El Niño conditions is hard to pinpoint. Scientists hypothesize it is having an effect, making the impacts from it and La Niña more extreme.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Basically, the wets will become even wetter in California. But the science is still not settled on that, said Yeager.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With ocean temperatures soaring and record warmth this past summer, scientists like Null see a correlation with climate change — but say that it needs to be further proven and studied.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every weather event, whether during El Niño or La Niña, has some climate change DNA,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1932772\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 3623px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1932772\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/GettyImages-504730186.jpg\" alt=\"A large wave crashes onto seaside houses.\" width=\"3623\" height=\"2606\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/GettyImages-504730186.jpg 3623w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/GettyImages-504730186-160x115.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/GettyImages-504730186-800x575.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/GettyImages-504730186-768x552.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/GettyImages-504730186-1020x734.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/GettyImages-504730186-1200x863.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/GettyImages-504730186-1920x1381.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/GettyImages-504730186-1180x849.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/GettyImages-504730186-960x691.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/GettyImages-504730186-240x173.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/GettyImages-504730186-375x270.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/GettyImages-504730186-520x374.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 3623px) 100vw, 3623px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">El Niño-generated storm waves crash onto seaside houses at Mondos Beach, Ventura County, on Jan. 12, 2016. \u003ccite>(Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"homeflooding\">\u003c/a>How should we prepare for a wet year?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>First up, understand just how much you — and your home — could be affected by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11936674/how-to-prepare-for-this-weeks-atmospheric-river-storm-sandbags-emergency-kits-and-more\">a winter storm of the magnitude we saw earlier this year\u003c/a>. Previous storms in the Bay Area have knocked down trees, flooded roads and cut power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses, and contributed to several deaths.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flooding could mean you have to evacuate your home, or live without crucial services for an extended period. Besides flashlights, experts recommend having\u003ca href=\"https://www.ready.gov/floods#prepare\"> an emergency supply kit\u003c/a> ready in both your home and car, should you need to evacuate. Previous storms in the Bay Area have also resulted in \u003ca href=\"https://pgealerts.alerts.pge.com/outagecenter/\">power outages that affected over 100,000 PG&E customers\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11936674/how-to-prepare-for-this-weeks-atmospheric-river-storm-sandbags-emergency-kits-and-more#poweroutages\">Read more about preparing your home for a potential power outage.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC Berkeley’s Chiang suggests California property owners should be especially prepared for potential torrential downpours, and consider preemptive measures like fixing leaky roofs, clearing drains and cleaning gutters. Last winter, parts of Chiang’s own Bay Area home flooded and his roof leaked. This year, he prepared by fixing drainage issues around his house and replacing the roof on his home. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11936674/how-to-prepare-for-this-weeks-atmospheric-river-storm-sandbags-emergency-kits-and-more#start\">Read more about preparing your home for potential flooding.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you are a homeowner, keep in mind that most home insurance plans do not cover damage caused by flooding. However, \u003ca href=\"https://floodsmart.gov/\">you can buy an additional policy with the National Flood Insurance Program\u003c/a> through your existing insurance provider. It’s important to mention that if you decide to buy a plan now, there is a 30-day wait period for the benefits to begin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If your home experienced flooding during previous storms this year — or in storms from years past — officials recommend having sandbags, plastic sheeting and other flood control materials ready. Counties, public utilities and even community organizations across the Bay Area will often distribute \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11936674/how-to-prepare-for-this-weeks-atmospheric-river-storm-sandbags-emergency-kits-and-more#sandbags\">free sandbags during the rainy season\u003c/a> or ahead of a big forecast storm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following the atmospheric river storms that hit Northern California over the 2022–2023 winter, officials around the Bay Area doubled down on efforts to keep waterways and storm drains clear to reduce the risk of flooding in residential areas. Both \u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandca.gov/services/adopt-a-drain\">Oakland\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://sfpuc.org/learning/how-you-can-help/adopt-drain-sf\">San Francisco \u003c/a>have\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13923319/you-can-adopt-a-drain-in-san-francisco-with-naming-rights-included\"> programs where residents can “adopt” a storm drain\u003c/a> in their community and help remove leaves and other debris.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>FEMA also has created a tool that tracks which parts of a city are under flood risk — and to what extent. You can \u003ca href=\"https://msc.fema.gov/portal/home\">input your address in the FEMA Flood Map Service Center\u003c/a>. Once the map tool locates your address, you can select the “Dynamic Map” option to see a more detailed map that may have certain neighborhoods or blocks color coded to represent flood risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí, Emma Silvers, Carly Severn, Daisy Nguyen and Erin Baldassari contributed \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11936674/how-to-prepare-for-this-weeks-atmospheric-river-storm-sandbags-emergency-kits-and-more#start\">flood preparation reporting\u003c/a> to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "reluctant-retreat-one-familys-fight-against-climate-induced-flooding",
"title": "California Levee Disaster: One Family's Flight From Climate-Fueled Flooding",
"publishDate": 1697563519,
"format": "standard",
"headTitle": "California Levee Disaster: One Family’s Flight From Climate-Fueled Flooding | KQED",
"labelTerm": {},
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of the third season of KQED’s podcast Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America. You can \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/podcasts/soldout\">find that series here\u003c/a> and read about why \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1984697/why-kqed-focused-a-season-of-its-housing-podcast-on-climate-change#:~:text=Sold%20Out%20Is%20Back%20With%20Season%203&text=Host%20Erin%20Baldassari%20leads%20a,an%20affordable%20place%20to%20live.\">KQED chose to focus a season of its housing podcast on climate change\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]D[/dropcap]enia Escutia dreamed of moving to Southern California to learn how to care for sick kids at UCLA. But when a river swallowed her town and destroyed her home, she deferred those dreams to take care of her family instead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s been seven months since a massive storm over California’s Central Coast dropped as much as 13 inches of rain in some places. Swollen with all that water, the Pajaro River ripped a 400-foot hole in the levee a few miles east of Escutia’s raised, one-story house where she lived with her mom, dad, brother and sister.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The emotional pain of that experience, she said quietly with tears in her eyes, has not waned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Often I feel like crying, but I don’t want to cry in front of my siblings, so I just do it on my own time,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Escutia is 18. The recent high school graduate with shoulder-length wavy brown hair describes herself as part tomboy, part girlie girl.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC1518433856&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In late September, she visited the gutted house where the family still keeps some of their belongings. Lifting a loose floorboard, she examined the crawl space below the tan, two-bedroom home. Deep cracks cut through the soil where floodwaters washed into the dark space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The teenager wiggled her nose at the smell of decay. Her family’s clothes and bags of canned goods lined the bedroom walls, which were once covered with posters of Disney princesses and K-pop stars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Escutia said she has flashbacks several times a day of the early morning that her future was almost washed away — floodwaters the color of chocolate milk filling her room, the trash can floating across her yard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People are going to be like, it already happened, get over it,” she said. “But they wouldn’t get over it if they were in my shoes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water breached the levee in March. The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office ordered Pajaro’s 3,000 residents to evacuate, before flooding swamped more than 200 homes, rendering Escutia’s unlivable. Her family worried the levee would fail again, so rather than stay and rebuild, they decided to abandon Pajaro in search of someplace safer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The family’s choice — to make their future away from the floodplain — is one that other Californians will face.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rivers and streams across the state are penned in by thousands of miles of levees. Much of that infrastructure is aging and is not built for future storms, which could cause major flooding in any given year. With a potentially wet winter ahead, the state’s top water officials are grasping for solutions. And they are quietly considering a blasphemous idea in California politics: moving whole communities away from dangerous waterways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leaving Pajaro thrust the family into a seemingly endless search for affordable housing. And it would have a profound effect on Escutia’s life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We left because we don’t want the same thing to happen again,” she said. “Having to see my family be sad about something they created just washed away in a matter of minutes was difficult.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984657\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1984657 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1248040045-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A truck drives through chocolate milk-colored water. \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1118\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1248040045-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1248040045-qut-800x466.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1248040045-qut-1020x594.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1248040045-qut-160x93.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1248040045-qut-768x447.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1248040045-qut-1536x894.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An aerial view shows a truck making its way through a flooded neighborhood in the unincorporated community of Pajaro in Monterey County, on March 11, 2023. \u003ccite>(Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘We are going to tame nature’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Rivers have long served as a meeting place for people on the land we now call California. Indigenous people lived for thousands of years following the ebb and flow of water as signals to move to higher ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lush, sprawling river valleys captivated the intrigue of those colonizing California. In that land, they saw an opportunity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They transformed rivers that once flowed freely to the sea into highly managed waterways, cut off from the people who relied on them. That hubris led to the state’s current flooding vulnerabilities, said Karla Nemeth, California’s top water official.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A big part of how we got here was we had a mindset of ‘We are going to tame nature,’” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As she sat next to a tall potted plant with frilly green leaves in her Sacramento office, she recited a passage by John McPhee, a Pulitzer Prize-winning creative nonfiction writer: “To the conventional wisdom that one ought never to build on a floodplain, California has responded with its capital city.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McPhee wrote that when the state’s founding citizens \u003ca href=\"https://repository.uclawsf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1454&context=hastings_environmental_law_journal\">built Sacramento alongside two roaring rivers, it exemplified the mindset that humans could control nature (CGI).\u003c/a> Nemeth said California could potentially recommend riverine residents leave the floodplain as storms get more intense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align='right' citation='Nancy Faulstich, director, Regeneración — Pájaro Valley Climate Action,']‘It feels like it’s exactly a case of environmental injustice.’[/pullquote]“Ultimately, what we are going to do is move a lot of people,” said Nemeth, who directs the California Department of Water Resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Moving people en masse away from rivers is a controversial practice called “managed retreat.” It is an idea that many officials are not willing to consider. But nature is forcing the conversation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align='right' citation='Stu Townsley, deputy district engineer for project management, US Army Corps of Engineers']‘There’s no way that you can build a levee system that will protect any community from the biggest of big storms in the future.’[/pullquote]By the end of the century, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212094722000275\">climate change may make these deluges up to 37% wetter\u003c/a>, according to a study from Bay Area researchers. UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain recently found that \u003ca href=\"https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abq0995\">the warming climate has already doubled the probability of a megaflood\u003c/a> — weather conditions that could unleash horrific statewide flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve gotten a taste of widespread flooding this winter, but I think it’s only a taste,” said Swain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984647\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1984647 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/04282023_pajaroupdate-021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A brightly-colored backpack hangs from a white wall. \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1277\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/04282023_pajaroupdate-021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/04282023_pajaroupdate-021-qut-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/04282023_pajaroupdate-021-qut-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/04282023_pajaroupdate-021-qut-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/04282023_pajaroupdate-021-qut-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/04282023_pajaroupdate-021-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Some scattered boxes and chairs sit inside what remains of the Escutia’s living room in Pajaro, California on April 28, 2023. \u003ccite>(Kori Suzuki/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>A burden overnight\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the predawn hours of March 11, Escutia woke up to what she thought was her Pomeranian, Lucky, peeing on the bed. But she was wrong. Flood water trickled into her room and was ankle-deep in just a few minutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Escutia’s family, scared and panicked, unplugged appliances and threw anything they could onto tables, counters and beds. Another bad storm had pummeled the area just weeks before, but the levee held. Escutia’s family didn’t feel like they needed to leave.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her mom was shocked by electrical currents in the water. That’s when her family decided to flee, escaping in waist-deep water to an upstairs apartment building across the street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few hours later, they caught a ride out of the town in military rescue vehicles. On the way to her grandmother’s, Escutia wondered if she would ever call Pajaro home again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My future, I feel like it will look like it is gone,” she said. “I don’t want to leave because I grew up here. But at the same time, I want to leave because I don’t want the same thing to happen again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She spent the next two weeks hopping between the homes of different relatives. When she returned to Pajaro in late March, her house was suffocatingly warm and the carpet slick with mud. A photo of her in a blue and black quinceanera dress still hung on the living room wall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Escutia had just been accepted to UCLA. She had not yet shared the good news with her family. After the flood, her happy secret quickly transformed into a burden.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She couldn’t decide between pursuing her dream in Southern California or staying to help her family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I haven’t told my parents yet, but I was planning on telling them,” she said. “All I can think about is how I’m going to be able to help my parents through this, especially financially.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984654\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1984654 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/03242023_kqed_pajaroreturning-1362-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a blue t-shirt stands in a dirt yard with a young woman in brown pants. \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1277\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/03242023_kqed_pajaroreturning-1362-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/03242023_kqed_pajaroreturning-1362-qut-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/03242023_kqed_pajaroreturning-1362-qut-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/03242023_kqed_pajaroreturning-1362-qut-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/03242023_kqed_pajaroreturning-1362-qut-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/03242023_kqed_pajaroreturning-1362-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Denia Escutia and her father Juan, talk outside their mud-coated home in Pajaro, Monterey County, on March 24, 2023. \u003ccite>(Kori Suzuki/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘A case of environmental injustice’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had officially rated the levee along the Pajaro River a “moderate” risk of flooding. The truth is that for decades, officials knew they needed repair but didn’t act. The Corps determined that the town wasn’t worth protecting because property values were too low, according to levee records and interviews with several officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Nancy Faulstich, executive director of Regeneración — Pájaro Valley Climate Action, this callousness created the tragedy in Monterey County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It feels like it’s exactly a case of environmental injustice,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Escutia agreed and said her old neighborhood deserves justice. Pajaro is home to many lower-income earners and farmworkers who work in the fields of Watsonville, Monterey County and elsewhere in this fertile region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It deserves climate justice because not everyone is financially well off,” she said. Many Pajaro residents “can’t afford housing. They help with the raspberries, strawberries and lettuce. That’s where everyone gets their food from.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other places around the state likely face a similar threat, but the reality is officials don’t even really know the extent of the problem. A KQED analysis of the greater San Francisco Bay Area levees found that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1981900/fewer-than-10-of-levees-in-the-greater-bay-area-have-a-federal-risk-rating\">just 10% have a federal risk rating\u003c/a>, and statewide levee safety varies wildly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Pajaro, agencies are working to strengthen the levee that failed earlier this year, a project that’s expected to cost half a billion dollars. Gov. Gavin Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/8.4.23-Executive-Order-water.pdf\">signed an executive order in early August to streamline levee repairs across the state (PDF)\u003c/a>, and lawmakers introduced a bill \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB876\">to accelerate flood control upgrades along the Pajaro River\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new levee will provide more protection to Pajaro, but there’s still no guarantee the town won’t flood again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s no way that you can build a levee system that will protect any community from the biggest of big storms in the future,” said Stu Townsley, deputy district engineer for project management for the San Francisco region of the Corps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When crews finish building the Pajaro River levee in around a decade, it will have 1-in-100-year storm protection — half the protection some water experts believe is needed. That means a house has a 25% chance of flooding during a typical homeowner’s 30-year mortgage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jeffrey Mount, senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, said the bare minimum standard for protection everywhere in the state should be based on the likelihood of a 1-in-200-year storm, which has around a 0.5% chance of happening in any given year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Sen. John Laird (D-Santa Cruz), who oversees the region, said he intellectually has “a total appetite” for that idea but said the price tag of doubling protection everywhere in California is in the billions of dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you start to tell me how we’re going to pay for it, I want to jump off the top of the building,” he said. “I would not be surprised if it doesn’t take some crisis, just as New Orleans had theirs, to realize that we really have to up our game in California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984658\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1984658 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1250226412-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A overhead view of a mud-caked field. \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1079\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1250226412-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1250226412-qut-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1250226412-qut-1020x573.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1250226412-qut-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1250226412-qut-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1250226412-qut-1536x863.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The repaired Pajaro River levee looking towards Pajaro on March 26, 2023. \u003ccite>(Photo by Paul Kuroda for The Washington Post via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘Failing as a mother’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Denia’s mother Carla Escutia searched all over Monterey County to find a new home to rent. She didn’t find much in her price range.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A two-bedroom apartment can cost upwards of $3,000 a month in this part of Monterey County, according to \u003ca href=\"https://communityrentals.ucsc.edu/cost/index.html\">rental cost statistics from UC Santa Cruz\u003c/a>. She found one house on a hill in the woods about 10 miles outside Pajaro. The family loved that it was nowhere near a river, but the house fell through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a while, the Escutias lived in a small trailer just feet from their ruined house. Their landlord tore the mucky, brown carpet out of the house — no more quinceanera photo. The loss of her home and the stress of finding a new place has been too much for Carla Escutia at times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel like I have failed as a mother because we’re in a place I didn’t want my family,” she said, with her long brown hair covered by a black baseball cap. “I want to provide the best for them, but there’s nothing we can do right now but sit and wait.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carla Escutia moved to Pajaro from Michoacan, Mexico, over two decades ago. She works as a custodian at UC Santa Cruz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even with so much uncertainty around them, the mother and daughter often smile. Television is their main outlet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have an antenna that does not require Wi-Fi, and all we do is just sit here eating chips and drinking sodas while watching Top Chef,” Escutia said, laughing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She finally told her parents that she had been accepted to UCLA. They were supportive and encouraged her to pursue her dream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I want her to succeed and to be able to provide for herself so she can live somewhere else that is a bit better than what I have given her and her future children,” Carla Escutia said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But ultimately, Escutia decided not to go so she could stay closer to home to help her family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I wanted to stay a little bit here longer with my mom,” she said. “I want to do community college and try to work. To help my mom with some rent and bills, so I can help provide for my siblings.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984648\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1984648 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/04282023_pajaroupdate-253-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A woman in a blue and white striped shirt embraces a younger woman with a black shirt. \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1277\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/04282023_pajaroupdate-253-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/04282023_pajaroupdate-253-qut-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/04282023_pajaroupdate-253-qut-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/04282023_pajaroupdate-253-qut-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/04282023_pajaroupdate-253-qut-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/04282023_pajaroupdate-253-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Denia Escutia and her mother, Carla, embrace in their now-empty home in Pajaro on April 28, 2023. \u003ccite>(Kori Suzuki/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Retreat is an opportunity not a loss\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Escutia’s family is fleeing the Pajaro River because of a natural disaster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maybe there’s another way. What if the state and communities could decide together to move away from rivers before the next disaster? But the concept of managed retreat has become a radioactive phrase in California politics while many residents refuse to move away from rivers that flood again and again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reluctance to consider the idea is not just an issue with Californians. Obstinance is an American trait.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People don’t like the word ‘retreat’ because it sounds like we’ve lost,” said A.R. Siders, a climate scientist at the University of Delaware. “That can be a little frightening, but it can also be really exciting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For managed retreat to succeed, Siders said entire communities and all forms of government need to buy in. It is an opportunity for Californians to stop fighting nature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California is not pursuing managed retreat right now along its rivers. Instead, the state is repairing levees and investing in climate modeling to better predict the intensity of storms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Places like \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-02-24/marina-sea-level-rise\">Marina, a small city in Monterey County\u003c/a>, have embraced the idea in response to sea level rise and erosion along the coast, although, as \u003cem>Los Angeles Times\u003c/em> reporter Rosanna Xia notes in her book, \u003cem>California Against the Sea: Visions for Our Vanishing Coastline\u003c/em>, the words managed retreat “have roiled the few cities and state agencies bold enough to utter them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents of Pacifica, a coastal city in San Mateo County, booted former-mayor John Keener for including the idea in the city’s sea level rise plan. His opponents sent out mailers ridiculing his policies and held a parade opposing any kind of managed retreat. Elsewhere, city leaders have stripped the term from climate plans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Xia told KQED that Californians need to stop thinking they are at war with water. “Ultimately, it’s shifting the question from how can we fight the rising ocean to how can we work with it,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984676\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1984676 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/Pajaro-Side-by-Side-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Two photos next to each other of people standing in doors. On the left a person looks at flood damage. On the right they stand in a bare room as their mother looks on.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"833\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/Pajaro-Side-by-Side-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/Pajaro-Side-by-Side-800x260.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/Pajaro-Side-by-Side-1020x332.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/Pajaro-Side-by-Side-160x52.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/Pajaro-Side-by-Side-768x250.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/Pajaro-Side-by-Side-1536x500.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/Pajaro-Side-by-Side-2048x667.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/Pajaro-Side-by-Side-1920x625.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Denia Escutia outside her mud-coated bedroom in Pajaro on March 24, 2023. Right: Denia and her mother, Carla Escutia, in the same room on April 28, 2023. \u003ccite>(Kori Suzuki/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>The impact of the flood doesn’t recede with the water\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A friend of one of Escutia’s teachers invited her family to live with them in a two-story house in Watsonville, just across the river from Pajaro.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is no other word to call them but our angels,” Carla Escutia said of their new housemates. “They told me to save money, take things slow and to find a home with dignity instead of begging for a good deal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the family has yet to find permanent housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Standing in her old room in late September, Escutia reflected on how the flood forced her to grow up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Twice a week, Escutia drives her friends to Cabrillo Community College in a used SUV that her dad bought to replace her car that was destroyed in the flood. The SUV reminds her of a “mom car.” They like to sip iced chai lattes as they talk about their futures and the boys they’re too nervous to talk to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Escutia said she sometimes feels like the odd one out. Her new friends are not worried about where they will live permanently. Her dad told her she might have to give her dog up for adoption.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My dad’s planning on giving it to a family friend since we don’t have anywhere to keep him,” she said. “I miss my dog a lot.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She doesn’t regret her decision to stay to help with the family’s living expenses, but now she juggles college life along with babysitting her young sister. She recently applied to be a server at a local Applebees but didn’t land the job. She works part-time teaching for an after-school program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m busy with kids and making money,” she said. She’s able to buy things for herself, like a lime green frog phone case she’s particularly excited about. “It feels great to earn my own money instead of asking my parents for it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leaving the house she grew up in, Escutia locked the door. Officials hung a yellow and black sign from the house that reads in capital letters: “Lawful only to enter for permitted cleanup purposes only.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Whoever decides to live in this house, I hope they rethink living here,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "KQED follows one family, starting on the night that a flood swallowed their hometown of Pajaro, and for months afterward, as they searched for an affordable home on higher ground.",
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"title": "California Levee Disaster: One Family's Flight From Climate-Fueled Flooding | KQED",
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"headline": "California Levee Disaster: One Family's Flight From Climate-Fueled Flooding",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of the third season of KQED’s podcast Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America. You can \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/podcasts/soldout\">find that series here\u003c/a> and read about why \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1984697/why-kqed-focused-a-season-of-its-housing-podcast-on-climate-change#:~:text=Sold%20Out%20Is%20Back%20With%20Season%203&text=Host%20Erin%20Baldassari%20leads%20a,an%20affordable%20place%20to%20live.\">KQED chose to focus a season of its housing podcast on climate change\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">D\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>enia Escutia dreamed of moving to Southern California to learn how to care for sick kids at UCLA. But when a river swallowed her town and destroyed her home, she deferred those dreams to take care of her family instead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s been seven months since a massive storm over California’s Central Coast dropped as much as 13 inches of rain in some places. Swollen with all that water, the Pajaro River ripped a 400-foot hole in the levee a few miles east of Escutia’s raised, one-story house where she lived with her mom, dad, brother and sister.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The emotional pain of that experience, she said quietly with tears in her eyes, has not waned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Often I feel like crying, but I don’t want to cry in front of my siblings, so I just do it on my own time,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Escutia is 18. The recent high school graduate with shoulder-length wavy brown hair describes herself as part tomboy, part girlie girl.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC1518433856&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In late September, she visited the gutted house where the family still keeps some of their belongings. Lifting a loose floorboard, she examined the crawl space below the tan, two-bedroom home. Deep cracks cut through the soil where floodwaters washed into the dark space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The teenager wiggled her nose at the smell of decay. Her family’s clothes and bags of canned goods lined the bedroom walls, which were once covered with posters of Disney princesses and K-pop stars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Escutia said she has flashbacks several times a day of the early morning that her future was almost washed away — floodwaters the color of chocolate milk filling her room, the trash can floating across her yard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People are going to be like, it already happened, get over it,” she said. “But they wouldn’t get over it if they were in my shoes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water breached the levee in March. The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office ordered Pajaro’s 3,000 residents to evacuate, before flooding swamped more than 200 homes, rendering Escutia’s unlivable. Her family worried the levee would fail again, so rather than stay and rebuild, they decided to abandon Pajaro in search of someplace safer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The family’s choice — to make their future away from the floodplain — is one that other Californians will face.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rivers and streams across the state are penned in by thousands of miles of levees. Much of that infrastructure is aging and is not built for future storms, which could cause major flooding in any given year. With a potentially wet winter ahead, the state’s top water officials are grasping for solutions. And they are quietly considering a blasphemous idea in California politics: moving whole communities away from dangerous waterways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leaving Pajaro thrust the family into a seemingly endless search for affordable housing. And it would have a profound effect on Escutia’s life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We left because we don’t want the same thing to happen again,” she said. “Having to see my family be sad about something they created just washed away in a matter of minutes was difficult.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984657\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1984657 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1248040045-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A truck drives through chocolate milk-colored water. \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1118\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1248040045-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1248040045-qut-800x466.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1248040045-qut-1020x594.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1248040045-qut-160x93.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1248040045-qut-768x447.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1248040045-qut-1536x894.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An aerial view shows a truck making its way through a flooded neighborhood in the unincorporated community of Pajaro in Monterey County, on March 11, 2023. \u003ccite>(Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘We are going to tame nature’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Rivers have long served as a meeting place for people on the land we now call California. Indigenous people lived for thousands of years following the ebb and flow of water as signals to move to higher ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lush, sprawling river valleys captivated the intrigue of those colonizing California. In that land, they saw an opportunity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They transformed rivers that once flowed freely to the sea into highly managed waterways, cut off from the people who relied on them. That hubris led to the state’s current flooding vulnerabilities, said Karla Nemeth, California’s top water official.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A big part of how we got here was we had a mindset of ‘We are going to tame nature,’” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As she sat next to a tall potted plant with frilly green leaves in her Sacramento office, she recited a passage by John McPhee, a Pulitzer Prize-winning creative nonfiction writer: “To the conventional wisdom that one ought never to build on a floodplain, California has responded with its capital city.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McPhee wrote that when the state’s founding citizens \u003ca href=\"https://repository.uclawsf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1454&context=hastings_environmental_law_journal\">built Sacramento alongside two roaring rivers, it exemplified the mindset that humans could control nature (CGI).\u003c/a> Nemeth said California could potentially recommend riverine residents leave the floodplain as storms get more intense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘It feels like it’s exactly a case of environmental injustice.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Ultimately, what we are going to do is move a lot of people,” said Nemeth, who directs the California Department of Water Resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Moving people en masse away from rivers is a controversial practice called “managed retreat.” It is an idea that many officials are not willing to consider. But nature is forcing the conversation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘There’s no way that you can build a levee system that will protect any community from the biggest of big storms in the future.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>By the end of the century, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212094722000275\">climate change may make these deluges up to 37% wetter\u003c/a>, according to a study from Bay Area researchers. UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain recently found that \u003ca href=\"https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abq0995\">the warming climate has already doubled the probability of a megaflood\u003c/a> — weather conditions that could unleash horrific statewide flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve gotten a taste of widespread flooding this winter, but I think it’s only a taste,” said Swain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984647\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1984647 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/04282023_pajaroupdate-021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A brightly-colored backpack hangs from a white wall. \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1277\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/04282023_pajaroupdate-021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/04282023_pajaroupdate-021-qut-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/04282023_pajaroupdate-021-qut-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/04282023_pajaroupdate-021-qut-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/04282023_pajaroupdate-021-qut-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/04282023_pajaroupdate-021-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Some scattered boxes and chairs sit inside what remains of the Escutia’s living room in Pajaro, California on April 28, 2023. \u003ccite>(Kori Suzuki/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>A burden overnight\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the predawn hours of March 11, Escutia woke up to what she thought was her Pomeranian, Lucky, peeing on the bed. But she was wrong. Flood water trickled into her room and was ankle-deep in just a few minutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Escutia’s family, scared and panicked, unplugged appliances and threw anything they could onto tables, counters and beds. Another bad storm had pummeled the area just weeks before, but the levee held. Escutia’s family didn’t feel like they needed to leave.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her mom was shocked by electrical currents in the water. That’s when her family decided to flee, escaping in waist-deep water to an upstairs apartment building across the street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few hours later, they caught a ride out of the town in military rescue vehicles. On the way to her grandmother’s, Escutia wondered if she would ever call Pajaro home again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My future, I feel like it will look like it is gone,” she said. “I don’t want to leave because I grew up here. But at the same time, I want to leave because I don’t want the same thing to happen again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She spent the next two weeks hopping between the homes of different relatives. When she returned to Pajaro in late March, her house was suffocatingly warm and the carpet slick with mud. A photo of her in a blue and black quinceanera dress still hung on the living room wall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Escutia had just been accepted to UCLA. She had not yet shared the good news with her family. After the flood, her happy secret quickly transformed into a burden.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She couldn’t decide between pursuing her dream in Southern California or staying to help her family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I haven’t told my parents yet, but I was planning on telling them,” she said. “All I can think about is how I’m going to be able to help my parents through this, especially financially.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984654\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1984654 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/03242023_kqed_pajaroreturning-1362-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a blue t-shirt stands in a dirt yard with a young woman in brown pants. \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1277\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/03242023_kqed_pajaroreturning-1362-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/03242023_kqed_pajaroreturning-1362-qut-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/03242023_kqed_pajaroreturning-1362-qut-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/03242023_kqed_pajaroreturning-1362-qut-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/03242023_kqed_pajaroreturning-1362-qut-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/03242023_kqed_pajaroreturning-1362-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Denia Escutia and her father Juan, talk outside their mud-coated home in Pajaro, Monterey County, on March 24, 2023. \u003ccite>(Kori Suzuki/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘A case of environmental injustice’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had officially rated the levee along the Pajaro River a “moderate” risk of flooding. The truth is that for decades, officials knew they needed repair but didn’t act. The Corps determined that the town wasn’t worth protecting because property values were too low, according to levee records and interviews with several officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Nancy Faulstich, executive director of Regeneración — Pájaro Valley Climate Action, this callousness created the tragedy in Monterey County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It feels like it’s exactly a case of environmental injustice,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Escutia agreed and said her old neighborhood deserves justice. Pajaro is home to many lower-income earners and farmworkers who work in the fields of Watsonville, Monterey County and elsewhere in this fertile region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It deserves climate justice because not everyone is financially well off,” she said. Many Pajaro residents “can’t afford housing. They help with the raspberries, strawberries and lettuce. That’s where everyone gets their food from.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other places around the state likely face a similar threat, but the reality is officials don’t even really know the extent of the problem. A KQED analysis of the greater San Francisco Bay Area levees found that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1981900/fewer-than-10-of-levees-in-the-greater-bay-area-have-a-federal-risk-rating\">just 10% have a federal risk rating\u003c/a>, and statewide levee safety varies wildly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Pajaro, agencies are working to strengthen the levee that failed earlier this year, a project that’s expected to cost half a billion dollars. Gov. Gavin Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/8.4.23-Executive-Order-water.pdf\">signed an executive order in early August to streamline levee repairs across the state (PDF)\u003c/a>, and lawmakers introduced a bill \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB876\">to accelerate flood control upgrades along the Pajaro River\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new levee will provide more protection to Pajaro, but there’s still no guarantee the town won’t flood again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s no way that you can build a levee system that will protect any community from the biggest of big storms in the future,” said Stu Townsley, deputy district engineer for project management for the San Francisco region of the Corps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When crews finish building the Pajaro River levee in around a decade, it will have 1-in-100-year storm protection — half the protection some water experts believe is needed. That means a house has a 25% chance of flooding during a typical homeowner’s 30-year mortgage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jeffrey Mount, senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, said the bare minimum standard for protection everywhere in the state should be based on the likelihood of a 1-in-200-year storm, which has around a 0.5% chance of happening in any given year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Sen. John Laird (D-Santa Cruz), who oversees the region, said he intellectually has “a total appetite” for that idea but said the price tag of doubling protection everywhere in California is in the billions of dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you start to tell me how we’re going to pay for it, I want to jump off the top of the building,” he said. “I would not be surprised if it doesn’t take some crisis, just as New Orleans had theirs, to realize that we really have to up our game in California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984658\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1984658 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1250226412-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A overhead view of a mud-caked field. \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1079\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1250226412-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1250226412-qut-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1250226412-qut-1020x573.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1250226412-qut-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1250226412-qut-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/GettyImages-1250226412-qut-1536x863.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The repaired Pajaro River levee looking towards Pajaro on March 26, 2023. \u003ccite>(Photo by Paul Kuroda for The Washington Post via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘Failing as a mother’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Denia’s mother Carla Escutia searched all over Monterey County to find a new home to rent. She didn’t find much in her price range.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A two-bedroom apartment can cost upwards of $3,000 a month in this part of Monterey County, according to \u003ca href=\"https://communityrentals.ucsc.edu/cost/index.html\">rental cost statistics from UC Santa Cruz\u003c/a>. She found one house on a hill in the woods about 10 miles outside Pajaro. The family loved that it was nowhere near a river, but the house fell through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a while, the Escutias lived in a small trailer just feet from their ruined house. Their landlord tore the mucky, brown carpet out of the house — no more quinceanera photo. The loss of her home and the stress of finding a new place has been too much for Carla Escutia at times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel like I have failed as a mother because we’re in a place I didn’t want my family,” she said, with her long brown hair covered by a black baseball cap. “I want to provide the best for them, but there’s nothing we can do right now but sit and wait.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carla Escutia moved to Pajaro from Michoacan, Mexico, over two decades ago. She works as a custodian at UC Santa Cruz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even with so much uncertainty around them, the mother and daughter often smile. Television is their main outlet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have an antenna that does not require Wi-Fi, and all we do is just sit here eating chips and drinking sodas while watching Top Chef,” Escutia said, laughing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She finally told her parents that she had been accepted to UCLA. They were supportive and encouraged her to pursue her dream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I want her to succeed and to be able to provide for herself so she can live somewhere else that is a bit better than what I have given her and her future children,” Carla Escutia said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But ultimately, Escutia decided not to go so she could stay closer to home to help her family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I wanted to stay a little bit here longer with my mom,” she said. “I want to do community college and try to work. To help my mom with some rent and bills, so I can help provide for my siblings.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984648\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1984648 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/04282023_pajaroupdate-253-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A woman in a blue and white striped shirt embraces a younger woman with a black shirt. \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1277\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/04282023_pajaroupdate-253-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/04282023_pajaroupdate-253-qut-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/04282023_pajaroupdate-253-qut-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/04282023_pajaroupdate-253-qut-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/04282023_pajaroupdate-253-qut-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/04282023_pajaroupdate-253-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Denia Escutia and her mother, Carla, embrace in their now-empty home in Pajaro on April 28, 2023. \u003ccite>(Kori Suzuki/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Retreat is an opportunity not a loss\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Escutia’s family is fleeing the Pajaro River because of a natural disaster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maybe there’s another way. What if the state and communities could decide together to move away from rivers before the next disaster? But the concept of managed retreat has become a radioactive phrase in California politics while many residents refuse to move away from rivers that flood again and again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reluctance to consider the idea is not just an issue with Californians. Obstinance is an American trait.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People don’t like the word ‘retreat’ because it sounds like we’ve lost,” said A.R. Siders, a climate scientist at the University of Delaware. “That can be a little frightening, but it can also be really exciting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For managed retreat to succeed, Siders said entire communities and all forms of government need to buy in. It is an opportunity for Californians to stop fighting nature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California is not pursuing managed retreat right now along its rivers. Instead, the state is repairing levees and investing in climate modeling to better predict the intensity of storms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Places like \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-02-24/marina-sea-level-rise\">Marina, a small city in Monterey County\u003c/a>, have embraced the idea in response to sea level rise and erosion along the coast, although, as \u003cem>Los Angeles Times\u003c/em> reporter Rosanna Xia notes in her book, \u003cem>California Against the Sea: Visions for Our Vanishing Coastline\u003c/em>, the words managed retreat “have roiled the few cities and state agencies bold enough to utter them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents of Pacifica, a coastal city in San Mateo County, booted former-mayor John Keener for including the idea in the city’s sea level rise plan. His opponents sent out mailers ridiculing his policies and held a parade opposing any kind of managed retreat. Elsewhere, city leaders have stripped the term from climate plans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Xia told KQED that Californians need to stop thinking they are at war with water. “Ultimately, it’s shifting the question from how can we fight the rising ocean to how can we work with it,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1984676\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1984676 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/Pajaro-Side-by-Side-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Two photos next to each other of people standing in doors. On the left a person looks at flood damage. On the right they stand in a bare room as their mother looks on.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"833\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/Pajaro-Side-by-Side-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/Pajaro-Side-by-Side-800x260.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/Pajaro-Side-by-Side-1020x332.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/Pajaro-Side-by-Side-160x52.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/Pajaro-Side-by-Side-768x250.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/Pajaro-Side-by-Side-1536x500.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/Pajaro-Side-by-Side-2048x667.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/Pajaro-Side-by-Side-1920x625.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Denia Escutia outside her mud-coated bedroom in Pajaro on March 24, 2023. Right: Denia and her mother, Carla Escutia, in the same room on April 28, 2023. \u003ccite>(Kori Suzuki/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>The impact of the flood doesn’t recede with the water\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A friend of one of Escutia’s teachers invited her family to live with them in a two-story house in Watsonville, just across the river from Pajaro.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is no other word to call them but our angels,” Carla Escutia said of their new housemates. “They told me to save money, take things slow and to find a home with dignity instead of begging for a good deal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the family has yet to find permanent housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Standing in her old room in late September, Escutia reflected on how the flood forced her to grow up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Twice a week, Escutia drives her friends to Cabrillo Community College in a used SUV that her dad bought to replace her car that was destroyed in the flood. The SUV reminds her of a “mom car.” They like to sip iced chai lattes as they talk about their futures and the boys they’re too nervous to talk to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Escutia said she sometimes feels like the odd one out. Her new friends are not worried about where they will live permanently. Her dad told her she might have to give her dog up for adoption.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My dad’s planning on giving it to a family friend since we don’t have anywhere to keep him,” she said. “I miss my dog a lot.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She doesn’t regret her decision to stay to help with the family’s living expenses, but now she juggles college life along with babysitting her young sister. She recently applied to be a server at a local Applebees but didn’t land the job. She works part-time teaching for an after-school program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m busy with kids and making money,” she said. She’s able to buy things for herself, like a lime green frog phone case she’s particularly excited about. “It feels great to earn my own money instead of asking my parents for it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leaving the house she grew up in, Escutia locked the door. Officials hung a yellow and black sign from the house that reads in capital letters: “Lawful only to enter for permitted cleanup purposes only.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"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. ",
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"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",
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"masters-of-scale": {
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},
"mindshift": {
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"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>",
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"order": 12
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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"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?",
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"on-the-media": {
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"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
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},
"pbs-newshour": {
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},
"perspectives": {
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"order": 14
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"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
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"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
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},
"politicalbreakdown": {
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"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Political-Breakdown-2024-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"order": 5
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"possible": {
"id": "possible",
"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.possible.fm/",
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"source": "Possible"
},
"link": "/radio/program/possible",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/730YpdUSNlMyPQwNnyjp4k"
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},
"pri-the-world": {
"id": "pri-the-world",
"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
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},
"radiolab": {
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