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"title": "Millions of Calif. Homes Are in Fire-Prone Areas. Researchers Say It's Time To Reimagine Where People Live",
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"content": "\u003cp class=\"p1\">Millions of Californians are at risk of losing their homes to wildfire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When tragedy strikes, people often rebuild in the same risky places, according to researchers at UC Berkeley and \u003ca href=\"https://www.next10.org/about\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Next 10,\u003c/span>\u003c/a> a nonprofit think tank, who are urging California policymakers to rethink how communities are rebuilt after destructive wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The academics want state policymakers to encourage rebuilding efforts away from fire-prone areas, many of which are increasingly risky places to live as warming temperatures bake forests across California, priming them to burn. \u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">“This is really important in a state where the focus has been on specific [wildfire] mitigation measures such as hardening homes, prescribed burns, fuel breaks, and not on land use planning, not on making more sustainable settlement patterns around the state,” said report co-author Karen Chapple, an \u003cspan class=\"s2\">urban planning professor and \u003c/span>director of UC Berkeley’s \u003ca href=\"https://communityinnovation.berkeley.edu/\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Center for Community Innovation\u003c/span>\u003c/a>. “It’s about thinking about what our post-fire communities look like before the fire happens.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">More than 11 million Californians, roughly a quarter of the state’s population, live in high-risk wildfire areas known as the wildland-urban interface, or as its often referred to in academic circles, the WUI (pronounced woo-eee). Chapple says California’s housing crisis threatens to drive that number even higher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">“We have a housing crisis that is pushing housing out to the periphery of our urban areas. We’re building on peripheral land, on exurban land,” she said, “And that’s putting much more housing at risk than we’ve ever had before.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">Chapple adds that when wildfire hits, the state loses a portion of that housing stock, putting more pressure on the system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">\u003cb>Alternatives to ‘Rebuilding as Usual’\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\">In a \u003ca href=\"https://www.next10.org/publications/rebuilding-resilient\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">new report\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, \u003c/span>Chapple and a group of Berkeley graduate students looked at rebuilding alternatives for three California communities that were hit hard by catastrophic fires over the last five years: Santa Rosa, Ventura and Paradise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">Following the Tubbs Fire in 2017, Chapple says, Santa Rosa’s planning division mobilized to help homeowners rebuild the homes they lost. But, she said, “They helped them rebuild right in place, right back in the wildland-urban interface. And what if they had instead looked at building in an alternative way?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">In one scenario, fire survivors would be given incentives to relocate to cities and other lower-risk areas (researchers call this “managed retreat”) and found it was the most effective way to pull people out of the path of destructive wildfires, potentially reducing the number of housing units in fire zones by more than 50% in Santa Rosa and Ventura, and to a lesser extent, Paradise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A second scenario drives survivors toward\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>pockets of development in rural areas with robust wildfire mitigation features, neighborhoods surrounded by defensible space to act as a fire break. Chapple describes these communities — what she calls “resilience nodes” — as mini villages or stand alone neighborhoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">“This is a scenario where you would rebuild partly in the exurban areas or in the suburban areas, in the wildland-urban interface. But you would build with more density,” she said. “You would create dense, walkable nodes with small protective green buffers around them so people wouldn’t have to move totally out of their areas and into downtown, which a lot of people don’t want to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">Researchers compared these scenarios against what it labeled the typical “rebuilding as usual” strategy, noting that encouraging people to relocate to cities has added climate benefits.\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>Urbanites typically drive less and consume less energy (not to mention, have lower costs for transportation, power and water).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Conserving forested areas is beneficial, too. Trees sequester carbon dioxide, a planet warming gas contributing to climate change, which is a \u003ca href=\"https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab83a7?ftag=MSF0951a18\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">driver of extreme wildfire\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cb>.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">\u003cb>A Costly Problem\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">Building in fire-prone regions comes with financial risk. An analysis from \u003ca href=\"https://urbanfootprint.com/\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Urban Footprint\u003c/span>\u003c/a> , a sustainability-focussed urban planning site, estimates the cost of rebuilding all of the 1.4 million homes located in California’s highest-risk fire zones to be around $600 billion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">These costs threaten to send insurance rates skyrocketing.\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">“Ultimately, rates that adequately insure property that is endangered by wildfire will simply be too high for customers to pay, which means insurers may choose to get out of the market entirely, leaving homes in the WUI uninsurable,” Robert Olshansky, an urban and regional planning researcher at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, wrote in a statement. “If we continue with rebuilding as usual, it’s almost inevitable that a major insurance crisis lies ahead.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p3\">\u003cspan class=\"s3\">The \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/04/climate/climate-California-wildfires-insurance.html#click=https://t.co/JilE2jWg19\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">New York Times\u003c/span>\u003c/a> reported earlier this month that California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara \u003c/span>endorsed a list of \u003ca href=\"http://www.insurance.ca.gov/01-consumers/180-climate-change/upload/Draft-Climate-Insurance-Recommendations.pdf\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">policy recommendations\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, floated by a state working group,\u003cbr>\naimed at curtailing development in wildfire hazard zones. Some insurers have already pulled out of regions prone to wildfire, making it harder for Californians to secure financial protection from potential home damage or loss.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">\u003cb>Rebuilding Safer With ‘Carrots and Sticks’\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">Imagining what alternative rebuilding strategies could look like is one thing, finding feasible ways to implement them is another. Officials also have to ask people who’ve just endured the trauma of losing their homes and possessions to move away from their communities, potentially disrupting jobs, school and family — and that’s all the more difficult if a person lost a childhood home or their dream house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">Chapple says a couple solutions that might work could be a combination of new local zoning policies that would enable denser housing and statewide financial incentives to encourage residents to relocate. The state could also reserve funds to support subsidized housing when disaster strikes.\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">She notes that renters, disadvantaged communities, communities of color and immigrants are more vulnerable to the displacement caused by wildfire; another set of policies could be necessary to support these people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">“How do you rethink your hazard mitigation and fire recovery policies to help people so they’re not doubly vulnerable?” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">The report recommends California policymakers discourage risky development, while incentivizing the development of more affordable housing in lower-risk areas. Prohibitively expensive fire insurance rates may also drive an exodus of people leaving forested, fire-prone areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">Jim Thorne, a UC Davis landscape ecologist with no connection to the new report, says the idea of managed retreat is gaining traction for another climate-related crisis the state is facing: sea level rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">“Many California cities are looking at that,” he said. “But this report is talking about managed retreat from areas in the WUI.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says the study could capture the attention of people who are living in these areas and “grappling with that insecurity of, ‘Wow, it’s really difficult to be sure that we’re going to be able maintain things here\u003ci>.’” \u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">Incentivizing residents to relocate away from wildfire-prone areas could help, Thorne adds, but the lack of affordable housing in urban areas is still a concern.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">“If you moved 500,000 units out of the WUI, where are you going to move them?” he said. Some research suggests the most effective strategy would be the creation of more \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0169204616301669\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">infill housing\u003c/span>\u003c/a> units in urban areas around existing housing developments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">Thorne calls resilience nodes a “great idea,” even if it might not be all together practical\u003cstrong>.\u003c/strong> A more realistic idea might be more akin to the ways in which the \u003cspan class=\"s4\">California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection\u003c/span> has begun prioritizing wildfire-prone communities for vegetation removal and fire breaks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">“Even though those [areas] might not be planned as urban pods,” he said, “There’s already a recognition of, ‘hey, we need to do that.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">Thorne says there is no single, magic solution. Solving this problem will be a process, a policy combination of “some carrots and sticks” along with “some ways of moving people around.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">“It won’t be a clean break where you just go, ‘Okay, now from here on out all the housing is going to go over here,'” he said. “We need to implement these types of resiliency measures, but how we go about it? That’s one of the current challenges.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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We’re building on peripheral land, on exurban land,” she said, “And that’s putting much more housing at risk than we’ve ever had before.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">Chapple adds that when wildfire hits, the state loses a portion of that housing stock, putting more pressure on the system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">\u003cb>Alternatives to ‘Rebuilding as Usual’\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\">In a \u003ca href=\"https://www.next10.org/publications/rebuilding-resilient\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">new report\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, \u003c/span>Chapple and a group of Berkeley graduate students looked at rebuilding alternatives for three California communities that were hit hard by catastrophic fires over the last five years: Santa Rosa, Ventura and Paradise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">Following the Tubbs Fire in 2017, Chapple says, Santa Rosa’s planning division mobilized to help homeowners rebuild the homes they lost. But, she said, “They helped them rebuild right in place, right back in the wildland-urban interface. And what if they had instead looked at building in an alternative way?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">In one scenario, fire survivors would be given incentives to relocate to cities and other lower-risk areas (researchers call this “managed retreat”) and found it was the most effective way to pull people out of the path of destructive wildfires, potentially reducing the number of housing units in fire zones by more than 50% in Santa Rosa and Ventura, and to a lesser extent, Paradise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A second scenario drives survivors toward\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>pockets of development in rural areas with robust wildfire mitigation features, neighborhoods surrounded by defensible space to act as a fire break. Chapple describes these communities — what she calls “resilience nodes” — as mini villages or stand alone neighborhoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">“This is a scenario where you would rebuild partly in the exurban areas or in the suburban areas, in the wildland-urban interface. But you would build with more density,” she said. “You would create dense, walkable nodes with small protective green buffers around them so people wouldn’t have to move totally out of their areas and into downtown, which a lot of people don’t want to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">Researchers compared these scenarios against what it labeled the typical “rebuilding as usual” strategy, noting that encouraging people to relocate to cities has added climate benefits.\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>Urbanites typically drive less and consume less energy (not to mention, have lower costs for transportation, power and water).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Conserving forested areas is beneficial, too. Trees sequester carbon dioxide, a planet warming gas contributing to climate change, which is a \u003ca href=\"https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab83a7?ftag=MSF0951a18\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">driver of extreme wildfire\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cb>.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">\u003cb>A Costly Problem\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">Building in fire-prone regions comes with financial risk. An analysis from \u003ca href=\"https://urbanfootprint.com/\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Urban Footprint\u003c/span>\u003c/a> , a sustainability-focussed urban planning site, estimates the cost of rebuilding all of the 1.4 million homes located in California’s highest-risk fire zones to be around $600 billion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">These costs threaten to send insurance rates skyrocketing.\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">“Ultimately, rates that adequately insure property that is endangered by wildfire will simply be too high for customers to pay, which means insurers may choose to get out of the market entirely, leaving homes in the WUI uninsurable,” Robert Olshansky, an urban and regional planning researcher at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, wrote in a statement. “If we continue with rebuilding as usual, it’s almost inevitable that a major insurance crisis lies ahead.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p3\">\u003cspan class=\"s3\">The \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/04/climate/climate-California-wildfires-insurance.html#click=https://t.co/JilE2jWg19\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">New York Times\u003c/span>\u003c/a> reported earlier this month that California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara \u003c/span>endorsed a list of \u003ca href=\"http://www.insurance.ca.gov/01-consumers/180-climate-change/upload/Draft-Climate-Insurance-Recommendations.pdf\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">policy recommendations\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, floated by a state working group,\u003cbr>\naimed at curtailing development in wildfire hazard zones. Some insurers have already pulled out of regions prone to wildfire, making it harder for Californians to secure financial protection from potential home damage or loss.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">\u003cb>Rebuilding Safer With ‘Carrots and Sticks’\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">Imagining what alternative rebuilding strategies could look like is one thing, finding feasible ways to implement them is another. Officials also have to ask people who’ve just endured the trauma of losing their homes and possessions to move away from their communities, potentially disrupting jobs, school and family — and that’s all the more difficult if a person lost a childhood home or their dream house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">Chapple says a couple solutions that might work could be a combination of new local zoning policies that would enable denser housing and statewide financial incentives to encourage residents to relocate. The state could also reserve funds to support subsidized housing when disaster strikes.\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">She notes that renters, disadvantaged communities, communities of color and immigrants are more vulnerable to the displacement caused by wildfire; another set of policies could be necessary to support these people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">“How do you rethink your hazard mitigation and fire recovery policies to help people so they’re not doubly vulnerable?” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">The report recommends California policymakers discourage risky development, while incentivizing the development of more affordable housing in lower-risk areas. Prohibitively expensive fire insurance rates may also drive an exodus of people leaving forested, fire-prone areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">Jim Thorne, a UC Davis landscape ecologist with no connection to the new report, says the idea of managed retreat is gaining traction for another climate-related crisis the state is facing: sea level rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">“Many California cities are looking at that,” he said. “But this report is talking about managed retreat from areas in the WUI.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says the study could capture the attention of people who are living in these areas and “grappling with that insecurity of, ‘Wow, it’s really difficult to be sure that we’re going to be able maintain things here\u003ci>.’” \u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">Incentivizing residents to relocate away from wildfire-prone areas could help, Thorne adds, but the lack of affordable housing in urban areas is still a concern.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">“If you moved 500,000 units out of the WUI, where are you going to move them?” he said. Some research suggests the most effective strategy would be the creation of more \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0169204616301669\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">infill housing\u003c/span>\u003c/a> units in urban areas around existing housing developments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">Thorne calls resilience nodes a “great idea,” even if it might not be all together practical\u003cstrong>.\u003c/strong> A more realistic idea might be more akin to the ways in which the \u003cspan class=\"s4\">California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection\u003c/span> has begun prioritizing wildfire-prone communities for vegetation removal and fire breaks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">“Even though those [areas] might not be planned as urban pods,” he said, “There’s already a recognition of, ‘hey, we need to do that.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">Thorne says there is no single, magic solution. Solving this problem will be a process, a policy combination of “some carrots and sticks” along with “some ways of moving people around.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p2\">“It won’t be a clean break where you just go, ‘Okay, now from here on out all the housing is going to go over here,'” he said. “We need to implement these types of resiliency measures, but how we go about it? That’s one of the current challenges.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>It might be tempting to shrug at the scorching weather across large swaths of the West. This just in: It gets hot in the summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this record-setting heat wave’s remarkable power, size and unusually early appearance is giving meteorologists and climate experts yet more cause for concern about the routinization of extreme weather in an era of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These sprawling, persistent high-pressure zones popularly called “heat domes” are relatively common in later summer months. This current system is different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not only unusual for June, but it is pretty extreme even in absolute terms,” said Daniel Swain, climate scientist at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. “It would be a pretty extreme event for August,” Swain says, when these typically occur.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Even in Coastal California, Cities Are Setting Record Temps\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This heat dome’s reach is remarkable, too: It has set record highs stretching from the Great Plains to coastal California. And these aren’t just records for that specific date or month, but in a few spots, they are records for the singularly hottest day in the entire period of record, sometimes stretching back 100 to 150 years. “That’s a pretty big deal,” Swain says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s unusual in that it’s more intense in terms of the maximum temperature,” said Alison Bridger, a professor in the Meteorology and Climate Science Department at San Jose State University. “And how widespread the impact is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, Palm Springs, California, recently hit 123 degrees, equaling its highest recorded temperature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Las Vegas set a daily record of 114 degrees. Phoenix \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/NWSPhoenix/status/1405654514141589505\">reached a record 118\u003c/a> degrees, the earliest the city has hit that high a mark. It broke the previous record of 114 set in 2015.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sacramento, California, set a new daily record of 109 degrees. The National Weather Service \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/NWSSacramento/status/1405989947912376326/photo/1\">extended its excessive heat warning through Sunday\u003c/a> night in the Central Valley and parts of Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Denver this week hit 100 for three straight days, the earliest date of such a streak on record, \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/bhensonweather/status/1405619186538139649\">tweeted meteorologist Bob Henson. \u003c/a>He noted that all of the 100-degree streaks in Denver’s 150 years of climate record keeping have occurred in the last three decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And in the Great Plains, several cities including Omaha, Nebraska, set records, including a daily \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/NWSOmaha/status/1405679809053614080\">record high of 105 degrees\u003c/a>. That breaks an Omaha daily record set in 1918.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just last year, several cities in the West also hit record highs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This current heat dome “fits with climate change ideas, global warming, meaning that it’s just a little bit warmer than it would have been last year,” Bridger says. “And if we have this next year, it’ll be just a little bit warmer again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The ‘Heat Dome’ is Making Droughts Even Worse\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s also coinciding with and worsening record drought across big parts of the West. These two things, Swain says, are now making each other worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The drought is leading to extremely low soil moisture, which is making it easier for these high pressure systems to generate extreme heat waves because more of the sun’s energy is going into heating the atmosphere rather than evaporating nonexistent water in the soil.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that is only making things hotter and drier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s sort of the vicious cycle of drought and extreme heat in a warming climate,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>It’s More Evidence of Human-Caused Climate Change\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The excessive heat and widening drought continues to \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/05/06/993172298/deepening-drought-holds-ominous-signs-for-wildfire-threat-in-the-west\">elevate wildfire risk across\u003c/a> much of the West. New federal data show that the number of new wildfires in the U.S. so far this year is at \u003ca href=\"https://www.nifc.gov/fire-information/nfn\">a 10-year high\u003c/a>, signaling a long, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/06/17/1007784176/new-wildfires-10-year-high-western-u-s\">potentially dangerous summer and fall for wildfires.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experts say this current heat dome is yet more evidence of the impact of human-caused climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bridger at San Jose State says while that is most likely the case, “it takes a lot of work to figure that out. A lot of hard scientific work in order to be statistically sure that it’s associated with climate change,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Others are more certain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just so clear at this point,” says climate scientist Swain, “when it comes to record-breaking heat events, the study has been run for event after event after event in region after region after region in year after year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the answer is almost always the same, he says: “There’s a crystal clear human fingerprint on extreme heat and extreme heat events … climate change is making these sorts of things worse.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And what was historically rare is now becoming almost commonplace: Forecasters say there’s a chance of yet another heat wave of similar magnitude in the West about 10 days from now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That sounds crazy, except that last summer we saw like three to five of these, you know, ‘unprecedented events’ in different regions of the West,” Swain points out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 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=The+Record+Temperatures+Enveloping+The+West+Are+Not+Your+Average+Heat+Wave&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>It might be tempting to shrug at the scorching weather across large swaths of the West. This just in: It gets hot in the summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this record-setting heat wave’s remarkable power, size and unusually early appearance is giving meteorologists and climate experts yet more cause for concern about the routinization of extreme weather in an era of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These sprawling, persistent high-pressure zones popularly called “heat domes” are relatively common in later summer months. This current system is different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not only unusual for June, but it is pretty extreme even in absolute terms,” said Daniel Swain, climate scientist at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. “It would be a pretty extreme event for August,” Swain says, when these typically occur.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Even in Coastal California, Cities Are Setting Record Temps\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This heat dome’s reach is remarkable, too: It has set record highs stretching from the Great Plains to coastal California. And these aren’t just records for that specific date or month, but in a few spots, they are records for the singularly hottest day in the entire period of record, sometimes stretching back 100 to 150 years. “That’s a pretty big deal,” Swain says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s unusual in that it’s more intense in terms of the maximum temperature,” said Alison Bridger, a professor in the Meteorology and Climate Science Department at San Jose State University. “And how widespread the impact is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, Palm Springs, California, recently hit 123 degrees, equaling its highest recorded temperature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Las Vegas set a daily record of 114 degrees. Phoenix \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/NWSPhoenix/status/1405654514141589505\">reached a record 118\u003c/a> degrees, the earliest the city has hit that high a mark. It broke the previous record of 114 set in 2015.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sacramento, California, set a new daily record of 109 degrees. The National Weather Service \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/NWSSacramento/status/1405989947912376326/photo/1\">extended its excessive heat warning through Sunday\u003c/a> night in the Central Valley and parts of Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Denver this week hit 100 for three straight days, the earliest date of such a streak on record, \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/bhensonweather/status/1405619186538139649\">tweeted meteorologist Bob Henson. \u003c/a>He noted that all of the 100-degree streaks in Denver’s 150 years of climate record keeping have occurred in the last three decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And in the Great Plains, several cities including Omaha, Nebraska, set records, including a daily \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/NWSOmaha/status/1405679809053614080\">record high of 105 degrees\u003c/a>. That breaks an Omaha daily record set in 1918.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just last year, several cities in the West also hit record highs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This current heat dome “fits with climate change ideas, global warming, meaning that it’s just a little bit warmer than it would have been last year,” Bridger says. “And if we have this next year, it’ll be just a little bit warmer again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The ‘Heat Dome’ is Making Droughts Even Worse\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s also coinciding with and worsening record drought across big parts of the West. These two things, Swain says, are now making each other worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The drought is leading to extremely low soil moisture, which is making it easier for these high pressure systems to generate extreme heat waves because more of the sun’s energy is going into heating the atmosphere rather than evaporating nonexistent water in the soil.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that is only making things hotter and drier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s sort of the vicious cycle of drought and extreme heat in a warming climate,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>It’s More Evidence of Human-Caused Climate Change\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The excessive heat and widening drought continues to \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/05/06/993172298/deepening-drought-holds-ominous-signs-for-wildfire-threat-in-the-west\">elevate wildfire risk across\u003c/a> much of the West. New federal data show that the number of new wildfires in the U.S. so far this year is at \u003ca href=\"https://www.nifc.gov/fire-information/nfn\">a 10-year high\u003c/a>, signaling a long, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/06/17/1007784176/new-wildfires-10-year-high-western-u-s\">potentially dangerous summer and fall for wildfires.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experts say this current heat dome is yet more evidence of the impact of human-caused climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bridger at San Jose State says while that is most likely the case, “it takes a lot of work to figure that out. A lot of hard scientific work in order to be statistically sure that it’s associated with climate change,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Others are more certain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just so clear at this point,” says climate scientist Swain, “when it comes to record-breaking heat events, the study has been run for event after event after event in region after region after region in year after year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the answer is almost always the same, he says: “There’s a crystal clear human fingerprint on extreme heat and extreme heat events … climate change is making these sorts of things worse.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And what was historically rare is now becoming almost commonplace: Forecasters say there’s a chance of yet another heat wave of similar magnitude in the West about 10 days from now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That sounds crazy, except that last summer we saw like three to five of these, you know, ‘unprecedented events’ in different regions of the West,” Swain points out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 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=The+Record+Temperatures+Enveloping+The+West+Are+Not+Your+Average+Heat+Wave&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "'Communities Know Best': Climate Solutions in The South Bay Start With Listening",
"headTitle": "‘Communities Know Best’: Climate Solutions in The South Bay Start With Listening | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the South Bay grapples with the impacts of climate change, people there are creating solutions by relying on arguably the most fundamental element of conversation: listening.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This process began in East Palo Alto, where community groups and scientists are helping residents understand how warming temperatures are raising water levels in the bay — already half the city lies in a federal flood zone. And the idea is now spreading to nearby communities like North Fair Oaks, a small unincorporated area of mostly neighborhoods. Soon, it will expand into a regional science project where hundreds of residents will document how climate change is altering their lives over the next five years. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The listening project is led by \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.climatercommunities.org/staff\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Violet Wulf-Saena,\u003c/span>\u003c/a> founder and executive director of the\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> nonprofit \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.climatercommunities.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Climate Resilient Communities\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Her group advocates for climate change solutions that integrate the communities most affected by warming temperatures in the Bay Area. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“There’s a lot of power in the community,” she said. “They are the ones who are being impacted. They’re the ones who live in East Palo Alto, they know more than me. They are the experts. … Success is really about bringing the community together and finding ways where they can also be part of the process.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Too often, she says, climate change policies are top-down approaches that forgo meaningful exchanges with the people who are going to have to live with solutions created for \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">them\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wulf-Saena’s primary mode for closing that gap is conversation. It works, she says, because her team looks like the communities they work with. She’s from Samoa and emigrated to the U.S. to be closer to her husband’s family nearly two decades ago.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s easier for me, because I’m a person of color and I do come from the island,” she said. “They see that: ‘Oh, yeah, she’s part of us.’”\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Last April, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1973805/climate-solutions-in-east-palo-alto\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">I met Wulf-Saena while speaking with residents who came to East Palo Alto after fleeing flooding and sea level rise back home in the Pacific Islands\u003c/a>, only to find that in the coming decades they could be climate migrants for a second time. One of those residents is Appollonia Grey ‘Uhilamoelangi, known as Mama Dee.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The last two floods over here, the question is, where was God?’ she said. “Don’t get me wrong. I believe in prayers. But I lived through so many disasters.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I learned East Palo Alto is ahead of some other Bay Area cities in planning for rising tides — thanks in large part to the community activism of those who emigrated to this small city along the bay.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975434\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1975434\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48316_043_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48316_043_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48316_043_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48316_043_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48316_043_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48316_043_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48316_043_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Appollonia Grey ‘Uhilamoelangi, known as “Mama Dee,” and her husband, Senita Uhila, at their home in East Palo Alto on March 29, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>It Began in Samoa\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This idea of listening isn’t new. People likely listened (or, \u003cem>didn’t\u003c/em> listen) \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">before they even learned to write.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> But Wulf-Saena experienced an epiphany about the power of listening when she was Samoa’s first climate change officer in the early 2000s.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The government she represented wanted to move the village of Saoluafata, located on the north side of the island Upolu, upland and away from an eroding shoreline — a problem that would be exacerbated as climate change pushed tide levels even higher. Already, residents reported waves washing away the land and encroaching on homes, according to a study titled \u003ca href=\"https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2084&context=isp_collection\">“Seawalls in Samoa\u003c/a>.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While drinking kava — usually sipped to mark important occasions within Samoan society — with elders of the village in Saoluafata, Wulf-Saena quickly learned they didn’t want to move inland.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Being able to stay on their ancestral land is more important than adapting or moving to another place where their families can be safe,” she explained. “In the end, we compromised.”\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The solution? A \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/k9WcaStolhY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">seawall the length of 22 San Francisco city blocks constructed of boulders\u003c/a> piled on top of sand that allowed the villagers to stay. The coastline was revegetated, the village water tank was upgraded and residents were taught about coral gardening and how to protect the reef. Residents said in the survey that the seawall solved the erosion problem, and a study suggests it was a success because the “villagers made all of the decisions.”\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The big lesson for Wulf-Saena in Saoluafata was that engaging residents in climate change solutions opens the opportunity for them to thrive despite the ever-increasing climate emergency. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s really about being in their shoes … trying to understand their situations, the conflicts, and the barriers that they’re facing. And also working with them to find a way forward,” she said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975435\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1975435\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48287_013_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48287_013_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48287_013_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48287_013_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48287_013_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48287_013_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48287_013_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Climate Resilient Communities Executive Director Violet Wulf-Saena at Cooley Landing Park in East Palo Alto on March 29, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Listening to People Around the Bay\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wulf-Saena moved to California in 2005. Shortly after she took what she learned in Samoa and began applying it to the community of East Palo Alto in San Mateo County, which out of all the Bay Area counties, is the most at risk from sea level rise. The city is one of the most vulnerable to climate-driven inundation. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">About 2.5 square miles, the city is made up of mostly one-story homes. Scientists say in about a decade two-thirds of the city may regularly flood, and by 2050, those areas could be frequently underwater during high tides.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wulf-Saena partnered with Stanford students on a door-to-door climate survey, and she learned that the community did not understand the link between increased flooding and warming temperatures. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“What I found was a lot of the community members didn’t know what climate change was,” she said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Through community meetings and one-on-one peer counseling, local organizations and the county worked to help residents connect the dots. Her team fostered community buy-in for a levee project to protect against future flooding as the bay rises, much like the sea wall in Samoa. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Still, she understands that there’s a large percentage of the population she hasn’t reached; working with other nonprofit groups, she hopes to “help residents plan and respond [to climate change].”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975432\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1975432\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS49260_015_NorthFairOaks_ClimateListening_05102021-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS49260_015_NorthFairOaks_ClimateListening_05102021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS49260_015_NorthFairOaks_ClimateListening_05102021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS49260_015_NorthFairOaks_ClimateListening_05102021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS49260_015_NorthFairOaks_ClimateListening_05102021-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS49260_015_NorthFairOaks_ClimateListening_05102021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS49260_015_NorthFairOaks_ClimateListening_05102021-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An apartment building in North Fair Oaks on May 10, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>‘The Community Knows Best’\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A similar listening session occurred 15 minutes north of East Palo Alto in the community of North Fair Oaks. In 2018, San Mateo County announced the community would receive a $50,000 grant to study climate change-related flooding impacts. The contract was finalized in 2019. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But when advocates and Stanford students once again went door to door, they were surprised with what residents like Linda Lopez, who moved to the community in 1959 when she was 9 years old, told them. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Their climate concern? Heat and smoke from wildfires, not flooding.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I just wasn’t thinking about [sea level rise] because we’ve never had any degree of flooding,” she said. “We think we live far enough from the (San Francisco) Bay that if it did rise, it’s not going to affect us.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Climate models show water encroaching only on the eastern edge of North Fair Oaks as the seas rise by mid-century. (Although, flooding could block roads and create other transportation problems, cutting off access to food.) \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Smaller than a couple square miles and home to roughly 15,000 people, the main drag of North Fair Oaks is a predominantly Latino area, lined with taquerias, paleterias and joyerias. But what’s noticeably missing are trees, says Ever Rodriguez, chair of the volunteer \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://dev.nfoc.nimbusdesign.com/about-north-fair-oaks/north-fair-oaks-community-council\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">North Fair Oaks Community Council.\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">North Fair Oaks borders Menlo Park to the south, which he describes as a “more affluent area” with many “beautiful oaks” and other trees.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Here on this side, there aren’t any trees, really. Just all cement and asphalt,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is where that fundamental part of conversation comes in again. The organizers realized they had to listen. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Early research questions were centered around flooding, but the community insisted that the blistering heat was the more imminent problem. Organizers say the community feedback helped them convince the county that the most immediate climate risk for North Fair Oaks was heat. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Community leaders and the county began working with \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://canopy.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Canopy\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a nonprofit, to reduce temperatures by planting free trees in people’s yards. Temps in North Fair Oaks, a heat island, are higher than surrounding areas.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With little shade from sparse greenery, black asphalt streets and cement sidewalks absorb sunlight, radiating heat out into the neighborhoods.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The community knows best and I think all public servants need to be guided by listening,” Rodriguez said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rodriguez is in the process of helping organize climate change ambassadors on each block of North Fair Oaks. He wants every resident to be prepared for when the effects of climate change — fire, floods, drought, smoke — inevitably worsen. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975438\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1975438 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS49270_025_NorthFairOaks_ClimateListening_05102021-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS49270_025_NorthFairOaks_ClimateListening_05102021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS49270_025_NorthFairOaks_ClimateListening_05102021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS49270_025_NorthFairOaks_ClimateListening_05102021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS49270_025_NorthFairOaks_ClimateListening_05102021-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS49270_025_NorthFairOaks_ClimateListening_05102021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS49270_025_NorthFairOaks_ClimateListening_05102021-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A new tree planted in front of a home in North Fair Oaks on May 10, 2021. The tree was provided by the not-for-profit Canopy, which plants trees in urban environments in the mid-Peninsula region. (Beth LeBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>‘Partly a Problem of Consent’\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But why is it important for scientists and government leaders to listen to communities while creating climate solutions? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.brittwray.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Britt Wray\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> says listening replaces the mindset that the government or scientists know best. She studies the mental health impacts of climate change as a postdoc at Stanford University and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wray says listening to people is about moving past the “dark legacies” that have shaped the climate crisis and figuring out “why it hurts some people more than others,” referring to the world’s dependence on fossil fuels, corporations valuing wealth over people’s health, and how \u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/-in-california-extreme-heat-and-ozone-pollution-hit-poor-communities-hardest\">low-income people are more negatively affected by a changing climate\u003c/a>. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Domination is the predominant force in this crisis, as compared with true partnership that centers around human values like reciprocity, trust, dignity and respect,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wray says listening empowers people to come up with climate solutions that better life at the neighborhood level. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We can actually start moving towards the world that isn’t the one we’ve been living in, but the one that we want to live in,” she said. “We can’t do that without listening deeply to the people who are most affected.”\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://seas.umich.edu/research/faculty/kyle-whyte\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kyle Powys Whyte\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, listening to people is about restoring consent. He’s an \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation in Oklahoma, and \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">as a University of Michigan professor, he studies the moral and political issues around climate policy, and Indigenous people.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He says the issue of climate change in the country’s history “was created not just because people were addicted to the benefits of fossil fuels, but they were also addicted to getting away with taking advantage of Indigenous people and other groups without those people’s consent.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He says the consent issue hasn’t improved and he’s concerned “that we actually haven’t gotten out of the situation that got us into the climate crisis, and it’s partly a problem of consent,” he said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Whyte is on the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/ceq/news-updates/2021/03/29/white-house-announces-environmental-justice-advisory-council-members/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> advising the administration on the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/31/fact-sheet-the-american-jobs-plan/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">American Jobs Plan\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which calls for 40% of the proposal’s benefits to go to communities affected by environmental justice. He says his role is to remind the team that these projects will take longer to implement because these communities already have an infrastructure deficit because of a lack of federal investment — like, inadequate roads, housing and transmission lines. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“People haven’t listened to tribes for years and they don’t understand the current infrastructure situation that tribes are in,” he said. “They’re about to consider spending billions of dollars and it could just be wasted if our policymakers and legislators aren’t listening to what tribes are going to actually need to be able to use and benefit from the renewable energy and clean water infrastructure being advocated for right now in Washington.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975436\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1975436\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48282_008_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48282_008_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48282_008_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48282_008_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48282_008_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48282_008_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48282_008_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A family looks out into the bay from Cooley Landing Park in East Palo Alto on March 29, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The Wake-Up Call\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wulf-Saena and Stanford lecturer \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://profiles.stanford.edu/derek-ouyang\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Derek Ouyang\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> will soon start recruiting 500 families for a big listening project over the next five years in Redwood City, East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Alviso in San Jose. They’ll routinely check in with participants to see how climate change is challenging their lives. Participants have the option to be contacted through an app, over the phone or in-person. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ouyang had a major realization several years ago that if his research doesn’t help regular people he feels like it’s worthless. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Listening from the bottom up ensures that you’re identifying the most important challenges that communities are facing and the most feasible, and holistic solution,” he said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He hopes the study illuminates blind spots to exactly what impacts floods, heat waves and wildfires can have on the most housing insecure.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The only way to really understand the deep underlying challenges households face is if you can really follow them for the next few years, until those events inevitably occur,” he said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The team of scientists, students and community organizers will lead the five-year study to examine the social and psychological effects of climate exposure, while building relationships with the families as warming alters their lives. The goal is to come up with the best solutions with the families involved.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Our hypothesis is that we’ll find that the things that work are exactly the kinds of things that organizations like Climate Resilient Communities are best poised to offer,” he said. “Because they look like the neighborhood, they’re more trusted and have built those networks already.”\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He thinks that the impacts of climate change are being felt “much deeper than we like to admit right now” and could “look like [families] increasingly foregoing healthy food and the kinds of care you want to provide for your children,” he said. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ouyang wants to examine how vulnerable communities in the South Bay really are, and if they need greater access to mental health services, sandbags for flood times, ventilators for smoky times, and cooling centers for hot times. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wulf-Saena says that she’s involved because she believes it will lead to solutions for people.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m also on the other side protecting the interests of the communities,” she said. “I’m there thinking, ‘Okay, Stanford, this is not just a study.’ Whatever the outcome of this project will be, let’s have something that will give back to the communities that we’re going to work with.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Leaders in the South Bay are trying out a radical new approach to designing climate solutions. ",
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"title": "'Communities Know Best': Climate Solutions in The South Bay Start With Listening | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the South Bay grapples with the impacts of climate change, people there are creating solutions by relying on arguably the most fundamental element of conversation: listening.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This process began in East Palo Alto, where community groups and scientists are helping residents understand how warming temperatures are raising water levels in the bay — already half the city lies in a federal flood zone. And the idea is now spreading to nearby communities like North Fair Oaks, a small unincorporated area of mostly neighborhoods. Soon, it will expand into a regional science project where hundreds of residents will document how climate change is altering their lives over the next five years. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The listening project is led by \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.climatercommunities.org/staff\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Violet Wulf-Saena,\u003c/span>\u003c/a> founder and executive director of the\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> nonprofit \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.climatercommunities.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Climate Resilient Communities\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Her group advocates for climate change solutions that integrate the communities most affected by warming temperatures in the Bay Area. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“There’s a lot of power in the community,” she said. “They are the ones who are being impacted. They’re the ones who live in East Palo Alto, they know more than me. They are the experts. … Success is really about bringing the community together and finding ways where they can also be part of the process.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Too often, she says, climate change policies are top-down approaches that forgo meaningful exchanges with the people who are going to have to live with solutions created for \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">them\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wulf-Saena’s primary mode for closing that gap is conversation. It works, she says, because her team looks like the communities they work with. She’s from Samoa and emigrated to the U.S. to be closer to her husband’s family nearly two decades ago.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s easier for me, because I’m a person of color and I do come from the island,” she said. “They see that: ‘Oh, yeah, she’s part of us.’”\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Last April, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1973805/climate-solutions-in-east-palo-alto\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">I met Wulf-Saena while speaking with residents who came to East Palo Alto after fleeing flooding and sea level rise back home in the Pacific Islands\u003c/a>, only to find that in the coming decades they could be climate migrants for a second time. One of those residents is Appollonia Grey ‘Uhilamoelangi, known as Mama Dee.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The last two floods over here, the question is, where was God?’ she said. “Don’t get me wrong. I believe in prayers. But I lived through so many disasters.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I learned East Palo Alto is ahead of some other Bay Area cities in planning for rising tides — thanks in large part to the community activism of those who emigrated to this small city along the bay.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975434\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1975434\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48316_043_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48316_043_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48316_043_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48316_043_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48316_043_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48316_043_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48316_043_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Appollonia Grey ‘Uhilamoelangi, known as “Mama Dee,” and her husband, Senita Uhila, at their home in East Palo Alto on March 29, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>It Began in Samoa\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This idea of listening isn’t new. People likely listened (or, \u003cem>didn’t\u003c/em> listen) \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">before they even learned to write.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> But Wulf-Saena experienced an epiphany about the power of listening when she was Samoa’s first climate change officer in the early 2000s.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The government she represented wanted to move the village of Saoluafata, located on the north side of the island Upolu, upland and away from an eroding shoreline — a problem that would be exacerbated as climate change pushed tide levels even higher. Already, residents reported waves washing away the land and encroaching on homes, according to a study titled \u003ca href=\"https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2084&context=isp_collection\">“Seawalls in Samoa\u003c/a>.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While drinking kava — usually sipped to mark important occasions within Samoan society — with elders of the village in Saoluafata, Wulf-Saena quickly learned they didn’t want to move inland.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Being able to stay on their ancestral land is more important than adapting or moving to another place where their families can be safe,” she explained. “In the end, we compromised.”\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The solution? A \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/k9WcaStolhY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">seawall the length of 22 San Francisco city blocks constructed of boulders\u003c/a> piled on top of sand that allowed the villagers to stay. The coastline was revegetated, the village water tank was upgraded and residents were taught about coral gardening and how to protect the reef. Residents said in the survey that the seawall solved the erosion problem, and a study suggests it was a success because the “villagers made all of the decisions.”\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The big lesson for Wulf-Saena in Saoluafata was that engaging residents in climate change solutions opens the opportunity for them to thrive despite the ever-increasing climate emergency. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s really about being in their shoes … trying to understand their situations, the conflicts, and the barriers that they’re facing. And also working with them to find a way forward,” she said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975435\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1975435\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48287_013_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48287_013_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48287_013_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48287_013_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48287_013_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48287_013_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48287_013_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Climate Resilient Communities Executive Director Violet Wulf-Saena at Cooley Landing Park in East Palo Alto on March 29, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Listening to People Around the Bay\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wulf-Saena moved to California in 2005. Shortly after she took what she learned in Samoa and began applying it to the community of East Palo Alto in San Mateo County, which out of all the Bay Area counties, is the most at risk from sea level rise. The city is one of the most vulnerable to climate-driven inundation. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">About 2.5 square miles, the city is made up of mostly one-story homes. Scientists say in about a decade two-thirds of the city may regularly flood, and by 2050, those areas could be frequently underwater during high tides.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wulf-Saena partnered with Stanford students on a door-to-door climate survey, and she learned that the community did not understand the link between increased flooding and warming temperatures. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“What I found was a lot of the community members didn’t know what climate change was,” she said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Through community meetings and one-on-one peer counseling, local organizations and the county worked to help residents connect the dots. Her team fostered community buy-in for a levee project to protect against future flooding as the bay rises, much like the sea wall in Samoa. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Still, she understands that there’s a large percentage of the population she hasn’t reached; working with other nonprofit groups, she hopes to “help residents plan and respond [to climate change].”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975432\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1975432\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS49260_015_NorthFairOaks_ClimateListening_05102021-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS49260_015_NorthFairOaks_ClimateListening_05102021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS49260_015_NorthFairOaks_ClimateListening_05102021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS49260_015_NorthFairOaks_ClimateListening_05102021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS49260_015_NorthFairOaks_ClimateListening_05102021-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS49260_015_NorthFairOaks_ClimateListening_05102021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS49260_015_NorthFairOaks_ClimateListening_05102021-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An apartment building in North Fair Oaks on May 10, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>‘The Community Knows Best’\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A similar listening session occurred 15 minutes north of East Palo Alto in the community of North Fair Oaks. In 2018, San Mateo County announced the community would receive a $50,000 grant to study climate change-related flooding impacts. The contract was finalized in 2019. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But when advocates and Stanford students once again went door to door, they were surprised with what residents like Linda Lopez, who moved to the community in 1959 when she was 9 years old, told them. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Their climate concern? Heat and smoke from wildfires, not flooding.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I just wasn’t thinking about [sea level rise] because we’ve never had any degree of flooding,” she said. “We think we live far enough from the (San Francisco) Bay that if it did rise, it’s not going to affect us.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Climate models show water encroaching only on the eastern edge of North Fair Oaks as the seas rise by mid-century. (Although, flooding could block roads and create other transportation problems, cutting off access to food.) \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Smaller than a couple square miles and home to roughly 15,000 people, the main drag of North Fair Oaks is a predominantly Latino area, lined with taquerias, paleterias and joyerias. But what’s noticeably missing are trees, says Ever Rodriguez, chair of the volunteer \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://dev.nfoc.nimbusdesign.com/about-north-fair-oaks/north-fair-oaks-community-council\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">North Fair Oaks Community Council.\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">North Fair Oaks borders Menlo Park to the south, which he describes as a “more affluent area” with many “beautiful oaks” and other trees.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Here on this side, there aren’t any trees, really. Just all cement and asphalt,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is where that fundamental part of conversation comes in again. The organizers realized they had to listen. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Early research questions were centered around flooding, but the community insisted that the blistering heat was the more imminent problem. Organizers say the community feedback helped them convince the county that the most immediate climate risk for North Fair Oaks was heat. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Community leaders and the county began working with \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://canopy.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Canopy\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a nonprofit, to reduce temperatures by planting free trees in people’s yards. Temps in North Fair Oaks, a heat island, are higher than surrounding areas.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With little shade from sparse greenery, black asphalt streets and cement sidewalks absorb sunlight, radiating heat out into the neighborhoods.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The community knows best and I think all public servants need to be guided by listening,” Rodriguez said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rodriguez is in the process of helping organize climate change ambassadors on each block of North Fair Oaks. He wants every resident to be prepared for when the effects of climate change — fire, floods, drought, smoke — inevitably worsen. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975438\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1975438 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS49270_025_NorthFairOaks_ClimateListening_05102021-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS49270_025_NorthFairOaks_ClimateListening_05102021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS49270_025_NorthFairOaks_ClimateListening_05102021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS49270_025_NorthFairOaks_ClimateListening_05102021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS49270_025_NorthFairOaks_ClimateListening_05102021-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS49270_025_NorthFairOaks_ClimateListening_05102021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS49270_025_NorthFairOaks_ClimateListening_05102021-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A new tree planted in front of a home in North Fair Oaks on May 10, 2021. The tree was provided by the not-for-profit Canopy, which plants trees in urban environments in the mid-Peninsula region. (Beth LeBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>‘Partly a Problem of Consent’\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But why is it important for scientists and government leaders to listen to communities while creating climate solutions? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.brittwray.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Britt Wray\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> says listening replaces the mindset that the government or scientists know best. She studies the mental health impacts of climate change as a postdoc at Stanford University and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wray says listening to people is about moving past the “dark legacies” that have shaped the climate crisis and figuring out “why it hurts some people more than others,” referring to the world’s dependence on fossil fuels, corporations valuing wealth over people’s health, and how \u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/-in-california-extreme-heat-and-ozone-pollution-hit-poor-communities-hardest\">low-income people are more negatively affected by a changing climate\u003c/a>. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Domination is the predominant force in this crisis, as compared with true partnership that centers around human values like reciprocity, trust, dignity and respect,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wray says listening empowers people to come up with climate solutions that better life at the neighborhood level. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We can actually start moving towards the world that isn’t the one we’ve been living in, but the one that we want to live in,” she said. “We can’t do that without listening deeply to the people who are most affected.”\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://seas.umich.edu/research/faculty/kyle-whyte\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kyle Powys Whyte\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, listening to people is about restoring consent. He’s an \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation in Oklahoma, and \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">as a University of Michigan professor, he studies the moral and political issues around climate policy, and Indigenous people.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He says the issue of climate change in the country’s history “was created not just because people were addicted to the benefits of fossil fuels, but they were also addicted to getting away with taking advantage of Indigenous people and other groups without those people’s consent.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He says the consent issue hasn’t improved and he’s concerned “that we actually haven’t gotten out of the situation that got us into the climate crisis, and it’s partly a problem of consent,” he said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Whyte is on the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/ceq/news-updates/2021/03/29/white-house-announces-environmental-justice-advisory-council-members/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> advising the administration on the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/31/fact-sheet-the-american-jobs-plan/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">American Jobs Plan\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which calls for 40% of the proposal’s benefits to go to communities affected by environmental justice. He says his role is to remind the team that these projects will take longer to implement because these communities already have an infrastructure deficit because of a lack of federal investment — like, inadequate roads, housing and transmission lines. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“People haven’t listened to tribes for years and they don’t understand the current infrastructure situation that tribes are in,” he said. “They’re about to consider spending billions of dollars and it could just be wasted if our policymakers and legislators aren’t listening to what tribes are going to actually need to be able to use and benefit from the renewable energy and clean water infrastructure being advocated for right now in Washington.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975436\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1975436\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48282_008_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48282_008_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48282_008_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48282_008_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48282_008_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48282_008_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/RS48282_008_EastPaloAlto_SeaLevelRise_03292021-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A family looks out into the bay from Cooley Landing Park in East Palo Alto on March 29, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The Wake-Up Call\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wulf-Saena and Stanford lecturer \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://profiles.stanford.edu/derek-ouyang\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Derek Ouyang\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> will soon start recruiting 500 families for a big listening project over the next five years in Redwood City, East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Alviso in San Jose. They’ll routinely check in with participants to see how climate change is challenging their lives. Participants have the option to be contacted through an app, over the phone or in-person. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ouyang had a major realization several years ago that if his research doesn’t help regular people he feels like it’s worthless. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Listening from the bottom up ensures that you’re identifying the most important challenges that communities are facing and the most feasible, and holistic solution,” he said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He hopes the study illuminates blind spots to exactly what impacts floods, heat waves and wildfires can have on the most housing insecure.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The only way to really understand the deep underlying challenges households face is if you can really follow them for the next few years, until those events inevitably occur,” he said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The team of scientists, students and community organizers will lead the five-year study to examine the social and psychological effects of climate exposure, while building relationships with the families as warming alters their lives. The goal is to come up with the best solutions with the families involved.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Our hypothesis is that we’ll find that the things that work are exactly the kinds of things that organizations like Climate Resilient Communities are best poised to offer,” he said. “Because they look like the neighborhood, they’re more trusted and have built those networks already.”\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He thinks that the impacts of climate change are being felt “much deeper than we like to admit right now” and could “look like [families] increasingly foregoing healthy food and the kinds of care you want to provide for your children,” he said. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ouyang wants to examine how vulnerable communities in the South Bay really are, and if they need greater access to mental health services, sandbags for flood times, ventilators for smoky times, and cooling centers for hot times. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wulf-Saena says that she’s involved because she believes it will lead to solutions for people.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m also on the other side protecting the interests of the communities,” she said. “I’m there thinking, ‘Okay, Stanford, this is not just a study.’ Whatever the outcome of this project will be, let’s have something that will give back to the communities that we’re going to work with.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "young-activists-march-from-paradise-to-sf-in-100-degree-heat-to-protest-climate-crisis",
"title": "Young Activists March From Paradise to SF in 100 Degree Heat to Protest Climate Crisis",
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"content": "\u003cp>A climate justice march led by a small group of young activists that began in Paradise ended in San Francisco on Monday, after more than 100 climate activists from the youth-led Sunrise Movement marched across the Golden Gate Bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The young activists are calling on California lawmakers to support the “most progressive version possible” of President Biden’s plan to retool former President Franklin Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps, a Great Depression-era program that created jobs by putting people to work building roads and bridges, installing telephone lines and establishing campgrounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Biden administration has proposed a $10 billion revamp called the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/05/11/993976948/reaching-back-to-the-new-deal-biden-proposes-a-civilian-climate-corps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Civilian Climate Corps,\u003c/a> a program geared toward fighting climate change by employing people to restore wetlands and remove invasive species.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975380\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1975380\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/048_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/048_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/048_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/048_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/048_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/048_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/048_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Climate activists on the final leg of a march from Paradise to San Francisco on June 14, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Seven of the marchers began walking the 266-mile stretch \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11875863/a-266-mile-walk-youth-climate-activists-march-from-paradise-to-san-francisco\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">last month\u003c/span>\u003c/a> as part of a national campaign called \u003ca href=\"https://www.sunrisemovement.org/campaign/generation-on-fire/\">Generation on Fire\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their ranks swelled to more than 20 last week, with dozens more joining for the final leg, many of them beating drums and singing as they crossed from Marin to San Francisco over the iconic bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the marchers, Ema Govea, a 17-year-old high school student from Santa Rosa, spoke with KQED’s Brian Watt last week. The following has been lightly edited for length and clarity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975377\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1975377\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/029_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/029_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/029_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/029_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/029_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/029_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/029_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Santa Rosa resident Ema Govea,17, speaks before the marchers by the Golden Gate Bridge on June 14, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>How did this idea come together? You’re walking from Paradise? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Ema Govea:\u003c/em> We are really excited to have started in Paradise because it’s such a flashpoint for all the [conversations around] fire in California. And this idea really came together out of an urgency of really wanting to do something as big as we can. I was really excited to organize this march and participate in it. We walked so far because we have an opportunity right now politically, and as young people at this moment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Paradise is a very important place to start a march like this. But I’m thinking about your feet. How are you feeling at this moment after all this walking?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Govea:\u003c/em> The first week was over 100 degrees and I had a lot of blisters. I was really feeling it. At this point, my legs have gotten used to it. And thinking about what we’re fighting for, plans that we have for the future, and future actions has kept me going. It honestly doesn’t matter if my legs are sore or if my feet hurt, at this point.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975381\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1975381\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/006_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/006_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/006_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/006_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/006_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/006_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/006_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students from Analy High School in Sebastopol sit at the Golden Gate Bridge Vista Point. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>I imagine you’ve done some travels like this through California by car on a freeway. What did you notice about the landscape as you walked?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Govea:\u003c/em> One thing that was especially amazing was talking to people in towns who I would have never met before. We walked through some of the reddest parts of the state and had really amazing conversations with a lot of people. Also, we passed hills that had burned, trees that were all black and didn’t have any growth on them — it really brought home what is at stake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>When you say walking through and meeting people in some of the reddest parts of the state, I think I know what you mean. But what kinds of feedback did you get on your march from the people you met?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Govea:\u003c/em> We would walk by and we have these big flags. People would ask us: “What are you doing?” We would say: “We’re marching to San Francisco and we’re demanding good jobs to stop the climate crisis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that would start a conversation with a lot of people. And we would talk to them about what jobs are like in their areas. A lot of times the job opportunities are not great. A lot of people, regardless of political affiliation, were really supportive of the cause.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975382\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1975382 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/057_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/057_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/057_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/057_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/057_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/057_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/057_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The rally was the culmination of a 266-mile march from Paradise, California, to San Francisco led by seven youth activists. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You’re in this group of seven people who are around your age. And in what way does your experience growing up in California shape how you’re doing this work for climate justice?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Govea:\u003c/em> I am really grateful for this group of seven people. And now, actually, as we’re speaking, there’s an even larger group of over 20 people who are now marching with us, who have joined us along the way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Your group grew as you walked, is what you’re telling us?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It started with a group of seven and now we’re around 30 people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975383\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1975383 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/050_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/050_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/050_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/050_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/050_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/050_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/050_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The young climate activists prepare to cross the Golden Gate Bridge. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You’re doing all of this while you are a high school student. I’m kind of curious how you were thinking about this issue during the pandemic?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Govea:\u003c/em> The pandemic and the recession that has come along with it has really shown the inequalities people face in this county. I have talked to a lot of people who’ve lost their jobs and who have even more instability than they had before. And there’s a need right now for good paying jobs. And the Civilian Climate Corps would be one of those things that could provide really good paying union jobs that would also benefit society.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Now, you want to end this march, crossing the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco — all in support of the Civilian Climate Corps. What do you make of congressional action on the issue?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Govea:\u003c/em> It’s been wholly inadequate. We’re demanding that our politicians step up and be brave and pass the boldest version of the Climate Corps possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office told KQED that “congressional Democrats support the goals of the Civilian Climate Corps and look forward to working with the administration to enact it in the jobs plan.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A climate justice march led by a small group of young activists that began in Paradise ended in San Francisco on Monday, after more than 100 climate activists from the youth-led Sunrise Movement marched across the Golden Gate Bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The young activists are calling on California lawmakers to support the “most progressive version possible” of President Biden’s plan to retool former President Franklin Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps, a Great Depression-era program that created jobs by putting people to work building roads and bridges, installing telephone lines and establishing campgrounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Biden administration has proposed a $10 billion revamp called the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/05/11/993976948/reaching-back-to-the-new-deal-biden-proposes-a-civilian-climate-corps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Civilian Climate Corps,\u003c/a> a program geared toward fighting climate change by employing people to restore wetlands and remove invasive species.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975380\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1975380\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/048_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/048_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/048_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/048_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/048_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/048_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/048_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Climate activists on the final leg of a march from Paradise to San Francisco on June 14, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Seven of the marchers began walking the 266-mile stretch \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11875863/a-266-mile-walk-youth-climate-activists-march-from-paradise-to-san-francisco\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">last month\u003c/span>\u003c/a> as part of a national campaign called \u003ca href=\"https://www.sunrisemovement.org/campaign/generation-on-fire/\">Generation on Fire\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their ranks swelled to more than 20 last week, with dozens more joining for the final leg, many of them beating drums and singing as they crossed from Marin to San Francisco over the iconic bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the marchers, Ema Govea, a 17-year-old high school student from Santa Rosa, spoke with KQED’s Brian Watt last week. The following has been lightly edited for length and clarity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975377\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1975377\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/029_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/029_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/029_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/029_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/029_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/029_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/029_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Santa Rosa resident Ema Govea,17, speaks before the marchers by the Golden Gate Bridge on June 14, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>How did this idea come together? You’re walking from Paradise? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Ema Govea:\u003c/em> We are really excited to have started in Paradise because it’s such a flashpoint for all the [conversations around] fire in California. And this idea really came together out of an urgency of really wanting to do something as big as we can. I was really excited to organize this march and participate in it. We walked so far because we have an opportunity right now politically, and as young people at this moment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Paradise is a very important place to start a march like this. But I’m thinking about your feet. How are you feeling at this moment after all this walking?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Govea:\u003c/em> The first week was over 100 degrees and I had a lot of blisters. I was really feeling it. At this point, my legs have gotten used to it. And thinking about what we’re fighting for, plans that we have for the future, and future actions has kept me going. It honestly doesn’t matter if my legs are sore or if my feet hurt, at this point.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975381\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1975381\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/006_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/006_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/006_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/006_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/006_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/006_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/006_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students from Analy High School in Sebastopol sit at the Golden Gate Bridge Vista Point. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>I imagine you’ve done some travels like this through California by car on a freeway. What did you notice about the landscape as you walked?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Govea:\u003c/em> One thing that was especially amazing was talking to people in towns who I would have never met before. We walked through some of the reddest parts of the state and had really amazing conversations with a lot of people. Also, we passed hills that had burned, trees that were all black and didn’t have any growth on them — it really brought home what is at stake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>When you say walking through and meeting people in some of the reddest parts of the state, I think I know what you mean. But what kinds of feedback did you get on your march from the people you met?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Govea:\u003c/em> We would walk by and we have these big flags. People would ask us: “What are you doing?” We would say: “We’re marching to San Francisco and we’re demanding good jobs to stop the climate crisis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that would start a conversation with a lot of people. And we would talk to them about what jobs are like in their areas. A lot of times the job opportunities are not great. A lot of people, regardless of political affiliation, were really supportive of the cause.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975382\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1975382 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/057_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/057_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/057_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/057_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/057_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/057_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/057_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The rally was the culmination of a 266-mile march from Paradise, California, to San Francisco led by seven youth activists. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You’re in this group of seven people who are around your age. And in what way does your experience growing up in California shape how you’re doing this work for climate justice?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Govea:\u003c/em> I am really grateful for this group of seven people. And now, actually, as we’re speaking, there’s an even larger group of over 20 people who are now marching with us, who have joined us along the way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Your group grew as you walked, is what you’re telling us?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It started with a group of seven and now we’re around 30 people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975383\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1975383 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/050_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/050_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/050_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/050_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/050_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/050_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/06/050_SanFrancisco_YouthClimateActivists_06142021.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The young climate activists prepare to cross the Golden Gate Bridge. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You’re doing all of this while you are a high school student. I’m kind of curious how you were thinking about this issue during the pandemic?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Govea:\u003c/em> The pandemic and the recession that has come along with it has really shown the inequalities people face in this county. I have talked to a lot of people who’ve lost their jobs and who have even more instability than they had before. And there’s a need right now for good paying jobs. And the Civilian Climate Corps would be one of those things that could provide really good paying union jobs that would also benefit society.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Now, you want to end this march, crossing the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco — all in support of the Civilian Climate Corps. What do you make of congressional action on the issue?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Govea:\u003c/em> It’s been wholly inadequate. We’re demanding that our politicians step up and be brave and pass the boldest version of the Climate Corps possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office told KQED that “congressional Democrats support the goals of the Civilian Climate Corps and look forward to working with the administration to enact it in the jobs plan.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "California Not Doing as Well as It Thinks in Reducing Carbon, Investigation Finds",
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"content": "\u003cp>In her latest investigation, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Lisa Song \u003ca href=\"https://www.propublica.org/article/the-climate-solution-actually-adding-millions-of-tons-of-co2-into-the-atmosphere\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">reports\u003c/span>\u003c/a> that millions of carbon credits generated by California’s cap-and-trade program do not represent real reductions in planet-warming gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Song writes that these “ghost credits” allowed the industry to emit unaccounted for emissions that are the equivalent of adding millions of cars to the road.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those ghost credits represent nearly one-in-three credits issued through California’s primary forest offset program, highlighting systemic flaws in the rules and suggesting widespread gaming of the market,” Song writes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The story, which was co-reported with James Temple of MIT Technology Review, relies on \u003ca href=\"https://carbonplan.org/research/forest-offsets-explainer\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">data\u003c/span>\u003c/a> from the Bay Area nonprofit research group Carbon Plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group’s calculations found that because of flaws in the rules, between 20 million and 39 million carbon credits awarded to landowners don’t achieve real climate benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Danny Cullenward, Carbon Plan’s director, told Song that California’s forest offsets program is increasing greenhouse gas emissions “despite being a large part of the state’s strategy for reducing climate pollution.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The program creates the false appearance of progress when in fact it makes the climate problem worse,” Cullenward said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20705679-response-propublica-05102021-sy-final\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">response\u003c/span>\u003c/a> to the ProPublica story, the California Air Resources Board aggressively defended the program, writing that the carbon credits “represent real, quantifiable, permanent, verifiable, enforceable, and additional CO2 reductions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the board did not ask ProPublica for any corrections, as Song and Temple note in their \u003ca href=\"https://www.propublica.org/article/the-california-air-resources-board-challenges-our-carbon-credits-investigations-we-respond\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">response\u003c/span>\u003c/a> to CARB’s complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED’s Brian Watt on Thursday interviewed Song about the investigation. The following has been lightly edited for length and clarity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>First, let’s just do a quick review of how cap and trade and the carbon credits work.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003cbr>\nCap and trade is one of the main programs that California has for reducing its carbon emissions. Every year there’s a statewide limit on the CO2 emissions allowed from major industry. Companies in those industries have to buy permits to emit a certain amount of CO2. Companies can trade those permits with each other or buy and sell them. There is flexibility company-to-company as part of the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With carbon offsets, companies are allowed to pay somebody else, to reduce CO2 emissions somewhere else, instead of reducing the emissions themselves. There’s a limit to how many offsets each industry can buy per year. This is where the forest carbon offsets come in, because landowners anywhere in the country can start an offset project where they find ways to manage their forests to store or prevent carbon emissions and quantify the carbon savings from those projects. Then those polluters in California can buy those carbon offsets and use them, theoretically, to cancel out a ton of their real CO2 emissions.\u003cbr>\n\u003cb>\u003cbr>\nWhat part of this system is going wrong? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The problem is that the way the rules are written in how the state of California quantifies the carbon offsets, there are flaws that are allowing these projects to generate far more carbon savings than they deserve. So they’re generating a bunch of empty carbon credits that aren’t actually canceling out the real tons of emissions coming out of these polluters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You write that it isn’t that companies are actually cheating the system, it’s flaws within the system.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The people who buy these carbon credits are major polluters in the state, like refineries and power plants. They are not the ones cheating the system. The problem is deeper and has to do with flaws in the rules as they were written.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What rules could have been written better to make this work?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This gets to some pretty complicated science. But essentially the way you earn credits is if you’re a landowner, you can say, here’s a forest that I have and I was going to cut it down. But now, in exchange for carbon credits, I will save the forest or reduce logging so that it is preserving more carbon than it otherwise would have. As a landowner, you calculate how much carbon per acre is stored in your forest and you compare that to the amount of carbon per acre stored in a forest that is typical — that is, one that is similar to your forest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These kinds of baseline forests are called regional averages, and the Air Resources Board calculates the regional averages for many different types of forests across the country. The problem is those regional average numbers are done using very coarse data that doesn’t take into account a lot of the nuances between different types of forests. And as a result, you are seeing a pattern where a lot of projects are being done in places where the trees hold so much more carbon than the regional average. It’s inflating the carbon savings generated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>State officials stand by the policy and do not agree with the conclusions of your report, noting that the research hasn’t been formally peer reviewed.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Knowing that the study was not peer reviewed, we put in place our own peer review system. When the first completed draft of the study was done, we took it from Carbon Plan and we sent it to several independent scientists in academia. These are all people who had not worked with Carbon Plan, who didn’t know Carbon Plan, and we were able to send them the studies and get their independent analysis to make sure the study was sound and the methodology was good. And only after we got that did we then fully take on the project and the story and fully confirm that we wanted to write this story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The state notes that its program has protected hundreds of millions of trees, and Native American tribes have used proceeds from the program to buy back traditional tribal forests. These are good things, right? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These are unquestionably good things. And the study and our reporting doesn’t criticize any of that. I think it’s important to point out that with this forest offset program you are trying to achieve carbon savings and help the climate. But in the process of doing that, you are also creating good benefits for forest conservation and for many Native American tribes. The story isn’t about how you can only have one thing or the other. Our story goes into great detail about these conservation and cultural co-benefits. The real question is: Should we be more honest about the actual carbon savings coming out of these projects? We have some folks in the story quoted who are saying that it’s absolutely worthwhile to fund these conservation goals and absolutely worthwhile to bring more resources to tribes so they can do things like buy back their ancestral land. But should that be tied to a flawed program where we’re overpromising the carbon savings achieved?\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In her latest investigation, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Lisa Song \u003ca href=\"https://www.propublica.org/article/the-climate-solution-actually-adding-millions-of-tons-of-co2-into-the-atmosphere\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">reports\u003c/span>\u003c/a> that millions of carbon credits generated by California’s cap-and-trade program do not represent real reductions in planet-warming gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Song writes that these “ghost credits” allowed the industry to emit unaccounted for emissions that are the equivalent of adding millions of cars to the road.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those ghost credits represent nearly one-in-three credits issued through California’s primary forest offset program, highlighting systemic flaws in the rules and suggesting widespread gaming of the market,” Song writes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The story, which was co-reported with James Temple of MIT Technology Review, relies on \u003ca href=\"https://carbonplan.org/research/forest-offsets-explainer\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">data\u003c/span>\u003c/a> from the Bay Area nonprofit research group Carbon Plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group’s calculations found that because of flaws in the rules, between 20 million and 39 million carbon credits awarded to landowners don’t achieve real climate benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Danny Cullenward, Carbon Plan’s director, told Song that California’s forest offsets program is increasing greenhouse gas emissions “despite being a large part of the state’s strategy for reducing climate pollution.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The program creates the false appearance of progress when in fact it makes the climate problem worse,” Cullenward said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20705679-response-propublica-05102021-sy-final\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">response\u003c/span>\u003c/a> to the ProPublica story, the California Air Resources Board aggressively defended the program, writing that the carbon credits “represent real, quantifiable, permanent, verifiable, enforceable, and additional CO2 reductions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the board did not ask ProPublica for any corrections, as Song and Temple note in their \u003ca href=\"https://www.propublica.org/article/the-california-air-resources-board-challenges-our-carbon-credits-investigations-we-respond\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">response\u003c/span>\u003c/a> to CARB’s complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED’s Brian Watt on Thursday interviewed Song about the investigation. The following has been lightly edited for length and clarity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>First, let’s just do a quick review of how cap and trade and the carbon credits work.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003cbr>\nCap and trade is one of the main programs that California has for reducing its carbon emissions. Every year there’s a statewide limit on the CO2 emissions allowed from major industry. Companies in those industries have to buy permits to emit a certain amount of CO2. Companies can trade those permits with each other or buy and sell them. There is flexibility company-to-company as part of the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With carbon offsets, companies are allowed to pay somebody else, to reduce CO2 emissions somewhere else, instead of reducing the emissions themselves. There’s a limit to how many offsets each industry can buy per year. This is where the forest carbon offsets come in, because landowners anywhere in the country can start an offset project where they find ways to manage their forests to store or prevent carbon emissions and quantify the carbon savings from those projects. Then those polluters in California can buy those carbon offsets and use them, theoretically, to cancel out a ton of their real CO2 emissions.\u003cbr>\n\u003cb>\u003cbr>\nWhat part of this system is going wrong? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The problem is that the way the rules are written in how the state of California quantifies the carbon offsets, there are flaws that are allowing these projects to generate far more carbon savings than they deserve. So they’re generating a bunch of empty carbon credits that aren’t actually canceling out the real tons of emissions coming out of these polluters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You write that it isn’t that companies are actually cheating the system, it’s flaws within the system.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The people who buy these carbon credits are major polluters in the state, like refineries and power plants. They are not the ones cheating the system. The problem is deeper and has to do with flaws in the rules as they were written.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What rules could have been written better to make this work?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This gets to some pretty complicated science. But essentially the way you earn credits is if you’re a landowner, you can say, here’s a forest that I have and I was going to cut it down. But now, in exchange for carbon credits, I will save the forest or reduce logging so that it is preserving more carbon than it otherwise would have. As a landowner, you calculate how much carbon per acre is stored in your forest and you compare that to the amount of carbon per acre stored in a forest that is typical — that is, one that is similar to your forest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These kinds of baseline forests are called regional averages, and the Air Resources Board calculates the regional averages for many different types of forests across the country. The problem is those regional average numbers are done using very coarse data that doesn’t take into account a lot of the nuances between different types of forests. And as a result, you are seeing a pattern where a lot of projects are being done in places where the trees hold so much more carbon than the regional average. It’s inflating the carbon savings generated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>State officials stand by the policy and do not agree with the conclusions of your report, noting that the research hasn’t been formally peer reviewed.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Knowing that the study was not peer reviewed, we put in place our own peer review system. When the first completed draft of the study was done, we took it from Carbon Plan and we sent it to several independent scientists in academia. These are all people who had not worked with Carbon Plan, who didn’t know Carbon Plan, and we were able to send them the studies and get their independent analysis to make sure the study was sound and the methodology was good. And only after we got that did we then fully take on the project and the story and fully confirm that we wanted to write this story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The state notes that its program has protected hundreds of millions of trees, and Native American tribes have used proceeds from the program to buy back traditional tribal forests. These are good things, right? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These are unquestionably good things. And the study and our reporting doesn’t criticize any of that. I think it’s important to point out that with this forest offset program you are trying to achieve carbon savings and help the climate. But in the process of doing that, you are also creating good benefits for forest conservation and for many Native American tribes. The story isn’t about how you can only have one thing or the other. Our story goes into great detail about these conservation and cultural co-benefits. The real question is: Should we be more honest about the actual carbon savings coming out of these projects? We have some folks in the story quoted who are saying that it’s absolutely worthwhile to fund these conservation goals and absolutely worthwhile to bring more resources to tribes so they can do things like buy back their ancestral land. But should that be tied to a flawed program where we’re overpromising the carbon savings achieved?\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "the-karuk-used-fire-to-manage-the-forest-for-centuries-now-they-want-to-do-that-again",
"title": "The Karuk Used Fire to Manage the Forest for Centuries. Now They Want To Do That Again",
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"headTitle": "The Karuk Used Fire to Manage the Forest for Centuries. Now They Want To Do That Again | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>For thousands of years before contact with Europeans, the Karuk people, like many Native American tribes, tended their land with fire, keeping an ecological balance among plants, animals, river, and forest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Situated along the Klamath River, in Humboldt and Siskyou counties, the Karuk are now struggling \u003ca href=\"https://karuktribeclimatechangeprojects.com/good-fire/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">to renew\u003c/a> their way of life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, nearly 98% of the tribe’s ancestral land is controlled by the U.S. Forest Service. The landscape is overgrown with timber and undermanaged. Out-of-control wildfires have repeatedly decimated the area, a consequence of disallowing native people to wield the tool of intentional burning, say advocates of the practice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scot Steinbring has seen first-hand the results of what happens when wildfire meets an overgrown forest in the area inhabited by the Karuk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In September 2020, as the Slater Fire torched hillsides, Steinbring, the fire management officer for the tribe, was decidedly overmatched.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1974625\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1655-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1974625\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1655-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1655-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1655-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1655-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1655-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1655-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1655-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1655-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" />\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scot Steinbring, fire management officer for the Karuk. \u003ccite>(Danielle Venton/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“In 35 years of being in the fire service,” he said, “I had never witnessed anything like that here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Driven by fierce winds, the fire tore through forests and houses. But because lots of other fires in the state were doing the same, other fire jurisdictions had precious little backup to spare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I remember getting on the radio and going, does everybody know outside what’s going on here?” Steinbring said. “I mean, we’re losing houses and they’re like, ‘We’re sorry, there’s not enough resources. It’s not a priority.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Near a road in the town of Happy Camp, where the fire roared down a hillside and destroyed homes on land belonging to the tribal trust, Will Harling was also firefighting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His assessment of the situation: “There was just no chance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Saved by Fire\" postID=\"science_1973138,science_1973159\"]He indicated a spot across the street where the home of another local firefighter once stood. As the Slater Fire approached, the man frantically tried to pump his pool to wet down the house in a last-ditch effort to save it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I remember we were down there,” Harling said, pointing down the hill, “engaged at the fire’s edge, and he drove back up here through the flames and came back out five minutes later, just tears streaming down his face. ‘It’s all gone, it’s all gone.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rural community of Happy Camp, population about 850, lost a staggering 200 homes and two lives during the Slater Fire. About half of the families in the community, many of them Karuk, lost their homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The sad thing is we had started 20 years ago preparing for this fire,” Harling said. “We knew it was going to come.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1974627\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1974627\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-800x1200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-1920x2880.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-scaled.jpg 1707w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" />\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Will Harling, director of the Mid Klamath Watershed Council. \u003ccite>(Danielle Venton/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Harling directs the \u003ca href=\"http://www.mkwc.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mid Klamath Watershed Council\u003c/a>, a nonprofit dedicated to ecologically restoring the area. He says it wasn’t just the wind working against the small band of firefighters that day. Decades of suppressing fires had left the forests overgrown and primed to burn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The time to do this work is five, ten years before that fire comes,” he said. “Do the fuels-work, follow it up with prescribed fire, get the fuels in a condition where we can actually save homes and not be in the state where we have to just fall back and watch everything burn.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How to Fix the Problem\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local nonprofits and federal and tribal governments know what would make the situation better, because the Karuk \u003ca href=\"https://karuktribeclimatechangeprojects.com/chapter-1-traditional-knowledge-knowledge-sovereignty-and-climate-change-as-strategic-opportunity/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">kept these forests healthy\u003c/a> for thousands of years with prescribed burns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Tribal knowledge carried on in this place and it teaches us how us humans are meant to be in a place,” Harling says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But native burning, used primarily to increase food supply but also to deprive the land of fuel in anticipation of a wildfire, has been outlawed or suppressed since at least the middle of the 1800s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In its first couple of years of statehood, California spent at least two million dollars in state funds to exterminate native people. Miners and white settlers didn’t understand the role fire played in the ecosystem. They stopped, and even shot, Karuk people who lit fires. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Also in the 1850s, the Karuk negotiated a treaty with the federal government. Under pressure from the California governor, Congress refused to ratify it, leaving the tribe without the treaty’s protections, lands and rights. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That legacy is still with the tribe.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Karuk people being stripped from their relationship with fire has had profound effects,” said Bill Tripp, director of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.karuk.us/index.php/departments/natural-resources\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Department of Natural Resources\u003c/a> for the Karuk. “It’s effectively still pushing us out of our ability to live in our aboriginal homelands. And it continues to function in a manner of systematic colonization.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Re-establishing this \u003ca href=\"https://karuktribeclimatechangeprojects.com/good-fire/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">traditional relationship\u003c/a> with fire, the Karuk say, is the key to revitalizing the area. That’s true economically, they say, with good jobs to be had in fire and forest management in an area that’s otherwise struggling. It’s also true ecologically: Controlled fire supports salmon, elk, forage plants and the systems they are enmeshed with. And it’s true culturally and spiritually, says Tripp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had a \u003ca href=\"https://karuktribeclimatechangeprojects.com/introduction-karuk-traditional-ecological-knowledge-climate-change-and-knowledge-sovereignty/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">culturally founded\u003c/a> fire regime in place on our landscape at one time, and we have an opportunity to put that back into place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tripp is part of a community along the Klamath working to increase traditional burning practices on the Six Rivers and Klamath national forests. Effectively, everyone interested in the health of forests in the area agrees the land needs more management. Yet prescribed fire advocates describe frustration at the slow pace of progress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Steinbring, who has state and federal burn boss qualifications, says the tribe has identified priority projects and received grants to carry them out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m thinking to myself, well, NGOs, the tribes, we all have the funding to do this kind of implementation work. We’re coming to the table asking, can we do it? And we’re getting shunned. And that’s the frustrating part.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The problem lies in how the collaboration has gone — so far — between the partners: the tribe, the non-profits and the U.S. government. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We wanted a level of collaboration where we were all in it together,” Harling said. “And you know, the people who control fire in California aren’t ready to share that power and that decision-making.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tripp spells it out: “When it comes to burning, itself, we can’t get past this idea that the agency is the only one that can light a fire out there in the forest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The agency” is the one that controls most aboriginal Karuk land — the U.S. Forest Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mike Appling, who as a fire management officer for the Klamath National Forest, agrees: Working together hasn’t been simple.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know, it’s a challenge,” Appling says. “I think it’s just a matter of putting our heads together and sitting down and figuring out how to be effective together. Because we do need to do more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Barriers Maintaining the Status Quo\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The barriers here are deeply systemic, even with shared values of wanting to protect the forest and the people around it. Appling agrees the land does need more prescribed burns, but says the National Forest’s ability to act is constrained by the responsibilities of the agency overall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1974630\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_0088-scaled.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1974630 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_0088-800x533.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_0088-800x533.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_0088-1020x680.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_0088-160x107.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_0088-768x512.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_0088-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_0088-2048x1365.jpeg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_0088-1920x1280.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" />\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Prescribed fire burn training, from 2019.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s a tough blend,” he says, “when you’ve got 42 million people in the state of California today and a bunch of mixed ownerships and such and a number of different contributing factors.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of those factors is that the Forest Service is fundamentally not in the business of lighting prescribed fires to prevent destructive blazes in the future. Core to its mission is putting fires out, as well as managing timber sales.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These resources that we have are all funded to be available to suppress fires,” says Appling. “Oftentimes, 11 months out of the year, there are suppression needs in other parts of the state.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the last few years in late fall — normally a good time for burning — Appling has seen Forest Service management put holds on intentional burns because the necessary equipment is on standby for emergency response.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They put us at our drawdown, and we have to have our engines available,” he said, “and by available that means not committed to a prescribed burn.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A second contributing factor: liability. The Forest Service doesn’t bear legal responsibility if a wildfire takes out vast swaths of forest. But if a controlled burn gets out of hand — which is very rare, but still a risk — the agency can take the blame.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harling says that’s the wrong way to look at it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not managing fuels correctly is the criminal act,” he says. “And really, it’s what came down to all these homes burning down.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says the incentives all work against the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1927354/controlled-burns-can-help-solve-californias-fire-problem-so-why-arent-there-more-of-them\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">proven concept\u003c/a> of prescribed fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Start a fire to protect the land and people often complain about smoke in the air. Put out a fire and people celebrate you as a hero.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s where the money is, that’s where the promotions are, and that’s where the liability isn’t,” Harling said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until very recently, fire managers at the Six Rivers and Klamath National Forests have interpreted existing agreements between the Karuk and the U.S. Forest Service to say that a tribal burn boss must be overseen by a Forest Service burn boss. There isn’t always someone available, so this policy has repeatedly stalled approved burn projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Appling knows this has been a point of frustration for members of the tribe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After some meetings in recent months, the Forest Service changed its position. Officials now agree it \u003cem>is\u003c/em> \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">legal \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">for a federally-qualified tribal burn boss to supervise planned fires in the Klamath and Six Rivers \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">— without the presence of a Forest Service burn boss.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Appling says the agency hopes to work with the tribe to increase opportunities for planned burns. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He agrees there are still issues: Forest Service approval, liability, and resources that have to be on standby for emergencies. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And a past that stymied collaboration weighs heavily. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Steinbring says it’s been frustrating that his credentials weren’t recognized as equal to someone with the same credentials who works for the Forest Service. In other areas of the state, as well as the U.S., fire management agreements allow qualified burn bosses from one agency to share responsibility and burn on land managed by a different federal agency.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Okay,” Steinbring says, “so is the tribe not being recognized as a federal agency? Because according to my readings, they are.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jeremy Bailey with The Nature Conservancy has helped forge these fire management agreements under a program known as Prescribed Fire Training Exchanges or TREX.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We use these agreements all over the country and in many instances we are able to support each other, getting lots of additional good fire on the ground,” Bailey said. “For some reason along the Klamath river, that is not the dynamic we are experiencing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Bringing Fire to Private Land\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Forest Service says it wants to increase collaboration with the Karuk. If that does happen, it could look like a fire management project at Somes Bar, near the town of Orleans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project, stretching over 5,600 acres, is on a mix of private inholdings and National Forest land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is designed to protect homes that are embedded in forested lands near the Klamath river. This is one of several projects by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.wkrp.network/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Western Klamath Restoration Partnership\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is our promise to the community — we’re going to get it right here,” Harling says of the Somes Bar initiative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a shady mountain road where sparse sunlight slants through to settle in patches on the forest floor, Harling points out a huge tan oak, the bulging base of its trunk a sign of living through a multitude of fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s here because it was managed for five generations, of Karuk women lighting fires in this very spot. And if you think about all the food that that one tree could produce, it’s enough to feed a family for the wintertime with acorns.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More elk are using the area, as seasonal grasses have returned. This project replicates the traditional fire regime, one that has continually rejuvenated the land. The project is also providing jobs to tribal workers instead of out-of-town contractors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harling hears the sound of chainsaws in the distance. He says it’s a tribal brushing crew funded by grants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bailey, from the Nature Conservancy, says the Western Klamath Restoration Partnership is accomplishing technically challenging burns in steep and overgrown territory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really a leader in the country, and a leader in the world of prescribed fire,” he said. “These are burns that you would only want the most professional, highest quality fire practitioners to accomplish, and they’re doing it. They’re doing it year in and year out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But until there’s real change, these Klamath River communities are living with high risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we’re actually able to accomplish on the ground is just a minute fraction of what we need to be doing,” says Tripp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why people like Tripp, Harling and Steinbring continue to push for change at the Forest Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Being as Steinbring put it, “basically a thorn in their consistent daily lives to push them to get there.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Wildfires have decimated Karuk cultural lands in recent years, tearing through overgrown and undermanaged forests in far northern California. The solution isn't complicated. Getting it done is another story.",
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"title": "The Karuk Used Fire to Manage the Forest for Centuries. Now They Want To Do That Again | KQED",
"description": "Wildfires have decimated Karuk cultural lands in recent years, tearing through overgrown and undermanaged forests in far northern California. The solution isn't complicated. Getting it done is another story.",
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"headline": "The Karuk Used Fire to Manage the Forest for Centuries. Now They Want To Do That Again",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>For thousands of years before contact with Europeans, the Karuk people, like many Native American tribes, tended their land with fire, keeping an ecological balance among plants, animals, river, and forest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Situated along the Klamath River, in Humboldt and Siskyou counties, the Karuk are now struggling \u003ca href=\"https://karuktribeclimatechangeprojects.com/good-fire/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">to renew\u003c/a> their way of life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, nearly 98% of the tribe’s ancestral land is controlled by the U.S. Forest Service. The landscape is overgrown with timber and undermanaged. Out-of-control wildfires have repeatedly decimated the area, a consequence of disallowing native people to wield the tool of intentional burning, say advocates of the practice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scot Steinbring has seen first-hand the results of what happens when wildfire meets an overgrown forest in the area inhabited by the Karuk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In September 2020, as the Slater Fire torched hillsides, Steinbring, the fire management officer for the tribe, was decidedly overmatched.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1974625\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1655-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1974625\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1655-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1655-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1655-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1655-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1655-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1655-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1655-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1655-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" />\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scot Steinbring, fire management officer for the Karuk. \u003ccite>(Danielle Venton/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“In 35 years of being in the fire service,” he said, “I had never witnessed anything like that here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Driven by fierce winds, the fire tore through forests and houses. But because lots of other fires in the state were doing the same, other fire jurisdictions had precious little backup to spare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I remember getting on the radio and going, does everybody know outside what’s going on here?” Steinbring said. “I mean, we’re losing houses and they’re like, ‘We’re sorry, there’s not enough resources. It’s not a priority.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Near a road in the town of Happy Camp, where the fire roared down a hillside and destroyed homes on land belonging to the tribal trust, Will Harling was also firefighting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His assessment of the situation: “There was just no chance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>He indicated a spot across the street where the home of another local firefighter once stood. As the Slater Fire approached, the man frantically tried to pump his pool to wet down the house in a last-ditch effort to save it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I remember we were down there,” Harling said, pointing down the hill, “engaged at the fire’s edge, and he drove back up here through the flames and came back out five minutes later, just tears streaming down his face. ‘It’s all gone, it’s all gone.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rural community of Happy Camp, population about 850, lost a staggering 200 homes and two lives during the Slater Fire. About half of the families in the community, many of them Karuk, lost their homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The sad thing is we had started 20 years ago preparing for this fire,” Harling said. “We knew it was going to come.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1974627\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1974627\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-800x1200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-1920x2880.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_1656-scaled.jpg 1707w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" />\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Will Harling, director of the Mid Klamath Watershed Council. \u003ccite>(Danielle Venton/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Harling directs the \u003ca href=\"http://www.mkwc.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mid Klamath Watershed Council\u003c/a>, a nonprofit dedicated to ecologically restoring the area. He says it wasn’t just the wind working against the small band of firefighters that day. Decades of suppressing fires had left the forests overgrown and primed to burn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The time to do this work is five, ten years before that fire comes,” he said. “Do the fuels-work, follow it up with prescribed fire, get the fuels in a condition where we can actually save homes and not be in the state where we have to just fall back and watch everything burn.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How to Fix the Problem\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local nonprofits and federal and tribal governments know what would make the situation better, because the Karuk \u003ca href=\"https://karuktribeclimatechangeprojects.com/chapter-1-traditional-knowledge-knowledge-sovereignty-and-climate-change-as-strategic-opportunity/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">kept these forests healthy\u003c/a> for thousands of years with prescribed burns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Tribal knowledge carried on in this place and it teaches us how us humans are meant to be in a place,” Harling says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But native burning, used primarily to increase food supply but also to deprive the land of fuel in anticipation of a wildfire, has been outlawed or suppressed since at least the middle of the 1800s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In its first couple of years of statehood, California spent at least two million dollars in state funds to exterminate native people. Miners and white settlers didn’t understand the role fire played in the ecosystem. They stopped, and even shot, Karuk people who lit fires. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Also in the 1850s, the Karuk negotiated a treaty with the federal government. Under pressure from the California governor, Congress refused to ratify it, leaving the tribe without the treaty’s protections, lands and rights. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That legacy is still with the tribe.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Karuk people being stripped from their relationship with fire has had profound effects,” said Bill Tripp, director of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.karuk.us/index.php/departments/natural-resources\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Department of Natural Resources\u003c/a> for the Karuk. “It’s effectively still pushing us out of our ability to live in our aboriginal homelands. And it continues to function in a manner of systematic colonization.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Re-establishing this \u003ca href=\"https://karuktribeclimatechangeprojects.com/good-fire/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">traditional relationship\u003c/a> with fire, the Karuk say, is the key to revitalizing the area. That’s true economically, they say, with good jobs to be had in fire and forest management in an area that’s otherwise struggling. It’s also true ecologically: Controlled fire supports salmon, elk, forage plants and the systems they are enmeshed with. And it’s true culturally and spiritually, says Tripp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had a \u003ca href=\"https://karuktribeclimatechangeprojects.com/introduction-karuk-traditional-ecological-knowledge-climate-change-and-knowledge-sovereignty/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">culturally founded\u003c/a> fire regime in place on our landscape at one time, and we have an opportunity to put that back into place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tripp is part of a community along the Klamath working to increase traditional burning practices on the Six Rivers and Klamath national forests. Effectively, everyone interested in the health of forests in the area agrees the land needs more management. Yet prescribed fire advocates describe frustration at the slow pace of progress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Steinbring, who has state and federal burn boss qualifications, says the tribe has identified priority projects and received grants to carry them out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m thinking to myself, well, NGOs, the tribes, we all have the funding to do this kind of implementation work. We’re coming to the table asking, can we do it? And we’re getting shunned. And that’s the frustrating part.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The problem lies in how the collaboration has gone — so far — between the partners: the tribe, the non-profits and the U.S. government. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We wanted a level of collaboration where we were all in it together,” Harling said. “And you know, the people who control fire in California aren’t ready to share that power and that decision-making.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tripp spells it out: “When it comes to burning, itself, we can’t get past this idea that the agency is the only one that can light a fire out there in the forest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The agency” is the one that controls most aboriginal Karuk land — the U.S. Forest Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mike Appling, who as a fire management officer for the Klamath National Forest, agrees: Working together hasn’t been simple.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know, it’s a challenge,” Appling says. “I think it’s just a matter of putting our heads together and sitting down and figuring out how to be effective together. Because we do need to do more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Barriers Maintaining the Status Quo\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The barriers here are deeply systemic, even with shared values of wanting to protect the forest and the people around it. Appling agrees the land does need more prescribed burns, but says the National Forest’s ability to act is constrained by the responsibilities of the agency overall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1974630\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_0088-scaled.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1974630 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_0088-800x533.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_0088-800x533.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_0088-1020x680.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_0088-160x107.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_0088-768x512.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_0088-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_0088-2048x1365.jpeg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/03/IMG_0088-1920x1280.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" />\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Prescribed fire burn training, from 2019.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s a tough blend,” he says, “when you’ve got 42 million people in the state of California today and a bunch of mixed ownerships and such and a number of different contributing factors.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of those factors is that the Forest Service is fundamentally not in the business of lighting prescribed fires to prevent destructive blazes in the future. Core to its mission is putting fires out, as well as managing timber sales.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These resources that we have are all funded to be available to suppress fires,” says Appling. “Oftentimes, 11 months out of the year, there are suppression needs in other parts of the state.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the last few years in late fall — normally a good time for burning — Appling has seen Forest Service management put holds on intentional burns because the necessary equipment is on standby for emergency response.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They put us at our drawdown, and we have to have our engines available,” he said, “and by available that means not committed to a prescribed burn.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A second contributing factor: liability. The Forest Service doesn’t bear legal responsibility if a wildfire takes out vast swaths of forest. But if a controlled burn gets out of hand — which is very rare, but still a risk — the agency can take the blame.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harling says that’s the wrong way to look at it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not managing fuels correctly is the criminal act,” he says. “And really, it’s what came down to all these homes burning down.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says the incentives all work against the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1927354/controlled-burns-can-help-solve-californias-fire-problem-so-why-arent-there-more-of-them\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">proven concept\u003c/a> of prescribed fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Start a fire to protect the land and people often complain about smoke in the air. Put out a fire and people celebrate you as a hero.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s where the money is, that’s where the promotions are, and that’s where the liability isn’t,” Harling said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until very recently, fire managers at the Six Rivers and Klamath National Forests have interpreted existing agreements between the Karuk and the U.S. Forest Service to say that a tribal burn boss must be overseen by a Forest Service burn boss. There isn’t always someone available, so this policy has repeatedly stalled approved burn projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Appling knows this has been a point of frustration for members of the tribe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After some meetings in recent months, the Forest Service changed its position. Officials now agree it \u003cem>is\u003c/em> \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">legal \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">for a federally-qualified tribal burn boss to supervise planned fires in the Klamath and Six Rivers \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">— without the presence of a Forest Service burn boss.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Appling says the agency hopes to work with the tribe to increase opportunities for planned burns. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He agrees there are still issues: Forest Service approval, liability, and resources that have to be on standby for emergencies. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And a past that stymied collaboration weighs heavily. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Steinbring says it’s been frustrating that his credentials weren’t recognized as equal to someone with the same credentials who works for the Forest Service. In other areas of the state, as well as the U.S., fire management agreements allow qualified burn bosses from one agency to share responsibility and burn on land managed by a different federal agency.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Okay,” Steinbring says, “so is the tribe not being recognized as a federal agency? Because according to my readings, they are.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jeremy Bailey with The Nature Conservancy has helped forge these fire management agreements under a program known as Prescribed Fire Training Exchanges or TREX.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We use these agreements all over the country and in many instances we are able to support each other, getting lots of additional good fire on the ground,” Bailey said. “For some reason along the Klamath river, that is not the dynamic we are experiencing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Bringing Fire to Private Land\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Forest Service says it wants to increase collaboration with the Karuk. If that does happen, it could look like a fire management project at Somes Bar, near the town of Orleans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project, stretching over 5,600 acres, is on a mix of private inholdings and National Forest land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is designed to protect homes that are embedded in forested lands near the Klamath river. This is one of several projects by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.wkrp.network/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Western Klamath Restoration Partnership\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is our promise to the community — we’re going to get it right here,” Harling says of the Somes Bar initiative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a shady mountain road where sparse sunlight slants through to settle in patches on the forest floor, Harling points out a huge tan oak, the bulging base of its trunk a sign of living through a multitude of fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s here because it was managed for five generations, of Karuk women lighting fires in this very spot. And if you think about all the food that that one tree could produce, it’s enough to feed a family for the wintertime with acorns.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More elk are using the area, as seasonal grasses have returned. This project replicates the traditional fire regime, one that has continually rejuvenated the land. The project is also providing jobs to tribal workers instead of out-of-town contractors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harling hears the sound of chainsaws in the distance. He says it’s a tribal brushing crew funded by grants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bailey, from the Nature Conservancy, says the Western Klamath Restoration Partnership is accomplishing technically challenging burns in steep and overgrown territory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really a leader in the country, and a leader in the world of prescribed fire,” he said. “These are burns that you would only want the most professional, highest quality fire practitioners to accomplish, and they’re doing it. They’re doing it year in and year out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But until there’s real change, these Klamath River communities are living with high risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we’re actually able to accomplish on the ground is just a minute fraction of what we need to be doing,” says Tripp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why people like Tripp, Harling and Steinbring continue to push for change at the Forest Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Being as Steinbring put it, “basically a thorn in their consistent daily lives to push them to get there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Dutch Court First to Order an Oil Company to Slash Net Emissions",
"headTitle": "Dutch Court First to Order an Oil Company to Slash Net Emissions | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Climate change activists have won a big legal victory against oil giant Royal Dutch Shell. A Dutch court ruled Wednesday that the company must reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 45% by 2030, based on 2019 levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/12/01/940717012/climate-case-against-shell-begins-in-the-netherlands\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">case could set a precedent\u003c/a> for similar lawsuits against huge oil companies that operate across the globe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our hope is that this verdict will trigger a wave of climate litigation against big polluters, to force them to stop extracting and burning fossil fuels,” said Sara Shaw of \u003ca href=\"https://www.foei.org/features/historic-victory-judge-forces-shell-to-drastically-reduce-co2-emissions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Friends of the Earth International\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2030 goal affirmed by the court is more ambitious than Shell’s target of becoming “a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050.” Shell \u003ca href=\"https://www.shell.com/energy-and-innovation/the-energy-future/our-climate-target.html#iframe=L3dlYmFwcHMvY2xpbWF0ZV9hbWJpdGlvbi8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">argues\u003c/a> the 2050 goal is in line with the Paris climate accord. But The Hague District Court determined Shell’s plans were not adequate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ruling applies to Shell and its suppliers and covers not only the companies’ emissions, but also emissions from products burned by its customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a monumental victory for our planet, for our children and a big leap towards a livable future for everyone,” said Donald Pols, director of Friends of the Earth Netherlands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Shell spokesperson Anna Arata acknowledged that “urgent action is needed on climate change,” and said the company has accelerated efforts to reduce emissions. The oil giant is “investing billions of dollars in low-carbon energy, including electric vehicle charging, hydrogen, renewables and biofuels,” Arata said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decision comes after \u003ca href=\"https://unfccc.int/news/most-fossil-fuels-must-stay-in-the-ground-new-study\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">scientists have said\u003c/a> most of the known fossil fuel reserves will have to be left in the ground to avoid the worst effects of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This month the U.S. Supreme Court \u003ca href=\"https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/us-supreme-court-backs-energy-companies-over-baltimore-climate-case-2021-05-17/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sided with major oil companies\u003c/a> in a climate change lawsuit brought by the city of Baltimore. Justices delivered a victory to the oil giants on a technical issue — that the case should be heard in federal court instead of state court, as the city preferred. There are about a dozen similar lawsuits that U.S. state and local governments have brought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seven environmental groups filed the lawsuit against Shell, including Friends of the Earth Netherlands, or \u003ca href=\"https://en.milieudefensie.nl/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Milieudefensie\u003c/a>, Greenpeace and Fossil Free Netherlands. The lawsuit also named 17,000 Dutch citizens as co-plaintiffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Royal Dutch Shell is based in The Hague, where the case was heard. Shell can still appeal the ruling, something the company said it expects to do. The Dutch judge said the more ambitious target for the company will remain in effect while the appeals process plays out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 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=In+A+Landmark+Case%2C+A+Dutch+Court+Orders+Shell+To+Cut+Its+Carbon+Emissions+Faster&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Thousands of Dutch citizens joined environmental groups to accuse the oil giant with endangering lives. The first-of-its-kind decision could pressure other companies to take aggressive climate action.",
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"description": "Thousands of Dutch citizens joined environmental groups to accuse the oil giant with endangering lives. The first-of-its-kind decision could pressure other companies to take aggressive climate action.",
"title": "Dutch Court First to Order an Oil Company to Slash Net Emissions | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Climate change activists have won a big legal victory against oil giant Royal Dutch Shell. A Dutch court ruled Wednesday that the company must reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 45% by 2030, based on 2019 levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/12/01/940717012/climate-case-against-shell-begins-in-the-netherlands\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">case could set a precedent\u003c/a> for similar lawsuits against huge oil companies that operate across the globe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our hope is that this verdict will trigger a wave of climate litigation against big polluters, to force them to stop extracting and burning fossil fuels,” said Sara Shaw of \u003ca href=\"https://www.foei.org/features/historic-victory-judge-forces-shell-to-drastically-reduce-co2-emissions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Friends of the Earth International\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2030 goal affirmed by the court is more ambitious than Shell’s target of becoming “a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050.” Shell \u003ca href=\"https://www.shell.com/energy-and-innovation/the-energy-future/our-climate-target.html#iframe=L3dlYmFwcHMvY2xpbWF0ZV9hbWJpdGlvbi8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">argues\u003c/a> the 2050 goal is in line with the Paris climate accord. But The Hague District Court determined Shell’s plans were not adequate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ruling applies to Shell and its suppliers and covers not only the companies’ emissions, but also emissions from products burned by its customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a monumental victory for our planet, for our children and a big leap towards a livable future for everyone,” said Donald Pols, director of Friends of the Earth Netherlands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Shell spokesperson Anna Arata acknowledged that “urgent action is needed on climate change,” and said the company has accelerated efforts to reduce emissions. The oil giant is “investing billions of dollars in low-carbon energy, including electric vehicle charging, hydrogen, renewables and biofuels,” Arata said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decision comes after \u003ca href=\"https://unfccc.int/news/most-fossil-fuels-must-stay-in-the-ground-new-study\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">scientists have said\u003c/a> most of the known fossil fuel reserves will have to be left in the ground to avoid the worst effects of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This month the U.S. Supreme Court \u003ca href=\"https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/us-supreme-court-backs-energy-companies-over-baltimore-climate-case-2021-05-17/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sided with major oil companies\u003c/a> in a climate change lawsuit brought by the city of Baltimore. Justices delivered a victory to the oil giants on a technical issue — that the case should be heard in federal court instead of state court, as the city preferred. There are about a dozen similar lawsuits that U.S. state and local governments have brought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seven environmental groups filed the lawsuit against Shell, including Friends of the Earth Netherlands, or \u003ca href=\"https://en.milieudefensie.nl/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Milieudefensie\u003c/a>, Greenpeace and Fossil Free Netherlands. The lawsuit also named 17,000 Dutch citizens as co-plaintiffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Royal Dutch Shell is based in The Hague, where the case was heard. Shell can still appeal the ruling, something the company said it expects to do. The Dutch judge said the more ambitious target for the company will remain in effect while the appeals process plays out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 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=In+A+Landmark+Case%2C+A+Dutch+Court+Orders+Shell+To+Cut+Its+Carbon+Emissions+Faster&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Calif. Offshore Wind Will Require a Feat of Engineering. And That's Not Even the Hard Part",
"headTitle": "Calif. Offshore Wind Will Require a Feat of Engineering. And That’s Not Even the Hard Part | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>In January 2016, Trident Winds, a small, Seattle-based wind company, submitted an unsolicited application to the U.S. Department of the Interior, laying out its aspirations to build a 1-gigawatt wind farm off California’s central coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scale was ambitious, especially for the United States. But Trident Winds’ chief executive officer, Alla Weinstein, sensed an opportunity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Effectively, that’s what kick-started the whole discussion on offshore wind in California,” Weinstein said of the application.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Years later, California’s waters still have no finalized leases for the development of any offshore wind farms. Instead, the state’s market has been bogged down by politics and technological hurdles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But on Tuesday, the Biden administration and the state announced a target to hold an auction in mid-2022 to award leases for wind development off California’s coast, a significant step toward encouraging the state’s stalled market. The effort would contribute to the administration’s recently announced goal of reaching 30 gigawatts of offshore wind nationally by 2030, a target that seemed to favor the Northeast, which has already cultivated the foundations of a thriving offshore wind market. The United States currently has only about 42 megawatts of offshore wind capacity in operation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given California’s leadership in clean energy and combating climate change, “it’s only fitting that California is totally unwilling to let the expansion we’re witnessing on the East Coast leave California behind,” said White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy, on a Tuesday call with reporters highlighting the Biden administration’s announcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has many qualities that would seem to make it an enticing location to build offshore wind: high power prices, cities along the coast ready to use the electricity and a\u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-solar-batteries-renewable-energy-california-20190605-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> solar-saturated grid\u003c/a>, which makes wind a complementary resource when the sun isn’t shining. The state has more than 200 gigawatts of technical offshore wind potential, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, but current projections for offshore wind cast doubt on whether it can complete any projects in the next decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state is now grappling with how to fit offshore wind into legislatively mandated efforts to achieve 100% clean energy by 2045.\u003ca href=\"https://e360.yale.edu/features/on-u-s-east-coast-has-offshore-winds-moment-finally-arrived\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Climate goals in numerous Eastern states\u003c/a> have hinged on significant offshore wind deployment, with plans to add more than 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2035.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB525\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">recently-introduced California bill\u003c/a> would also help invigorate the state’s offshore wind market, directing energy regulators to establish offshore wind targets for 2030 and 2045.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>A similar bill is under consideration in Oregon, calling for up to 3 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030. The legislation, along with the federal administration’s efforts to coax California’s market forward, underscore the opportunity in Western waters, if politicians can seize it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has consistently been a front-runner in clean energy deployments. Last month, a large swath of the state ran on 95% renewables for a brief four seconds — a milestone that reportedly\u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/environment/newsletter/2021-04-29/solar-power-water-canals-california-climate-change-boiling-point\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> sent chills of excitement down the spine\u003c/a> of the state grid operator’s chief executive officer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Solar accounts for a majority of California’s renewable resources, leaving an opening for a budding offshore wind market. Wind and solar work well together in an energy portfolio because wind generally continues to blow at night, while solar produces the most at the sunniest times of day. A 2021 report from the California Energy Commission suggested offshore wind should play a significant role in the state’s clean energy targets, accounting for as much as 10 gigawatts of capacity additions in coming decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As California gets closer to carbon-free electricity, it’s increasingly seeing the need for a wider array of technologies to balance solar production. “That’s where offshore wind fits in,” said Mohit Chhabra, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council’s climate and clean energy program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California realized the potential for offshore wind years ago. Along with the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), which manages offshore leasing, the state launched an Offshore Renewable Energy Task Force back in 2016, several months after Trident Winds filed its application with the Interior Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The federal agency went on to select three possible lease zones, known as “call areas,” off the California coast, and in 2018 asked companies to submit proposals for building in those areas. More than a dozen did, including some wind industry heavyweights like Avangrid Renewables and Norwegian oil major\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>Equinor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But since then, BOEM hasn’t leased any of California’s waters. The state’s lucrative fishing industry worried that turbines would disrupt business, while the Defense Department raised concerns about the impact on training exercises off the coast — opposition that held up lease sales.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, the Biden administration said it had brokered a compromise on some of those issues. The Defense Department said it was committed to finding “creative solutions” to advance offshore wind in California. Overall, the initial development areas could support up to 4.6 gigawatts of floating offshore wind, according to the administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We at the Defense Department are satisfied that there’s not a trade-off between the clean energy goals of this endeavor and our military readiness,” said Dr. Colin Kahl, the under secretary of defense for policy, on the Tuesday call with press.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Holding lease sales is just one step in the extended process to begin building offshore wind farms, however. Project developers must also secure dozens of permits and survive government review to move forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vineyard Wind, a project off the coast of Massachusetts, just won final federal approval in May. Its developers submitted plans to the government in 2017. A project \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/26102020/icebreaker-project-lake-erie-cleveland-wind-energy/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">planned for Lake Erie\u003c/a> was proposed over a decade ago. The country’s first offshore wind project, Rhode Island’s Block Island, came online in 2016. Many more projects are now under federal review.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That pace makes both the administration’s 2030 target and aspirations to build offshore wind off California’s coast in the next decade “a stretch,” said Oliver Metcalf, head of U.S. wind research at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The research firm expects the United States to add just 23 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030, with no projects off the coast of California by that year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘California Open For Business’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The West’s challenges go beyond politics; the region’s deep waters require the use of floating offshore wind\u003ca href=\"https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/so-what-exactly-floating-offshore-wind\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> technology\u003c/a>, where a buoyant platform is moored to the seafloor. Floating wind is currently more expensive and less common than fixed-bottom offshore wind, which is affixed to the ocean floor and could be used in much of the East Coast’s shallower waters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Floating projects installed worldwide represented less than 100 megawatts combined at the end of 2019, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and most were pilot projects. Equinor, one of the companies that submitted a proposal to build off the coast of California, has one floating commercial project in operation off the coast of Scotland and another in the works in the Norwegian North Sea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bloomberg forecasts the build-out of just 6.3 gigawatts of floating offshore wind worldwide by 2030, compared to about 200 gigawatts of fixed offshore wind projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the Biden administration’s Tuesday announcement bodes well for future development. NREL analysis suggests commercial floating projects could technically land in California waters as early as the mid-2020s, with costs dropping an estimated 44% between 2019 and 2032. Technology advancements and commercial growth driven by planned projects in Europe and Asia will also help the West Coast market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Gov. Gavin Newsom included $20 million for offshore wind development in his 2021-2022 budget request.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And Castle Wind, a joint venture Trident Winds entered into in 2018 with\u003ca href=\"https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/enbw-wants-to-be-the-next-big-us-offshore-wind-developer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> German power provider EnBW\u003c/a>, has negotiated a “mutual benefits agreement” with the local fishing community near one of the California call areas, possibly curtailing the type of controversy that has dogged other offshore projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assemblyman David Chiu, who introduced the California bill, hopes to seize on the momentum. The legislation, he said, “will let the country and the rest of the world know that California is open for business in this space.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some utilities and renewables developers are equally bullish. Castle Wind has already inked a tentative supply agreement with power provider Central Coast Community Energy. Weinstein, of Trident, hoped for a lease sale in 2021, but believes the state can execute on development by 2030.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have no doubt that it can be done,” said Weinstein. “If there is a will, which I think the will is there, then yeah, we can find a way to do it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Metcalf, of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, agrees that offshore wind in the West “does seem to be a question of when, rather than if.” But it remains unclear if the timeline will align with the administration’s splashy target.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That 2030 target “is truly a national goal,” said Jocelyn Brown-Saracino, the offshore wind lead at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Wind Energy Technologies Office. To nudge along progress on the West Coast, the department has invested more than $100 million in research on and development of floating offshore wind. It’s working with BOEM to gather data in California waters and funding floating offshore wind demonstrations off the East Coast, with the expectation that what it learns will translate to the West. In 2019, the DOE launched a program to design “radically new” floating wind turbines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As soon as auctions happen, Trident’s Weinstein said, “then we can move.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think at this point, we’re on the verge of seeing significant movement in California,” she said. “This is the beginning of a much longer path to the expansion of offshore wind.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">InsideClimate News\u003c/a> is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/newsletter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Offshore wind development in California has been stalled by politics and technological challenges. But on Tuesday, the administration announced plans to advance offshore wind in the state.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In January 2016, Trident Winds, a small, Seattle-based wind company, submitted an unsolicited application to the U.S. Department of the Interior, laying out its aspirations to build a 1-gigawatt wind farm off California’s central coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scale was ambitious, especially for the United States. But Trident Winds’ chief executive officer, Alla Weinstein, sensed an opportunity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Effectively, that’s what kick-started the whole discussion on offshore wind in California,” Weinstein said of the application.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Years later, California’s waters still have no finalized leases for the development of any offshore wind farms. Instead, the state’s market has been bogged down by politics and technological hurdles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But on Tuesday, the Biden administration and the state announced a target to hold an auction in mid-2022 to award leases for wind development off California’s coast, a significant step toward encouraging the state’s stalled market. The effort would contribute to the administration’s recently announced goal of reaching 30 gigawatts of offshore wind nationally by 2030, a target that seemed to favor the Northeast, which has already cultivated the foundations of a thriving offshore wind market. The United States currently has only about 42 megawatts of offshore wind capacity in operation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given California’s leadership in clean energy and combating climate change, “it’s only fitting that California is totally unwilling to let the expansion we’re witnessing on the East Coast leave California behind,” said White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy, on a Tuesday call with reporters highlighting the Biden administration’s announcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has many qualities that would seem to make it an enticing location to build offshore wind: high power prices, cities along the coast ready to use the electricity and a\u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-solar-batteries-renewable-energy-california-20190605-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> solar-saturated grid\u003c/a>, which makes wind a complementary resource when the sun isn’t shining. The state has more than 200 gigawatts of technical offshore wind potential, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, but current projections for offshore wind cast doubt on whether it can complete any projects in the next decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state is now grappling with how to fit offshore wind into legislatively mandated efforts to achieve 100% clean energy by 2045.\u003ca href=\"https://e360.yale.edu/features/on-u-s-east-coast-has-offshore-winds-moment-finally-arrived\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Climate goals in numerous Eastern states\u003c/a> have hinged on significant offshore wind deployment, with plans to add more than 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2035.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB525\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">recently-introduced California bill\u003c/a> would also help invigorate the state’s offshore wind market, directing energy regulators to establish offshore wind targets for 2030 and 2045.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>A similar bill is under consideration in Oregon, calling for up to 3 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030. The legislation, along with the federal administration’s efforts to coax California’s market forward, underscore the opportunity in Western waters, if politicians can seize it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has consistently been a front-runner in clean energy deployments. Last month, a large swath of the state ran on 95% renewables for a brief four seconds — a milestone that reportedly\u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/environment/newsletter/2021-04-29/solar-power-water-canals-california-climate-change-boiling-point\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> sent chills of excitement down the spine\u003c/a> of the state grid operator’s chief executive officer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Solar accounts for a majority of California’s renewable resources, leaving an opening for a budding offshore wind market. Wind and solar work well together in an energy portfolio because wind generally continues to blow at night, while solar produces the most at the sunniest times of day. A 2021 report from the California Energy Commission suggested offshore wind should play a significant role in the state’s clean energy targets, accounting for as much as 10 gigawatts of capacity additions in coming decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As California gets closer to carbon-free electricity, it’s increasingly seeing the need for a wider array of technologies to balance solar production. “That’s where offshore wind fits in,” said Mohit Chhabra, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council’s climate and clean energy program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California realized the potential for offshore wind years ago. Along with the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), which manages offshore leasing, the state launched an Offshore Renewable Energy Task Force back in 2016, several months after Trident Winds filed its application with the Interior Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The federal agency went on to select three possible lease zones, known as “call areas,” off the California coast, and in 2018 asked companies to submit proposals for building in those areas. More than a dozen did, including some wind industry heavyweights like Avangrid Renewables and Norwegian oil major\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>Equinor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But since then, BOEM hasn’t leased any of California’s waters. The state’s lucrative fishing industry worried that turbines would disrupt business, while the Defense Department raised concerns about the impact on training exercises off the coast — opposition that held up lease sales.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, the Biden administration said it had brokered a compromise on some of those issues. The Defense Department said it was committed to finding “creative solutions” to advance offshore wind in California. Overall, the initial development areas could support up to 4.6 gigawatts of floating offshore wind, according to the administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We at the Defense Department are satisfied that there’s not a trade-off between the clean energy goals of this endeavor and our military readiness,” said Dr. Colin Kahl, the under secretary of defense for policy, on the Tuesday call with press.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Holding lease sales is just one step in the extended process to begin building offshore wind farms, however. Project developers must also secure dozens of permits and survive government review to move forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vineyard Wind, a project off the coast of Massachusetts, just won final federal approval in May. Its developers submitted plans to the government in 2017. A project \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/26102020/icebreaker-project-lake-erie-cleveland-wind-energy/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">planned for Lake Erie\u003c/a> was proposed over a decade ago. The country’s first offshore wind project, Rhode Island’s Block Island, came online in 2016. Many more projects are now under federal review.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That pace makes both the administration’s 2030 target and aspirations to build offshore wind off California’s coast in the next decade “a stretch,” said Oliver Metcalf, head of U.S. wind research at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The research firm expects the United States to add just 23 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030, with no projects off the coast of California by that year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘California Open For Business’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The West’s challenges go beyond politics; the region’s deep waters require the use of floating offshore wind\u003ca href=\"https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/so-what-exactly-floating-offshore-wind\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> technology\u003c/a>, where a buoyant platform is moored to the seafloor. Floating wind is currently more expensive and less common than fixed-bottom offshore wind, which is affixed to the ocean floor and could be used in much of the East Coast’s shallower waters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Floating projects installed worldwide represented less than 100 megawatts combined at the end of 2019, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and most were pilot projects. Equinor, one of the companies that submitted a proposal to build off the coast of California, has one floating commercial project in operation off the coast of Scotland and another in the works in the Norwegian North Sea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bloomberg forecasts the build-out of just 6.3 gigawatts of floating offshore wind worldwide by 2030, compared to about 200 gigawatts of fixed offshore wind projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the Biden administration’s Tuesday announcement bodes well for future development. NREL analysis suggests commercial floating projects could technically land in California waters as early as the mid-2020s, with costs dropping an estimated 44% between 2019 and 2032. Technology advancements and commercial growth driven by planned projects in Europe and Asia will also help the West Coast market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Gov. Gavin Newsom included $20 million for offshore wind development in his 2021-2022 budget request.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And Castle Wind, a joint venture Trident Winds entered into in 2018 with\u003ca href=\"https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/enbw-wants-to-be-the-next-big-us-offshore-wind-developer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> German power provider EnBW\u003c/a>, has negotiated a “mutual benefits agreement” with the local fishing community near one of the California call areas, possibly curtailing the type of controversy that has dogged other offshore projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assemblyman David Chiu, who introduced the California bill, hopes to seize on the momentum. The legislation, he said, “will let the country and the rest of the world know that California is open for business in this space.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some utilities and renewables developers are equally bullish. Castle Wind has already inked a tentative supply agreement with power provider Central Coast Community Energy. Weinstein, of Trident, hoped for a lease sale in 2021, but believes the state can execute on development by 2030.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have no doubt that it can be done,” said Weinstein. “If there is a will, which I think the will is there, then yeah, we can find a way to do it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Metcalf, of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, agrees that offshore wind in the West “does seem to be a question of when, rather than if.” But it remains unclear if the timeline will align with the administration’s splashy target.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That 2030 target “is truly a national goal,” said Jocelyn Brown-Saracino, the offshore wind lead at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Wind Energy Technologies Office. To nudge along progress on the West Coast, the department has invested more than $100 million in research on and development of floating offshore wind. It’s working with BOEM to gather data in California waters and funding floating offshore wind demonstrations off the East Coast, with the expectation that what it learns will translate to the West. In 2019, the DOE launched a program to design “radically new” floating wind turbines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As soon as auctions happen, Trident’s Weinstein said, “then we can move.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think at this point, we’re on the verge of seeing significant movement in California,” she said. “This is the beginning of a much longer path to the expansion of offshore wind.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"headTitle": "The Ford F-150 is America’s Top-Selling Car. Now There’s an Electric Version | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>There’s a lot riding on the F-150 Lightning, the all-electric pickup that Ford unveiled Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the company, it represents a big strategic bet on the rise of electric vehicles — one that nearly every rival automaker is also making. And it’s also a symbol for the vision of America that President Biden has been promoting: made in America, pairing blue-collar roots and high-tech ambitions, fighting climate change without making compromises.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The subtext was made explicit when the president visited Ford’s Rouge complex on Tuesday to tout electric vehicles in general and praise this one in particular — even taking it for a spin on the test track.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Behind all this buzz and boosterism is an incredibly daunting challenge for the auto industry. According to \u003ca href=\"https://www.iea.org/reports/net-zero-by-2050\">a report\u003c/a> out this week from the International Energy Agency, for the energy sector to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, electric vehicles would need to go from 5% of global sales to 60% in less than a decade. Five years later, in 2035, \u003cem>all \u003c/em>new cars would need to be electric.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Automakers such as General Motors and Volvo have openly embraced that timeline, as have governments such as the United Kingdom. But a transformation of that scale raises \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/06/23/880941975/an-electric-pickup-truck-brings-new-energy-to-lordstown-ohio\">myriad challenges\u003c/a> — chargers that need to be built, supply chains that need to expand, factories that need to be retooled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And for many in the auto industry, it raises a fundamental question: Can companies make electric cars that will bring \u003cem>drivers \u003c/em>on board, and fast?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ford hopes that’s where the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/05/19/998268622/ford-says-electric-f-150-will-start-under-40-000-it-can-also-power-your-home\">F-150 Lightning\u003c/a> comes in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a lot at stake here, not just for Ford, but really for the country,” says Darren Palmer, Ford’s head of battery electric vehicles. “This could be the point when people really notice electric [vehicles].”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ford’s not the only one hoping there’s a big pool of would-be buyers who aren’t interested in a Tesla or a Nissan Leaf but would happily spring for an electric version of their favorite pickup.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That vehicle is going to come in and fill a void. And if it’s affordable, I mean, it’s going to be a game changer,” says Shelley Francis, co-founder of EVHybridNoire, a network of diverse electric vehicle enthusiasts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the No. 1-selling vehicle in the country just across the board; it’s also the No. 1-selling vehicle among African American communities,” she says. “Then when you think about rural communities … there’s an opportunity for this community to be part of this conversation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ford’s F-150 Lightning, unveiled at a ceremony on Wednesday evening, is part of \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/12/16/945626639/all-the-oomph-minus-the-vroom-electric-pickups-take-aim-at-american-market\">a spate of electric pickups\u003c/a> arriving on the market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are the startups: Rivian is targeting outdoor enthusiasts with its $75,000 truck, which is poised to start deliveries next month and win the race to be the first electric pickup to market. The futuristic Tesla Cybertruck is on the way at a much lower price point, while Lordstown Motors is focusing on business customers with its upcoming vehicle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, General Motors is bringing the Hummer brand back as a top-of-the-line premium electric pickup, initially starting at more than $100,000. An electric Silverado is also in the works. And Stellantis, Chrysler’s parent company, has promised a battery-powered Ram eventually.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The F-150 carries extra symbolic and economic weight. It’s America’s best-selling vehicle and has been for 40 years. Ford sells more than 1 million F-series trucks per year, raking in more than $40 billion annually, more than McDonald’s or Nike bring in as entire companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that doesn’t mean that Ford enthusiasts will automatically leap at this new vehicle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/12/16/945626639/all-the-oomph-minus-the-vroom-electric-pickups-take-aim-at-american-market\">Surveys show\u003c/a> that more than half of truck drivers are not interested in going electric, full stop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Palmer laid out Ford’s argument to skeptical V-8-loving pickup drivers using a cordless drill metaphor. It wasn’t hard to convince people to switch from old battery technology to lighter, longer-running lithium-ion drills: quite the opposite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The functionality difference — [it] was better,” Palmer says. “Everybody wanted the best tool. It’s the same thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ford argues that the perks of electrification will speak for themselves, such as the effortless torque that’s characteristic of all electric motors and the potential for new, practical features. (The hybrid F-150 has an option that allows you to run power tools off the car’s battery at a work site, for instance.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But can the electric F-150 win over regular drivers, map a path to new profits for an entire industry and prove effective in the fight against climate change?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a lot of economic, political and environmental baggage for one vehicle, no matter how powerful its towing capacity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 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=Why+Ford+Unveiling+An+Electric+F-150+Is+A+Big+Deal&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>There’s a lot riding on the F-150 Lightning, the all-electric pickup that Ford unveiled Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the company, it represents a big strategic bet on the rise of electric vehicles — one that nearly every rival automaker is also making. And it’s also a symbol for the vision of America that President Biden has been promoting: made in America, pairing blue-collar roots and high-tech ambitions, fighting climate change without making compromises.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The subtext was made explicit when the president visited Ford’s Rouge complex on Tuesday to tout electric vehicles in general and praise this one in particular — even taking it for a spin on the test track.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Behind all this buzz and boosterism is an incredibly daunting challenge for the auto industry. According to \u003ca href=\"https://www.iea.org/reports/net-zero-by-2050\">a report\u003c/a> out this week from the International Energy Agency, for the energy sector to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, electric vehicles would need to go from 5% of global sales to 60% in less than a decade. Five years later, in 2035, \u003cem>all \u003c/em>new cars would need to be electric.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Automakers such as General Motors and Volvo have openly embraced that timeline, as have governments such as the United Kingdom. But a transformation of that scale raises \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/06/23/880941975/an-electric-pickup-truck-brings-new-energy-to-lordstown-ohio\">myriad challenges\u003c/a> — chargers that need to be built, supply chains that need to expand, factories that need to be retooled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And for many in the auto industry, it raises a fundamental question: Can companies make electric cars that will bring \u003cem>drivers \u003c/em>on board, and fast?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ford hopes that’s where the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/05/19/998268622/ford-says-electric-f-150-will-start-under-40-000-it-can-also-power-your-home\">F-150 Lightning\u003c/a> comes in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a lot at stake here, not just for Ford, but really for the country,” says Darren Palmer, Ford’s head of battery electric vehicles. “This could be the point when people really notice electric [vehicles].”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ford’s not the only one hoping there’s a big pool of would-be buyers who aren’t interested in a Tesla or a Nissan Leaf but would happily spring for an electric version of their favorite pickup.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That vehicle is going to come in and fill a void. And if it’s affordable, I mean, it’s going to be a game changer,” says Shelley Francis, co-founder of EVHybridNoire, a network of diverse electric vehicle enthusiasts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the No. 1-selling vehicle in the country just across the board; it’s also the No. 1-selling vehicle among African American communities,” she says. “Then when you think about rural communities … there’s an opportunity for this community to be part of this conversation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ford’s F-150 Lightning, unveiled at a ceremony on Wednesday evening, is part of \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/12/16/945626639/all-the-oomph-minus-the-vroom-electric-pickups-take-aim-at-american-market\">a spate of electric pickups\u003c/a> arriving on the market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are the startups: Rivian is targeting outdoor enthusiasts with its $75,000 truck, which is poised to start deliveries next month and win the race to be the first electric pickup to market. The futuristic Tesla Cybertruck is on the way at a much lower price point, while Lordstown Motors is focusing on business customers with its upcoming vehicle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, General Motors is bringing the Hummer brand back as a top-of-the-line premium electric pickup, initially starting at more than $100,000. An electric Silverado is also in the works. And Stellantis, Chrysler’s parent company, has promised a battery-powered Ram eventually.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The F-150 carries extra symbolic and economic weight. It’s America’s best-selling vehicle and has been for 40 years. Ford sells more than 1 million F-series trucks per year, raking in more than $40 billion annually, more than McDonald’s or Nike bring in as entire companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that doesn’t mean that Ford enthusiasts will automatically leap at this new vehicle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/12/16/945626639/all-the-oomph-minus-the-vroom-electric-pickups-take-aim-at-american-market\">Surveys show\u003c/a> that more than half of truck drivers are not interested in going electric, full stop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Palmer laid out Ford’s argument to skeptical V-8-loving pickup drivers using a cordless drill metaphor. It wasn’t hard to convince people to switch from old battery technology to lighter, longer-running lithium-ion drills: quite the opposite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The functionality difference — [it] was better,” Palmer says. “Everybody wanted the best tool. It’s the same thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ford argues that the perks of electrification will speak for themselves, such as the effortless torque that’s characteristic of all electric motors and the potential for new, practical features. (The hybrid F-150 has an option that allows you to run power tools off the car’s battery at a work site, for instance.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But can the electric F-150 win over regular drivers, map a path to new profits for an entire industry and prove effective in the fight against climate change?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a lot of economic, political and environmental baggage for one vehicle, no matter how powerful its towing capacity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 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=Why+Ford+Unveiling+An+Electric+F-150+Is+A+Big+Deal&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "A Scorching Summer Looms as California Girds Against Power Outages",
"headTitle": "A Scorching Summer Looms as California Girds Against Power Outages | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">California’s top energy regulators on Tuesday said the state is better prepared to avoid last summer’s rotating blackouts, but they cautioned the power grid of the nation’s most populous state is still vulnerable to extreme heat waves that could force more outages later this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">State officials say they have acquired an additional 3,500 megawatts of capacity ahead of a likely scorching summer that threatens to increase demand beyond what the grid can handle. That includes an additional 2,000 megawatts of batteries designed to store energy generated from renewable sources — like solar — that stop working when it gets dark.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11836990/pge-shutoffs-are-here-again-what-to-know-about-power-outages-today\">\u003cstrong>Related: How to Prepare for Power Outages in Your Area\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">In general, 1 megawatt of energy is enough to power hundreds of homes, depending on how it is generated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">“Does that mean we are in the clear? Not necessarily,” Elliot Mainzer, president and CEO of the California Independent System Operator, told state lawmakers during an oversight hearing Tuesday. “The most significant risk factor for grid reliability remains extreme heat, particularly heat that spreads across the wider western United States. And it continues to get hotter every year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">More than an inconvenience, power outages during a major heat wave can also be deadly for vulnerable people while causing a host of other problems in a digital age that relies on electricity for everything from business transactions to Facebook posts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">Blackouts have become more common in California as utility companies will often intentionally turn off the power when it gets too windy in the dry summer months to prevent toppled power lines from starting wildfires — like the one that killed 85 people and mostly destroyed the town of Paradise in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">But the blackouts in August were the first in nearly 20 years because of an energy shortage, putting California’s quest to have 100% of its energy come from renewable sources under more scrutiny.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">“This summer will be an important test for the state,” said Assemblyman Chris Holden, a Democrat from Pasadena and chair of the Assembly Utilities and Energy Committee. “California is at the vanguard of renewable energy policy. The nation and the world are watching to see how we integrate renewables but also that we can ensure reliability while doing so.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">California’s plan to survive the summer includes buying power from places “that are not clean resources,” Marybel Batjer, president of the California Public Utilities Commission, told lawmakers on Tuesday. She did not say what those sources were, but she said regulators chose to buy them because they wanted to do everything they could to prevent blackouts this summer out of “health and safety concerns.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">“I want to be clear that our planning and implementation of our clean energy future progresses forward and will only accelerate in the months and years to come,” Batjer said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">Another round of blackouts could pose political concerns for Gov. Gavin Newsom, who will likely face a recall election later this year. In 2003, former Democratic Gov. Gray Davis was removed from office in a recall election largely driven by his handling of rolling blackouts, which were prompted by the deregulation of the energy sector and market manipulation by Enron and other companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">Newsom’s recall election is driven largely by anger over his handling of the pandemic. But rolling blackouts, however brief, could hurt him as he seeks to inspire confidence in voters that he deserves to keep his job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">Energy demand typically peaks in the late afternoon as air conditioners work to cool homes during the hottest part of the day. Demand usually subsides at night as temperatures cool. But that didn’t happen in August, when temperatures were up to 20 degrees above normal for much of the western United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">Demand was so high the weekend of Aug. 14 and 15 that state regulators ordered utility companies to intentionally turn off the power for some people to prevent more widespread outages across the grid, with outages lasting between 8 minutes and two-and-a-half hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">Newsom declared a state emergency as state officials took drastic actions to find more power. That included David Hochschild, chair of the California Energy Commission, asking the U.S. Navy to use their diesel engines to power their ships instead of relying from on-shore power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">“There was a lot of things we had to do that none of us wants to do again,” Batjer said.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">California’s top energy regulators on Tuesday said the state is better prepared to avoid last summer’s rotating blackouts, but they cautioned the power grid of the nation’s most populous state is still vulnerable to extreme heat waves that could force more outages later this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">State officials say they have acquired an additional 3,500 megawatts of capacity ahead of a likely scorching summer that threatens to increase demand beyond what the grid can handle. That includes an additional 2,000 megawatts of batteries designed to store energy generated from renewable sources — like solar — that stop working when it gets dark.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11836990/pge-shutoffs-are-here-again-what-to-know-about-power-outages-today\">\u003cstrong>Related: How to Prepare for Power Outages in Your Area\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">In general, 1 megawatt of energy is enough to power hundreds of homes, depending on how it is generated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">“Does that mean we are in the clear? Not necessarily,” Elliot Mainzer, president and CEO of the California Independent System Operator, told state lawmakers during an oversight hearing Tuesday. “The most significant risk factor for grid reliability remains extreme heat, particularly heat that spreads across the wider western United States. And it continues to get hotter every year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">More than an inconvenience, power outages during a major heat wave can also be deadly for vulnerable people while causing a host of other problems in a digital age that relies on electricity for everything from business transactions to Facebook posts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">Blackouts have become more common in California as utility companies will often intentionally turn off the power when it gets too windy in the dry summer months to prevent toppled power lines from starting wildfires — like the one that killed 85 people and mostly destroyed the town of Paradise in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">But the blackouts in August were the first in nearly 20 years because of an energy shortage, putting California’s quest to have 100% of its energy come from renewable sources under more scrutiny.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">“This summer will be an important test for the state,” said Assemblyman Chris Holden, a Democrat from Pasadena and chair of the Assembly Utilities and Energy Committee. “California is at the vanguard of renewable energy policy. The nation and the world are watching to see how we integrate renewables but also that we can ensure reliability while doing so.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">California’s plan to survive the summer includes buying power from places “that are not clean resources,” Marybel Batjer, president of the California Public Utilities Commission, told lawmakers on Tuesday. She did not say what those sources were, but she said regulators chose to buy them because they wanted to do everything they could to prevent blackouts this summer out of “health and safety concerns.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">“I want to be clear that our planning and implementation of our clean energy future progresses forward and will only accelerate in the months and years to come,” Batjer said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">Another round of blackouts could pose political concerns for Gov. Gavin Newsom, who will likely face a recall election later this year. In 2003, former Democratic Gov. Gray Davis was removed from office in a recall election largely driven by his handling of rolling blackouts, which were prompted by the deregulation of the energy sector and market manipulation by Enron and other companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">Newsom’s recall election is driven largely by anger over his handling of the pandemic. But rolling blackouts, however brief, could hurt him as he seeks to inspire confidence in voters that he deserves to keep his job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">Energy demand typically peaks in the late afternoon as air conditioners work to cool homes during the hottest part of the day. Demand usually subsides at night as temperatures cool. But that didn’t happen in August, when temperatures were up to 20 degrees above normal for much of the western United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">Demand was so high the weekend of Aug. 14 and 15 that state regulators ordered utility companies to intentionally turn off the power for some people to prevent more widespread outages across the grid, with outages lasting between 8 minutes and two-and-a-half hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">Newsom declared a state emergency as state officials took drastic actions to find more power. That included David Hochschild, chair of the California Energy Commission, asking the U.S. Navy to use their diesel engines to power their ships instead of relying from on-shore power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-85 Component-p-0-2-76\">“There was a lot of things we had to do that none of us wants to do again,” Batjer said.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Signs of gratitude, literally, adorn the Fresno County mountain town of Shaver Lake, population 500 plus a collection of cabins, restaurants and real estate offices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Outside of Bob’s Market, the message is: “Thank you, Creek Fire Heroes,” adjacent to a photo of firefighters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The town today is an island of green pines, surrounded by charred hills and the burnt remains of trees. Yet the signs of gratitude, while well-deserved, could also rightly extend to a mostly unheralded group of workers who labored in advance of flames bearing down on the area from the raging Creek Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Saved by Fire\" postID=\"science_1973138,science_1973196\"]That fire started on Sept. 4, 2020, the Friday before Labor Day. After a hot, dry summer, all it took was a spark in a steep, overgrown canyon to ignite what turned into an explosive blaze.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Having a fire in this canyon was kind of a nightmare,” said Ryan Stewart, a forester for the utility Southern California Edison, looking down a steep hillside, which as of September was overgrown with thick brush. “You look at it and you go: ‘I don’t know how they’re going to stop that fire.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SoCal Edison owns a lot of property to the south of the canyon, around Shaver Lake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the Creek Fire started, Stewart “was kind of just thinking in the back of my mind, ‘I wonder what they’re doing over there, because I got it over here. But over there it’s a different story.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1971660\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/KQEDSCIENCE_CRKFR-1.gif\" alt=\"Groundwater Rise\" width=\"400\" height=\"720\">Over “there” are the forests around Big Creek, where half the homes burned. The “here” Stewart referred to is the forest where he and his colleagues have treated the landscape for years, cutting crowded and dead trees, clearing brush and lighting prescribed fires. All that work, performed in preparation for the next big wildfire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the fire struck, Cal Fire Assistant Chief Jim McDougald, who’d just returned home from fighting fires in Sonoma County, had been forced to head out in the middle of the night to do yet more battle with a conflagration. While driving he spotted the glow from miles away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And that was a clue to me it had the potential to become a major fire,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stewart says he got the call from McDougald around 2 a.m., telling him the fire was headed up the hill toward SoCal Edison property. “I knew that, OK, well, we’ve got a good chance of stopping it once it gets on Edison lands,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McDougald also thought the fire could be stopped there. “The best tool at that time was to try to get dozers in there and open up some of the fuel breaks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stewart arrived at the property in the dead of night and began tying pink flags to trees, marking spots where fire breaks should be widened. Many of the pink flags are still in place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that line is where crews held it during the first hours of the Creek Fire incident. Once the flames crossed over into the treated lands, the fire’s behavior rapidly changed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The intensity of the fire was reduced to a ground fire, and we didn’t get into the crowns, didn’t kill any of the trees,” said Stewart, surveying the land last winter. “Looks pretty good. It’s actually pretty much a controlled burn.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The diminution rapidly halted one flank of the fire. And, McDougald says, it bought time to complete evacuations and prepare to defend Shaver Lake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No question about it … that work bought the direct impact of the fire hitting Shaver at least 24 to 48 hours,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the fire continued to spread in other directions, drawing McDougald’s attention elsewhere. He knew he needed help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the Creek Fire surged, Clint Wade, a fuels specialist for the High Sierra Ranger District of the Sierra National Forest, was working a different fire in the Los Padres National Forest. He and McDougald had worked closely together on getting a system of fuel breaks installed in the Sierra.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Jim made a special request, like, ‘Hey, we need Clint back. He understands this fuel break system,’” recalls Wade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1973154\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1973154 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/119A5277-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/119A5277-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/119A5277-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/119A5277-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/119A5277-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/119A5277-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/119A5277-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/119A5277-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ryan Stewart stands on the edge of a parcel of land he helped prepare for fire. To his left is untreated Forest Service land, to his right Southern California Edison land. \u003ccite>(Ryan Tamborski)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That system helped provide protection in part because Wade, McDougald and others made a conscious effort to put breaks in place where they were needed most, regardless of whether the land was federal, state or the private parcels dotting the land within the national forest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know, the Forest Service doesn’t treat private land, typically,” Wade said. “So Cal Fire came to us, said, ‘Hey, we have some money. Where do you have holes?’ And we got out the maps [and saw], ‘Hey, Twin Brooks has got some patches. Can we glue that together? You know, there’s stuff over here off the back side of Cressman’s, there’s patches. Let’s glue that together.’ And we started designing projects.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of these fuel breaks and controlled burns were funded because of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2019 executive order fast-tracking 35 high-priority projects to protect vulnerable communities. Five of these were on lands in and around Shaver Lake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a California Assembly hearing last fall, Cal Fire director Thom Porter told lawmakers, “The centerpiece of Shaver Lake would have been completely consumed like Paradise, had we not done those projects and had we not had those prescribed fires that occurred in that area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Breaking Down Jurisdictional Barriers\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the Creek Fire, the fourth largest on record in the state, destroyed 900 structures and injured 26 people, the preventive treatments around Shaver Lake are a success story, albeit one that’s not common. Even though vegetation treatments and planned fires can make wildfires less catastrophic and smoke less toxic, they are not easy to get done in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Questions of jurisdiction, for instance, can get in the way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It shouldn’t matter whose ground it is if that’s where the fuel break needs to go and both agencies agree,” Cal Fire’s McDougald said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet, it often does. Agencies like the Forest Service or Cal Fire have individual mandates to care for land and protect communities, but not necessarily to work together smoothly. So success can depend on the goodwill efforts of individuals with the power to make decisions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve spent a lot of time fostering the professional and personal relationship that needs to be in place so that you can implement work,” Wade said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A host of other barriers exist, such as questions of who has liability if the controlled burn escapes or what animals can’t be disturbed because they’re in mating season. There’s also a firefighting culture at work: People who extinguish flames are called heroes. People who trim brush and light prescribed fires aren’t thought of that way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1973155\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1973155 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1585-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1585-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1585-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1585-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1585-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1585-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1585-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1585-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Looking toward Musick Mountain through a fire-destroyed forest. \u003ccite>(Danielle Venton/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One approved project wasn’t completed before fire season because of limited staff, time and money. So when wildfire tore over Musick Mountain, it ruined habitat and blazed a path to where people lived.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“(T)he regret is, you know, could we have gotten that done a year sooner?” said Wade. “We probably would’ve had fuel-breaks in [which] would have surrounded that ignition, and there could have been opportunity to slow this down.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sheer magnitude of all the treatments that need to be done is intense in a forest where fires have been suppressed for more than a century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1973156\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1973156\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1610-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1610-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1610-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1610-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1610-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1610-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1610-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1610-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cal Fire’s Jim McDougald says what he and others do in the next few decades will determine if Shaver Lake will survive future fires. \u003ccite>(Danielle Venton/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“You’re always behind, you’re working hard, you’re building fuel breaks, you’re doing the right thing,” McDougald said. “You’re getting some prescribed fire done. But there’s no light at the end of the tunnel for a while.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McDougald says what he and others do in the next years to decades will determine whether Shaver Lake has healthy forests — and healthy fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hopefully the story you’re talking about next time is: ‘This is now a resilient landscape. And how did you do it?’ It’s work we haven’t done yet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Signs of gratitude, literally, adorn the Fresno County mountain town of Shaver Lake, population 500 plus a collection of cabins, restaurants and real estate offices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Outside of Bob’s Market, the message is: “Thank you, Creek Fire Heroes,” adjacent to a photo of firefighters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The town today is an island of green pines, surrounded by charred hills and the burnt remains of trees. Yet the signs of gratitude, while well-deserved, could also rightly extend to a mostly unheralded group of workers who labored in advance of flames bearing down on the area from the raging Creek Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>That fire started on Sept. 4, 2020, the Friday before Labor Day. After a hot, dry summer, all it took was a spark in a steep, overgrown canyon to ignite what turned into an explosive blaze.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Having a fire in this canyon was kind of a nightmare,” said Ryan Stewart, a forester for the utility Southern California Edison, looking down a steep hillside, which as of September was overgrown with thick brush. “You look at it and you go: ‘I don’t know how they’re going to stop that fire.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SoCal Edison owns a lot of property to the south of the canyon, around Shaver Lake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the Creek Fire started, Stewart “was kind of just thinking in the back of my mind, ‘I wonder what they’re doing over there, because I got it over here. But over there it’s a different story.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1971660\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/KQEDSCIENCE_CRKFR-1.gif\" alt=\"Groundwater Rise\" width=\"400\" height=\"720\">Over “there” are the forests around Big Creek, where half the homes burned. The “here” Stewart referred to is the forest where he and his colleagues have treated the landscape for years, cutting crowded and dead trees, clearing brush and lighting prescribed fires. All that work, performed in preparation for the next big wildfire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the fire struck, Cal Fire Assistant Chief Jim McDougald, who’d just returned home from fighting fires in Sonoma County, had been forced to head out in the middle of the night to do yet more battle with a conflagration. While driving he spotted the glow from miles away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And that was a clue to me it had the potential to become a major fire,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stewart says he got the call from McDougald around 2 a.m., telling him the fire was headed up the hill toward SoCal Edison property. “I knew that, OK, well, we’ve got a good chance of stopping it once it gets on Edison lands,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McDougald also thought the fire could be stopped there. “The best tool at that time was to try to get dozers in there and open up some of the fuel breaks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stewart arrived at the property in the dead of night and began tying pink flags to trees, marking spots where fire breaks should be widened. Many of the pink flags are still in place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that line is where crews held it during the first hours of the Creek Fire incident. Once the flames crossed over into the treated lands, the fire’s behavior rapidly changed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The intensity of the fire was reduced to a ground fire, and we didn’t get into the crowns, didn’t kill any of the trees,” said Stewart, surveying the land last winter. “Looks pretty good. It’s actually pretty much a controlled burn.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The diminution rapidly halted one flank of the fire. And, McDougald says, it bought time to complete evacuations and prepare to defend Shaver Lake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No question about it … that work bought the direct impact of the fire hitting Shaver at least 24 to 48 hours,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the fire continued to spread in other directions, drawing McDougald’s attention elsewhere. He knew he needed help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the Creek Fire surged, Clint Wade, a fuels specialist for the High Sierra Ranger District of the Sierra National Forest, was working a different fire in the Los Padres National Forest. He and McDougald had worked closely together on getting a system of fuel breaks installed in the Sierra.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Jim made a special request, like, ‘Hey, we need Clint back. He understands this fuel break system,’” recalls Wade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1973154\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1973154 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/119A5277-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/119A5277-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/119A5277-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/119A5277-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/119A5277-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/119A5277-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/119A5277-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/119A5277-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ryan Stewart stands on the edge of a parcel of land he helped prepare for fire. To his left is untreated Forest Service land, to his right Southern California Edison land. \u003ccite>(Ryan Tamborski)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That system helped provide protection in part because Wade, McDougald and others made a conscious effort to put breaks in place where they were needed most, regardless of whether the land was federal, state or the private parcels dotting the land within the national forest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know, the Forest Service doesn’t treat private land, typically,” Wade said. “So Cal Fire came to us, said, ‘Hey, we have some money. Where do you have holes?’ And we got out the maps [and saw], ‘Hey, Twin Brooks has got some patches. Can we glue that together? You know, there’s stuff over here off the back side of Cressman’s, there’s patches. Let’s glue that together.’ And we started designing projects.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of these fuel breaks and controlled burns were funded because of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2019 executive order fast-tracking 35 high-priority projects to protect vulnerable communities. Five of these were on lands in and around Shaver Lake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a California Assembly hearing last fall, Cal Fire director Thom Porter told lawmakers, “The centerpiece of Shaver Lake would have been completely consumed like Paradise, had we not done those projects and had we not had those prescribed fires that occurred in that area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Breaking Down Jurisdictional Barriers\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the Creek Fire, the fourth largest on record in the state, destroyed 900 structures and injured 26 people, the preventive treatments around Shaver Lake are a success story, albeit one that’s not common. Even though vegetation treatments and planned fires can make wildfires less catastrophic and smoke less toxic, they are not easy to get done in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Questions of jurisdiction, for instance, can get in the way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It shouldn’t matter whose ground it is if that’s where the fuel break needs to go and both agencies agree,” Cal Fire’s McDougald said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet, it often does. Agencies like the Forest Service or Cal Fire have individual mandates to care for land and protect communities, but not necessarily to work together smoothly. So success can depend on the goodwill efforts of individuals with the power to make decisions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve spent a lot of time fostering the professional and personal relationship that needs to be in place so that you can implement work,” Wade said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A host of other barriers exist, such as questions of who has liability if the controlled burn escapes or what animals can’t be disturbed because they’re in mating season. There’s also a firefighting culture at work: People who extinguish flames are called heroes. People who trim brush and light prescribed fires aren’t thought of that way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1973155\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1973155 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1585-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1585-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1585-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1585-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1585-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1585-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1585-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1585-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Looking toward Musick Mountain through a fire-destroyed forest. \u003ccite>(Danielle Venton/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One approved project wasn’t completed before fire season because of limited staff, time and money. So when wildfire tore over Musick Mountain, it ruined habitat and blazed a path to where people lived.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“(T)he regret is, you know, could we have gotten that done a year sooner?” said Wade. “We probably would’ve had fuel-breaks in [which] would have surrounded that ignition, and there could have been opportunity to slow this down.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sheer magnitude of all the treatments that need to be done is intense in a forest where fires have been suppressed for more than a century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1973156\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1973156\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1610-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1610-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1610-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1610-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1610-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1610-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1610-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/03/IMG_1610-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cal Fire’s Jim McDougald says what he and others do in the next few decades will determine if Shaver Lake will survive future fires. \u003ccite>(Danielle Venton/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“You’re always behind, you’re working hard, you’re building fuel breaks, you’re doing the right thing,” McDougald said. “You’re getting some prescribed fire done. But there’s no light at the end of the tunnel for a while.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McDougald says what he and others do in the next years to decades will determine whether Shaver Lake has healthy forests — and healthy fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hopefully the story you’re talking about next time is: ‘This is now a resilient landscape. And how did you do it?’ It’s work we haven’t done yet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "After Last Year's Catastrophic Wildfire Season, California Braces for One Possibly Worse",
"headTitle": "After Last Year’s Catastrophic Wildfire Season, California Braces for One Possibly Worse | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>After one of the most \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/09/04/909668879/whats-driving-california-s-biggest-ever-wildfire-season\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">destructive and extreme wildfire seasons in modern history\u003c/a> last year, a widening drought across California and much of the West has many residents bracing for the possibility this season could be worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anemic winter rain and snowfall has left reservoirs and river flows down significantly, even as the state experiences \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/US_Stormwatch/status/1387929070944456709\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">its driest water year\u003c/a> in more than four decades. Today, wildfire fuels in some parts of California are at or near record levels of dryness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fuel moisture — the amount of water inside a living plant — “is the lowest that we’ve recorded at these sites since 2013,” says Craig Clements, director of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sjsu.edu/wildfire/%20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center at San Jose State University\u003c/a>. “It’s indicative of very dangerous conditions coming into this summer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those hazardous conditions are the result of drier, hotter weather and accelerated vegetation drying due to a warming climate, combined with more than a century of fire suppression, that has left many forests with treacherous amounts of built-up fuel. Those two factors are now amplifying each other, says \u003ca href=\"https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/person/daniel-swain/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Daniel Swain,\u003c/a> a leading climate scientist at UCLA and the Nature Conservancy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think, unfortunately, as bad as things have been recently, this year looks like another year that has some really ugly potential,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Climate scientists point out that a menacing wildfire potential this year doesn’t necessarily mean that’ll happen. “Really, that’s just going to be a matter of luck,” Swain says. But “of all the aspects that are predictable, \u003ca href=\"https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2021GL092843\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">they all look pretty ominous\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?CA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">As dire drought conditions spread\u003c/a>, all of this could get exacerbated again by warmer-than-normal temperature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Summer temperatures are forecasted by the National Weather Service to be above normal again all across the West including California,” says Amanda Sheffield, a regional drought information coordinator with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) \u003ca href=\"https://www.drought.gov/%20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">National Integrated Drought Information System.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has already had a pretty rapid snow melt off for this time of year, she notes, so upper elevations “could be particularly vulnerable earlier than usual as we move into midsummer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s a forecast some in wildfire and pandemic-battered California may not want to hear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1974593\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1974593 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/napa-photo_wide-b078aa8ad1cbba4fa9cd94cc18438e9821a263c3-1-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/napa-photo_wide-b078aa8ad1cbba4fa9cd94cc18438e9821a263c3-1-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/napa-photo_wide-b078aa8ad1cbba4fa9cd94cc18438e9821a263c3-1-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/napa-photo_wide-b078aa8ad1cbba4fa9cd94cc18438e9821a263c3-1-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/napa-photo_wide-b078aa8ad1cbba4fa9cd94cc18438e9821a263c3-1-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/napa-photo_wide-b078aa8ad1cbba4fa9cd94cc18438e9821a263c3-1-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/napa-photo_wide-b078aa8ad1cbba4fa9cd94cc18438e9821a263c3-1-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/napa-photo_wide-b078aa8ad1cbba4fa9cd94cc18438e9821a263c3-1-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wildfire-scarred hills behind the famous Welcome to Napa sign. \u003ccite>(Eric Westervelt/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On a recent day in Napa County’s picturesque Calistoga, tourists are returning in droves more than ready for a post-lockdown generous pour, and to take in the beautiful, if fire-scarred, landscape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Calistoga — \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/local/article/Most-of-the-Bay-Area-is-now-in-an-extreme-16139365.php%20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">like a handful of other cities\u003c/a> — has already \u003ca href=\"https://napavalleyregister.com/community/calistogan/news/city-of-calistoga-issues-mandate-for-water-customers-to-conserve/article_2a0d78fc-e7e2-5996-a474-c3e17e7c0405.html%20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">imposed emergency water restrictions\u003c/a> because of the drought. So the city’s energetic mayor, Chris Canning, has to balance boosterism with realism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Canning notes that since the city’s founding in 1862, residents have only been evacuated twice, both times in the last four years because of wildfire. “Not a good resume for a mayor,” he says with a smile. “But absolutely necessary for the safety and protection of our residents. And we’ll do it again if we have to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To get a jump on any fires this season, Canning is pleased the state agency Cal Fire has dedicated \u003ca href=\"https://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/napa-county-announces-state-will-provide-additional-helicopter-firefighters-for-next-wildfire-season/article_40512359-baac-5940-81dd-4c44aa7af62f.html%20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a new firefighting\u003c/a> helicopter and a 24-7 firefighting crew of nearly 50 men and women for Napa County. Cal Fire has beefed up its wildfire fighting capacity statewide, adding several specially-modified S-70i Firehawk helicopters to its fleet. These are more agile and versatile than their old UH-1H, or Huey, helicopters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the mayor says most of the region’s residents get it: climate-fueled wildfires are an ongoing threat. So people are building bigger fire breaks, making an evacuation plan, and clearing brush — creating what firefighters call defensible space on their properties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Mayor Canning admits that’s not everyone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The other school of thought is, let’s pretend, you know, what happened in the past is the past, it’ll never happen again,” the mayor says. “The amnesia response is problematic, especially if you’re not taking the precautions you need to as a business or a resident to be prepared. That’s where it’s dangerous.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1974594\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1974594 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/hourglass_wide-b9c0563fb582494f99f104b43253a39d04e9d6d8-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/hourglass_wide-b9c0563fb582494f99f104b43253a39d04e9d6d8-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/hourglass_wide-b9c0563fb582494f99f104b43253a39d04e9d6d8-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/hourglass_wide-b9c0563fb582494f99f104b43253a39d04e9d6d8-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/hourglass_wide-b9c0563fb582494f99f104b43253a39d04e9d6d8-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/hourglass_wide-b9c0563fb582494f99f104b43253a39d04e9d6d8-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/hourglass_wide-b9c0563fb582494f99f104b43253a39d04e9d6d8-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/hourglass_wide-b9c0563fb582494f99f104b43253a39d04e9d6d8-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The entrance to the Hourglass Winery, with the Napa Sheriff’s Office evacuated tag from last year’s Glass Fire blowing in the wind. \u003ccite>(Eric Westervelt/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In late September last year, the fast-moving Glass Fire badly damaged nearly 30 Napa wineries, including family-owned \u003ca href=\"https://www.hourglasswines.com/%20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hourglass wines\u003c/a>. It swept through as the region was still recovering from 2017’s record-setting fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That was all remnants of the old farmhouse,” says Hourglass’ founder and president Jeff Smith, as he walks near a pile of charred stones that are all that remain of the winery’s guesthouse, built in 1852.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Smith says the hardest loss was the grove of old growth redwood, Douglas fir, oak and olive trees, even older than the house, most which now lie burnt and stacked for salvage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To me that was the soul of the property, those trees,” he says. “The buildings can be rebuilt, but the couple hundred-year-old trees, you know, you can’t just magically bring those right back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hourglass’ wine-making building is a total loss. Steel fermentation and storage tanks sit like sad, damaged sculptures: most of the 2020 vintage is still inside, cooked and useless.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The devastating Glass Fire was just one of nearly 10,000 California wildfires last year that \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2020/%20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">burned more than four million acres\u003c/a> — a modern record. Across the West, more than 14,000 structures were destroyed, causing billions in damages. At least 46 people were killed as California, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/09/10/911389505/at-least-7-people-killed-in-west-coast-wildfires-dangerous-winds-forecast-to-eas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oregon\u003c/a> and Colorado all saw record-breaking “megafires.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smith, who was born and raised in Napa, is rebuilding. But he says the more frequent, more destructive wildfires have him rethinking everything about how he manages his land, business and life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know, I grew up here, all of my roots are here and it’s my intention to stay and rebuild. But I think that there’s a lot of game-changing thought processes that we need to be going through,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Past vintages, stored in wooden barrels in stone and cement caves built into the hillside, survived the fire. Smith is looking to rebuild stronger, and smarter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re taking a much harder look at materials, defensible space, at fire suppression systems, access. You know, \u003cem>all \u003c/em>of these kinds of things to try to mitigate this into the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And Smith is hopeful. He aims to rebuild enough this summer to crush and process this year’s grape harvest in a new facility here, along Napa’s famed Silverado Trail in September.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least, that’s the plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I tell my wine-making team: have a backup plan!” Smith says with a laugh. In a world-class wine region turned wine and wildfire zone, he concedes, “it’s always good to have a plan B.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 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=Deepening+Drought+Holds+%27Ominous%27+Signs+For+Wildfire+Threat+In+The+West&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>After one of the most \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/09/04/909668879/whats-driving-california-s-biggest-ever-wildfire-season\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">destructive and extreme wildfire seasons in modern history\u003c/a> last year, a widening drought across California and much of the West has many residents bracing for the possibility this season could be worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anemic winter rain and snowfall has left reservoirs and river flows down significantly, even as the state experiences \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/US_Stormwatch/status/1387929070944456709\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">its driest water year\u003c/a> in more than four decades. Today, wildfire fuels in some parts of California are at or near record levels of dryness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fuel moisture — the amount of water inside a living plant — “is the lowest that we’ve recorded at these sites since 2013,” says Craig Clements, director of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sjsu.edu/wildfire/%20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center at San Jose State University\u003c/a>. “It’s indicative of very dangerous conditions coming into this summer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those hazardous conditions are the result of drier, hotter weather and accelerated vegetation drying due to a warming climate, combined with more than a century of fire suppression, that has left many forests with treacherous amounts of built-up fuel. Those two factors are now amplifying each other, says \u003ca href=\"https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/person/daniel-swain/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Daniel Swain,\u003c/a> a leading climate scientist at UCLA and the Nature Conservancy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think, unfortunately, as bad as things have been recently, this year looks like another year that has some really ugly potential,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Climate scientists point out that a menacing wildfire potential this year doesn’t necessarily mean that’ll happen. “Really, that’s just going to be a matter of luck,” Swain says. But “of all the aspects that are predictable, \u003ca href=\"https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2021GL092843\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">they all look pretty ominous\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?CA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">As dire drought conditions spread\u003c/a>, all of this could get exacerbated again by warmer-than-normal temperature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Summer temperatures are forecasted by the National Weather Service to be above normal again all across the West including California,” says Amanda Sheffield, a regional drought information coordinator with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) \u003ca href=\"https://www.drought.gov/%20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">National Integrated Drought Information System.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has already had a pretty rapid snow melt off for this time of year, she notes, so upper elevations “could be particularly vulnerable earlier than usual as we move into midsummer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s a forecast some in wildfire and pandemic-battered California may not want to hear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1974593\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1974593 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/napa-photo_wide-b078aa8ad1cbba4fa9cd94cc18438e9821a263c3-1-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/napa-photo_wide-b078aa8ad1cbba4fa9cd94cc18438e9821a263c3-1-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/napa-photo_wide-b078aa8ad1cbba4fa9cd94cc18438e9821a263c3-1-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/napa-photo_wide-b078aa8ad1cbba4fa9cd94cc18438e9821a263c3-1-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/napa-photo_wide-b078aa8ad1cbba4fa9cd94cc18438e9821a263c3-1-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/napa-photo_wide-b078aa8ad1cbba4fa9cd94cc18438e9821a263c3-1-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/napa-photo_wide-b078aa8ad1cbba4fa9cd94cc18438e9821a263c3-1-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/napa-photo_wide-b078aa8ad1cbba4fa9cd94cc18438e9821a263c3-1-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wildfire-scarred hills behind the famous Welcome to Napa sign. \u003ccite>(Eric Westervelt/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On a recent day in Napa County’s picturesque Calistoga, tourists are returning in droves more than ready for a post-lockdown generous pour, and to take in the beautiful, if fire-scarred, landscape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Calistoga — \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/local/article/Most-of-the-Bay-Area-is-now-in-an-extreme-16139365.php%20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">like a handful of other cities\u003c/a> — has already \u003ca href=\"https://napavalleyregister.com/community/calistogan/news/city-of-calistoga-issues-mandate-for-water-customers-to-conserve/article_2a0d78fc-e7e2-5996-a474-c3e17e7c0405.html%20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">imposed emergency water restrictions\u003c/a> because of the drought. So the city’s energetic mayor, Chris Canning, has to balance boosterism with realism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Canning notes that since the city’s founding in 1862, residents have only been evacuated twice, both times in the last four years because of wildfire. “Not a good resume for a mayor,” he says with a smile. “But absolutely necessary for the safety and protection of our residents. And we’ll do it again if we have to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To get a jump on any fires this season, Canning is pleased the state agency Cal Fire has dedicated \u003ca href=\"https://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/napa-county-announces-state-will-provide-additional-helicopter-firefighters-for-next-wildfire-season/article_40512359-baac-5940-81dd-4c44aa7af62f.html%20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a new firefighting\u003c/a> helicopter and a 24-7 firefighting crew of nearly 50 men and women for Napa County. Cal Fire has beefed up its wildfire fighting capacity statewide, adding several specially-modified S-70i Firehawk helicopters to its fleet. These are more agile and versatile than their old UH-1H, or Huey, helicopters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the mayor says most of the region’s residents get it: climate-fueled wildfires are an ongoing threat. So people are building bigger fire breaks, making an evacuation plan, and clearing brush — creating what firefighters call defensible space on their properties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Mayor Canning admits that’s not everyone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The other school of thought is, let’s pretend, you know, what happened in the past is the past, it’ll never happen again,” the mayor says. “The amnesia response is problematic, especially if you’re not taking the precautions you need to as a business or a resident to be prepared. That’s where it’s dangerous.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1974594\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1974594 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/hourglass_wide-b9c0563fb582494f99f104b43253a39d04e9d6d8-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/hourglass_wide-b9c0563fb582494f99f104b43253a39d04e9d6d8-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/hourglass_wide-b9c0563fb582494f99f104b43253a39d04e9d6d8-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/hourglass_wide-b9c0563fb582494f99f104b43253a39d04e9d6d8-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/hourglass_wide-b9c0563fb582494f99f104b43253a39d04e9d6d8-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/hourglass_wide-b9c0563fb582494f99f104b43253a39d04e9d6d8-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/hourglass_wide-b9c0563fb582494f99f104b43253a39d04e9d6d8-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/05/hourglass_wide-b9c0563fb582494f99f104b43253a39d04e9d6d8-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The entrance to the Hourglass Winery, with the Napa Sheriff’s Office evacuated tag from last year’s Glass Fire blowing in the wind. \u003ccite>(Eric Westervelt/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In late September last year, the fast-moving Glass Fire badly damaged nearly 30 Napa wineries, including family-owned \u003ca href=\"https://www.hourglasswines.com/%20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hourglass wines\u003c/a>. It swept through as the region was still recovering from 2017’s record-setting fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That was all remnants of the old farmhouse,” says Hourglass’ founder and president Jeff Smith, as he walks near a pile of charred stones that are all that remain of the winery’s guesthouse, built in 1852.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Smith says the hardest loss was the grove of old growth redwood, Douglas fir, oak and olive trees, even older than the house, most which now lie burnt and stacked for salvage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To me that was the soul of the property, those trees,” he says. “The buildings can be rebuilt, but the couple hundred-year-old trees, you know, you can’t just magically bring those right back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hourglass’ wine-making building is a total loss. Steel fermentation and storage tanks sit like sad, damaged sculptures: most of the 2020 vintage is still inside, cooked and useless.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The devastating Glass Fire was just one of nearly 10,000 California wildfires last year that \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2020/%20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">burned more than four million acres\u003c/a> — a modern record. Across the West, more than 14,000 structures were destroyed, causing billions in damages. At least 46 people were killed as California, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/09/10/911389505/at-least-7-people-killed-in-west-coast-wildfires-dangerous-winds-forecast-to-eas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oregon\u003c/a> and Colorado all saw record-breaking “megafires.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smith, who was born and raised in Napa, is rebuilding. But he says the more frequent, more destructive wildfires have him rethinking everything about how he manages his land, business and life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know, I grew up here, all of my roots are here and it’s my intention to stay and rebuild. But I think that there’s a lot of game-changing thought processes that we need to be going through,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Past vintages, stored in wooden barrels in stone and cement caves built into the hillside, survived the fire. Smith is looking to rebuild stronger, and smarter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re taking a much harder look at materials, defensible space, at fire suppression systems, access. You know, \u003cem>all \u003c/em>of these kinds of things to try to mitigate this into the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And Smith is hopeful. He aims to rebuild enough this summer to crush and process this year’s grape harvest in a new facility here, along Napa’s famed Silverado Trail in September.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least, that’s the plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I tell my wine-making team: have a backup plan!” Smith says with a laugh. In a world-class wine region turned wine and wildfire zone, he concedes, “it’s always good to have a plan B.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 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=Deepening+Drought+Holds+%27Ominous%27+Signs+For+Wildfire+Threat+In+The+West&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"order": 1
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"id": "code-switch-life-kit",
"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"meta": {
"site": "radio",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"meta": {
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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"id": "freakonomics-radio",
"title": "Freakonomics Radio",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
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},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
"title": "Fresh Air",
"info": "Hosted by Terry Gross, \u003cem>Fresh Air from WHYY\u003c/em> is the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues. One of public radio's most popular programs, Fresh Air features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries.",
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"meta": {
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"link": "/radio/program/fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
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},
"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
"title": "Hidden Brain",
"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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},
"how-i-built-this": {
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"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/3zxy",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"order": 15
},
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/2p3Fifq96nw9BPcmFdIq0o?si=39209f7b25774f38",
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},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
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},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Masters-of-Scale-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
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"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
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"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mindshift-podcast/id1078765985",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/stories-teachers-share",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "On Our Watch from NPR and KQED",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1567098962",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/show/on-our-watch",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510360/podcast.xml"
}
},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "pbs"
},
"link": "/radio/program/pbs-newshour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
"rss": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/show"
}
},
"perspectives": {
"id": "perspectives",
"title": "Perspectives",
"tagline": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991",
"info": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Perspectives_Tile_Final.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Perspectives",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/perspectives/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 14
},
"link": "/perspectives",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id73801135",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432309616/perspectives",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/perspectives/category/perspectives/feed/",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93dzIua3FlZC5vcmcvcGVyc3BlY3RpdmVzL2NhdGVnb3J5L3BlcnNwZWN0aXZlcy9mZWVkLw"
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},
"planet-money": {
"id": "planet-money",
"title": "Planet Money",
"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.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/sections/money/",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/M4f5",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Business--Economics-Podcasts/Planet-Money-p164680/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510289/podcast.xml"
}
},
"politicalbreakdown": {
"id": "politicalbreakdown",
"title": "Political Breakdown",
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