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"title": "The Future of National Parks is Going to be a Lot Hotter",
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"content": "\u003cp>Summertime is primetime for national parks. As snow melts, wildflowers bloom and waterfalls roar, generations of visitors have flocked to the natural wonders that dot the American landscape (to say nothing of all the amazing cultural sites the National Park Service protects).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The National Park Service was created a century ago — August 25, 1916 to be exact — to keep an eye on the growing treasure trove of national parks. It’s been a good century as more and more land has been set aside and annual visitors now number more than 300 million, but it’s also not been without challenges. Chief among them is \u003ca href=\"http://reports.climatecentral.org/nps/director/\">climate change\u003c/a>, which will drastically \u003ca href=\"http://reports.climatecentral.org/nps/quiz/\">alter national park landscapes\u003c/a> in the coming decades including cranking up the \u003ca href=\"http://www.climatecentral.org/gallery/graphics/100-years-of-warming-at-the-national-parks\">heat\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">Joshua Tree National Park in southern California will face the greatest geographical climate shift, with temperatures more like Abu Dhabi by 2100.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>As part of Climate Central’s ongoing \u003ca href=\"http://statesatrisk.org/\">States at Risk\u003c/a> project, we analyzed just how much hotter parks are projected to get later this century. We looked at the future summer temperatures in all the parks in the Lower 48 states except Dry Tortugas National Park (sorry, Fort Jefferson lovers!) assuming greenhouse gas emissions continue on their current trend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The results could make you sweat. Parks are projected to have summers that are 8-12°F hotter by 2100. That means currently cool mountainous parks could be as hot as the plains. Parks in the Southeast, already a pretty hot place, will face even more extreme temperatures with a climate more like southern Texas. And otherworldly Joshua Tree National Park in southern California will face the greatest geographical climate shift, with temperatures more like Abu Dhabi by 2100.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We also analyzed how many more days with extreme heat the parks could face. \u003ca href=\"http://wxshift.com/climate-change/climate-indicators/extreme-heat\">Extreme heat\u003c/a> is a hallmark of global warming, and its impact will be most arresting in the national parks where people go, by design, to be outside in the summer. Like the rest of the country, parks are going to be seeing more dangerously hot days above 90°F, 95°F, and 100°F.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By 2100, the glaciers of Montana’s Glacier National Park \u003ca href=\"http://reports.climatecentral.org/nps/glacier/\">will be long gone\u003c/a> and rising temperatures will be one of the big reasons why. Visitors will not only have to contend with an ice-free landscape, but also hotter temperatures. Today the park sees an average of only one 90°F day each year. It could see 27 days with temperatures above 90°F by the end of the century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yosemite National Park, high in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, currently sees about two weeks of 90°F weather every year. By 2050, it could see nearly a month of those temperatures, and by 2100 it could get nearly 50 such days each year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the Great Smoky Mountains, currently the most-visited National Park, could go from fewer than 10 days above 90°F each year, on average now, to three months with those scorching temperatures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In numerous other parks, the number of days above 100°F is projected to skyrocket. Big Bend National Park in Texas could see more than 110 days above 100°F each year, on average. And Great Basin National Park in Nevada, which currently doesn’t have any days above 100°F in a typical year, could see a month of those temperatures each year by 2100.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s likely that parks on the more extreme end of the temperature scale will see a drop in summer visitation, but more visitors are \u003ca href=\"http://www.climatecentral.org/news/national-parks-warm-temps-19123\">likely to show up in fall\u003c/a> and spring when it won’t be fry-an-egg-on-the-sidewalk hot. That may stretch park resources thin as most parks are set up to handle summer crowds and quieter shoulder seasons. How parks deal with the change in visitation season is an open question.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And all this is to say nothing about the impacts extreme heat will have on the natural resources around which we created national parks in the first place. Joshua Tree could become too hot for its namesake trees and there’s evidence that extreme summer days could create more rockfalls in Yosemite, which could change the face of the stunning valley at the center of the park. \u003ca href=\"http://www.climatecentral.org/news/western-wildfires-climate-change-20475\">Wildfire risk\u003c/a> will also skyrocket across the West and could make summer park vacations not only more hot but \u003ca href=\"http://www.climatecentral.org/news/wildfires-national-park-service-birthday-19371\">more smoky\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those are just the most visible changes. Whole ecosystems are likely to be disrupted and there are consequences scientists probably haven’t even uncovered yet (those are the ones that \u003ca href=\"http://www.climatecentral.org/news/gradual-climate-changes-could-cause-sudden-impacts-16792\">could be the worst\u003c/a> since we’ll be least prepared).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the daunting situation facing the National Park Service in its second century, there are signs it’s up for the challenge. It’s already addressing climate change from \u003ca href=\"http://reports.climatecentral.org/nps/new-york-parks-sea-level-rise/\">the coast\u003c/a> to the \u003ca href=\"http://reports.climatecentral.org/nps/glacier/\">high mountains\u003c/a> and has an \u003ca href=\"http://reports.climatecentral.org/nps/overview/\">A-Team team of experts\u003c/a> to help parks answer the gnarly questions they face.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s no denying that national parks will look a lot different by the end of the century, but that won’t make them any less a part of the fabric of American identity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.climatecentral.org/\">Climate Central\u003c/a> \u003cem>is an independent organization that researches and reports on climate change.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Analysis by James Bronzan and Alyson Kenward, PhD.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Methodology:\u003c/strong>\u003cem> Future temperatures for 47 National Parks were calculated based on the median of 29 spatially downscaled climate models (CMIP5) at 1/8 degree scale, then averaged within park boundaries. National parks in Alaska and Hawaii, along with Dry Tortugas National Park, were excluded because projections at this resolution were unavailable. Temperatures for 2050 are based on the 20-year average of 2041-2060 and for 2100 are based on the period 2080-2099. Projected temperatures assume that greenhouse gas emissions continue at their current rate (RCP8.5). The interactive map features the average summer daily high temperature (June-August), while days over 90\u003csup>o\u003c/sup>F, 95\u003csup>o\u003c/sup>F, and 100\u003csup>o\u003c/sup>F were counted annually. The current period values for parks and climate divisions are based on the 1991-2010 average calculated using a gridded observational dataset by Ed Maurer of Santa Clara University. \u003c/em>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "National Parks' physical boundaries might not change, but their climate boundaries will as the world warms.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Summertime is primetime for national parks. As snow melts, wildflowers bloom and waterfalls roar, generations of visitors have flocked to the natural wonders that dot the American landscape (to say nothing of all the amazing cultural sites the National Park Service protects).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The National Park Service was created a century ago — August 25, 1916 to be exact — to keep an eye on the growing treasure trove of national parks. It’s been a good century as more and more land has been set aside and annual visitors now number more than 300 million, but it’s also not been without challenges. Chief among them is \u003ca href=\"http://reports.climatecentral.org/nps/director/\">climate change\u003c/a>, which will drastically \u003ca href=\"http://reports.climatecentral.org/nps/quiz/\">alter national park landscapes\u003c/a> in the coming decades including cranking up the \u003ca href=\"http://www.climatecentral.org/gallery/graphics/100-years-of-warming-at-the-national-parks\">heat\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">Joshua Tree National Park in southern California will face the greatest geographical climate shift, with temperatures more like Abu Dhabi by 2100.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>As part of Climate Central’s ongoing \u003ca href=\"http://statesatrisk.org/\">States at Risk\u003c/a> project, we analyzed just how much hotter parks are projected to get later this century. We looked at the future summer temperatures in all the parks in the Lower 48 states except Dry Tortugas National Park (sorry, Fort Jefferson lovers!) assuming greenhouse gas emissions continue on their current trend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The results could make you sweat. Parks are projected to have summers that are 8-12°F hotter by 2100. That means currently cool mountainous parks could be as hot as the plains. Parks in the Southeast, already a pretty hot place, will face even more extreme temperatures with a climate more like southern Texas. And otherworldly Joshua Tree National Park in southern California will face the greatest geographical climate shift, with temperatures more like Abu Dhabi by 2100.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We also analyzed how many more days with extreme heat the parks could face. \u003ca href=\"http://wxshift.com/climate-change/climate-indicators/extreme-heat\">Extreme heat\u003c/a> is a hallmark of global warming, and its impact will be most arresting in the national parks where people go, by design, to be outside in the summer. Like the rest of the country, parks are going to be seeing more dangerously hot days above 90°F, 95°F, and 100°F.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By 2100, the glaciers of Montana’s Glacier National Park \u003ca href=\"http://reports.climatecentral.org/nps/glacier/\">will be long gone\u003c/a> and rising temperatures will be one of the big reasons why. Visitors will not only have to contend with an ice-free landscape, but also hotter temperatures. Today the park sees an average of only one 90°F day each year. It could see 27 days with temperatures above 90°F by the end of the century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yosemite National Park, high in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, currently sees about two weeks of 90°F weather every year. By 2050, it could see nearly a month of those temperatures, and by 2100 it could get nearly 50 such days each year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the Great Smoky Mountains, currently the most-visited National Park, could go from fewer than 10 days above 90°F each year, on average now, to three months with those scorching temperatures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In numerous other parks, the number of days above 100°F is projected to skyrocket. Big Bend National Park in Texas could see more than 110 days above 100°F each year, on average. And Great Basin National Park in Nevada, which currently doesn’t have any days above 100°F in a typical year, could see a month of those temperatures each year by 2100.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s likely that parks on the more extreme end of the temperature scale will see a drop in summer visitation, but more visitors are \u003ca href=\"http://www.climatecentral.org/news/national-parks-warm-temps-19123\">likely to show up in fall\u003c/a> and spring when it won’t be fry-an-egg-on-the-sidewalk hot. That may stretch park resources thin as most parks are set up to handle summer crowds and quieter shoulder seasons. How parks deal with the change in visitation season is an open question.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And all this is to say nothing about the impacts extreme heat will have on the natural resources around which we created national parks in the first place. Joshua Tree could become too hot for its namesake trees and there’s evidence that extreme summer days could create more rockfalls in Yosemite, which could change the face of the stunning valley at the center of the park. \u003ca href=\"http://www.climatecentral.org/news/western-wildfires-climate-change-20475\">Wildfire risk\u003c/a> will also skyrocket across the West and could make summer park vacations not only more hot but \u003ca href=\"http://www.climatecentral.org/news/wildfires-national-park-service-birthday-19371\">more smoky\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those are just the most visible changes. Whole ecosystems are likely to be disrupted and there are consequences scientists probably haven’t even uncovered yet (those are the ones that \u003ca href=\"http://www.climatecentral.org/news/gradual-climate-changes-could-cause-sudden-impacts-16792\">could be the worst\u003c/a> since we’ll be least prepared).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the daunting situation facing the National Park Service in its second century, there are signs it’s up for the challenge. It’s already addressing climate change from \u003ca href=\"http://reports.climatecentral.org/nps/new-york-parks-sea-level-rise/\">the coast\u003c/a> to the \u003ca href=\"http://reports.climatecentral.org/nps/glacier/\">high mountains\u003c/a> and has an \u003ca href=\"http://reports.climatecentral.org/nps/overview/\">A-Team team of experts\u003c/a> to help parks answer the gnarly questions they face.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s no denying that national parks will look a lot different by the end of the century, but that won’t make them any less a part of the fabric of American identity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.climatecentral.org/\">Climate Central\u003c/a> \u003cem>is an independent organization that researches and reports on climate change.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Analysis by James Bronzan and Alyson Kenward, PhD.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Methodology:\u003c/strong>\u003cem> Future temperatures for 47 National Parks were calculated based on the median of 29 spatially downscaled climate models (CMIP5) at 1/8 degree scale, then averaged within park boundaries. National parks in Alaska and Hawaii, along with Dry Tortugas National Park, were excluded because projections at this resolution were unavailable. Temperatures for 2050 are based on the 20-year average of 2041-2060 and for 2100 are based on the period 2080-2099. Projected temperatures assume that greenhouse gas emissions continue at their current rate (RCP8.5). The interactive map features the average summer daily high temperature (June-August), while days over 90\u003csup>o\u003c/sup>F, 95\u003csup>o\u003c/sup>F, and 100\u003csup>o\u003c/sup>F were counted annually. The current period values for parks and climate divisions are based on the 1991-2010 average calculated using a gridded observational dataset by Ed Maurer of Santa Clara University. \u003c/em>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>A potentially habitable planet about the size of Earth is orbiting the star that is nearest our solar system, according to scientists who describe the \u003ca href=\"http://nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nature19106\">find\u003c/a> Wednesday in the journal \u003cem>Nature\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The newly discovered planet orbits \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/hubbles-new-shot-of-proxima-centauri-our-nearest-neighbor/#.V72pn_krJpg\">Proxima Centauri\u003c/a>, a red dwarf star that’s just 4.25 light-years from Earth — about 25 trillion miles away. The star is too faint to be seen with the naked eye and is close to a much brighter and more famous pair of stars called Alpha Centauri A and B.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘This planet has a chance to have a habitable climate.’\u003ccite>Edward Guinan, Villanova University astronomer\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Researchers detected the planet by observing how its star wobbled as the planet traveled around it. All that’s known about the planet is that it’s a bit more massive than Earth and circles its star once every 11 days. Because the star is so dim, temperatures on the planet would be mild enough that any water — if it’s there — would be liquid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re talking about a planet that has very similar properties to Earth,” says \u003ca href=\"http://astro.qmul.ac.uk/directory/g.anglada\">Guillem Anglada-Escude\u003c/a> of Queen Mary University of London, who led the research team of more than 30 scientists around the world. They have called their campaign to discover this planet \u003ca href=\"https://palereddot.org/\">Pale Red Dot\u003c/a>, after astronomer Carl Sagan’s observation that, from other solar systems, Earth would look like a pale blue dot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite some similarities to Earth, if you could stand on this other world, it would still look plenty alien. That’s because it is likely that only one side of it ever faces its star.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Looking up from the planet’s surface, the star would seem stationary in the sky, says Anglada-Escude, and is so orange that if the planet had an atmosphere like ours, the heavens would perpetually have the color of “a late autumn sunset.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists have discovered \u003ca href=\"http://exoplanets.org/\">thousands\u003c/a> of planets orbiting distant stars, including a bunch that \u003ca href=\"http://phl.upr.edu/projects/habitable-exoplanets-catalog\">might be potentially habitable\u003c/a>. The proximity of this new planet means scientists will have an easier time doing follow-up studies to learn more about it and even obtain images.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m pretty sure that in the next 10 years, we will know if it has an atmosphere and probably if it has oxygen,” says Anglada-Escude, who adds that we could even see hints of any life that might there. He thinks the news that our closest stellar neighbor is orbited by a world that has a shot at possibly supporting life is sure to spur interest in an \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/04/12/473960826/forget-starships-new-proposal-would-use-starchips-to-visit-alpha-centauri\">interstellar\u003c/a> mission to pay it a visit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s tantalizing,” he says. “Now that we know the planet is there, we can be more creative. We can think about solutions — maybe to send interstellar probes or to design specific spacecraft to look for this planet and only this planet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~ocohen/Contact.html\">Ofer Cohen\u003c/a> of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who was not part of the research team, says he finds the evidence of the planet’s existence convincing. But as to whether it is potentially habitable, “it’s all down to how we define habitability,” Cohen says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the temperatures at the surface might allow for liquid water, he says, “in reality, nature is much more complicated.” His studies suggest that planets orbiting this type of star need to have a strong magnetic field to protect the atmosphere from being destroyed by the stellar wind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.astronomy.villanova.edu/faculty/guinan/guinan.htm\">Edward Guinan\u003c/a>, an astronomer at Villanova University, says when he first learned of this new planet a couple of months ago, he seriously doubted that it would have any chance of being habitable. That’s because being close to a star means that a planet’s atmosphere and any water could get blown away, as the planet is exposed to the stellar wind, flares, X-rays and ultraviolet radiation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was dubious that it could work out to be habitable. My first impression is that it wouldn’t be,” Guinan says. “And the surprise was, this planet has a chance to have a habitable climate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He and a group of colleagues analyzed the possibilities and concluded that there are plausible scenarios that would have left this planet capable of supporting life. So if he were betting, he’d now say there was about a 25 percent chance that it could be a habitable world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To have the nearest star with a possibly habitable Earth-sized planet is terrific,” Guinan says. “It’s wonderful. I’m just really excited.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And while 4.25 light-years might seem like an impossibly vast distance, that’s practically next door in the eyes of astronomers who are used to thinking on a cosmic scale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can get to a tenth of the speed of light with present technology,” Guinan notes, pointing out that a trip to this planet would take less than half a century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And that’s not bad,” he says. “That’s feasible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=This+Planet+Just+Outside+Our+Solar+System+Is+%27Potentially+Habitable%27&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A potentially habitable planet about the size of Earth is orbiting the star that is nearest our solar system, according to scientists who describe the \u003ca href=\"http://nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nature19106\">find\u003c/a> Wednesday in the journal \u003cem>Nature\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The newly discovered planet orbits \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/hubbles-new-shot-of-proxima-centauri-our-nearest-neighbor/#.V72pn_krJpg\">Proxima Centauri\u003c/a>, a red dwarf star that’s just 4.25 light-years from Earth — about 25 trillion miles away. The star is too faint to be seen with the naked eye and is close to a much brighter and more famous pair of stars called Alpha Centauri A and B.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘This planet has a chance to have a habitable climate.’\u003ccite>Edward Guinan, Villanova University astronomer\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Researchers detected the planet by observing how its star wobbled as the planet traveled around it. All that’s known about the planet is that it’s a bit more massive than Earth and circles its star once every 11 days. Because the star is so dim, temperatures on the planet would be mild enough that any water — if it’s there — would be liquid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re talking about a planet that has very similar properties to Earth,” says \u003ca href=\"http://astro.qmul.ac.uk/directory/g.anglada\">Guillem Anglada-Escude\u003c/a> of Queen Mary University of London, who led the research team of more than 30 scientists around the world. They have called their campaign to discover this planet \u003ca href=\"https://palereddot.org/\">Pale Red Dot\u003c/a>, after astronomer Carl Sagan’s observation that, from other solar systems, Earth would look like a pale blue dot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite some similarities to Earth, if you could stand on this other world, it would still look plenty alien. That’s because it is likely that only one side of it ever faces its star.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Looking up from the planet’s surface, the star would seem stationary in the sky, says Anglada-Escude, and is so orange that if the planet had an atmosphere like ours, the heavens would perpetually have the color of “a late autumn sunset.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists have discovered \u003ca href=\"http://exoplanets.org/\">thousands\u003c/a> of planets orbiting distant stars, including a bunch that \u003ca href=\"http://phl.upr.edu/projects/habitable-exoplanets-catalog\">might be potentially habitable\u003c/a>. The proximity of this new planet means scientists will have an easier time doing follow-up studies to learn more about it and even obtain images.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m pretty sure that in the next 10 years, we will know if it has an atmosphere and probably if it has oxygen,” says Anglada-Escude, who adds that we could even see hints of any life that might there. He thinks the news that our closest stellar neighbor is orbited by a world that has a shot at possibly supporting life is sure to spur interest in an \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/04/12/473960826/forget-starships-new-proposal-would-use-starchips-to-visit-alpha-centauri\">interstellar\u003c/a> mission to pay it a visit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s tantalizing,” he says. “Now that we know the planet is there, we can be more creative. We can think about solutions — maybe to send interstellar probes or to design specific spacecraft to look for this planet and only this planet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~ocohen/Contact.html\">Ofer Cohen\u003c/a> of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who was not part of the research team, says he finds the evidence of the planet’s existence convincing. But as to whether it is potentially habitable, “it’s all down to how we define habitability,” Cohen says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the temperatures at the surface might allow for liquid water, he says, “in reality, nature is much more complicated.” His studies suggest that planets orbiting this type of star need to have a strong magnetic field to protect the atmosphere from being destroyed by the stellar wind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.astronomy.villanova.edu/faculty/guinan/guinan.htm\">Edward Guinan\u003c/a>, an astronomer at Villanova University, says when he first learned of this new planet a couple of months ago, he seriously doubted that it would have any chance of being habitable. That’s because being close to a star means that a planet’s atmosphere and any water could get blown away, as the planet is exposed to the stellar wind, flares, X-rays and ultraviolet radiation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was dubious that it could work out to be habitable. My first impression is that it wouldn’t be,” Guinan says. “And the surprise was, this planet has a chance to have a habitable climate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He and a group of colleagues analyzed the possibilities and concluded that there are plausible scenarios that would have left this planet capable of supporting life. So if he were betting, he’d now say there was about a 25 percent chance that it could be a habitable world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To have the nearest star with a possibly habitable Earth-sized planet is terrific,” Guinan says. “It’s wonderful. I’m just really excited.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And while 4.25 light-years might seem like an impossibly vast distance, that’s practically next door in the eyes of astronomers who are used to thinking on a cosmic scale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can get to a tenth of the speed of light with present technology,” Guinan notes, pointing out that a trip to this planet would take less than half a century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And that’s not bad,” he says. “That’s feasible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=This+Planet+Just+Outside+Our+Solar+System+Is+%27Potentially+Habitable%27&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Why California’s Current Drought Is Different From the Past",
"headTitle": "Why California’s Current Drought Is Different From the Past | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>In 1987, California was at the beginning of what would be a six-year drought — the second driest in the state’s history. Fittingly, that same year \u003ca href=\"http://pacinst.org/about-us/staff-and-board/dr-peter-h-gleick/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Peter Gleick\u003c/a> helped to co-found the \u003ca title=\"Link: http://pacinst.org/\" href=\"http://pacinst.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Pacific Institute\u003c/a>, a global think tank that would become a leader in global environmental and California water issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1987, Gleick had just finished a doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley, in the Energy & Resources Group, where his dissertation was the first to study the impact of climate change on water resources. Eager to use his background in climate science and hydrology in a multidisciplinary endeavor, he and graduate school colleagues launched the Pacific Institute, turning a $37,000 grant into an internationally recognized research institute that has just celebrated 29 years in existence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gleick’s academic training taught him that environmental problems are not technology problems, economic problems or political problems — but all of those things. That lens has helped inform the research perspectives at the Pacific Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_940415\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 3000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-940415\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/gleick_peter_download_3.jpg\" alt=\"Peter Gleick co-founded the Pacific Institute, a global water think tank, in 1987 and now serves as its president emeritus and chief scientist. \" width=\"3000\" height=\"2263\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/gleick_peter_download_3.jpg 3000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/gleick_peter_download_3-400x302.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/gleick_peter_download_3-800x603.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/gleick_peter_download_3-768x579.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/gleick_peter_download_3-1440x1086.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/gleick_peter_download_3-1920x1448.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/gleick_peter_download_3-1180x890.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/gleick_peter_download_3-960x724.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 3000px) 100vw, 3000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Peter Gleick co-founded the Pacific Institute, a global water think tank, in 1987 and now serves as its president emeritus and chief scientist. \u003ccite>(John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In July, Gleick transitioned his role at the organization to president emeritus and chief scientist, to focus less on the daily tasks of running the organization and more on research and writing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water Deeply recently sat down with Gleick to talk about the evolution of California water issues over the last three decades and the biggest problems facing the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: Since you started the Pacific Institute, California has been through several droughts. Is this drought different, or are we handling it differently this time?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peter Gleick: Yes and yes. Droughts are a natural part of our landscape. We have wet years and dry years. But this particular drought is unusual for a couple of reasons. One of the big differences is that we have around 39 million people now. We have millions more people than the 1976–77 drought and the 1987–92 drought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, the question is: How do you define drought? If it’s just hydrologic – this drought is bad enough. It’s probably the worst hydrologic drought, four years in a row and now the fifth year. But I define drought as not having enough water to do what you want. If that’s the case, then there are social and economic and population factors that come into it. It’s certainly the worst, given growing pressure on the limited water that we have.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Very clearly one of the things that sets this drought apart is that now there is this incredibly clear climate signal. I think it’s unambiguous and that’s new.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: Are we approaching drought any differently?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gleick: There is that John Steinbeck quote from “East of Eden”: “And it never failed that during the dry years the people forgot about the rich years, and during the wet years they lost all memory of the dry years. It was always that way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it rains a lot we forget about drought, and when it’s dry we forget that sometimes it floods in California. Having said that, there are permanent changes happening, like the fact that we were able to get groundwater legislation passed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s too early to say whether the conservation we’ve seen over the last year, especially when there was a mandatory 25 percent cutback in urban use, will disappear or not now that it has been lifted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most urban agencies have now set new \u003ca href=\"https://www.newsdeeply.com/water/executive-summaries/2016/08/19\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">conservation targets of zero\u003c/a>, which is an indication of the mentality that we can go back to our old way of thinking, but I don’t think all the conservation will disappear. Some of it is permanent replacement of inefficient toilets and washing machines and shower heads and lawns. Some of it is behavioral, and we’ll see that slip somewhat. I don’t know yet. I think we may be in a transition — we’ll see.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: You’re not buying the \u003ca href=\"https://www.newsdeeply.com/water/op-eds/2016/08/05/why-scoring-zero-in-stress-tests-is-good-news\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">argument from water suppliers\u003c/a> that having zero conservation goals is a good thing because it means they have a resilient water supply?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gleick: No, I’m not. Some agencies are doing really well on conservation and efficiency, and some are doing terribly. The standard that the state board set — do this evaluation and if you have three years of reliable supply, you’re OK — is a very weak standard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s one other critical issue: Whether or not a water agency has three years of reliable supply is not a good measurement of whether or not ecosystems are healthy, or our salmon runs are being restored, or the Pacific flyway and the bird migratory routes are healthy, or water quality is good. It’s an incomplete measure of how well we are doing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: Do you think a loss of revenue by water suppliers because of conservation is part of the issue?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gleick: Yes, I completely understand why the water agencies don’t want a mandate. It’s largely, but not solely, due to the fact that we have not done a good job in California of providing economic models that encourage water utilities to save water. As long as their revenues depend on selling water, there is a fundamental conflict of interest between their need to fund their operations and their fixed costs, and the state’s need to encourage more efficient use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: California is often seen as a leader on environmental issues. When it comes to water, where is the state leading and where is it lagging?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gleick: We’ve always been a leader on water efficiency standards and before that a huge leader on energy efficiency standards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s hard to find another area where I would say we are really leading. Groundwater management has been abysmal – we were the last state to have any groundwater law, and it’s still not implemented. We still have unmetered connections. We’re still not balancing ecosystem needs and human needs for water. The fight in the [Sacramento-San Joaquin] Delta is a never-ending fight and that’s what it is about – it’s about delivery of water to humans versus ecosystem health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are innovative things going on all over the state, but they aren’t widespread enough in my opinion to be able to say we’re a leader to the extent we ought to be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: What are a few things we should do right away?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gleick: We need massively comprehensive water efficiency standards for residential, agriculture, commercial and industrial [use]. We are way behind on collecting and making publicly available water data. We need to be massively expanding wastewater treatment and reuse, and that’s slowly happening. And stormwater capture, we could do more. We need to fix the Delta. We need to get over this hump of the political impasse. Everyone agrees the Delta’s broken, we just can’t agree on how to fix it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: Do you see that being resolved any time in the near future?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gleick: No, not as long as there is this antiquated, archaic belief that one more piece of infrastructure will solve the problem. Some kind of tunnel or diversion might be a good idea, but not the way they are proposing it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Part of the problem is tied to a difference of opinion about how much water we can take out of the Delta. As long as there is a belief by some contractors and south of Delta water users that they can have as much as they are having now or more, there is not going to be an agreement – because the science suggests we are taking too much water out of the Delta. As long as there is unceasing rhetoric from Central Valley politicians that the environment is a problem, rather than part of the solution, it’s going to be a stalemate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: You’ve written a lot of about the “\u003ca href=\"http://pacinst.org/issues/sustainable-water-management-local-to-global/soft-path-for-water/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">soft path\u003c/a>” for water, which is very different from the reliance on big dams and other infrastructure that drove water policy in the 20th century. Are we on that soft path or anywhere near it?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gleick: We are on it in the sense that there is a transition happening from the idea that hard infrastructure and hard institutions will solve our water problems, to a realization that it’s not just water supply, that it’s supply and demand. It’s not just centralized infrastructure, it’s community participation in decision-making. That economics is not just the price of water but dealing with environmental externalities and environmental justice issues – all of those are components of the soft path.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think there’s a growing realization that all of those are critical components of a sustainable California water future. But it’s slow. We still see people who think a couple more dams, another $15 or $20 billion set of tunnels will solve our problems, and that’s a fantasy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there are more voices in California water policy. The environmental justice community is increasingly participating and sought-after in discussions about policy. We’re thinking about new forms of economics and markets and transfers. And we’re completely shifting the focus not just from supply, to demand. And to new supplies like treated wastewater.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yes, I think we’re on the path, but I think it’s a long slog.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m convinced that we’re moving toward a sustainable water future in California and globally. It will take a long time, but it’s inevitable. The challenge is how to make it happen faster and with less pain than following the old traditional approaches will produce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This article originally appeared on \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://mail.kqed.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=9e4bb0e1a7d74f24ba4684ef2533053d&URL=https%3a%2f%2fwww.newsdeeply.com%2fwater\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Water Deeply\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and you can find it \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.newsdeeply.com/water/articles/2016/08/23/peter-gleick-why-californias-current-drought-is-different\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">here\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. For important news about the California drought, you can \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://mail.kqed.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=9e4bb0e1a7d74f24ba4684ef2533053d&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwaterdeeply.us5.list-manage.com%2fsubscribe%3fu%3d8b78e9a34ff7443ec1e8c62c6%26id%3d2947becb78\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">sign up\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to the Water Deeply email list.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In 1987, California was at the beginning of what would be a six-year drought — the second driest in the state’s history. Fittingly, that same year \u003ca href=\"http://pacinst.org/about-us/staff-and-board/dr-peter-h-gleick/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Peter Gleick\u003c/a> helped to co-found the \u003ca title=\"Link: http://pacinst.org/\" href=\"http://pacinst.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Pacific Institute\u003c/a>, a global think tank that would become a leader in global environmental and California water issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1987, Gleick had just finished a doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley, in the Energy & Resources Group, where his dissertation was the first to study the impact of climate change on water resources. Eager to use his background in climate science and hydrology in a multidisciplinary endeavor, he and graduate school colleagues launched the Pacific Institute, turning a $37,000 grant into an internationally recognized research institute that has just celebrated 29 years in existence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gleick’s academic training taught him that environmental problems are not technology problems, economic problems or political problems — but all of those things. That lens has helped inform the research perspectives at the Pacific Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_940415\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 3000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-940415\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/gleick_peter_download_3.jpg\" alt=\"Peter Gleick co-founded the Pacific Institute, a global water think tank, in 1987 and now serves as its president emeritus and chief scientist. \" width=\"3000\" height=\"2263\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/gleick_peter_download_3.jpg 3000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/gleick_peter_download_3-400x302.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/gleick_peter_download_3-800x603.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/gleick_peter_download_3-768x579.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/gleick_peter_download_3-1440x1086.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/gleick_peter_download_3-1920x1448.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/gleick_peter_download_3-1180x890.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/gleick_peter_download_3-960x724.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 3000px) 100vw, 3000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Peter Gleick co-founded the Pacific Institute, a global water think tank, in 1987 and now serves as its president emeritus and chief scientist. \u003ccite>(John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In July, Gleick transitioned his role at the organization to president emeritus and chief scientist, to focus less on the daily tasks of running the organization and more on research and writing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water Deeply recently sat down with Gleick to talk about the evolution of California water issues over the last three decades and the biggest problems facing the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: Since you started the Pacific Institute, California has been through several droughts. Is this drought different, or are we handling it differently this time?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peter Gleick: Yes and yes. Droughts are a natural part of our landscape. We have wet years and dry years. But this particular drought is unusual for a couple of reasons. One of the big differences is that we have around 39 million people now. We have millions more people than the 1976–77 drought and the 1987–92 drought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, the question is: How do you define drought? If it’s just hydrologic – this drought is bad enough. It’s probably the worst hydrologic drought, four years in a row and now the fifth year. But I define drought as not having enough water to do what you want. If that’s the case, then there are social and economic and population factors that come into it. It’s certainly the worst, given growing pressure on the limited water that we have.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Very clearly one of the things that sets this drought apart is that now there is this incredibly clear climate signal. I think it’s unambiguous and that’s new.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: Are we approaching drought any differently?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gleick: There is that John Steinbeck quote from “East of Eden”: “And it never failed that during the dry years the people forgot about the rich years, and during the wet years they lost all memory of the dry years. It was always that way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it rains a lot we forget about drought, and when it’s dry we forget that sometimes it floods in California. Having said that, there are permanent changes happening, like the fact that we were able to get groundwater legislation passed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s too early to say whether the conservation we’ve seen over the last year, especially when there was a mandatory 25 percent cutback in urban use, will disappear or not now that it has been lifted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most urban agencies have now set new \u003ca href=\"https://www.newsdeeply.com/water/executive-summaries/2016/08/19\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">conservation targets of zero\u003c/a>, which is an indication of the mentality that we can go back to our old way of thinking, but I don’t think all the conservation will disappear. Some of it is permanent replacement of inefficient toilets and washing machines and shower heads and lawns. Some of it is behavioral, and we’ll see that slip somewhat. I don’t know yet. I think we may be in a transition — we’ll see.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: You’re not buying the \u003ca href=\"https://www.newsdeeply.com/water/op-eds/2016/08/05/why-scoring-zero-in-stress-tests-is-good-news\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">argument from water suppliers\u003c/a> that having zero conservation goals is a good thing because it means they have a resilient water supply?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gleick: No, I’m not. Some agencies are doing really well on conservation and efficiency, and some are doing terribly. The standard that the state board set — do this evaluation and if you have three years of reliable supply, you’re OK — is a very weak standard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s one other critical issue: Whether or not a water agency has three years of reliable supply is not a good measurement of whether or not ecosystems are healthy, or our salmon runs are being restored, or the Pacific flyway and the bird migratory routes are healthy, or water quality is good. It’s an incomplete measure of how well we are doing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: Do you think a loss of revenue by water suppliers because of conservation is part of the issue?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gleick: Yes, I completely understand why the water agencies don’t want a mandate. It’s largely, but not solely, due to the fact that we have not done a good job in California of providing economic models that encourage water utilities to save water. As long as their revenues depend on selling water, there is a fundamental conflict of interest between their need to fund their operations and their fixed costs, and the state’s need to encourage more efficient use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: California is often seen as a leader on environmental issues. When it comes to water, where is the state leading and where is it lagging?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gleick: We’ve always been a leader on water efficiency standards and before that a huge leader on energy efficiency standards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s hard to find another area where I would say we are really leading. Groundwater management has been abysmal – we were the last state to have any groundwater law, and it’s still not implemented. We still have unmetered connections. We’re still not balancing ecosystem needs and human needs for water. The fight in the [Sacramento-San Joaquin] Delta is a never-ending fight and that’s what it is about – it’s about delivery of water to humans versus ecosystem health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are innovative things going on all over the state, but they aren’t widespread enough in my opinion to be able to say we’re a leader to the extent we ought to be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: What are a few things we should do right away?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gleick: We need massively comprehensive water efficiency standards for residential, agriculture, commercial and industrial [use]. We are way behind on collecting and making publicly available water data. We need to be massively expanding wastewater treatment and reuse, and that’s slowly happening. And stormwater capture, we could do more. We need to fix the Delta. We need to get over this hump of the political impasse. Everyone agrees the Delta’s broken, we just can’t agree on how to fix it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: Do you see that being resolved any time in the near future?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gleick: No, not as long as there is this antiquated, archaic belief that one more piece of infrastructure will solve the problem. Some kind of tunnel or diversion might be a good idea, but not the way they are proposing it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Part of the problem is tied to a difference of opinion about how much water we can take out of the Delta. As long as there is a belief by some contractors and south of Delta water users that they can have as much as they are having now or more, there is not going to be an agreement – because the science suggests we are taking too much water out of the Delta. As long as there is unceasing rhetoric from Central Valley politicians that the environment is a problem, rather than part of the solution, it’s going to be a stalemate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water Deeply: You’ve written a lot of about the “\u003ca href=\"http://pacinst.org/issues/sustainable-water-management-local-to-global/soft-path-for-water/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">soft path\u003c/a>” for water, which is very different from the reliance on big dams and other infrastructure that drove water policy in the 20th century. Are we on that soft path or anywhere near it?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gleick: We are on it in the sense that there is a transition happening from the idea that hard infrastructure and hard institutions will solve our water problems, to a realization that it’s not just water supply, that it’s supply and demand. It’s not just centralized infrastructure, it’s community participation in decision-making. That economics is not just the price of water but dealing with environmental externalities and environmental justice issues – all of those are components of the soft path.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think there’s a growing realization that all of those are critical components of a sustainable California water future. But it’s slow. We still see people who think a couple more dams, another $15 or $20 billion set of tunnels will solve our problems, and that’s a fantasy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there are more voices in California water policy. The environmental justice community is increasingly participating and sought-after in discussions about policy. We’re thinking about new forms of economics and markets and transfers. And we’re completely shifting the focus not just from supply, to demand. And to new supplies like treated wastewater.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yes, I think we’re on the path, but I think it’s a long slog.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m convinced that we’re moving toward a sustainable water future in California and globally. It will take a long time, but it’s inevitable. The challenge is how to make it happen faster and with less pain than following the old traditional approaches will produce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This article originally appeared on \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://mail.kqed.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=9e4bb0e1a7d74f24ba4684ef2533053d&URL=https%3a%2f%2fwww.newsdeeply.com%2fwater\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Water Deeply\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and you can find it \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.newsdeeply.com/water/articles/2016/08/23/peter-gleick-why-californias-current-drought-is-different\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">here\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. For important news about the California drought, you can \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://mail.kqed.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=9e4bb0e1a7d74f24ba4684ef2533053d&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwaterdeeply.us5.list-manage.com%2fsubscribe%3fu%3d8b78e9a34ff7443ec1e8c62c6%26id%3d2947becb78\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">sign up\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to the Water Deeply email list.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Poll Challenges Stereotypes About People of Color and National Parks",
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"content": "\u003cp>A recent poll challenges the stereotype that people of color aren’t interested in outdoor recreation or national parks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://newamericamedia.org/\">New America Media\u003c/a> surveyed 900 African American, Latino and Asian Pacific-American voters nationwide about their recreation habits. Seventy percent of participants said they enjoy activities like picnicking, camping, fishing and hunting. And 57 percent of respondents said they’ve visited a national park — more than two-thirds of them in the past three years.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘It really is as simple as providing people with a map. To go to a national park doesn’t mean you have to go to Yosemite. There’s probably one within 30 minutes of wherever you live.’\u003ccite>Anthony Williams,\u003cbr>\nBendixen & Amandi International\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The numbers do not surprise Rue Mapp, the founder and CEO of \u003ca href=\"http://www.outdoorafro.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Outdoor Afro\u003c/a>, which sponsors outdoor activities. She says she’s talked with lots of blacks who love spending time in wild places.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve been out in the field and I have been listening to the stories,” Mapp says. “I have been pushing back on the stereotypes and assumptions. My answer has been consistently that you’re not looking in the right places.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s important to note that the poll surveyed \u003ci>voters\u003c/i>. The results reflect higher interest levels than one might deduce from \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/2016/08/08/national-parks-have-some-work-to-do-to-become-parks-for-all/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">national visitation numbers\u003c/a>. The most recent \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.nps.gov/socialscience/docs/CompSurvey2008_2009RaceEthnicity.pdf\">survey\u003c/a> of national parks in 2009 showed that only one in five tourists was a person of color. Yet, the country is twice that diverse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Barriers to Entry\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Survey respondents cited long distances and costs as the main reasons they don’t visit national parks more frequently. People of color are more likely to choose a community park near their home than trek to an unknown destination that may be expensive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re simply unaware, to a great extent, about the national public lands that are available around them whether it be parks, forests, historic sites, etcetera,” says Anthony Williams of Bendixen & Amandi International, the public opinion research firm which conducted the poll.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several African-Americans I interviewed on the streets of San Francisco expressed a similar sentiment, for a recent \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/2016/08/08/national-parks-have-some-work-to-do-to-become-parks-for-all/\">story\u003c/a> about efforts to increase diversity in national parks. Besides not knowing which national parks are nearby, some people I talked to said they don’t feel welcome and think of national parks as playgrounds for white wealthy folks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The National Parks Need Visitors of Color to Stay Relevant\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams says increased outreach efforts are needed to educate underrepresented groups that neither the location nor the cost of many national parks is prohibitive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_895961\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-895961\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/Olive-Tambou-backpacking-at-point-reyes-annual-female-backpacking-trip-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Olive Tambou backpacking at Point Reyes National Seashore, about an hour north of San Francisco.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Olive Tambou backpacks at Point Reyes National Seashore, about an hour north of San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It really is as simple as providing people with a map,” he says. “To go to a national park doesn’t mean you have to go to Yosemite. There’s probably one within 30 minutes of wherever you live.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eighty percent of survey respondents support proposals to increase visitor access through urban parks, monuments, historic and cultural sites that focus on the contributions of minorities in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until now, the National Park Service has not focused on marketing to communities of color because the the majority of the U.S. population has been of European descent. But demographics are changing. The Census Bureau predicts that by 2043, communities of color will be the national majority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The parks have to be reintroduced to more Americans in order to create a legacy of experience,” says Williams. “I would compare it to Disneyland. Disneyland has an enormous marketing budget and everybody knows where Disneyland is and what to expect when they get there. And so people budget for it, make the time for it and they go. The national public lands are really a secret that needs to get out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The release of the New America Media poll coincides with a national tour this week by federal officials who are commemorating the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service. U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and Small Business Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet will tour César E. Chávez National Monument in Southern California on Wednesday, August 24. They will then hold a town hall discussion addressing diversity and inclusion at national parks.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A recent poll challenges the stereotype that people of color aren’t interested in outdoor recreation or national parks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://newamericamedia.org/\">New America Media\u003c/a> surveyed 900 African American, Latino and Asian Pacific-American voters nationwide about their recreation habits. Seventy percent of participants said they enjoy activities like picnicking, camping, fishing and hunting. And 57 percent of respondents said they’ve visited a national park — more than two-thirds of them in the past three years.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘It really is as simple as providing people with a map. To go to a national park doesn’t mean you have to go to Yosemite. There’s probably one within 30 minutes of wherever you live.’\u003ccite>Anthony Williams,\u003cbr>\nBendixen & Amandi International\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The numbers do not surprise Rue Mapp, the founder and CEO of \u003ca href=\"http://www.outdoorafro.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Outdoor Afro\u003c/a>, which sponsors outdoor activities. She says she’s talked with lots of blacks who love spending time in wild places.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve been out in the field and I have been listening to the stories,” Mapp says. “I have been pushing back on the stereotypes and assumptions. My answer has been consistently that you’re not looking in the right places.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s important to note that the poll surveyed \u003ci>voters\u003c/i>. The results reflect higher interest levels than one might deduce from \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/2016/08/08/national-parks-have-some-work-to-do-to-become-parks-for-all/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">national visitation numbers\u003c/a>. The most recent \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.nps.gov/socialscience/docs/CompSurvey2008_2009RaceEthnicity.pdf\">survey\u003c/a> of national parks in 2009 showed that only one in five tourists was a person of color. Yet, the country is twice that diverse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Barriers to Entry\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Survey respondents cited long distances and costs as the main reasons they don’t visit national parks more frequently. People of color are more likely to choose a community park near their home than trek to an unknown destination that may be expensive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re simply unaware, to a great extent, about the national public lands that are available around them whether it be parks, forests, historic sites, etcetera,” says Anthony Williams of Bendixen & Amandi International, the public opinion research firm which conducted the poll.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several African-Americans I interviewed on the streets of San Francisco expressed a similar sentiment, for a recent \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/2016/08/08/national-parks-have-some-work-to-do-to-become-parks-for-all/\">story\u003c/a> about efforts to increase diversity in national parks. Besides not knowing which national parks are nearby, some people I talked to said they don’t feel welcome and think of national parks as playgrounds for white wealthy folks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The National Parks Need Visitors of Color to Stay Relevant\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams says increased outreach efforts are needed to educate underrepresented groups that neither the location nor the cost of many national parks is prohibitive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_895961\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-895961\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/Olive-Tambou-backpacking-at-point-reyes-annual-female-backpacking-trip-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Olive Tambou backpacking at Point Reyes National Seashore, about an hour north of San Francisco.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Olive Tambou backpacks at Point Reyes National Seashore, about an hour north of San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It really is as simple as providing people with a map,” he says. “To go to a national park doesn’t mean you have to go to Yosemite. There’s probably one within 30 minutes of wherever you live.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eighty percent of survey respondents support proposals to increase visitor access through urban parks, monuments, historic and cultural sites that focus on the contributions of minorities in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until now, the National Park Service has not focused on marketing to communities of color because the the majority of the U.S. population has been of European descent. But demographics are changing. The Census Bureau predicts that by 2043, communities of color will be the national majority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The parks have to be reintroduced to more Americans in order to create a legacy of experience,” says Williams. “I would compare it to Disneyland. Disneyland has an enormous marketing budget and everybody knows where Disneyland is and what to expect when they get there. And so people budget for it, make the time for it and they go. The national public lands are really a secret that needs to get out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The release of the New America Media poll coincides with a national tour this week by federal officials who are commemorating the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service. U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and Small Business Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet will tour César E. Chávez National Monument in Southern California on Wednesday, August 24. They will then hold a town hall discussion addressing diversity and inclusion at national parks.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Watch Live As Underwater Cameras Uncover Ship's Post-Atomic Secrets",
"headTitle": "Watch Live As Underwater Cameras Uncover Ship’s Post-Atomic Secrets | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Update: Tuesday August 23, 2016 11 a.m.\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.nautiluslive.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Live footage\u003c/a> of the sunken \u003cem>USS Independence\u003c/em> near the Farallon Islands is still rolling! Scientists were up all night surveying the WWII-era aircraft carrier and will continue exploring until 2 p.m. PST today. So far, they’ve found a hellcat fighter aircraft, the wing of a second aircraft and sponges the size of doorways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The crew erupted into cheers when it found a “Christmas tree” gauge around 10:48 a.m. The device measures pressure and protects pressure instruments against surges and pulsations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_939751\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 635px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-939751 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/Nautilus_underwater.png\" alt=\"Nautilus_underwater\" width=\"635\" height=\"354\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/Nautilus_underwater.png 635w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/Nautilus_underwater-400x223.png 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 635px) 100vw, 635px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Underwater image of a “Christmas tree” gauge around aboard the USS Independence. The device measures pressure and protects pressure instruments against surges and pulsations.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Finding recognizable items underwater has been a cause for celebration among the crew. To see what else they’ve discovered, check out these recent \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/EVNautilus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@EVNautilus\u003c/a> tweets:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/EVNautilus/status/768036372968079360\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/EVNautilus/status/768017583614332928\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/EVNautilus/status/767948253145001984\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Original post: \u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marine researchers are plumbing the ocean depths of a long-buried aircraft carrier this week near San Francisco Bay, uncovering its atomic secrets and studying its second act as a haven for corals and other marine life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://www.nautiluslive.org/blog/2016/08/22/uss-independence-atomic-history-californias-blue-backyard\">\u003cem>USS Independence\u003c/em> has rested unseen under 2,600 feet of water off the Farallon Islands\u003c/a> for 65 years—until now. Researchers aboard the Exploration Vessel\u003cem> Nautilus\u003c/em> left Half Moon Bay Monday en route to the World War II aircraft carrier, and will explore its hidden chambers until August 26.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can \u003ca href=\"http://www.nautiluslive.org/\">watch it live\u003c/a> on a webcam that follows both the action above-decks and in the watery locker below.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_931916\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-931916\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/urchins-470-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"A crew member on the E/V Nautilus talks to passersby while the ship was docked at the Exploratorium.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/urchins-470-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/urchins-470-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/urchins-470-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/urchins-470-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/urchins-470-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/urchins-470-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/urchins-470-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A crew member on the E/V Nautilus talked to passersby while the ship was docked at the Exploratorium. \u003ccite>(Carrie Boyle/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The crew aboard the\u003cem> E/V Nautilus\u003c/em> recently brought us face-to-face with the diminutive purple \u003ca href=\"http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-googly-eyes-20160816-snap-story.html\">googly-eyed squid\u003c/a> off the Southern California Coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The dive to explore the remains of the \u003cem>USS Independence\u003c/em> will be the first visual survey of the ship since it was scuttled after being used in post-World War II nuclear bomb tests and as a weapon of war against Japan.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘You don’t know what you’re going to encounter. We run the ship somewhat like the emergency room of a hospital, not knowing what the ambulance is going to deliver.’\u003ccite>Robert Ballard, Ocean Exploration Trust\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Researchers will emerge with “a detailed, full-on visual map of the Independence,” enthuses \u003ca href=\"http://www.jamesdelgado.com/\">James Delgado\u003c/a>, chief scientist for the USS Independence mission on the \u003cem>Nautilus \u003c/em>and the director of the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries’ Maritime Heritage Program. “That has not been done with any big shipwreck other than the \u003cem>Titanic\u003c/em>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003cem>USS Independence\u003c/em> joined the Pacific Fleet in 1943, helping marines and pilots lay waste to Japan and the Philippines until the war ended in the fall of 1945. It was strafed by Japanese aircraft, bombed and torpedoed, according to \u003ca href=\"http://www.navyhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Herman-Brown.pdf\">this rather thrilling account by a sailor aboard the vessel at the time\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was one of dozens of ships anchored off the Bikini Atoll in 1946 for a new duty: to act as a nuclear test subject. The ship survived two blasts before returning to Hunter’s Point in San Francisco to be used in decontamination studies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The battered, leaking ship was towed out to sea in 1951, exiting the Golden Gate to be scuttled, or intentionally sunk, about 30 miles offshore, near the Farallon Islands. There it joined a watery graveyard of more than 400 shipwrecks off the Farallon Islands, part of the \u003ca href=\"http://farallones.noaa.gov/\">Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rovers go where no one ever has\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The research mission is not without its dangers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The team will be bringing up samples of marine life growing on the wreck—but with extra caution, given the \u003cem>Independence’s \u003c/em>nuclear past. Although they do not expect high levels of radiation, scientists from UC Berkeley are on board to test the radioactivity of any samples and instruments brought up from the wreck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I love working shipwrecks,” says \u003ca href=\"http://nautiluslive.org/people/robert-ballard\">Robert Ballard\u003c/a>, president of the Ocean Exploration Trust, which operates the \u003cem>Nautilus\u003c/em> expeditions. “But they’re dangerous. We have to be careful.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ballard, who discovered the remains of the R.M.S. \u003cem>Titanic\u003c/em>, does not hold back his excitement about exploring the \u003cem>Independence \u003c/em>— which is roughly as long as the San Francisco Ferry Building. “We brought our A-team. Because they know when I get near a wreck, I get \u003cem>near\u003c/em> it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re going to get these guys very close,” he adds. “And you’ll see it live.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_931914\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-931914\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/urchins-453-800x450.jpg\" alt='Chris Roman describes the instruments on the ROV Hercules. \"The number one rule of ocean engineering is to keep the water out,\" says Roman, an Associate Professor of University of Rhode Island who has been onboard for many Nautilus expeditions' width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/urchins-453-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/urchins-453-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/urchins-453-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/urchins-453-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/urchins-453-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/urchins-453-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/urchins-453-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chris Roman describes the instruments on the ROV Hercules, which is used to capture real-time footage of the deep sea, feeding it back to the Nautilus via fiber-optic cables. \u003ccite>(Carrie Boyle/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The “guys” Ballard is referring to are the ship’s two remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), \u003ca href=\"http://www.nautiluslive.org/tech/rov-argus\">Argus\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://www.nautiluslive.org/tech/rov-hercules\">Hercules\u003c/a>, which shoot deep ocean footage and send it back to the ship’s control room and to millions of viewers on land. The two ROVs work in tandem as they hover above the seafloor, tied together with a bright yellow flexible tether. Argus is connected to the \u003cem>Nautilus \u003c/em>with a long cable made of steel, copper, and fiber-optic wires; its job is to provide stability, light, and an extra set of eyes for Hercules.[contextly_sidebar id=”EcbjB5FqDu81qJ4BxFb2va40eeK8qh55″]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>ROV technology like this gives us unprecedented views of the ocean. “And the best part is that you share it with everyone,” says Delgado. “That, for me, is the magic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That magic is made possible by the ship’s satellite, a giant golf ball-shaped dome which enables communication so that online viewers can write in with questions, students can watch from their classrooms, and scientists can call in with advice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You don’t know what you’re going to encounter,” says Ballard. “We run the ship somewhat like the emergency room of a hospital, not knowing what the ambulance is going to deliver.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Corals, sponges and the unknown\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of those surprise encounters will be with marine life that have colonized the \u003cem>USS Independence\u003c/em> in the years since its human inhabitants abandoned ship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The coral and sponge communities that exist in our deep, dark backyard provide important habitat in an otherwise flat, sandy underwater world. The corals in particular are impressively long-lived. Local species can live for over 100 years — and they have growth rings that can be analyzed just like tree rings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_931917\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 750px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-931917\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/corals.jpg\" alt=\"Deep sea coral communities are home to a diverse group of organisms, and are largely unexplored.\" width=\"750\" height=\"464\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/corals.jpg 750w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/corals-400x247.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Deep sea coral communities are home to a diverse group of organisms, and are largely unexplored. \u003ccite>(NOAA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As the ROVs explore the wreck, the researchers on board the \u003cem>Nautilus\u003c/em> will rely upon a network of experts around the world, or what they call “doctors on shore,” who will be watching the live stream and calling in with information and advice. “We can have people leading parts of the dive, or entire dives, or sometimes entire expeditions from shore,” says \u003ca href=\"http://www.nautiluslive.org/people/mike-brennan\">Mike Brennan\u003c/a>, the expedition leader of the \u003cem>Nautilus\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They will have a coral expert from NOAA, \u003ca href=\"http://www.nautiluslive.org/people/peter-etnoyer\">Peter Etnoyer\u003c/a>, telling crew members what to sample and identifying species from a remote location.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over time, scientists can monitor the health of corals and keep track of any changes, such as what might occur as the ocean becomes more acidic due to rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The team may discover new species and even entire reefs on the ship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Seventy-five percent of the planet is 95% unknown,” says Delgado. “We know more about the moon, Mars, and soon Saturn, than we do what’s right off the coast here in a National Marine Sanctuary.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And ultimately, to really understand it, we have to go out there.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Update: Tuesday August 23, 2016 11 a.m.\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.nautiluslive.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Live footage\u003c/a> of the sunken \u003cem>USS Independence\u003c/em> near the Farallon Islands is still rolling! Scientists were up all night surveying the WWII-era aircraft carrier and will continue exploring until 2 p.m. PST today. So far, they’ve found a hellcat fighter aircraft, the wing of a second aircraft and sponges the size of doorways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The crew erupted into cheers when it found a “Christmas tree” gauge around 10:48 a.m. The device measures pressure and protects pressure instruments against surges and pulsations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_939751\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 635px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-939751 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/Nautilus_underwater.png\" alt=\"Nautilus_underwater\" width=\"635\" height=\"354\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/Nautilus_underwater.png 635w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/Nautilus_underwater-400x223.png 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 635px) 100vw, 635px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Underwater image of a “Christmas tree” gauge around aboard the USS Independence. The device measures pressure and protects pressure instruments against surges and pulsations.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Finding recognizable items underwater has been a cause for celebration among the crew. To see what else they’ve discovered, check out these recent \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/EVNautilus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@EVNautilus\u003c/a> tweets:\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Original post: \u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marine researchers are plumbing the ocean depths of a long-buried aircraft carrier this week near San Francisco Bay, uncovering its atomic secrets and studying its second act as a haven for corals and other marine life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://www.nautiluslive.org/blog/2016/08/22/uss-independence-atomic-history-californias-blue-backyard\">\u003cem>USS Independence\u003c/em> has rested unseen under 2,600 feet of water off the Farallon Islands\u003c/a> for 65 years—until now. Researchers aboard the Exploration Vessel\u003cem> Nautilus\u003c/em> left Half Moon Bay Monday en route to the World War II aircraft carrier, and will explore its hidden chambers until August 26.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can \u003ca href=\"http://www.nautiluslive.org/\">watch it live\u003c/a> on a webcam that follows both the action above-decks and in the watery locker below.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_931916\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-931916\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/urchins-470-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"A crew member on the E/V Nautilus talks to passersby while the ship was docked at the Exploratorium.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/urchins-470-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/urchins-470-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/urchins-470-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/urchins-470-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/urchins-470-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/urchins-470-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/urchins-470-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A crew member on the E/V Nautilus talked to passersby while the ship was docked at the Exploratorium. \u003ccite>(Carrie Boyle/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The crew aboard the\u003cem> E/V Nautilus\u003c/em> recently brought us face-to-face with the diminutive purple \u003ca href=\"http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-googly-eyes-20160816-snap-story.html\">googly-eyed squid\u003c/a> off the Southern California Coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The dive to explore the remains of the \u003cem>USS Independence\u003c/em> will be the first visual survey of the ship since it was scuttled after being used in post-World War II nuclear bomb tests and as a weapon of war against Japan.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘You don’t know what you’re going to encounter. We run the ship somewhat like the emergency room of a hospital, not knowing what the ambulance is going to deliver.’\u003ccite>Robert Ballard, Ocean Exploration Trust\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Researchers will emerge with “a detailed, full-on visual map of the Independence,” enthuses \u003ca href=\"http://www.jamesdelgado.com/\">James Delgado\u003c/a>, chief scientist for the USS Independence mission on the \u003cem>Nautilus \u003c/em>and the director of the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries’ Maritime Heritage Program. “That has not been done with any big shipwreck other than the \u003cem>Titanic\u003c/em>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003cem>USS Independence\u003c/em> joined the Pacific Fleet in 1943, helping marines and pilots lay waste to Japan and the Philippines until the war ended in the fall of 1945. It was strafed by Japanese aircraft, bombed and torpedoed, according to \u003ca href=\"http://www.navyhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Herman-Brown.pdf\">this rather thrilling account by a sailor aboard the vessel at the time\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was one of dozens of ships anchored off the Bikini Atoll in 1946 for a new duty: to act as a nuclear test subject. The ship survived two blasts before returning to Hunter’s Point in San Francisco to be used in decontamination studies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The battered, leaking ship was towed out to sea in 1951, exiting the Golden Gate to be scuttled, or intentionally sunk, about 30 miles offshore, near the Farallon Islands. There it joined a watery graveyard of more than 400 shipwrecks off the Farallon Islands, part of the \u003ca href=\"http://farallones.noaa.gov/\">Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rovers go where no one ever has\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The research mission is not without its dangers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The team will be bringing up samples of marine life growing on the wreck—but with extra caution, given the \u003cem>Independence’s \u003c/em>nuclear past. Although they do not expect high levels of radiation, scientists from UC Berkeley are on board to test the radioactivity of any samples and instruments brought up from the wreck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I love working shipwrecks,” says \u003ca href=\"http://nautiluslive.org/people/robert-ballard\">Robert Ballard\u003c/a>, president of the Ocean Exploration Trust, which operates the \u003cem>Nautilus\u003c/em> expeditions. “But they’re dangerous. We have to be careful.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ballard, who discovered the remains of the R.M.S. \u003cem>Titanic\u003c/em>, does not hold back his excitement about exploring the \u003cem>Independence \u003c/em>— which is roughly as long as the San Francisco Ferry Building. “We brought our A-team. Because they know when I get near a wreck, I get \u003cem>near\u003c/em> it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re going to get these guys very close,” he adds. “And you’ll see it live.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_931914\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-931914\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/urchins-453-800x450.jpg\" alt='Chris Roman describes the instruments on the ROV Hercules. \"The number one rule of ocean engineering is to keep the water out,\" says Roman, an Associate Professor of University of Rhode Island who has been onboard for many Nautilus expeditions' width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/urchins-453-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/urchins-453-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/urchins-453-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/urchins-453-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/urchins-453-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/urchins-453-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/urchins-453-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chris Roman describes the instruments on the ROV Hercules, which is used to capture real-time footage of the deep sea, feeding it back to the Nautilus via fiber-optic cables. \u003ccite>(Carrie Boyle/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The “guys” Ballard is referring to are the ship’s two remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), \u003ca href=\"http://www.nautiluslive.org/tech/rov-argus\">Argus\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://www.nautiluslive.org/tech/rov-hercules\">Hercules\u003c/a>, which shoot deep ocean footage and send it back to the ship’s control room and to millions of viewers on land. The two ROVs work in tandem as they hover above the seafloor, tied together with a bright yellow flexible tether. Argus is connected to the \u003cem>Nautilus \u003c/em>with a long cable made of steel, copper, and fiber-optic wires; its job is to provide stability, light, and an extra set of eyes for Hercules.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>ROV technology like this gives us unprecedented views of the ocean. “And the best part is that you share it with everyone,” says Delgado. “That, for me, is the magic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That magic is made possible by the ship’s satellite, a giant golf ball-shaped dome which enables communication so that online viewers can write in with questions, students can watch from their classrooms, and scientists can call in with advice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You don’t know what you’re going to encounter,” says Ballard. “We run the ship somewhat like the emergency room of a hospital, not knowing what the ambulance is going to deliver.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Corals, sponges and the unknown\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of those surprise encounters will be with marine life that have colonized the \u003cem>USS Independence\u003c/em> in the years since its human inhabitants abandoned ship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The coral and sponge communities that exist in our deep, dark backyard provide important habitat in an otherwise flat, sandy underwater world. The corals in particular are impressively long-lived. Local species can live for over 100 years — and they have growth rings that can be analyzed just like tree rings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_931917\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 750px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-931917\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/corals.jpg\" alt=\"Deep sea coral communities are home to a diverse group of organisms, and are largely unexplored.\" width=\"750\" height=\"464\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/corals.jpg 750w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/08/corals-400x247.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Deep sea coral communities are home to a diverse group of organisms, and are largely unexplored. \u003ccite>(NOAA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As the ROVs explore the wreck, the researchers on board the \u003cem>Nautilus\u003c/em> will rely upon a network of experts around the world, or what they call “doctors on shore,” who will be watching the live stream and calling in with information and advice. “We can have people leading parts of the dive, or entire dives, or sometimes entire expeditions from shore,” says \u003ca href=\"http://www.nautiluslive.org/people/mike-brennan\">Mike Brennan\u003c/a>, the expedition leader of the \u003cem>Nautilus\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They will have a coral expert from NOAA, \u003ca href=\"http://www.nautiluslive.org/people/peter-etnoyer\">Peter Etnoyer\u003c/a>, telling crew members what to sample and identifying species from a remote location.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over time, scientists can monitor the health of corals and keep track of any changes, such as what might occur as the ocean becomes more acidic due to rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The team may discover new species and even entire reefs on the ship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Seventy-five percent of the planet is 95% unknown,” says Delgado. “We know more about the moon, Mars, and soon Saturn, than we do what’s right off the coast here in a National Marine Sanctuary.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The California Drought is now in its fifth year, but we still know little about how it has affected public health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A half-million acres of farmland were fallowed in 2015, leaving thousands of agricultural workers jobless. More than a thousand families saw their drinking water wells go dry. Many more were forced to ration water, either because their well production slowed down, or because a local agency imposed rationing. Many lakes and ponds are experiencing toxic algae blooms, which can lead to sickness in people and pets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The drought has consequences for human health, both physical and emotional. One study in Tulare County recently attempted to quantify these effects via door-to-door polling. This was one survey in two small communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now Kurt Schwabe at the University of California Riverside plans a statewide study to assess the drought’s effect on human health. Schwabe, a professor of environmental economics and policy, has been awarded a $284,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to conduct the study. It will involve a detailed analysis of data already collected on public health, which will be correlated with weather data to determine the drought’s influence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water Deeply recently spoke with Schwabe to learn more about this project and what he hopes it will lead to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_937984\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 683px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-937984\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/Schwabe.jpg\" alt=\"Kurt Schwabe is a professor of environmental economics and policy at UC Riverside.\" width=\"683\" height=\"324\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/Schwabe.jpg 683w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/Schwabe-400x190.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kurt Schwabe is a professor of environmental economics and policy at UC Riverside. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Kurt Schwabe)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Water Deeply: What prompted your interest in studying the links between drought and health?\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Kurt Schwabe: The genesis of this was that you hear a lot of what seem to be large numbers in terms of the impacts of drought – that it resulted, say, in agricultural losses around $2.7 billion and 10,000 seasonal jobs in \u003c/span>2015. At first glance people think, well, that’s a pretty big number. And it is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">But if you put it in relative terms, that’s about 5 percent of agriculture’s annual value, and agriculture is about 3 percent of the state’s GDP. Multiply those numbers together and you get about a 0.15 percent impact on the state in terms of overall economic productivity. And you start saying, maybe the drought doesn’t seem like it’s been so devastating in relative terms to California’s economy. So my feeling is, the median and aggregate tell part of the story, but not the whole story.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">So what we want to talk about are what we call the equity or distributional impacts of the drought. While some people may not be impacted very much, for some communities the impact may be quite significant, not only in the short run, but potentially long-run.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">And that’s where the health impacts come in. Then, when you start adding up those costs, they can really tip the scales as to whether there is justification for a change in policy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Water Deeply: Is this an \u003c/span>‘out of sight, out of mind’ sort of crisis?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Schwabe: \u003c/span>There’s quite a bit of information on what the short-run impacts are of drought on agriculture – things like lost jobs and reduced [crop] yields. You also see a significant amount of evidence in terms of impacts of drought on fish survival rates. And more recently, you start to hear about the potential impacts on urban water usage. Those are certainly three understandable categories to look at.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">But the real effects on livelihood are about health and well-being. You just don’t see that evidence being presented to policymakers. It’s not necessarily that they don’t think about it. It’s that they may not have been presented with the evidence of the impacts so it can be used effectively in their decision-making.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Water Deeply: Which resources are you using for this study?\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Schwabe: Essentially we’ll be looking at putting together and merging a couple of different datasets. They come from the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, and there’s another we’ll use which collects data from what’s called the California Health Interview Surveys.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">There will be several different weather indicators we’ll use to look at the impact of adverse weather events. There’s going to be plenty of data on different measures of weather. Hot weather today also might have a delayed effect. So not only are we going to use different climate measures, but we’ll look at them over different time horizons. It’s a puzzle in that sense.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">We’re going to be looking at, how do adverse weather events affect those two datasets over the entire state, all 58 counties?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Water Deeply: Does the data cover the current drought period?\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Schwabe: We’ll try to get the most recent drought. I think we can get the data through 2014. With one of the datasets, we’re going to go back to, say, 1990 and look at the last 20 years. If we can get the data up through 2015, we’ll do that. Then in another dataset, we’ll have periods of health indicators from 2000 till 2012 or 2013.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Water Deeply: Will you be able to pick up climate change influences?\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Schwabe: Our study will look at the impacts of adverse weather events on health. What we could do is look at the climate predictions associated with these regions in, say, 2050. And given the associations we’ve found in our research, what does that suggest about health impacts in 2050 if we assume the climate is only going to get more variable and more extreme? That will only be an estimate because, over 20 years, you figure people will find ways to adapt. But it also suggests if we don’t do anything, here are the best estimates of how our health might be affected.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Water Deeply: Will you be focusing on other extreme weather events, or just drought?\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Schwabe: Right now we are interested in focusing on just drought, but also extreme temperatures. Drought isn’t necessarily fully described by the lack of rain. What we’re seeing these days is that periods of dryness are intersecting more and more with period of extreme temperatures.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">The drought obviously leads to a lot of dry woodlands, and they’re more susceptible to fires, and the fires often lead to not only denuded landscapes – which lead to mudslides and create erosion and more floods – but also to air pollution. That’s a factor we’ve got to \u003c/span>be cognizant of: there are these other effects associated with drought that might be experienced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Water Deeply: You also plan to look at emotional distress related to drought. That isn’t easily quantified.\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Schwabe: I think that’s what is going to be really unique about what we will tease out of this. Typically, economists have looked in the past at how the loss of social and economic resources impact health.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">There are expectations about whether I’m going to have a job this summer or not, and what that means for my ability to put food on the table, or give my son or daughter resources to go to school. Those expectations can increase the stress levels within my system. Increases in stress can impact my bodily systems, maybe lower my immune system and add wear and tear both mentally and physically, which can lead to disease and death. We will look for cases where we don’t necessarily observe a change in the social or economic resources that have been available to people, but we still see health impacts.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Water Deeply: What do you hope your research will lead to?\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Schwabe: My first goal is to provide a little more light in terms of what are the relationships between adverse weather events and health. Secondly, if we do find the relationship, look at how it is influenced by water policy. Then third, bring that evidence to the public – the water agencies, the resource agencies and the general public – through seminars and journal articles and workshops.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Water Deeply: You have stated that you hope this research leads to a \u003c/span>‘new era of health policy.’ What do you mean by that?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Schwabe: Health is influenced by a whole range of other types of policies that end up being correlated with health or causing health impacts.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">So when the State Water Resources Control Board or \u003c/span>Department of Water Resources \u003cspan class=\"s1\">are thinking about water allocations, we want to make them aware, depending on the results of our study, whether their allocations will have impacts on not only agricultural production rates and fish mortality, but also on human health, and where the stressors or spikes might be that they might be able to address. So in that sense, bringing health policy into water policy –\u003c/span>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">providing that evidence.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Also, when I think about agricultural impacts and the loss in revenue of $2.7 billion, that measure alone seems like a short-run cost. If you think about the implications on health and growers’ ability to support their families – nutrition, education and such – the cost can be much longer and greater than I think has been discussed so far in this policy arena. But that’s something that we’ll look into.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">My hypothesis is that there are significant and long-range health effects. That’s what we’ll test. It may turn out our results suggest there are not, but that’s why we do the research.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Policymakers are aware that there are these small communities that rely on a single source of water, often groundwater, who end up losing access to that water. What this study will do is expand on that and say: it’s not just reduced access to groundwater, but there is a whole range of other health mechanisms that might be influenced by drought.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This article originally appeared on \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://mail.kqed.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=9e4bb0e1a7d74f24ba4684ef2533053d&URL=https%3a%2f%2fwww.newsdeeply.com%2fwater\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Water Deeply\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and you can find it \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.newsdeeply.com/water/articles/2016/08/22/california-droughts-impact-on-health-to-be-revealed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">here\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. For important news about the California drought, you can \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://mail.kqed.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=9e4bb0e1a7d74f24ba4684ef2533053d&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwaterdeeply.us5.list-manage.com%2fsubscribe%3fu%3d8b78e9a34ff7443ec1e8c62c6%26id%3d2947becb78\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">sign up\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to the Water Deeply email list.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Water is essential to human life. A shortage of it has an impact on health. Kurt Schwabe at UC Riverside is launching the first statewide study to understand its effect.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The California Drought is now in its fifth year, but we still know little about how it has affected public health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A half-million acres of farmland were fallowed in 2015, leaving thousands of agricultural workers jobless. More than a thousand families saw their drinking water wells go dry. Many more were forced to ration water, either because their well production slowed down, or because a local agency imposed rationing. Many lakes and ponds are experiencing toxic algae blooms, which can lead to sickness in people and pets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The drought has consequences for human health, both physical and emotional. One study in Tulare County recently attempted to quantify these effects via door-to-door polling. This was one survey in two small communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now Kurt Schwabe at the University of California Riverside plans a statewide study to assess the drought’s effect on human health. Schwabe, a professor of environmental economics and policy, has been awarded a $284,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to conduct the study. It will involve a detailed analysis of data already collected on public health, which will be correlated with weather data to determine the drought’s influence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water Deeply recently spoke with Schwabe to learn more about this project and what he hopes it will lead to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_937984\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 683px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-937984\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/Schwabe.jpg\" alt=\"Kurt Schwabe is a professor of environmental economics and policy at UC Riverside.\" width=\"683\" height=\"324\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/Schwabe.jpg 683w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/Schwabe-400x190.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kurt Schwabe is a professor of environmental economics and policy at UC Riverside. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Kurt Schwabe)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Water Deeply: What prompted your interest in studying the links between drought and health?\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Kurt Schwabe: The genesis of this was that you hear a lot of what seem to be large numbers in terms of the impacts of drought – that it resulted, say, in agricultural losses around $2.7 billion and 10,000 seasonal jobs in \u003c/span>2015. At first glance people think, well, that’s a pretty big number. And it is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">But if you put it in relative terms, that’s about 5 percent of agriculture’s annual value, and agriculture is about 3 percent of the state’s GDP. Multiply those numbers together and you get about a 0.15 percent impact on the state in terms of overall economic productivity. And you start saying, maybe the drought doesn’t seem like it’s been so devastating in relative terms to California’s economy. So my feeling is, the median and aggregate tell part of the story, but not the whole story.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">So what we want to talk about are what we call the equity or distributional impacts of the drought. While some people may not be impacted very much, for some communities the impact may be quite significant, not only in the short run, but potentially long-run.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">And that’s where the health impacts come in. Then, when you start adding up those costs, they can really tip the scales as to whether there is justification for a change in policy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Water Deeply: Is this an \u003c/span>‘out of sight, out of mind’ sort of crisis?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Schwabe: \u003c/span>There’s quite a bit of information on what the short-run impacts are of drought on agriculture – things like lost jobs and reduced [crop] yields. You also see a significant amount of evidence in terms of impacts of drought on fish survival rates. And more recently, you start to hear about the potential impacts on urban water usage. Those are certainly three understandable categories to look at.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">But the real effects on livelihood are about health and well-being. You just don’t see that evidence being presented to policymakers. It’s not necessarily that they don’t think about it. It’s that they may not have been presented with the evidence of the impacts so it can be used effectively in their decision-making.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Water Deeply: Which resources are you using for this study?\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Schwabe: Essentially we’ll be looking at putting together and merging a couple of different datasets. They come from the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, and there’s another we’ll use which collects data from what’s called the California Health Interview Surveys.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">There will be several different weather indicators we’ll use to look at the impact of adverse weather events. There’s going to be plenty of data on different measures of weather. Hot weather today also might have a delayed effect. So not only are we going to use different climate measures, but we’ll look at them over different time horizons. It’s a puzzle in that sense.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">We’re going to be looking at, how do adverse weather events affect those two datasets over the entire state, all 58 counties?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Water Deeply: Does the data cover the current drought period?\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Schwabe: We’ll try to get the most recent drought. I think we can get the data through 2014. With one of the datasets, we’re going to go back to, say, 1990 and look at the last 20 years. If we can get the data up through 2015, we’ll do that. Then in another dataset, we’ll have periods of health indicators from 2000 till 2012 or 2013.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Water Deeply: Will you be able to pick up climate change influences?\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Schwabe: Our study will look at the impacts of adverse weather events on health. What we could do is look at the climate predictions associated with these regions in, say, 2050. And given the associations we’ve found in our research, what does that suggest about health impacts in 2050 if we assume the climate is only going to get more variable and more extreme? That will only be an estimate because, over 20 years, you figure people will find ways to adapt. But it also suggests if we don’t do anything, here are the best estimates of how our health might be affected.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Water Deeply: Will you be focusing on other extreme weather events, or just drought?\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Schwabe: Right now we are interested in focusing on just drought, but also extreme temperatures. Drought isn’t necessarily fully described by the lack of rain. What we’re seeing these days is that periods of dryness are intersecting more and more with period of extreme temperatures.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">The drought obviously leads to a lot of dry woodlands, and they’re more susceptible to fires, and the fires often lead to not only denuded landscapes – which lead to mudslides and create erosion and more floods – but also to air pollution. That’s a factor we’ve got to \u003c/span>be cognizant of: there are these other effects associated with drought that might be experienced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Water Deeply: You also plan to look at emotional distress related to drought. That isn’t easily quantified.\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Schwabe: I think that’s what is going to be really unique about what we will tease out of this. Typically, economists have looked in the past at how the loss of social and economic resources impact health.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">There are expectations about whether I’m going to have a job this summer or not, and what that means for my ability to put food on the table, or give my son or daughter resources to go to school. Those expectations can increase the stress levels within my system. Increases in stress can impact my bodily systems, maybe lower my immune system and add wear and tear both mentally and physically, which can lead to disease and death. We will look for cases where we don’t necessarily observe a change in the social or economic resources that have been available to people, but we still see health impacts.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Water Deeply: What do you hope your research will lead to?\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Schwabe: My first goal is to provide a little more light in terms of what are the relationships between adverse weather events and health. Secondly, if we do find the relationship, look at how it is influenced by water policy. Then third, bring that evidence to the public – the water agencies, the resource agencies and the general public – through seminars and journal articles and workshops.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Water Deeply: You have stated that you hope this research leads to a \u003c/span>‘new era of health policy.’ What do you mean by that?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Schwabe: Health is influenced by a whole range of other types of policies that end up being correlated with health or causing health impacts.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">So when the State Water Resources Control Board or \u003c/span>Department of Water Resources \u003cspan class=\"s1\">are thinking about water allocations, we want to make them aware, depending on the results of our study, whether their allocations will have impacts on not only agricultural production rates and fish mortality, but also on human health, and where the stressors or spikes might be that they might be able to address. So in that sense, bringing health policy into water policy –\u003c/span>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">providing that evidence.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Also, when I think about agricultural impacts and the loss in revenue of $2.7 billion, that measure alone seems like a short-run cost. If you think about the implications on health and growers’ ability to support their families – nutrition, education and such – the cost can be much longer and greater than I think has been discussed so far in this policy arena. But that’s something that we’ll look into.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">My hypothesis is that there are significant and long-range health effects. That’s what we’ll test. It may turn out our results suggest there are not, but that’s why we do the research.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Policymakers are aware that there are these small communities that rely on a single source of water, often groundwater, who end up losing access to that water. What this study will do is expand on that and say: it’s not just reduced access to groundwater, but there is a whole range of other health mechanisms that might be influenced by drought.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This article originally appeared on \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://mail.kqed.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=9e4bb0e1a7d74f24ba4684ef2533053d&URL=https%3a%2f%2fwww.newsdeeply.com%2fwater\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Water Deeply\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and you can find it \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.newsdeeply.com/water/articles/2016/08/22/california-droughts-impact-on-health-to-be-revealed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">here\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. For important news about the California drought, you can \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://mail.kqed.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=9e4bb0e1a7d74f24ba4684ef2533053d&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwaterdeeply.us5.list-manage.com%2fsubscribe%3fu%3d8b78e9a34ff7443ec1e8c62c6%26id%3d2947becb78\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">sign up\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to the Water Deeply email list.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "NASA-Funded Mars Simulation in Hawaii Nears End",
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"content": "\u003cp>Six scientists are close to wrapping up a year of near isolation in a Mars simulation on a Hawaii mountain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scientists are housed in a dome on Mauna Loa and can go outside only in spacesuits, the \u003ca href=\"http://bit.ly/2b9NTgt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They manage limited resources while conducting research and working to avoid personal conflicts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Communication is delayed the 20 minutes, the length it would take to relay messages from Mars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kim Binsted, principal investigator for the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation, said this simulation is the second-longest of its kind after a mission that lasted 520 days in Russia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re doing OK as far as we can tell,” Binsted said of the scientists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Previous simulations in the Mauna Loa dome have lasted four to eight months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mauna Loa soil is similar to what would be found on Mars. The area’s high elevation means almost no plant growth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA funded the study run through the University of Hawaii.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scientists will have access to fresh produce and other foods not available to them in the dome when the simulation ends Aug. 28.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They are clamoring to get into the ocean,” Binsted said. “I think they will enjoy having a beer as well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An eight-month simulation starts in January.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Six scientists are close to wrapping up a year of near isolation in a Mars simulation on a Hawaii mountain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scientists are housed in a dome on Mauna Loa and can go outside only in spacesuits, the \u003ca href=\"http://bit.ly/2b9NTgt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They manage limited resources while conducting research and working to avoid personal conflicts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Communication is delayed the 20 minutes, the length it would take to relay messages from Mars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kim Binsted, principal investigator for the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation, said this simulation is the second-longest of its kind after a mission that lasted 520 days in Russia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re doing OK as far as we can tell,” Binsted said of the scientists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Previous simulations in the Mauna Loa dome have lasted four to eight months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mauna Loa soil is similar to what would be found on Mars. The area’s high elevation means almost no plant growth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA funded the study run through the University of Hawaii.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scientists will have access to fresh produce and other foods not available to them in the dome when the simulation ends Aug. 28.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They are clamoring to get into the ocean,” Binsted said. “I think they will enjoy having a beer as well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An eight-month simulation starts in January.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Toxic Muck: California’s Algae Problem Is Worse Than Ever",
"headTitle": "Toxic Muck: California’s Algae Problem Is Worse Than Ever | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Algae blooms are a natural feature of summer, but the record levels of \u003ca href=\"http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wq/plants/algae/publichealth/GeneralCyanobacteria.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">cyanobacteria, \u003c/a>or blue-green algae, are rattling state officials this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everyone’s on edge,” says Bev Anderson\u003cb>, \u003c/b>a scientist with \u003ca href=\"http://www.mywaterquality.ca.gov/monitoring_council/cyanohab_network/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">California’s State Water Resources Control Board\u003c/a>. “We are seeing more than we’ve ever seen before.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She says her inbox overflows with reports of new algae sightings every morning. In some parts of the state, it looks like someone poured a giant can of green paint into the water. And the smell can be rank. When a bloom dies, it reeks of rotten eggs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far this summer, the state has posted warning signs at 30 freshwater lakes and reservoirs — advising boaters and swimmers to stay out of the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are getting blooms all over the place this summer,” says Anderson. “We’ve got a massive bloom in Lake Elsinore, a lot of the East Bay Parks, Shasta Lake, Lake Oroville, Mountain Meadows Reservoir… and toxin levels are crazy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not just the number of outbreaks that’s worrying. It’s also the toxins blue-green algae can produce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Health officials get nervous when they detect microcystin, one of several toxins produced by algae, at 20 micrograms per liter. This year, they’re detecting levels of 150,000 micrograms per liter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_929572\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 4032px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-929572\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/IMG_0790.jpg\" alt=\"The docks behind homes at Discovery Bay are quieter than usual due to fears of blue green algae toxins. \" width=\"4032\" height=\"3024\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/IMG_0790.jpg 4032w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/IMG_0790-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/IMG_0790-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/IMG_0790-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/IMG_0790-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/IMG_0790-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/IMG_0790-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/IMG_0790-960x720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 4032px) 100vw, 4032px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The docks behind homes at Discovery Bay are quieter than usual due to fears of blue green algae toxins. \u003ccite>(Lesley McClurg/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But don’t worry — there have not been any reports of contaminated drinking water. Utility districts are screening for toxins to try and keep tap water safe. Plus, drinking water is usually drawn from levels far below where algal blooms tend to float in reservoirs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Summer Recreation on Hold\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Boaters and swimmers are the ones who are suffering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Discovery Bay, a suburb east of Walnut Creek, is normally buzzing with boats and jet skis. But this year the waterfront has been eerily still for weeks. There isn’t a soul in the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local resident Dave Holmes says he’s never seen anything like it. “We’ve been here since 2002. It is by far the worst we’ve ever seen,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With disgust, Holmes watches his white speedboat and blue kayak bob in mucky green water behind his home. \u003cb> \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kathy and Alfred Gulizia cringe from their table at the Boardwalk Grill. Slime wraps around docks at Discovery Bay’s marina.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Search Toxic Green Goo Near You\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Click on the dots to see more information about harmful algae blooms throughout the state\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"520\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"https://kqednews.carto.com/viz/9339dcfa-63e2-11e6-a111-0e05a8b3e3d7/embed_map\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ll swim in our pool at the clubhouse where we live,” says Alfred Gulizia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wade Hensley regrets jumping in the water in mid-July. He ended up in the hospital because his body went numb from the waist down. His doctors can’t explain why he still can’t feel his legs and feet a month later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>County health officials did find \u003ca href=\"https://iaspub.epa.gov/tdb/pages/contaminant/contaminantOverview.do?contaminantId=-1336577584\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">microcystin\u003c/a> in Discovery Bay. Common symptoms are dizziness, rashes, fever and vomiting — not numbness. But it can be lethal to dogs and livestock, since the animals are more likely to drink the water or lick the slime off their fur.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Twenty two states have had toxic algae outbreaks this summer. Florida declared a state of emergency in two counties, and a bloom sickened more than 100 swimmers in Utah in July. In 2014, 38 states and the District of Columbia reported harmful algal blooms in lakes or other freshwater bodies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rising Temperatures to Blame\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists blame a changing climate for the blooms — at least in part.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘Everyone’s on edge. We are seeing more [blooms] than we’ve ever seen before.’\u003ccite>Bev Anderson, State Water Resources Control Board\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“We’re getting higher temperatures than we’ve seen ever in the past,” says Anderson. “California had an unprecedented drought for the last five years, which have the water levels very low in a lot of areas.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shallow waters allow the sun to penetrate easily, and bacteria thrives in hot water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have created these massive bathtubs for them to be able to bloom in,” says Anderson. “Tubs are nice and warm, and that’s what these organisms need.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Add fertilizer runoff from farms, golf courses and lawns to the cocktail — nitrogen and phosphorus are the main culprits. This year is especially bad, because Northern California’s wet winter washed an unusually high concentration of these and other nutrients into the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But toxic algae is not only showing up as a result of urban pollution. Scientists are starting to find blue-green algae in surprising places like pristine mountain lakes and alpine streams\u003cb>.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scarce Solutions Forebode a Scary Future\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Worst of all, scientists are just starting to understand a problem they expect to escalate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”NmC21kc2oh7i01MYzHspoLdK57qhQtoT”]“Some areas have been monitoring and seeing blooms for decades, but they’ve never had toxins,” says Anderson. “And when these massive blooms die off, they can cause a rapid drop in dissolved oxygen levels.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Less oxygen can lead to massive fish die-offs, leaving an ecosystem completely altered. In 2010, a microcystin outbreak killed sea otters off the coast of Monterey Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists are scrambling for solutions. Algaecides can help temporarily, but the chemicals can also backfire by promoting other toxins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anderson’s advice is simple.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If in doubt, stay out!” she says. “Don’t go in, don’t let your dogs in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s nothing to do now but wait for the green muck to disappear, and hope for a cold winter to kill it off.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Algae blooms are a natural feature of summer, but the record levels of \u003ca href=\"http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wq/plants/algae/publichealth/GeneralCyanobacteria.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">cyanobacteria, \u003c/a>or blue-green algae, are rattling state officials this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everyone’s on edge,” says Bev Anderson\u003cb>, \u003c/b>a scientist with \u003ca href=\"http://www.mywaterquality.ca.gov/monitoring_council/cyanohab_network/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">California’s State Water Resources Control Board\u003c/a>. “We are seeing more than we’ve ever seen before.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She says her inbox overflows with reports of new algae sightings every morning. In some parts of the state, it looks like someone poured a giant can of green paint into the water. And the smell can be rank. When a bloom dies, it reeks of rotten eggs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far this summer, the state has posted warning signs at 30 freshwater lakes and reservoirs — advising boaters and swimmers to stay out of the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are getting blooms all over the place this summer,” says Anderson. “We’ve got a massive bloom in Lake Elsinore, a lot of the East Bay Parks, Shasta Lake, Lake Oroville, Mountain Meadows Reservoir… and toxin levels are crazy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not just the number of outbreaks that’s worrying. It’s also the toxins blue-green algae can produce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Health officials get nervous when they detect microcystin, one of several toxins produced by algae, at 20 micrograms per liter. This year, they’re detecting levels of 150,000 micrograms per liter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_929572\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 4032px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-929572\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/IMG_0790.jpg\" alt=\"The docks behind homes at Discovery Bay are quieter than usual due to fears of blue green algae toxins. \" width=\"4032\" height=\"3024\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/IMG_0790.jpg 4032w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/IMG_0790-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/IMG_0790-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/IMG_0790-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/IMG_0790-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/IMG_0790-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/IMG_0790-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/IMG_0790-960x720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 4032px) 100vw, 4032px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The docks behind homes at Discovery Bay are quieter than usual due to fears of blue green algae toxins. \u003ccite>(Lesley McClurg/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But don’t worry — there have not been any reports of contaminated drinking water. Utility districts are screening for toxins to try and keep tap water safe. Plus, drinking water is usually drawn from levels far below where algal blooms tend to float in reservoirs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Summer Recreation on Hold\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Boaters and swimmers are the ones who are suffering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Discovery Bay, a suburb east of Walnut Creek, is normally buzzing with boats and jet skis. But this year the waterfront has been eerily still for weeks. There isn’t a soul in the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local resident Dave Holmes says he’s never seen anything like it. “We’ve been here since 2002. It is by far the worst we’ve ever seen,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With disgust, Holmes watches his white speedboat and blue kayak bob in mucky green water behind his home. \u003cb> \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kathy and Alfred Gulizia cringe from their table at the Boardwalk Grill. Slime wraps around docks at Discovery Bay’s marina.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Search Toxic Green Goo Near You\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Click on the dots to see more information about harmful algae blooms throughout the state\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"520\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"https://kqednews.carto.com/viz/9339dcfa-63e2-11e6-a111-0e05a8b3e3d7/embed_map\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ll swim in our pool at the clubhouse where we live,” says Alfred Gulizia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wade Hensley regrets jumping in the water in mid-July. He ended up in the hospital because his body went numb from the waist down. His doctors can’t explain why he still can’t feel his legs and feet a month later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>County health officials did find \u003ca href=\"https://iaspub.epa.gov/tdb/pages/contaminant/contaminantOverview.do?contaminantId=-1336577584\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">microcystin\u003c/a> in Discovery Bay. Common symptoms are dizziness, rashes, fever and vomiting — not numbness. But it can be lethal to dogs and livestock, since the animals are more likely to drink the water or lick the slime off their fur.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Twenty two states have had toxic algae outbreaks this summer. Florida declared a state of emergency in two counties, and a bloom sickened more than 100 swimmers in Utah in July. In 2014, 38 states and the District of Columbia reported harmful algal blooms in lakes or other freshwater bodies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rising Temperatures to Blame\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists blame a changing climate for the blooms — at least in part.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘Everyone’s on edge. We are seeing more [blooms] than we’ve ever seen before.’\u003ccite>Bev Anderson, State Water Resources Control Board\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“We’re getting higher temperatures than we’ve seen ever in the past,” says Anderson. “California had an unprecedented drought for the last five years, which have the water levels very low in a lot of areas.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shallow waters allow the sun to penetrate easily, and bacteria thrives in hot water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have created these massive bathtubs for them to be able to bloom in,” says Anderson. “Tubs are nice and warm, and that’s what these organisms need.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Add fertilizer runoff from farms, golf courses and lawns to the cocktail — nitrogen and phosphorus are the main culprits. This year is especially bad, because Northern California’s wet winter washed an unusually high concentration of these and other nutrients into the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But toxic algae is not only showing up as a result of urban pollution. Scientists are starting to find blue-green algae in surprising places like pristine mountain lakes and alpine streams\u003cb>.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scarce Solutions Forebode a Scary Future\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Worst of all, scientists are just starting to understand a problem they expect to escalate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>“Some areas have been monitoring and seeing blooms for decades, but they’ve never had toxins,” says Anderson. “And when these massive blooms die off, they can cause a rapid drop in dissolved oxygen levels.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Less oxygen can lead to massive fish die-offs, leaving an ecosystem completely altered. In 2010, a microcystin outbreak killed sea otters off the coast of Monterey Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists are scrambling for solutions. Algaecides can help temporarily, but the chemicals can also backfire by promoting other toxins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anderson’s advice is simple.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If in doubt, stay out!” she says. “Don’t go in, don’t let your dogs in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s nothing to do now but wait for the green muck to disappear, and hope for a cold winter to kill it off.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Western Fires May Sicken More People As Climate Warms",
"headTitle": "Western Fires May Sicken More People As Climate Warms | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Shrouded by smoke from a fire in California’s parched San Bernardino Mountains, schools in the Victor Valley closed their doors last week. The Pilot Fire was contained on Monday — shortly before the \u003ca href=\"http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-blue-cut-fire-20160819-snap-story.html\">Blue Cut Fire\u003c/a> broke out, billowing soot and ash over the valley afresh, forcing further closures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a pretty unprecedented situation,” said \u003ca href=\"http://www.mdaqmd.ca.gov/index.aspx?recordid=70&page=38\">Violette Roberts\u003c/a>, a Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District official whose job involves warning residents in the area about air pollution. On Monday, “the sky had turned dark,” she said. “It looked like it was sunset most of the day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">A “smoke wave” describes the type of multiday impacts from wildfire pollution that were experienced this month in the Victor Valley.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>As the district warned valley residents to “limit time spent outdoors” and to seek medical care for respiratory ailments, school and health clinic closures and canceled sporting events were reminders that health impacts from wildfires carry further than the flames.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the West, where populations living near forests and scrublands are growing, global warming is \u003ca href=\"http://www.climatecentral.org/news/western-wildfires-climate-change-20475\">projected to fuel worsening wildfires\u003c/a>, mostly by drying out the land. Research published this week showed how those forces will combine to cause wildfire pollution to threaten tens of millions more people during the years ahead than are currently at risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you have a wildfire, like a really bad wildfire, you can see that the air quality is reduced,” said \u003ca href=\"http://csu-cvmbs.colostate.edu/academics/erhs/Pages/brooke-anderson.aspx\">Brooke Anderson\u003c/a>, a Colorado State University epidemiologist who worked on the new study, \u003ca href=\"http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10584-016-1762-6\">published in the journal Climatic Change\u003c/a>. “These ambient air pollutants can reach a lot of people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers like Anderson have taken to using the term “smoke wave” to describe the type of multiday impacts from wildfire pollution that were experienced this month in the Victor Valley. The valley contains hundreds of thousands of residents as well as the thoroughfare linking Las Vegas with Los Angeles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anderson and scientists from Yale and Harvard calculated that 82 million residents of the West will experience smoke waves that are two days or longer during a six-year period beginning in the late 2040s. That’s a 44 percent increase from a six-year period last decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We discovered that, indeed, fires will become worse in the future, and that the number of people exposed to what we call smoke waves increases by about 35 million,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.seas.harvard.edu/directory/mickley\">Loretta Mickley\u003c/a>, an atmospheric chemist at Harvard who helped lead the study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers combined population projections with the outputs of models designed to predict fire risks as greenhouse gas pollution continues to build up in the atmosphere. They also used a model to project the spread of plumes of air pollution from the flames.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a per-county average, the group estimated that the number of smoke waves experienced in the West will increase to about 1.5 each year by the 2050s, up from about one today. The smoke waves are also projected to become more intense — with air pollution during the worst smoke waves expected to worsen more than 400 percent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not all counties will be equally affected. Some may experience fewer smoke waves as the climate changes, though most were projected to experience worsening conditions. Communities located in or near forests face the worst impacts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Arizona does get much bigger fires in the future, but because it’s so grassy there, there’s not a lot of fuel for those big fires,” Mickley said. “These fires can threaten homes, but you don’t get the same massive smoke events.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The research was lauded by other scientists for its sophisticated and novel approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s as good if not better than anyone else is doing,” said \u003ca href=\"https://staff.ucar.edu/users/christin\">Christine Wiedinmyer\u003c/a>, a National Center for Atmospheric Research scientist who was not involved with the study. “They’ve come up with a nice way of predicting fires — both now and into the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiedinmyer said the findings point to a need to better manage Western forests with more prescribed burns, which simulate natural conditions and clear forest floors of potential fuel. “Of course, you’re going to get emissions there,” she said, but risks of smoke waves from wildfires “might be reduced.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The research focused on fine sky-darkening particles called PM2.5 pollution. Such pollution is \u003ca href=\"http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2014/air-pollution/en/\">one of the world’s main killers\u003c/a>, posing risks in particular to children, the elderly and the sick. It’s released by fossil fuel-burning power plants, internal combustion engines and wood burning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This type of approach provides a much more expansive and complete view of the potential consequences for humans as we change our climate,” said \u003ca href=\"http://www.u.arizona.edu/~kanchukaitis/people.html\">Kevin Anchukaitis\u003c/a>, a climatologist and geographer at the University of Arizona who wasn’t involved with the study. “It shows the complicated yet robust link between climate change and human health.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scientists didn’t focus on other kinds of air pollution created by wildfires, such as chemicals that combine in the atmosphere to form ozone pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The direct effects on human health would be much greater for PM2.5 than for the ozone,” said \u003ca href=\"http://science.gsfc.nasa.gov/sed/bio/lesley.e.ott\">Lesley Ott\u003c/a>, a scientist at NASA who wasn’t involved with the study. “This is probably the most direct threat to human health.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"description": "Shrouded by smoke from a fire in California’s parched San Bernardino Mountains, schools in the Victor Valley closed their doors last week. The Pilot Fire was contained on Monday — shortly before the Blue Cut Fire broke out, billowing soot and ash over the valley afresh, forcing further closures. “This is a pretty unprecedented situation,”",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Shrouded by smoke from a fire in California’s parched San Bernardino Mountains, schools in the Victor Valley closed their doors last week. The Pilot Fire was contained on Monday — shortly before the \u003ca href=\"http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-blue-cut-fire-20160819-snap-story.html\">Blue Cut Fire\u003c/a> broke out, billowing soot and ash over the valley afresh, forcing further closures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a pretty unprecedented situation,” said \u003ca href=\"http://www.mdaqmd.ca.gov/index.aspx?recordid=70&page=38\">Violette Roberts\u003c/a>, a Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District official whose job involves warning residents in the area about air pollution. On Monday, “the sky had turned dark,” she said. “It looked like it was sunset most of the day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">A “smoke wave” describes the type of multiday impacts from wildfire pollution that were experienced this month in the Victor Valley.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>As the district warned valley residents to “limit time spent outdoors” and to seek medical care for respiratory ailments, school and health clinic closures and canceled sporting events were reminders that health impacts from wildfires carry further than the flames.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the West, where populations living near forests and scrublands are growing, global warming is \u003ca href=\"http://www.climatecentral.org/news/western-wildfires-climate-change-20475\">projected to fuel worsening wildfires\u003c/a>, mostly by drying out the land. Research published this week showed how those forces will combine to cause wildfire pollution to threaten tens of millions more people during the years ahead than are currently at risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you have a wildfire, like a really bad wildfire, you can see that the air quality is reduced,” said \u003ca href=\"http://csu-cvmbs.colostate.edu/academics/erhs/Pages/brooke-anderson.aspx\">Brooke Anderson\u003c/a>, a Colorado State University epidemiologist who worked on the new study, \u003ca href=\"http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10584-016-1762-6\">published in the journal Climatic Change\u003c/a>. “These ambient air pollutants can reach a lot of people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers like Anderson have taken to using the term “smoke wave” to describe the type of multiday impacts from wildfire pollution that were experienced this month in the Victor Valley. The valley contains hundreds of thousands of residents as well as the thoroughfare linking Las Vegas with Los Angeles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anderson and scientists from Yale and Harvard calculated that 82 million residents of the West will experience smoke waves that are two days or longer during a six-year period beginning in the late 2040s. That’s a 44 percent increase from a six-year period last decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We discovered that, indeed, fires will become worse in the future, and that the number of people exposed to what we call smoke waves increases by about 35 million,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.seas.harvard.edu/directory/mickley\">Loretta Mickley\u003c/a>, an atmospheric chemist at Harvard who helped lead the study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers combined population projections with the outputs of models designed to predict fire risks as greenhouse gas pollution continues to build up in the atmosphere. They also used a model to project the spread of plumes of air pollution from the flames.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a per-county average, the group estimated that the number of smoke waves experienced in the West will increase to about 1.5 each year by the 2050s, up from about one today. The smoke waves are also projected to become more intense — with air pollution during the worst smoke waves expected to worsen more than 400 percent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not all counties will be equally affected. Some may experience fewer smoke waves as the climate changes, though most were projected to experience worsening conditions. Communities located in or near forests face the worst impacts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Arizona does get much bigger fires in the future, but because it’s so grassy there, there’s not a lot of fuel for those big fires,” Mickley said. “These fires can threaten homes, but you don’t get the same massive smoke events.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The research was lauded by other scientists for its sophisticated and novel approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s as good if not better than anyone else is doing,” said \u003ca href=\"https://staff.ucar.edu/users/christin\">Christine Wiedinmyer\u003c/a>, a National Center for Atmospheric Research scientist who was not involved with the study. “They’ve come up with a nice way of predicting fires — both now and into the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiedinmyer said the findings point to a need to better manage Western forests with more prescribed burns, which simulate natural conditions and clear forest floors of potential fuel. “Of course, you’re going to get emissions there,” she said, but risks of smoke waves from wildfires “might be reduced.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The research focused on fine sky-darkening particles called PM2.5 pollution. Such pollution is \u003ca href=\"http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2014/air-pollution/en/\">one of the world’s main killers\u003c/a>, posing risks in particular to children, the elderly and the sick. It’s released by fossil fuel-burning power plants, internal combustion engines and wood burning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This type of approach provides a much more expansive and complete view of the potential consequences for humans as we change our climate,” said \u003ca href=\"http://www.u.arizona.edu/~kanchukaitis/people.html\">Kevin Anchukaitis\u003c/a>, a climatologist and geographer at the University of Arizona who wasn’t involved with the study. “It shows the complicated yet robust link between climate change and human health.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scientists didn’t focus on other kinds of air pollution created by wildfires, such as chemicals that combine in the atmosphere to form ozone pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The direct effects on human health would be much greater for PM2.5 than for the ozone,” said \u003ca href=\"http://science.gsfc.nasa.gov/sed/bio/lesley.e.ott\">Lesley Ott\u003c/a>, a scientist at NASA who wasn’t involved with the study. “This is probably the most direct threat to human health.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Where Else in the Universe Can You Find Fjords? On This Distant Moon",
"headTitle": "Where Else in the Universe Can You Find Fjords? On This Distant Moon | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Still orbiting Saturn after twelve years, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cassini\u003c/a> continues to surprise and delight us with its discoveries. Findings by the NASA spacecraft suggest that Saturn’s moon Titan contains deep, liquid-flooded canyons that may resemble fjords and alpine lakes on Earth. Titan is arguably one of the most interesting moons in the solar system, the only one with a thick atmosphere, in fact made of nitrogen and thicker than Earth’s!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In May 2013, Cassini made a close flyby of Titan, focusing its attention on \u003ca href=\"http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia16197.html\">Vid Flumina\u003c/a>, a Nile-like river valley, connected to the sea \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/jpl/pia20021/mystery-feature-evolves-in-titans-ligeia-mare\">Ligeia Mare\u003c/a>. Apparent drainage networks have been seen in many areas on Titan, mostly in connection with a lake or sea. However, Vid Flumina is a system of narrow, deep and steep-walled canyons. Some sections are 1,870 feet deep with walls sloped at 40 degrees — even steeper than San Francisco’s famous \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lombard_Street_(San_Francisco)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lombard Street\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cassini’s radar took \u003ca href=\"http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6589&utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NASAJPL&utm_content=daily20160809-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the measurements\u003c/a>, although normally it creates images of Titan’s surface, pinging the moon with radio pulses and composing pictures based on the signal strength bouncing off the topography. Areas with varying amounts of slope and degrees of smoothness appear different in the radar data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_923357\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-923357\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/titan_liquid_canyon.jpg\" alt=\"Artist concept of a body of liquid methane and ethane in a canyon on Saturn's moon, Titan.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/titan_liquid_canyon.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/titan_liquid_canyon-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/titan_liquid_canyon-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Artist concept of a body of liquid methane and ethane in a canyon on Saturn’s moon, Titan. \u003ccite>(JPL/NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The radar imaging technique has given us wonderful birds-eye views of Titan’s landscape hidden from Cassini’s visible-light cameras under a thick shroud of hydrocarbon haze. For years we have enjoyed scenes of high and rugged mountainous terrain, vast plains of dunes, dendritic networks of river-like channel systems and the wide, flat, incredibly smooth surfaces of numerous lakes and seas of liquid hydrocarbons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, during the May 2013 flyby, Cassini’s radar worked as an altimeter, measuring the elevations of terrain in and around the Vid Flumina complex. This “echolocation” method not only revealed the steepness of the canyon walls and the depth of the channels, but in a number of spots it also revealed “flashes” or glints of sharply reflected radar as if the radio waves were reflecting from a very smooth, very flat and level surface — like a body of liquid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This detection is the first direct evidence of pooled liquid in any canyon or drainage channel system on this cold and dynamic moon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still more, the measured altitude of the liquid surfaces in some of these canyons was at sea level, while in other canyons they were hundreds of feet higher. Might the sea-level liquid channels in the deep, steep-walled canyons resemble Norway’s fjords, and the higher-altitude pockets the pooling of alpine lakes in deep river canyons on Earth?\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_923358\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1400px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-923358\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/PIA20021-16.gif\" alt=\"Radar image of the hydrocarbon sea Ligeia Mare (right) and the drainage system complex Vid Flumina (upper left). The white circles show locations where radar reflections indicate surfaces of pooled liquid.\" width=\"1400\" height=\"788\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Radar image of the hydrocarbon sea Ligeia Mare (right) and the drainage system complex Vid Flumina (upper left). The white circles show locations where radar reflections indicate surfaces of pooled liquid. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASI/Cornell)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>What a sight they must be! The only direct images we have from Titan’s surface came from the short-lived \u003ca href=\"http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Highlights/Ten_years_at_Titan\">Huygens probe\u003c/a> in 2005, and tantalizing as that glimpse was, the terrain at the probe’s landing site was flat and dry. I will not say boring, it was anything but!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The depth of these likely liquid-carved canyons tells us that they were either carved by erosion over a long period of time, or were cut quickly by processes we don’t yet fully understand. Scientists are considering several possible means for their formation, including uplifted land or a changing sea level — or possibly both.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Titan is one of the only bodies in the solar system, moon or planet, with an active liquid cycle on its surface. It’s a version of Earth’s water cycle, but at freezing temperatures where water is like solid rock, and hydrocarbons like methane and ethane play the role of liquid. And more and more, it appears that Titan’s topographical features in many cases bear a strong resemblance to terrains found on Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cassini may give us only a few more glimpses of Titan, as well as Saturn and some of its other fascinating moons, before the mission is terminated next year when Cassini will be driven deliberately into Saturn’s atmosphere in an incinerating blaze of glory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA doesn’t want to leave a piece of derelict space junk with decaying plutonium power cells flying around the Saturn system, which for all we know may be home to \u003ca href=\"https://astronomynow.com/2015/03/01/life-not-as-we-know-it-possible-on-saturns-moon-titan/\">some form of life\u003c/a> — especially those moons, like Enceladus, where we have detected the presence of liquid water.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Still orbiting Saturn after twelve years, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cassini\u003c/a> continues to surprise and delight us with its discoveries. Findings by the NASA spacecraft suggest that Saturn’s moon Titan contains deep, liquid-flooded canyons that may resemble fjords and alpine lakes on Earth. Titan is arguably one of the most interesting moons in the solar system, the only one with a thick atmosphere, in fact made of nitrogen and thicker than Earth’s!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In May 2013, Cassini made a close flyby of Titan, focusing its attention on \u003ca href=\"http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia16197.html\">Vid Flumina\u003c/a>, a Nile-like river valley, connected to the sea \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/jpl/pia20021/mystery-feature-evolves-in-titans-ligeia-mare\">Ligeia Mare\u003c/a>. Apparent drainage networks have been seen in many areas on Titan, mostly in connection with a lake or sea. However, Vid Flumina is a system of narrow, deep and steep-walled canyons. Some sections are 1,870 feet deep with walls sloped at 40 degrees — even steeper than San Francisco’s famous \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lombard_Street_(San_Francisco)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lombard Street\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cassini’s radar took \u003ca href=\"http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6589&utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NASAJPL&utm_content=daily20160809-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the measurements\u003c/a>, although normally it creates images of Titan’s surface, pinging the moon with radio pulses and composing pictures based on the signal strength bouncing off the topography. Areas with varying amounts of slope and degrees of smoothness appear different in the radar data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_923357\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-923357\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/titan_liquid_canyon.jpg\" alt=\"Artist concept of a body of liquid methane and ethane in a canyon on Saturn's moon, Titan.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/titan_liquid_canyon.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/titan_liquid_canyon-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/titan_liquid_canyon-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Artist concept of a body of liquid methane and ethane in a canyon on Saturn’s moon, Titan. \u003ccite>(JPL/NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The radar imaging technique has given us wonderful birds-eye views of Titan’s landscape hidden from Cassini’s visible-light cameras under a thick shroud of hydrocarbon haze. For years we have enjoyed scenes of high and rugged mountainous terrain, vast plains of dunes, dendritic networks of river-like channel systems and the wide, flat, incredibly smooth surfaces of numerous lakes and seas of liquid hydrocarbons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, during the May 2013 flyby, Cassini’s radar worked as an altimeter, measuring the elevations of terrain in and around the Vid Flumina complex. This “echolocation” method not only revealed the steepness of the canyon walls and the depth of the channels, but in a number of spots it also revealed “flashes” or glints of sharply reflected radar as if the radio waves were reflecting from a very smooth, very flat and level surface — like a body of liquid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This detection is the first direct evidence of pooled liquid in any canyon or drainage channel system on this cold and dynamic moon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still more, the measured altitude of the liquid surfaces in some of these canyons was at sea level, while in other canyons they were hundreds of feet higher. Might the sea-level liquid channels in the deep, steep-walled canyons resemble Norway’s fjords, and the higher-altitude pockets the pooling of alpine lakes in deep river canyons on Earth?\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_923358\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1400px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-923358\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/PIA20021-16.gif\" alt=\"Radar image of the hydrocarbon sea Ligeia Mare (right) and the drainage system complex Vid Flumina (upper left). The white circles show locations where radar reflections indicate surfaces of pooled liquid.\" width=\"1400\" height=\"788\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Radar image of the hydrocarbon sea Ligeia Mare (right) and the drainage system complex Vid Flumina (upper left). The white circles show locations where radar reflections indicate surfaces of pooled liquid. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASI/Cornell)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>What a sight they must be! The only direct images we have from Titan’s surface came from the short-lived \u003ca href=\"http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Highlights/Ten_years_at_Titan\">Huygens probe\u003c/a> in 2005, and tantalizing as that glimpse was, the terrain at the probe’s landing site was flat and dry. I will not say boring, it was anything but!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The depth of these likely liquid-carved canyons tells us that they were either carved by erosion over a long period of time, or were cut quickly by processes we don’t yet fully understand. Scientists are considering several possible means for their formation, including uplifted land or a changing sea level — or possibly both.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Titan is one of the only bodies in the solar system, moon or planet, with an active liquid cycle on its surface. It’s a version of Earth’s water cycle, but at freezing temperatures where water is like solid rock, and hydrocarbons like methane and ethane play the role of liquid. And more and more, it appears that Titan’s topographical features in many cases bear a strong resemblance to terrains found on Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cassini may give us only a few more glimpses of Titan, as well as Saturn and some of its other fascinating moons, before the mission is terminated next year when Cassini will be driven deliberately into Saturn’s atmosphere in an incinerating blaze of glory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA doesn’t want to leave a piece of derelict space junk with decaying plutonium power cells flying around the Saturn system, which for all we know may be home to \u003ca href=\"https://astronomynow.com/2015/03/01/life-not-as-we-know-it-possible-on-saturns-moon-titan/\">some form of life\u003c/a> — especially those moons, like Enceladus, where we have detected the presence of liquid water.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "The Biggest California Water Decision You’ve Never Heard Of",
"headTitle": "The Biggest California Water Decision You’ve Never Heard Of | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Many of California’s farmers, facing severe water cutbacks yet again this year, are blaming the hand they’ve been dealt on environmental protections for endangered fish. The protections limit how much water can be taken up by the huge pumps that serve much of the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there’s another root of the problem, often overlooked, that controls both the state’s water supply and the fate of endangered fish: the San Joaquin River.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soon, state officials will make a pivotal decision about how much water should flow down that river each year and the decision will stick for years to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some say it could be the most revolutionary change in decades for the West’s largest estuary and the site of California’s fiercest water battles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San Joaquin is arguably the most heavily tapped river in the state, sometimes going completely dry before it reaches the hub of the state’s water supply, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a few weeks, the State Water Resources Control Board will release a draft of \u003ca href=\"http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/bay_delta/bay_delta_plan/water_quality_control_planning/index.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">an obscure water quality plan\u003c/a> that could dramatically increase the flow of the river.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘It’s a once-in-a-generation chance to manage the Delta ecosystem.’\u003ccite> Jon Rosenfield, The Bay Institute\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>In the process, the board will have to answer a fundamental question: how much water do Californians need and how much should be left for endangered fish?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board’s decision could have cascading effects across the water system, even for farmers and water suppliers with some of the oldest and most secure water rights in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Players\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With salmon and Delta smelt populations driven to the brink of extinction during the drought, the water quality plan comes at a vital moment for some because the water board has the authority to restore freshwater flows that scientists say are sorely lacking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a once-in-a-generation chance to manage the Delta ecosystem,” says Jon Rosenfield, biologist at The Bay Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To boost the flow of the San Joaquin River, state officials could reallocate water from upstream agricultural water districts with “senior” rights, long-considered untouchable. San Francisco and other parts of the Bay Area, which tap into a water source more than 100 miles away, could also be facing cutbacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in an odd and unintended twist, cutbacks in one place could benefit farms and cities elsewhere in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_914708\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-914708 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/SanLuis.jpg\" alt=\"San Luis Reservoir, which serves the Central Valley and Bay Area, is filled entirely by water from the Delta pumping plants.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/SanLuis.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/SanLuis-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/SanLuis-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/SanLuis-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/SanLuis-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/SanLuis-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/SanLuis-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San Luis Reservoir, which serves the Central Valley and Bay Area, is filled entirely by water from the Delta pumping plants. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Many Central Valley farms and cities from San Jose to San Diego rely on water that’s delivered by huge pumping plants in the Delta. When endangered salmon and steelhead are at risk, those pumps must slow down and pump less water\u003cstrong>.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a higher flow from the San Joaquin River generally improves the environmental conditions that trigger the pumping limits. With fewer limits, the Delta pumps could run more of the time, providing more water to those cities and to farmers who have fallowed thousands of acres in recent years.\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What’s at Stake\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San Joaquin River and its tributaries, the Stanislaus, Tuolumne and Merced, were dammed a century ago, turning the southern Central Valley into one of the most productive farming areas in the country. But the dams had a huge impact on California’s second-largest river.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Characterizing it as a river is a misnomer,” says Rosenfield. “It goes dry for many, many miles – a completely dry sand bed. It’s been destroyed as a river.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some spring months, as much as 90 percent of the water is diverted to Central Valley farms and cities. Salmon and steelhead that depend on the river to reproduce often run into a dry riverbed and lack the cool, winding flows they need for their young to survive.\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The San Joaquin River used to support some of the largest Chinook salmon populations in the world,” Rosenfield says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s something officials at the State Water Resources Control Board have to take into consideration, as they update the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan. Federal law requires the plan, under the the Clean Water Act, to safeguard drinking water quality and protect local ecosystems. Its last substantial revision was in 1995.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_914712\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1006px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-914712 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/UIFSJinflow-web.jpg\" alt=\"This past year, the most of the water from the San Joaquin River has been diverted.\" width=\"1006\" height=\"657\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/UIFSJinflow-web.jpg 1006w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/UIFSJinflow-web-400x261.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/UIFSJinflow-web-800x522.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/UIFSJinflow-web-768x502.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/UIFSJinflow-web-960x627.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1006px) 100vw, 1006px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This past year, most of the water from the San Joaquin River has been diverted. \u003ccite>(Source: The Bay Institute)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Now, as part of that update, the water board must decide how much freshwater should flow down the San Joaquin River tributaries. In a later step, the water board will write another plan for the Sacramento River and the rest of the Delta\u003cstrong>.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2010, a state report found that restoring native fish like salmon and steelhead would \u003ca href=\"http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/bay_delta/deltaflow/docs/draft_report072010.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">require 60 percent\u003c/a> of the San Joaquin River’s unimpaired flow, or the flow that would come down the river in the absence of human use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the water board says it’s required to consider human needs for water, in addition to the needs of the ecosystem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you’re interested in protecting the agricultural economy, you come up with a different number than 60 percent,” says Les Grober, Assistant Deputy Director for Water Rights at the water board. “This is when the board revisits that fundamental question about how we balance these uses of water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2012, the water board released its first draft of the water quality control plan update, recommending 35 percent unimpaired flow on the San Joaquin River between February and June.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reaction was swift from both environmental groups and agricultural water districts.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘It’s a contrived plan to get at the senior water rights holders of the state.’\u003cbr>\n\u003ccite> Steve Knell, Oakdale Irrigation District\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“The 35 percent number was pathetic,” says Rosenfield. “By some measures, it was just maintaining the status quo. Nothing less than 50 percent of the flow is going to restore that river.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State wildlife officials \u003ca href=\"http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/hearings/baydelta_pdsed/docs/comments032913/scott_cantrell.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">found it wouldn’t be enough water\u003c/a> to restore salmon to the river. The federal Environmental Protection Agency \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/sfdelta-epa-comments-swrcb-wqcp-phase1-sed3-28-2013.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">agreed\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Upstream water districts saw the 35 percent proposal as far too high, since they’d likely have to give up some of their water. Many hold “senior” water rights, meaning they have first priority to water because their rights are some of the oldest in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s really all the point of this is,” says Steve Knell, manager of Oakdale Irrigation District. “It’s a contrived plan to get at the senior water-rights holders of the state.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_914715\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-914715 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/salmonSJR.jpg\" alt=\"California wildlife agencies are slowly returning Chinook salmon to the San Joaquin River.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/salmonSJR.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/salmonSJR-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/salmonSJR-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/salmonSJR-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/salmonSJR-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/salmonSJR-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/salmonSJR-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California wildlife agencies are slowly returning Chinook salmon to the San Joaquin River. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Modesto and Turlock Irrigation Districts estimate that requiring 40 percent unimpaired flow would cost $167 million in lost farm revenue. They speculate it would mean giving up as much as a third of their water. That would be determined by the water board according to the seniority of the water rights of all the districts involved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For our communities, we’re looking at major economic impacts,” says Jake Wenger of Modesto Irrigation District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Another Farmer’s Gain\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Apart from helping struggling fish, a higher flowing San Joaquin River could actually help other farmers and cities, a side effect of the water board’s plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reason has to do with geography: the San Joaquin flows right past the gaping mouths of the Delta water pumps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two huge pumping plants draw millions of gallons of water per minute from the Delta and send it into aqueducts that reach all the way to the Bay Area, Central Valley and cities in Southern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pumps have long been the focus of the fiercest battles over water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_929467\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-929467\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/KQED_Delta.gif\" alt=\"text\" width=\"800\" height=\"590\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Massive water pumps create huge changes in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta’s water flow.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When they were built, there was little understanding of their effect on the ecosystem. But their sheer power reverses the flow of water in the Delta, drawing endangered salmon and Delta smelt towards the pumps, interfering with their migration and even sucking them in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a result, federal wildlife officials have put limits on water pumping. During the spring, if the pull is too strong, pumping is limited or shut down to protect the fish. But that reduces the amount of water that reaches the water districts where people depend on it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The meager flow of the San Joaquin River makes the backward pull of the pumps worse. If the river ran more fully, it would push against the backward flows, potentially allowing the pumps to run more of the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That could help some water district fill their reservoirs, says Jeffrey Kightlinger, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District, the water wholesaler for major Southern California cities like Los Angeles. “The fact that there isn’t much flow there definitely limits our ability to move water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other districts that rely on the water pumps are more skeptical of a potential water windfall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You would think that the response would be ‘that’s great for us’,” says Johnny Amaral of Westlands Water District. “But just because there would be increased flow doesn’t mean they would pump more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Westlands and other water districts, who usually watch the San Joaquin River with a hawk’s eye, aren’t likely to advocate publicly for higher flows on the river, even though they could benefit. In dry years, many buy water from the “senior” districts upstream and, politically, can’t afford to strain those relationships.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The senior water districts facing cutbacks would likely try to ensure that their water wasn’t just handed out to water districts with junior rights, which would be contrary to the state’s water rights system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmental groups might say the same. They’d like to see any extra water coming down the San Joaquin earmarked for endangered species in the Delta itself, instead of being diverted away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s huge for not just the San Joaquin River, but for the entire Delta,” says Doug Obegi of the Natural Resources Defense Council.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_914718\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-914718\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/Banks2.jpg\" alt=\"The Banks Pumping plant draws water out of the Delta and sends it hundreds of miles south.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1066\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/Banks2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/Banks2-400x222.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/Banks2-800x444.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/Banks2-768x426.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/Banks2-1440x800.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/Banks2-1180x655.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/Banks2-960x533.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/Banks2-672x372.jpg 672w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/Banks2-1038x576.jpg 1038w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Banks Pumping Plant draws water out of the Delta and sends it hundreds of miles south. \u003ccite>(California Department of Water Resources)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What About San Francisco?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though it’s far from city limits, the Hetch Hetchy reservoir high in the Sierra Nevada supplies water to San Francisco and more than a million people in the Bay Area. The Hetch Hetchy water system taps into the Tuolumne River, which joins with the San Joaquin River.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Four years ago, the water board decided that the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) would be excluded from its plan for San Joaquin River flows, even though the other water users on the same tributary, Modesto and Turlock Irrigation Districts, are included.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, it’s looking like that decision has reversed and the city could be told to share its water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a risk,” says Steve Ritchie, Assistant General Manager at SFPUC. “There’s no doubt about that. Hopefully we would minimize the effect on San Francisco.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SFPUC has more junior water rights than Modesto and Turlock Irrigation Districts, which means it would be first in line to give up water. Ritchie says the city would make the case that the water is necessary for health and human safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Other Appeals for Leeway\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other San Joaquin River water districts with senior rights, on the three tributaries that feed the river, are hoping to escape water cutbacks through habitat restoration for salmon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We should be making more habitat that breeds more fish,” says Knell of Oakdale Irrigation District. “We should focus on habitat improvement and widening our rivers out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several districts are arguing that they deserve more time to bring salmon populations back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The goal is to see the salmon numbers come up,” says Wenger of Modesto Irrigation District. “If we’re not hitting them, then we’ll deal with flow.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_914724\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-914724\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/SJR2.jpg\" alt=\"A dry channel of the San Joaquin River.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/SJR2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/SJR2-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/SJR2-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/SJR2-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/SJR2-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/SJR2-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/SJR2-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A dry channel of the San Joaquin River. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>No matter what the water board ultimately decides, its likely go the way that most controversial water decisions in the state go: to a judge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can bet it’s going to end up in court, if it’s a one-size-fits-all solution,” says Wenger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Fate of the Tunnels \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If that wasn’t enough, the water board’s decision on water Delta flow could also determine the fate of Governor Jerry Brown’s headline water project: the \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2016/07/25/about-that-17-billion-water-project-delta-tunnels-101/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$17 billion Delta water tunnels\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Brown Administration says the tunnels, dubbed California WaterFix, would relieve some of the problems at the Delta water pumps. The idea is that the tunnels would draw water from elsewhere in the Delta, so the pumps would be used less.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Districts from the Bay Area to Los Angeles that receive that water would be responsible for the tunnels’ hefty price tag. But many want guarantees that they’ll receive more water than they do today. Otherwise, the project is too expensive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the water board requires more water to flow out of the San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers in order to restore the ecosystem, the Delta tunnels would have to follow those rules, likely meaning that less water would be delivered to the water districts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If that’s the case, the water board could deliver a lethal blow to the Delta tunnels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a few weeks, water board staff will release a new recommendation for unimpaired flow on the San Joaquin River. The board expects to vote on it later this year or early next year.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Why an obscure plan for one California river could be a game changer for farmers, fish and millions of Californians.",
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"description": "Why an obscure plan for one California river could be a game changer for farmers, fish and millions of Californians.",
"title": "The Biggest California Water Decision You’ve Never Heard Of | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Many of California’s farmers, facing severe water cutbacks yet again this year, are blaming the hand they’ve been dealt on environmental protections for endangered fish. The protections limit how much water can be taken up by the huge pumps that serve much of the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there’s another root of the problem, often overlooked, that controls both the state’s water supply and the fate of endangered fish: the San Joaquin River.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soon, state officials will make a pivotal decision about how much water should flow down that river each year and the decision will stick for years to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some say it could be the most revolutionary change in decades for the West’s largest estuary and the site of California’s fiercest water battles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San Joaquin is arguably the most heavily tapped river in the state, sometimes going completely dry before it reaches the hub of the state’s water supply, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a few weeks, the State Water Resources Control Board will release a draft of \u003ca href=\"http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/bay_delta/bay_delta_plan/water_quality_control_planning/index.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">an obscure water quality plan\u003c/a> that could dramatically increase the flow of the river.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘It’s a once-in-a-generation chance to manage the Delta ecosystem.’\u003ccite> Jon Rosenfield, The Bay Institute\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>In the process, the board will have to answer a fundamental question: how much water do Californians need and how much should be left for endangered fish?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board’s decision could have cascading effects across the water system, even for farmers and water suppliers with some of the oldest and most secure water rights in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Players\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With salmon and Delta smelt populations driven to the brink of extinction during the drought, the water quality plan comes at a vital moment for some because the water board has the authority to restore freshwater flows that scientists say are sorely lacking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a once-in-a-generation chance to manage the Delta ecosystem,” says Jon Rosenfield, biologist at The Bay Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To boost the flow of the San Joaquin River, state officials could reallocate water from upstream agricultural water districts with “senior” rights, long-considered untouchable. San Francisco and other parts of the Bay Area, which tap into a water source more than 100 miles away, could also be facing cutbacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in an odd and unintended twist, cutbacks in one place could benefit farms and cities elsewhere in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_914708\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-914708 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/SanLuis.jpg\" alt=\"San Luis Reservoir, which serves the Central Valley and Bay Area, is filled entirely by water from the Delta pumping plants.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/SanLuis.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/SanLuis-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/SanLuis-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/SanLuis-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/SanLuis-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/SanLuis-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/SanLuis-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San Luis Reservoir, which serves the Central Valley and Bay Area, is filled entirely by water from the Delta pumping plants. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Many Central Valley farms and cities from San Jose to San Diego rely on water that’s delivered by huge pumping plants in the Delta. When endangered salmon and steelhead are at risk, those pumps must slow down and pump less water\u003cstrong>.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a higher flow from the San Joaquin River generally improves the environmental conditions that trigger the pumping limits. With fewer limits, the Delta pumps could run more of the time, providing more water to those cities and to farmers who have fallowed thousands of acres in recent years.\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What’s at Stake\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San Joaquin River and its tributaries, the Stanislaus, Tuolumne and Merced, were dammed a century ago, turning the southern Central Valley into one of the most productive farming areas in the country. But the dams had a huge impact on California’s second-largest river.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Characterizing it as a river is a misnomer,” says Rosenfield. “It goes dry for many, many miles – a completely dry sand bed. It’s been destroyed as a river.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some spring months, as much as 90 percent of the water is diverted to Central Valley farms and cities. Salmon and steelhead that depend on the river to reproduce often run into a dry riverbed and lack the cool, winding flows they need for their young to survive.\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The San Joaquin River used to support some of the largest Chinook salmon populations in the world,” Rosenfield says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s something officials at the State Water Resources Control Board have to take into consideration, as they update the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan. Federal law requires the plan, under the the Clean Water Act, to safeguard drinking water quality and protect local ecosystems. Its last substantial revision was in 1995.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_914712\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1006px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-914712 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/UIFSJinflow-web.jpg\" alt=\"This past year, the most of the water from the San Joaquin River has been diverted.\" width=\"1006\" height=\"657\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/UIFSJinflow-web.jpg 1006w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/UIFSJinflow-web-400x261.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/UIFSJinflow-web-800x522.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/UIFSJinflow-web-768x502.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/UIFSJinflow-web-960x627.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1006px) 100vw, 1006px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This past year, most of the water from the San Joaquin River has been diverted. \u003ccite>(Source: The Bay Institute)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Now, as part of that update, the water board must decide how much freshwater should flow down the San Joaquin River tributaries. In a later step, the water board will write another plan for the Sacramento River and the rest of the Delta\u003cstrong>.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2010, a state report found that restoring native fish like salmon and steelhead would \u003ca href=\"http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/bay_delta/deltaflow/docs/draft_report072010.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">require 60 percent\u003c/a> of the San Joaquin River’s unimpaired flow, or the flow that would come down the river in the absence of human use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the water board says it’s required to consider human needs for water, in addition to the needs of the ecosystem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you’re interested in protecting the agricultural economy, you come up with a different number than 60 percent,” says Les Grober, Assistant Deputy Director for Water Rights at the water board. “This is when the board revisits that fundamental question about how we balance these uses of water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2012, the water board released its first draft of the water quality control plan update, recommending 35 percent unimpaired flow on the San Joaquin River between February and June.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reaction was swift from both environmental groups and agricultural water districts.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘It’s a contrived plan to get at the senior water rights holders of the state.’\u003cbr>\n\u003ccite> Steve Knell, Oakdale Irrigation District\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“The 35 percent number was pathetic,” says Rosenfield. “By some measures, it was just maintaining the status quo. Nothing less than 50 percent of the flow is going to restore that river.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State wildlife officials \u003ca href=\"http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/hearings/baydelta_pdsed/docs/comments032913/scott_cantrell.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">found it wouldn’t be enough water\u003c/a> to restore salmon to the river. The federal Environmental Protection Agency \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/sfdelta-epa-comments-swrcb-wqcp-phase1-sed3-28-2013.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">agreed\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Upstream water districts saw the 35 percent proposal as far too high, since they’d likely have to give up some of their water. Many hold “senior” water rights, meaning they have first priority to water because their rights are some of the oldest in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s really all the point of this is,” says Steve Knell, manager of Oakdale Irrigation District. “It’s a contrived plan to get at the senior water-rights holders of the state.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_914715\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-914715 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/salmonSJR.jpg\" alt=\"California wildlife agencies are slowly returning Chinook salmon to the San Joaquin River.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/salmonSJR.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/salmonSJR-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/salmonSJR-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/salmonSJR-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/salmonSJR-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/salmonSJR-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/salmonSJR-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California wildlife agencies are slowly returning Chinook salmon to the San Joaquin River. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Modesto and Turlock Irrigation Districts estimate that requiring 40 percent unimpaired flow would cost $167 million in lost farm revenue. They speculate it would mean giving up as much as a third of their water. That would be determined by the water board according to the seniority of the water rights of all the districts involved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For our communities, we’re looking at major economic impacts,” says Jake Wenger of Modesto Irrigation District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Another Farmer’s Gain\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Apart from helping struggling fish, a higher flowing San Joaquin River could actually help other farmers and cities, a side effect of the water board’s plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reason has to do with geography: the San Joaquin flows right past the gaping mouths of the Delta water pumps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two huge pumping plants draw millions of gallons of water per minute from the Delta and send it into aqueducts that reach all the way to the Bay Area, Central Valley and cities in Southern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pumps have long been the focus of the fiercest battles over water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_929467\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-929467\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/KQED_Delta.gif\" alt=\"text\" width=\"800\" height=\"590\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Massive water pumps create huge changes in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta’s water flow.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When they were built, there was little understanding of their effect on the ecosystem. But their sheer power reverses the flow of water in the Delta, drawing endangered salmon and Delta smelt towards the pumps, interfering with their migration and even sucking them in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a result, federal wildlife officials have put limits on water pumping. During the spring, if the pull is too strong, pumping is limited or shut down to protect the fish. But that reduces the amount of water that reaches the water districts where people depend on it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The meager flow of the San Joaquin River makes the backward pull of the pumps worse. If the river ran more fully, it would push against the backward flows, potentially allowing the pumps to run more of the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That could help some water district fill their reservoirs, says Jeffrey Kightlinger, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District, the water wholesaler for major Southern California cities like Los Angeles. “The fact that there isn’t much flow there definitely limits our ability to move water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other districts that rely on the water pumps are more skeptical of a potential water windfall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You would think that the response would be ‘that’s great for us’,” says Johnny Amaral of Westlands Water District. “But just because there would be increased flow doesn’t mean they would pump more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Westlands and other water districts, who usually watch the San Joaquin River with a hawk’s eye, aren’t likely to advocate publicly for higher flows on the river, even though they could benefit. In dry years, many buy water from the “senior” districts upstream and, politically, can’t afford to strain those relationships.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The senior water districts facing cutbacks would likely try to ensure that their water wasn’t just handed out to water districts with junior rights, which would be contrary to the state’s water rights system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmental groups might say the same. They’d like to see any extra water coming down the San Joaquin earmarked for endangered species in the Delta itself, instead of being diverted away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s huge for not just the San Joaquin River, but for the entire Delta,” says Doug Obegi of the Natural Resources Defense Council.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_914718\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-914718\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/Banks2.jpg\" alt=\"The Banks Pumping plant draws water out of the Delta and sends it hundreds of miles south.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1066\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/Banks2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/Banks2-400x222.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/Banks2-800x444.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/Banks2-768x426.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/Banks2-1440x800.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/Banks2-1180x655.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/Banks2-960x533.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/Banks2-672x372.jpg 672w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/Banks2-1038x576.jpg 1038w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Banks Pumping Plant draws water out of the Delta and sends it hundreds of miles south. \u003ccite>(California Department of Water Resources)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What About San Francisco?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though it’s far from city limits, the Hetch Hetchy reservoir high in the Sierra Nevada supplies water to San Francisco and more than a million people in the Bay Area. The Hetch Hetchy water system taps into the Tuolumne River, which joins with the San Joaquin River.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Four years ago, the water board decided that the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) would be excluded from its plan for San Joaquin River flows, even though the other water users on the same tributary, Modesto and Turlock Irrigation Districts, are included.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, it’s looking like that decision has reversed and the city could be told to share its water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a risk,” says Steve Ritchie, Assistant General Manager at SFPUC. “There’s no doubt about that. Hopefully we would minimize the effect on San Francisco.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SFPUC has more junior water rights than Modesto and Turlock Irrigation Districts, which means it would be first in line to give up water. Ritchie says the city would make the case that the water is necessary for health and human safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Other Appeals for Leeway\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other San Joaquin River water districts with senior rights, on the three tributaries that feed the river, are hoping to escape water cutbacks through habitat restoration for salmon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We should be making more habitat that breeds more fish,” says Knell of Oakdale Irrigation District. “We should focus on habitat improvement and widening our rivers out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several districts are arguing that they deserve more time to bring salmon populations back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The goal is to see the salmon numbers come up,” says Wenger of Modesto Irrigation District. “If we’re not hitting them, then we’ll deal with flow.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_914724\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-914724\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/SJR2.jpg\" alt=\"A dry channel of the San Joaquin River.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/SJR2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/SJR2-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/SJR2-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/SJR2-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/SJR2-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/SJR2-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/SJR2-960x540.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A dry channel of the San Joaquin River. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>No matter what the water board ultimately decides, its likely go the way that most controversial water decisions in the state go: to a judge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can bet it’s going to end up in court, if it’s a one-size-fits-all solution,” says Wenger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Fate of the Tunnels \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If that wasn’t enough, the water board’s decision on water Delta flow could also determine the fate of Governor Jerry Brown’s headline water project: the \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2016/07/25/about-that-17-billion-water-project-delta-tunnels-101/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$17 billion Delta water tunnels\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Brown Administration says the tunnels, dubbed California WaterFix, would relieve some of the problems at the Delta water pumps. The idea is that the tunnels would draw water from elsewhere in the Delta, so the pumps would be used less.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Districts from the Bay Area to Los Angeles that receive that water would be responsible for the tunnels’ hefty price tag. But many want guarantees that they’ll receive more water than they do today. Otherwise, the project is too expensive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the water board requires more water to flow out of the San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers in order to restore the ecosystem, the Delta tunnels would have to follow those rules, likely meaning that less water would be delivered to the water districts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If that’s the case, the water board could deliver a lethal blow to the Delta tunnels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a few weeks, water board staff will release a new recommendation for unimpaired flow on the San Joaquin River. The board expects to vote on it later this year or early next year.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "California Climate Program Faces Uncertain Future Beyond 2020",
"headTitle": "California Climate Program Faces Uncertain Future Beyond 2020 | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>The opinion of lawyers working for California’s lawmakers became clear in the spring. Without new laws, the state’s prominent cap-and-trade program would be dead after 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such a legal reality could put an end to the pollution reduction program, and with it billions in anticipated revenues and some of the Golden State’s vaunted global leadership on climate action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”GcfCjQQ8BZLuU22X1BlTnXqsfQx2AtKu”]Four months after the legislators’ law office \u003ca href=\"http://assets.climatecentral.org/pdfs/August2016_Upton_CapAndTradeLaw.pdf\">concluded\u003c/a> “the plain language” of state law dictates that the state’s cap-and-trade program “may not be applied or used” after 2020, officials in Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration are publicly ignoring the vexing legal questions affecting the flagship program’s future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under a \u003ca href=\"http://www.arb.ca.gov/regact/2016/capandtrade16/isor.pdf\">proposal prepared this month\u003c/a> by the California Air Resources Board, the cap-and-trade program that it oversees would simply continue operating beyond 2020 — without lawmaker blessing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They will absolutely be sued,” said \u003ca href=\"http://www.ghgpolicy.org/about/\">Danny Cullenward\u003c/a>, an energy economist and lawyer who researches climate policies at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Silicon Valley. “This is not a secret what they’re doing. The opponents of the system are well aware.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s cap-and-trade program was launched in late 2012, immediately becoming one of the world’s highest-profile efforts to cap the amount of climate pollution released by an economy. Permits to release some of the allowed pollution are called allowances, and they’re auctioned off, then traded among large polluters and speculators, raising funds for state programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The results of California’s biggest cap-and-trade auction yet, which was held electronically Tuesday following the flop of a May auction that fell hundreds of millions of dollars short of expectations, may provide clues as to whether polluters expect the program to survive into 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even as California officials are outwardly nonchalant about the profound legal challenges, behind the scenes they are scrambling to find solutions, quietly consulting outside experts as they attempt to unearth a regulatory fix that could bypass lawmakers without falling afoul of existing law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article95752577.html\">Sacramento Bee reported Monday\u003c/a> that Brown’s office may amend high-profile climate legislation to extend cap-and-trade. For now, though, state officials are simply denying to the public that a legal problem even exists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cap-and-trade program was created by a 2006 climate law, \u003ca href=\"http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/05-06/bill/asm/ab_0001-0050/ab_32_bill_20060927_chaptered.pdf\">AB32\u003c/a>, which stated that the “market-based” system for achieving pollution cuts was “applicable” until the end of 2020. The law requires that state officials “make recommendations” to lawmakers for reducing greenhouse gas emissions after that time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because of a \u003ca href=\"http://www.lao.ca.gov/ballot/2010/26_11_2010.aspx\">proposition passed\u003c/a> by state voters in 2010 regarding fees and taxes, lawmaker approval of a new or extended cap-and-trade program may require a two-thirds majority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The legal crisis is, ‘How do we fix that problem?’” Cullenward said. “The Air Resources Board is saying, ‘Oh, we don’t need any new authority, because we’ve got it — we just won’t really tell you what it is.’ ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board published a \u003ca href=\"http://www.arb.ca.gov/regact/2016/capandtrade16/appa.pdf\">334-page proposal\u003c/a> this month to extend cap-and-trade beyond 2020. It will be debated by the board’s directors next month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposal doesn’t provide anything resembling a detailed legal defense. Instead, it notes that “the intent” of the legislature was stated in AB32 as being to “maintain and continue reductions” in climate pollution after 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We believe that under AB32 we have the legal authority to move forward,” Stanley Young, a spokesman for the board, said. “Climate change will not end in 2020, and AB32 explicitly states the intent to ‘maintain and continue reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases beyond 2020.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Young said the board’s legal position was “developed following a thorough review of the law by our lawyers.” Requests to interview lawyers or review detailed legal briefs were declined.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Doubts over cap-and-trade’s future are coinciding with \u003ca href=\"http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/08/15/stories/1060041591\">long-running legislative battles\u003c/a> in Sacramento over efforts to enact California climate laws affecting the period after 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some lawmakers are pushing to require greenhouse gas emissions in the state be reduced to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 — similar to plans adopted last year in the European Union. The legislation is strongly supported by Brown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The battle over cap-and-trade, though, is more confounding than the battle over California’s climate targets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While California’s climate targets would require simple majority support from lawmakers, extending cap-and-trade may require supermajority support. That’s because the cap-and-trade program charges fees, meaning it may be subject to the requirements of an anti-tax proposition endorsed by state voters in 2010.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another shortfall during Tuesday’s allowance auction could indicate that the entities that are regulated by cap-and-trade in California — fuel refineries, factories, power plants and the like — have little confidence that the program will survive into 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you have another very poor auction, I think what it tells you is that compliance entities lack certainty about what’s going on,” said Dan McGraw, an expert on U.S. carbon markets at \u003ca href=\"http://www.icis.com/\">ICIS Tschach Solutions\u003c/a>, which provides market intelligence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Various theories explain why most of the pollution allowances went unsold during the last auction, which was held in May.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There may be many more allowances on the market than industry needs. Key legal victories in the spring by opponents of cap-and-trade and by opponents of EPA climate change rules could have given bidders the jitters. The poor results may have reflected profound uncertainty about the future of cap-and-trade in California after 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It may be a week before the results of Tuesday’s online auction are known. “The results from this week are going to be very important,” said \u003ca href=\"https://law.stanford.edu/directory/michael-wara/\">Michael Wara\u003c/a>, a law expert at Stanford whose research focuses on climate and electricity policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wara said that California could continue to pursue aggressive reductions in greenhouse gas pollution even without cap-and-trade. That would make such accomplishments harder, though — at a time of rapidly escalating ambitions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like others, Wara has been calling on the Air Resource Board to lay out its legal rationale for extending cap-and-trade without the support of lawmakers. He believes a public conversation could help, such as by restoring confidence in the allowance market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ARB is effectively the market regulator, and credibility with the market is incredibly important for it being effective,” Wara said. “It needs to more clearly explain itself.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.climatecentral.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Climate Central\u003c/span>\u003c/a> \u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">is an independent organization that researches and reports on climate change.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "California's cap-and-trade program is in legal doubt, but state officials are publicly ignoring the problem.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The opinion of lawyers working for California’s lawmakers became clear in the spring. Without new laws, the state’s prominent cap-and-trade program would be dead after 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such a legal reality could put an end to the pollution reduction program, and with it billions in anticipated revenues and some of the Golden State’s vaunted global leadership on climate action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>Four months after the legislators’ law office \u003ca href=\"http://assets.climatecentral.org/pdfs/August2016_Upton_CapAndTradeLaw.pdf\">concluded\u003c/a> “the plain language” of state law dictates that the state’s cap-and-trade program “may not be applied or used” after 2020, officials in Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration are publicly ignoring the vexing legal questions affecting the flagship program’s future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under a \u003ca href=\"http://www.arb.ca.gov/regact/2016/capandtrade16/isor.pdf\">proposal prepared this month\u003c/a> by the California Air Resources Board, the cap-and-trade program that it oversees would simply continue operating beyond 2020 — without lawmaker blessing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They will absolutely be sued,” said \u003ca href=\"http://www.ghgpolicy.org/about/\">Danny Cullenward\u003c/a>, an energy economist and lawyer who researches climate policies at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Silicon Valley. “This is not a secret what they’re doing. The opponents of the system are well aware.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s cap-and-trade program was launched in late 2012, immediately becoming one of the world’s highest-profile efforts to cap the amount of climate pollution released by an economy. Permits to release some of the allowed pollution are called allowances, and they’re auctioned off, then traded among large polluters and speculators, raising funds for state programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The results of California’s biggest cap-and-trade auction yet, which was held electronically Tuesday following the flop of a May auction that fell hundreds of millions of dollars short of expectations, may provide clues as to whether polluters expect the program to survive into 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even as California officials are outwardly nonchalant about the profound legal challenges, behind the scenes they are scrambling to find solutions, quietly consulting outside experts as they attempt to unearth a regulatory fix that could bypass lawmakers without falling afoul of existing law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article95752577.html\">Sacramento Bee reported Monday\u003c/a> that Brown’s office may amend high-profile climate legislation to extend cap-and-trade. For now, though, state officials are simply denying to the public that a legal problem even exists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cap-and-trade program was created by a 2006 climate law, \u003ca href=\"http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/05-06/bill/asm/ab_0001-0050/ab_32_bill_20060927_chaptered.pdf\">AB32\u003c/a>, which stated that the “market-based” system for achieving pollution cuts was “applicable” until the end of 2020. The law requires that state officials “make recommendations” to lawmakers for reducing greenhouse gas emissions after that time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because of a \u003ca href=\"http://www.lao.ca.gov/ballot/2010/26_11_2010.aspx\">proposition passed\u003c/a> by state voters in 2010 regarding fees and taxes, lawmaker approval of a new or extended cap-and-trade program may require a two-thirds majority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The legal crisis is, ‘How do we fix that problem?’” Cullenward said. “The Air Resources Board is saying, ‘Oh, we don’t need any new authority, because we’ve got it — we just won’t really tell you what it is.’ ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board published a \u003ca href=\"http://www.arb.ca.gov/regact/2016/capandtrade16/appa.pdf\">334-page proposal\u003c/a> this month to extend cap-and-trade beyond 2020. It will be debated by the board’s directors next month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposal doesn’t provide anything resembling a detailed legal defense. Instead, it notes that “the intent” of the legislature was stated in AB32 as being to “maintain and continue reductions” in climate pollution after 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We believe that under AB32 we have the legal authority to move forward,” Stanley Young, a spokesman for the board, said. “Climate change will not end in 2020, and AB32 explicitly states the intent to ‘maintain and continue reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases beyond 2020.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Young said the board’s legal position was “developed following a thorough review of the law by our lawyers.” Requests to interview lawyers or review detailed legal briefs were declined.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Doubts over cap-and-trade’s future are coinciding with \u003ca href=\"http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/08/15/stories/1060041591\">long-running legislative battles\u003c/a> in Sacramento over efforts to enact California climate laws affecting the period after 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some lawmakers are pushing to require greenhouse gas emissions in the state be reduced to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 — similar to plans adopted last year in the European Union. The legislation is strongly supported by Brown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The battle over cap-and-trade, though, is more confounding than the battle over California’s climate targets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While California’s climate targets would require simple majority support from lawmakers, extending cap-and-trade may require supermajority support. That’s because the cap-and-trade program charges fees, meaning it may be subject to the requirements of an anti-tax proposition endorsed by state voters in 2010.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another shortfall during Tuesday’s allowance auction could indicate that the entities that are regulated by cap-and-trade in California — fuel refineries, factories, power plants and the like — have little confidence that the program will survive into 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you have another very poor auction, I think what it tells you is that compliance entities lack certainty about what’s going on,” said Dan McGraw, an expert on U.S. carbon markets at \u003ca href=\"http://www.icis.com/\">ICIS Tschach Solutions\u003c/a>, which provides market intelligence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Various theories explain why most of the pollution allowances went unsold during the last auction, which was held in May.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There may be many more allowances on the market than industry needs. Key legal victories in the spring by opponents of cap-and-trade and by opponents of EPA climate change rules could have given bidders the jitters. The poor results may have reflected profound uncertainty about the future of cap-and-trade in California after 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It may be a week before the results of Tuesday’s online auction are known. “The results from this week are going to be very important,” said \u003ca href=\"https://law.stanford.edu/directory/michael-wara/\">Michael Wara\u003c/a>, a law expert at Stanford whose research focuses on climate and electricity policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wara said that California could continue to pursue aggressive reductions in greenhouse gas pollution even without cap-and-trade. That would make such accomplishments harder, though — at a time of rapidly escalating ambitions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like others, Wara has been calling on the Air Resource Board to lay out its legal rationale for extending cap-and-trade without the support of lawmakers. He believes a public conversation could help, such as by restoring confidence in the allowance market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ARB is effectively the market regulator, and credibility with the market is incredibly important for it being effective,” Wara said. “It needs to more clearly explain itself.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "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. ",
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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},
"mindshift": {
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"order": 12
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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"morning-edition": {
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"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.",
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"onourwatch": {
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"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
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},
"pbs-newshour": {
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},
"perspectives": {
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"order": 14
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"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
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"politicalbreakdown": {
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"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Political-Breakdown-2024-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"order": 5
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"possible": {
"id": "possible",
"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.possible.fm/",
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"source": "Possible"
},
"link": "/radio/program/possible",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/730YpdUSNlMyPQwNnyjp4k"
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},
"pri-the-world": {
"id": "pri-the-world",
"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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