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"content": "\u003cp>A new effort to regulate groundwater extraction in California is running into stiff opposition from water users and local government officials, who say one new law is enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">A bill proposed by Sen. Lois Wolk (D-Davis) aims to plug some of the loopholes left gaping by the \u003ca title=\"Link: http://groundwater.ca.gov/\" href=\"http://groundwater.ca.gov/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">Sustainable Groundwater Management Act\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, passed by the state legislature in 2014. The act allows as much as 25 years for “critically” overdrafted groundwater basins to achieve sustainability, and even longer for basins in less dire condition, known as “medium-priority” and “high-priority” basins.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">[contextly_sidebar id=”Q2L2wnmzHNjy9HPEe25JYXiYb6k6IUxh”]In the interim, there are no restrictions on drilling new wells in those basins. That’s a lot of time to continue depleting a limited resource.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Wolk’s bill, \u003ca href=\"http://www.legislature.ca.gov/cgi-bin/port-postquery?bill_number=sb_1317&sess=CUR&house=B&author=wolk_%3Cwolk%3E\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">S.B. 1317\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, would require cities and counties to establish a process by July 1, 2017, to issue conditional use permits for new wells in medium and high priority basins. New wells would not be allowed if it is determined that they would make undesirable groundwater conditions even worse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">The bill would prevent new wells that tap groundwater basins already known to be “critically” overdrafted.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">“When you’re digging yourself into a hole, the first solution is to stop digging,” Wolk said. “Counties have the responsibility and the authority to regulate well drilling. What we’ve discovered is that most counties just don’t do it.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">In April, the bill was approved by two committees in the state Senate, but not without lots of objection from water users, the well-drilling industry and local government groups.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">“At this point, we’re in an opposition position,” said Mary-Ann Warmerdam, legislative advocate at Rural County Representatives of California. “We are in conversations with Sen. Wolk’s office and are trying to be productive in vetting out other options. But to this point, no gentle resolution has come forward.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Opponents include some heavy hitters in California politics, including the League of California Cities, the California State Association of Counties, the Association of California Water Agencies, the California Chamber of Commerce, the California Farm Bureau Federation and the California Association of Winegrape Growers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Warmerdam said one concern is that local governments are already working hard to comply with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. This is a tall order in itself, because many rural counties don’t have resource management experts on their staff. Or if they do, those employees are already spread thin. Wolk’s bill, she said, adds a second groundwater law to comply with on top of that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">“It’s viewed as a bit of a crossroads,” she said. “We can do one or the other, but we don’t have the capital, if you will, to do both.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Jay Ziegler, \u003c/span>California policy director of the Nature Conservancy, however, said those kinds of choices shouldn’t matter when the state’s groundwater is dwindling so fast. Protecting and then restoring what remains should be an economic and social priority, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">“We need to figure out how to actually take demand off of groundwater, not increase it, and that’s all were talking about,” said Ziegler. “If we don’t do something to kind of avert the race to the bottom, we’re going to be in a position where it’s going to be more difficult for everybody.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Other supporters of the bill include the Planning and Conservation League, the Union of Concerned Scientists, Natural Resources Defense Council, Food and Water Watch, Community Water Center and the League of Conservation Voters.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Ziegler noted one goal of Wolk’s bill is simply \u003c/span>to prevent more damage to aquifers during the interim period of years before the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act takes full effect. That’s why the bill requires early action on medium- and high-priority basins, and not just those considered critical, which is the focus of the existing law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">It’s a matter of focusing attention on those groundwater basins that can still be helped, he said, and not just those that are already in trouble.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">“Left to our own devices, we are on a path to just exploit as much as we can,” Ziegler said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Much opposition to the bill has focused on the fact that it would require counties to issue a conditional use permit before a new well can be drilled. This triggers the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), an important analytical tool but one that \u003c/span>can also be expensive and time-consuming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Warmerdam said it could also trigger some liability. Counties, she said, are concerned they could be subject to lawsuits under CEQA that challenge their decisions about well permitting.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">As a result, said Wolk, she is considering amendments to the bill that would allow local governments to design their own well permitting process, as long as it meets the goal of preventing further depletion of critically overdrafted aquifers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">“Somebody has to ask the question at the (permit) counter or the Board of Supervisors, ‘Is there sufficient water to allow for the new well to be dug?’” Wolk said. “It’s been the Wild West since the beginning of the state, and we’re no longer in that position.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Wolk said she is not surprised by the opposition to the bill, and is hopeful a compromise can be reached. The bill next faces a hearing in the Senate Appropriations Committee.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">“As a practical matter, our member counties are sympathetic with Sen. Wolk’s concern over additional extractions in these overdrafted basins,” Warmerdam said. “Anyone who’s been watching California water for any length of time has got to share that concern. So there’s no dispute there.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A new effort to regulate groundwater extraction in California is running into stiff opposition from water users and local government officials, who say one new law is enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">A bill proposed by Sen. Lois Wolk (D-Davis) aims to plug some of the loopholes left gaping by the \u003ca title=\"Link: http://groundwater.ca.gov/\" href=\"http://groundwater.ca.gov/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">Sustainable Groundwater Management Act\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, passed by the state legislature in 2014. The act allows as much as 25 years for “critically” overdrafted groundwater basins to achieve sustainability, and even longer for basins in less dire condition, known as “medium-priority” and “high-priority” basins.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>In the interim, there are no restrictions on drilling new wells in those basins. That’s a lot of time to continue depleting a limited resource.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Wolk’s bill, \u003ca href=\"http://www.legislature.ca.gov/cgi-bin/port-postquery?bill_number=sb_1317&sess=CUR&house=B&author=wolk_%3Cwolk%3E\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">S.B. 1317\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, would require cities and counties to establish a process by July 1, 2017, to issue conditional use permits for new wells in medium and high priority basins. New wells would not be allowed if it is determined that they would make undesirable groundwater conditions even worse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">The bill would prevent new wells that tap groundwater basins already known to be “critically” overdrafted.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">“When you’re digging yourself into a hole, the first solution is to stop digging,” Wolk said. “Counties have the responsibility and the authority to regulate well drilling. What we’ve discovered is that most counties just don’t do it.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">In April, the bill was approved by two committees in the state Senate, but not without lots of objection from water users, the well-drilling industry and local government groups.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">“At this point, we’re in an opposition position,” said Mary-Ann Warmerdam, legislative advocate at Rural County Representatives of California. “We are in conversations with Sen. Wolk’s office and are trying to be productive in vetting out other options. But to this point, no gentle resolution has come forward.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Opponents include some heavy hitters in California politics, including the League of California Cities, the California State Association of Counties, the Association of California Water Agencies, the California Chamber of Commerce, the California Farm Bureau Federation and the California Association of Winegrape Growers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Warmerdam said one concern is that local governments are already working hard to comply with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. This is a tall order in itself, because many rural counties don’t have resource management experts on their staff. Or if they do, those employees are already spread thin. Wolk’s bill, she said, adds a second groundwater law to comply with on top of that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">“It’s viewed as a bit of a crossroads,” she said. “We can do one or the other, but we don’t have the capital, if you will, to do both.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Jay Ziegler, \u003c/span>California policy director of the Nature Conservancy, however, said those kinds of choices shouldn’t matter when the state’s groundwater is dwindling so fast. Protecting and then restoring what remains should be an economic and social priority, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">“We need to figure out how to actually take demand off of groundwater, not increase it, and that’s all were talking about,” said Ziegler. “If we don’t do something to kind of avert the race to the bottom, we’re going to be in a position where it’s going to be more difficult for everybody.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Other supporters of the bill include the Planning and Conservation League, the Union of Concerned Scientists, Natural Resources Defense Council, Food and Water Watch, Community Water Center and the League of Conservation Voters.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Ziegler noted one goal of Wolk’s bill is simply \u003c/span>to prevent more damage to aquifers during the interim period of years before the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act takes full effect. That’s why the bill requires early action on medium- and high-priority basins, and not just those considered critical, which is the focus of the existing law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">It’s a matter of focusing attention on those groundwater basins that can still be helped, he said, and not just those that are already in trouble.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">“Left to our own devices, we are on a path to just exploit as much as we can,” Ziegler said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Much opposition to the bill has focused on the fact that it would require counties to issue a conditional use permit before a new well can be drilled. This triggers the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), an important analytical tool but one that \u003c/span>can also be expensive and time-consuming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Warmerdam said it could also trigger some liability. Counties, she said, are concerned they could be subject to lawsuits under CEQA that challenge their decisions about well permitting.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">As a result, said Wolk, she is considering amendments to the bill that would allow local governments to design their own well permitting process, as long as it meets the goal of preventing further depletion of critically overdrafted aquifers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">“Somebody has to ask the question at the (permit) counter or the Board of Supervisors, ‘Is there sufficient water to allow for the new well to be dug?’” Wolk said. “It’s been the Wild West since the beginning of the state, and we’re no longer in that position.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Wolk said she is not surprised by the opposition to the bill, and is hopeful a compromise can be reached. The bill next faces a hearing in the Senate Appropriations Committee.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">“As a practical matter, our member counties are sympathetic with Sen. Wolk’s concern over additional extractions in these overdrafted basins,” Warmerdam said. “Anyone who’s been watching California water for any length of time has got to share that concern. So there’s no dispute there.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Geologists Find Clues In Crater Left by Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid",
"headTitle": "Geologists Find Clues In Crater Left by Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Scientists have had a literal breakthrough off the coast of Mexico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After weeks of drilling from an offshore platform in the Gulf of Mexico, they have reached rocks left over from the day the Earth \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/04/08/473386620/scientists-set-to-drill-into-extinction-event-crater-in-mexico\">was hit by a killer asteroid\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cataclysm is believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs. “This was probably the most important event in the last 100 million years,” says \u003ca href=\"http://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/j.v.morgan\">Joanna Morgan\u003c/a>, a geophysicist at Imperial College in London and a leader of the expedition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_680898\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 700px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-680898\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/Liftboat-myrtle_NPR.jpeg\" alt=\"Liftboat Myrtle is a drilling platform normally used for oil operations. Since April, geologists have been using it in the Gulf of Mexico to drill into the crater Chicxulub. \" width=\"700\" height=\"933\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/Liftboat-myrtle_NPR.jpeg 700w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/Liftboat-myrtle_NPR-400x533.jpeg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Liftboat Myrtle is a drilling platform normally used for oil operations. Since April, geologists have been using it in the Gulf of Mexico to drill into the crater Chicxulub. \u003ccite>(DSmith/ECORD/IODP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Since the 1980s, researchers have known about the impact site, located near the present-day Yucatan Peninsula. Known as Chicxulub, the crater is approximately 125 miles across. It was created when an asteroid the size of Staten Island, N.Y., struck Earth around 66 million years ago. The initial explosion from the impact would have made a nuclear bomb look like a firecracker. The searing heat started wildfires many hundreds of miles away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After that, came an unscheduled winter. Sulfur, ash and debris clouded the sky. Darkness fell and, for a while, Earth was not itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it was a bad few months, really,” Morgan says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s an understatement: Scientists believe 75 percent of life went extinct during this dark chapter in Earth’s history, including the dinosaurs\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers have sampled Chicxulub before, but this expedition by the \u003ca href=\"http://www.ecord.org/\">European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling\u003c/a> precisely targets a key part of the crater yet to be studied: a ring of mountains left by the asteroid. This “peak ring” is a fundamental feature of the strike and should tell researchers much more about it, says \u003ca href=\"http://ig.utexas.edu/staff/sean-p-s-gulick/\">Sean Gulick\u003c/a>, a geophysicist at the University of Texas at Austin, who co-leads the team with Morgan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For weeks, they’ve been drilling — and going back in time. Each layer of rock they pass through is connected to a part of Earth’s history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_680902\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-680902\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/NPRscience.jpeg\" alt=\"Scientists on Myrtle have been drilling around-the-clock. This week, they finally reached a buried ring of mountains created by the asteroid.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/NPRscience.jpeg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/NPRscience-400x267.jpeg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/NPRscience-800x534.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/NPRscience-768x512.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/NPRscience-960x640.jpeg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scientists on Myrtle have been drilling around-the-clock. This week, they finally reached a buried ring of mountains created by the asteroid. \u003ccite>(ELeBer/ECORD/IODP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We went through a remarkable amount of the post-impact world. All the way into the \u003ca href=\"http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/tertiary/eocene.php\">Eocene times\u003c/a> — so between 50 and 55 million years ago,” Gulick says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rocks they’ve pulled out show how life began to recover after the cataclysm, Gulick says. “We’ve got all these limestones and rocks that contain the fossils from the world after the impact, all the things that evolved from the few organisms that survived.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The research team finally reached the top of the peak ring this week. It appears to be a thick layer of broken, melted rock just beneath a layer of sandstone that may be the leavings of a huge tsunami that was triggered when the asteroid struck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gulick thinks the rocks hold clues. For example, if any microscopic organisms survived near the site of the strike, their fossils might be in these samples. In June, the rock cores will be sent back to a lab in Germany for further study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The asteroid strike marked the end of an era. But the creatures that made it through that catastrophe went on to shape the world again, says Morgan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The mammals survived,” she says. “And that led on to our own evolution.”\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=Geologists+Find+Clues+In+Crater+Left+By+Dinosaur-Killing+Asteroid&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Scientists have had a literal breakthrough off the coast of Mexico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After weeks of drilling from an offshore platform in the Gulf of Mexico, they have reached rocks left over from the day the Earth \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/04/08/473386620/scientists-set-to-drill-into-extinction-event-crater-in-mexico\">was hit by a killer asteroid\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cataclysm is believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs. “This was probably the most important event in the last 100 million years,” says \u003ca href=\"http://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/j.v.morgan\">Joanna Morgan\u003c/a>, a geophysicist at Imperial College in London and a leader of the expedition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_680898\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 700px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-680898\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/Liftboat-myrtle_NPR.jpeg\" alt=\"Liftboat Myrtle is a drilling platform normally used for oil operations. Since April, geologists have been using it in the Gulf of Mexico to drill into the crater Chicxulub. \" width=\"700\" height=\"933\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/Liftboat-myrtle_NPR.jpeg 700w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/Liftboat-myrtle_NPR-400x533.jpeg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Liftboat Myrtle is a drilling platform normally used for oil operations. Since April, geologists have been using it in the Gulf of Mexico to drill into the crater Chicxulub. \u003ccite>(DSmith/ECORD/IODP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Since the 1980s, researchers have known about the impact site, located near the present-day Yucatan Peninsula. Known as Chicxulub, the crater is approximately 125 miles across. It was created when an asteroid the size of Staten Island, N.Y., struck Earth around 66 million years ago. The initial explosion from the impact would have made a nuclear bomb look like a firecracker. The searing heat started wildfires many hundreds of miles away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After that, came an unscheduled winter. Sulfur, ash and debris clouded the sky. Darkness fell and, for a while, Earth was not itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it was a bad few months, really,” Morgan says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s an understatement: Scientists believe 75 percent of life went extinct during this dark chapter in Earth’s history, including the dinosaurs\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers have sampled Chicxulub before, but this expedition by the \u003ca href=\"http://www.ecord.org/\">European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling\u003c/a> precisely targets a key part of the crater yet to be studied: a ring of mountains left by the asteroid. This “peak ring” is a fundamental feature of the strike and should tell researchers much more about it, says \u003ca href=\"http://ig.utexas.edu/staff/sean-p-s-gulick/\">Sean Gulick\u003c/a>, a geophysicist at the University of Texas at Austin, who co-leads the team with Morgan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For weeks, they’ve been drilling — and going back in time. Each layer of rock they pass through is connected to a part of Earth’s history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_680902\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-680902\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/NPRscience.jpeg\" alt=\"Scientists on Myrtle have been drilling around-the-clock. This week, they finally reached a buried ring of mountains created by the asteroid.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/NPRscience.jpeg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/NPRscience-400x267.jpeg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/NPRscience-800x534.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/NPRscience-768x512.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/NPRscience-960x640.jpeg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scientists on Myrtle have been drilling around-the-clock. This week, they finally reached a buried ring of mountains created by the asteroid. \u003ccite>(ELeBer/ECORD/IODP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We went through a remarkable amount of the post-impact world. All the way into the \u003ca href=\"http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/tertiary/eocene.php\">Eocene times\u003c/a> — so between 50 and 55 million years ago,” Gulick says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rocks they’ve pulled out show how life began to recover after the cataclysm, Gulick says. “We’ve got all these limestones and rocks that contain the fossils from the world after the impact, all the things that evolved from the few organisms that survived.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The research team finally reached the top of the peak ring this week. It appears to be a thick layer of broken, melted rock just beneath a layer of sandstone that may be the leavings of a huge tsunami that was triggered when the asteroid struck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gulick thinks the rocks hold clues. For example, if any microscopic organisms survived near the site of the strike, their fossils might be in these samples. In June, the rock cores will be sent back to a lab in Germany for further study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The asteroid strike marked the end of an era. But the creatures that made it through that catastrophe went on to shape the world again, says Morgan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The mammals survived,” she says. “And that led on to our own evolution.”\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=Geologists+Find+Clues+In+Crater+Left+By+Dinosaur-Killing+Asteroid&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Sierra Meltdown: What Snow We Got is Going Fast",
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"content": "\u003cp>California’s “frozen reservoir” is melting fast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unusually high temperatures this spring have acted like a blow-drier on accumulated winter snows, despite a healthy boost during the stormy month of March.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One thing is undeniable: the Sierra snowpack is a lot more robust than the previous winter’s, which was off-the-charts ugly. Around the first of May, water content (which is what really matters) of the snowpack stood at 60 percent of the long-term average. That’s not great news unless you compare it to May 1 of last year, when it was 1 percent. That’s not a typo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On April 1, when hydrologists generally reckon the snowpack to be at its peak for the season, it stood at 85 percent of the average for that date.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This spring the most intense period of melting is running about two to three weeks earlier than normal, according to Nina Oakley, assistant research climatologist at the Western Regional Climate Center in Reno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Typically the steepest declines are in late April to early May,” she says. But this year, Oakley says monthly average temperatures in the early spring were running 2 to 5 degrees above normal at the higher Sierra elevations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_679295\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 939px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-679295 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/SNOTEL_Squaw_1604.png\" alt=\"This graph shows this year's snow melt (blue line) starting sooner than the long-term average (red).\" width=\"939\" height=\"459\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/SNOTEL_Squaw_1604.png 939w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/SNOTEL_Squaw_1604-400x196.png 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/SNOTEL_Squaw_1604-800x391.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/SNOTEL_Squaw_1604-768x375.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 939px) 100vw, 939px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This graph shows this year’s snow melt (blue line) starting sooner than the long-term average (red). \u003ccite>(Natural Resources Conservation Service/USDA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Plus there’s a “snowball” effect, or what Oakley calls a “positive feedback,” in which some snow melt leads to more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As soon as you start melting enough snow that you expose trees, rocks, soil underneath,” she explains, “these features are not reflective like the snow and so they’ll start to absorb solar energy and facilitate further snow melt.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘It’s a big juggling act, frankly, to manage the water resource here’\u003ccite>Doug Carlson, DWR\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The good news is that a lot of this early melt is ending up in reservoirs. The bad news with an early melt is that as consumers start drawing down those reservoirs, there’s less runoff to replace it during the peak growing season, when it’s most needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We try to capture every drop we can,” says Doug Carlson of the state’s Department of Water Resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The big Northern California reservoirs are filling fast. The two biggest, Shasta Lake and Lake Oroville, are both at more than 90 percent of capacity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Carlson concedes that significant \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2016/02/29/california-reservoirs-are-dumping-water-in-a-drought-but-science-could-change-that/\">volumes of water are let go\u003c/a> for flood control and to push back encroaching salt water and maintain river ecosystems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a big juggling act, frankly, to manage the water resource here,” says Carlson. “We think we’re capturing a good deal of the snow melt right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An early melt can also have environmental impacts, especially on fish. If the cold water pulses come too early, lower flows and higher water temperatures later in the season can make it difficult or impossible for some species to survive.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Warmer-than-usual temperatures in the Sierra are driving the spring melt two to three weeks early.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California’s “frozen reservoir” is melting fast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unusually high temperatures this spring have acted like a blow-drier on accumulated winter snows, despite a healthy boost during the stormy month of March.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One thing is undeniable: the Sierra snowpack is a lot more robust than the previous winter’s, which was off-the-charts ugly. Around the first of May, water content (which is what really matters) of the snowpack stood at 60 percent of the long-term average. That’s not great news unless you compare it to May 1 of last year, when it was 1 percent. That’s not a typo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On April 1, when hydrologists generally reckon the snowpack to be at its peak for the season, it stood at 85 percent of the average for that date.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This spring the most intense period of melting is running about two to three weeks earlier than normal, according to Nina Oakley, assistant research climatologist at the Western Regional Climate Center in Reno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Typically the steepest declines are in late April to early May,” she says. But this year, Oakley says monthly average temperatures in the early spring were running 2 to 5 degrees above normal at the higher Sierra elevations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_679295\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 939px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-679295 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/SNOTEL_Squaw_1604.png\" alt=\"This graph shows this year's snow melt (blue line) starting sooner than the long-term average (red).\" width=\"939\" height=\"459\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/SNOTEL_Squaw_1604.png 939w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/SNOTEL_Squaw_1604-400x196.png 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/SNOTEL_Squaw_1604-800x391.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/SNOTEL_Squaw_1604-768x375.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 939px) 100vw, 939px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This graph shows this year’s snow melt (blue line) starting sooner than the long-term average (red). \u003ccite>(Natural Resources Conservation Service/USDA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Plus there’s a “snowball” effect, or what Oakley calls a “positive feedback,” in which some snow melt leads to more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As soon as you start melting enough snow that you expose trees, rocks, soil underneath,” she explains, “these features are not reflective like the snow and so they’ll start to absorb solar energy and facilitate further snow melt.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘It’s a big juggling act, frankly, to manage the water resource here’\u003ccite>Doug Carlson, DWR\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The good news is that a lot of this early melt is ending up in reservoirs. The bad news with an early melt is that as consumers start drawing down those reservoirs, there’s less runoff to replace it during the peak growing season, when it’s most needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We try to capture every drop we can,” says Doug Carlson of the state’s Department of Water Resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The big Northern California reservoirs are filling fast. The two biggest, Shasta Lake and Lake Oroville, are both at more than 90 percent of capacity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Carlson concedes that significant \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2016/02/29/california-reservoirs-are-dumping-water-in-a-drought-but-science-could-change-that/\">volumes of water are let go\u003c/a> for flood control and to push back encroaching salt water and maintain river ecosystems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a big juggling act, frankly, to manage the water resource here,” says Carlson. “We think we’re capturing a good deal of the snow melt right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An early melt can also have environmental impacts, especially on fish. If the cold water pulses come too early, lower flows and higher water temperatures later in the season can make it difficult or impossible for some species to survive.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Why La Niña Does Not Ensure More Drought",
"headTitle": "Why La Niña Does Not Ensure More Drought | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>By now we’ve all heard the news that La Niña is the next weather phenomenon poised to toy with California. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on April 14 issued a “La Niña watch” indicating a 70 percent chance the weather phenomenon would likely take hold by the end of this calendar year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Which was quickly followed by \u003ca href=\"http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2016/04/15/el-nino-la-nina/83078500/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">headlines\u003c/span>\u003c/a> saying La Niña is likely to worsen the drought in California.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Not so fast.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Just as we learned this year there are no guarantees with El Niño, the same is true of its opposite. La Niña is defined by a marked cooling of the equatorial Pacific Ocean, which disrupts global weather patterns just like El Niño does. But instead of making the southwest wetter, it tends to make it drier while detouring storms toward the Pacific Northwest.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_679021\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 250px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-679021\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/water-deeply_Jan-Null.jpg\" alt=\"Meterologist Jan Null is photographed at his home in Saratoga on Tuesday, March 31, 2015. Null runs Golden Gate Weather Services from home. \" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/water-deeply_Jan-Null.jpg 250w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/water-deeply_Jan-Null-32x32.jpg 32w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/water-deeply_Jan-Null-64x64.jpg 64w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/water-deeply_Jan-Null-96x96.jpg 96w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/water-deeply_Jan-Null-128x128.jpg 128w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/water-deeply_Jan-Null-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Meterologist Jan Null is photographed at his home in Saratoga on Tuesday, March 31, 2015. Null runs Golden Gate Weather Services from home. \u003ccite>(Gary Reyes/Bay Area News Group)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But it doesn’t always go down like that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">To help us make sense of La Niña, Water Deeply asked Jan Null to explain things. Null is a consulting meteorologist and owner of \u003ca href=\"http://ggweather.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Golden Gate Weather Services\u003c/a> in Saratoga. He has also been a consistent voice of reason about El Niño when the media was often crying wolf.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">\u003cb>Is La Niña coming?\u003c/b>\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Jan Null: Probably. More and more, the computer models each of the last two months have been tilting into the negative category (in terms of sea surface temperature anomaly). That’s the sort of thing you start seeing. The average is now \u003c/span>−0.8 for all the dynamic and statistical models for November-December-January. If it’s colder than −0.5, then it gets into weak La Niña category. Between −0.5 and 1 is weak; Between −1 and −1.5 is moderate; greater than −1.5 is strong.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">\u003cb>Is it typical to have La Niña follow El Niño?\u003c/b>\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Jan Null: There have now been 24 El Niños going back to 1950. If we look at the total number of La Niñas out of all 24, 17 of those became La Niñas. That’s a pretty high percentage. With the models all pointing toward cooling and with the data, we’re already seeing significant cooling in the Pacific; we’re certainly heading toward a La Niña. So we’ve decided we’re going to have a La Niña. The next thing is, how strong is that La Niña going to be? That’s the big question mark right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">\u003cb>How important is that to know?\u003c/b>\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Jan Null: If we look at what the results are in the different categories, it starts giving us an idea of what has happened in the past. The signal is much less definite than with an El Niño. There’s a broader range of solutions under La Niña than under El Niño.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Let’s say we’re going to get into the moderate range. Then it’s important to look at effects on individual \u003ca href=\"http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/regional_monitoring/CLIM_DIVS/california.gif\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">climate divisions\u003c/span>\u003c/a> in the state. Climate Division 2 is arguably the most important, encompassing the Northern Sierra Nevada and Northern Sacramento Valley. If we look at the six moderate La Niña events, three were less than normal rainfall and three were greater than normal. That doesn’t tell me anything. That’s a broad range of solutions for moderate El Niños.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">One of these was 1955, an incredibly wet year, with major flooding on the Sacramento and Feather rivers and all Northern California drainages.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">The gist of it is, anything can happen. There are no guarantees.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">If we go down to Climate Division 6, in coastal Southern California, then you can see that three of those were well below normal, two were slightly below normal and only one of the six was above normal.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">\u003cb>Is it reasonable at this stage to say La Niña means another drought year?\u003c/b>\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Jan Null: No, it’s not. Because, maybe we’ll have a 1955-56. And just look at this past winter. Was this past winter a drought year, or a break in the drought? If you’re in the northern half of the state, you’re probably saying it’s a break in the drought. If you’re in the southern half, you’re probably going to say the drought continues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">The bottom line, is I don’t have any answers. If anybody says they have answers, they’re selling you snake oil. There are no reliable tools for long-range weather forecasting, period. Five, seven, ten days have gotten phenomenally good. Out past that, it’s nothing I would get my wallet out for.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">\u003cb>What does the timing look like for this La Niña?\u003c/b>\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Jan Null: We kinda get into the negative category in midsummer, so somebody at the (National Weather Service) Climate Prediction Center will probably come out and say we’re in a La Niña officially. But it really doesn’t matter until we get to November, for the most part. Because that’s our rainy season, it kinda doesn’t matter what La Niña does between now and then. Our rainfall season is November through March.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">\u003cb>How should we be reacting to this La Niña?\u003c/b>\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Jan Null: First of all, the people on TV should not be jumping up and down crying Chicken Little like they did with El Niño. The impacts of El Niño were not particularly well forecast. Even in print media, in headlines, they all focused on the extreme end of a wet El Niño, and they didn’t put in the range of solutions that were possible. It all became clickbait. So be wary of clickbait. Read the entire article.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Most of the articles have reasonably good data in them. But headlines do not portray that, and so much is driven by the headlines. That becomes people’s takeaway. So it makes it really tough for a good science message to get out there. I would tell people, read the science, don’t just read the headlines.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">\u003cb>Is there anything influencing this La Niña that’s unusual?\u003c/b>\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Jan Null: El Niño and La Niña are not the biggest phenomena. You have this whole other alphabet soup of things going on in the planet. You have the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, the Arctic Oscillation, the North Atlantic Oscillation. When they line up the right way, they can make a La Niña stronger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">But again it’s way too many variables, especially when they’re all interacting with each other. In some ways, it’s like a snake eating its tail. There are all these different feedbacks going on. I haven’t seen anybody who’s deciphered all of them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">\u003cb>Water Deeply:\u003c/b> \u003cb>What kind of La Niña should we root for?\u003c/b>\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Jan Null: The La Niña is not going to be the same for everybody. If we’re going to get water in the state, and we can’t have it everywhere, I want it to be like this past winter. I want it to be where the biggest reservoirs are – in the north.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">\u003cb>What sort of La Niña is likely to deliver there?\u003c/b>\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Jan Null:\u003cb> \u003c/b>The ones that have best probability there are the moderate La Niña. With a moderate, it’s 50/50 odds. For Southern California, the odds are much less. But there aren’t that many reservoirs in Southern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Of the 10 worst flood years … only four of those were El Niño, four were neutral and two were la Niña. So again, that’s a pretty big spread. But it does say, if we’re looking at La Niña, you can get flooding in a La Niña. And two of the most memorable flood years in the state were December 1955 and December 1964, and those were both La Niña years.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">There are no guarantees. The range of solutions is too big.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Also, the 800-lb gorilla in the room is our warmer atmosphere over our warmer oceans. So how is this shifting the impact? With a moderate La Niña in 1955, is it the same as a moderate La Niña in 2016? We see that with land temperatures, precipitation patterns. Things don’t stay the same. They are evolving. You don’t keep the same average over time.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cspan class=\"start\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.newsdeeply.com/water/about/\">Water Deeply\u003c/a> is\u003c/span> an independent digital media project dedicated to covering California’s water crisis. The project is part of \u003ca href=\"http://www.newsdeeply.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News Deeply\u003c/a>, a new media startup and social enterprise based in New York.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>By now we’ve all heard the news that La Niña is the next weather phenomenon poised to toy with California. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on April 14 issued a “La Niña watch” indicating a 70 percent chance the weather phenomenon would likely take hold by the end of this calendar year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Which was quickly followed by \u003ca href=\"http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2016/04/15/el-nino-la-nina/83078500/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">headlines\u003c/span>\u003c/a> saying La Niña is likely to worsen the drought in California.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Not so fast.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Just as we learned this year there are no guarantees with El Niño, the same is true of its opposite. La Niña is defined by a marked cooling of the equatorial Pacific Ocean, which disrupts global weather patterns just like El Niño does. But instead of making the southwest wetter, it tends to make it drier while detouring storms toward the Pacific Northwest.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_679021\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 250px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-679021\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/water-deeply_Jan-Null.jpg\" alt=\"Meterologist Jan Null is photographed at his home in Saratoga on Tuesday, March 31, 2015. Null runs Golden Gate Weather Services from home. \" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/water-deeply_Jan-Null.jpg 250w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/water-deeply_Jan-Null-32x32.jpg 32w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/water-deeply_Jan-Null-64x64.jpg 64w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/water-deeply_Jan-Null-96x96.jpg 96w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/water-deeply_Jan-Null-128x128.jpg 128w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/water-deeply_Jan-Null-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Meterologist Jan Null is photographed at his home in Saratoga on Tuesday, March 31, 2015. Null runs Golden Gate Weather Services from home. \u003ccite>(Gary Reyes/Bay Area News Group)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But it doesn’t always go down like that.\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\">To help us make sense of La Niña, Water Deeply asked Jan Null to explain things. Null is a consulting meteorologist and owner of \u003ca href=\"http://ggweather.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Golden Gate Weather Services\u003c/a> in Saratoga. He has also been a consistent voice of reason about El Niño when the media was often crying wolf.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">\u003cb>Is La Niña coming?\u003c/b>\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Jan Null: Probably. More and more, the computer models each of the last two months have been tilting into the negative category (in terms of sea surface temperature anomaly). That’s the sort of thing you start seeing. The average is now \u003c/span>−0.8 for all the dynamic and statistical models for November-December-January. If it’s colder than −0.5, then it gets into weak La Niña category. Between −0.5 and 1 is weak; Between −1 and −1.5 is moderate; greater than −1.5 is strong.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">\u003cb>Is it typical to have La Niña follow El Niño?\u003c/b>\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Jan Null: There have now been 24 El Niños going back to 1950. If we look at the total number of La Niñas out of all 24, 17 of those became La Niñas. That’s a pretty high percentage. With the models all pointing toward cooling and with the data, we’re already seeing significant cooling in the Pacific; we’re certainly heading toward a La Niña. So we’ve decided we’re going to have a La Niña. The next thing is, how strong is that La Niña going to be? That’s the big question mark right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">\u003cb>How important is that to know?\u003c/b>\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Jan Null: If we look at what the results are in the different categories, it starts giving us an idea of what has happened in the past. The signal is much less definite than with an El Niño. There’s a broader range of solutions under La Niña than under El Niño.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Let’s say we’re going to get into the moderate range. Then it’s important to look at effects on individual \u003ca href=\"http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/regional_monitoring/CLIM_DIVS/california.gif\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">climate divisions\u003c/span>\u003c/a> in the state. Climate Division 2 is arguably the most important, encompassing the Northern Sierra Nevada and Northern Sacramento Valley. If we look at the six moderate La Niña events, three were less than normal rainfall and three were greater than normal. That doesn’t tell me anything. That’s a broad range of solutions for moderate El Niños.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">One of these was 1955, an incredibly wet year, with major flooding on the Sacramento and Feather rivers and all Northern California drainages.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">The gist of it is, anything can happen. There are no guarantees.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">If we go down to Climate Division 6, in coastal Southern California, then you can see that three of those were well below normal, two were slightly below normal and only one of the six was above normal.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">\u003cb>Is it reasonable at this stage to say La Niña means another drought year?\u003c/b>\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Jan Null: No, it’s not. Because, maybe we’ll have a 1955-56. And just look at this past winter. Was this past winter a drought year, or a break in the drought? If you’re in the northern half of the state, you’re probably saying it’s a break in the drought. If you’re in the southern half, you’re probably going to say the drought continues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">The bottom line, is I don’t have any answers. If anybody says they have answers, they’re selling you snake oil. There are no reliable tools for long-range weather forecasting, period. Five, seven, ten days have gotten phenomenally good. Out past that, it’s nothing I would get my wallet out for.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">\u003cb>What does the timing look like for this La Niña?\u003c/b>\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Jan Null: We kinda get into the negative category in midsummer, so somebody at the (National Weather Service) Climate Prediction Center will probably come out and say we’re in a La Niña officially. But it really doesn’t matter until we get to November, for the most part. Because that’s our rainy season, it kinda doesn’t matter what La Niña does between now and then. Our rainfall season is November through March.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">\u003cb>How should we be reacting to this La Niña?\u003c/b>\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Jan Null: First of all, the people on TV should not be jumping up and down crying Chicken Little like they did with El Niño. The impacts of El Niño were not particularly well forecast. Even in print media, in headlines, they all focused on the extreme end of a wet El Niño, and they didn’t put in the range of solutions that were possible. It all became clickbait. So be wary of clickbait. Read the entire article.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Most of the articles have reasonably good data in them. But headlines do not portray that, and so much is driven by the headlines. That becomes people’s takeaway. So it makes it really tough for a good science message to get out there. I would tell people, read the science, don’t just read the headlines.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">\u003cb>Is there anything influencing this La Niña that’s unusual?\u003c/b>\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Jan Null: El Niño and La Niña are not the biggest phenomena. You have this whole other alphabet soup of things going on in the planet. You have the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, the Arctic Oscillation, the North Atlantic Oscillation. When they line up the right way, they can make a La Niña stronger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">But again it’s way too many variables, especially when they’re all interacting with each other. In some ways, it’s like a snake eating its tail. There are all these different feedbacks going on. I haven’t seen anybody who’s deciphered all of them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">\u003cb>Water Deeply:\u003c/b> \u003cb>What kind of La Niña should we root for?\u003c/b>\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Jan Null: The La Niña is not going to be the same for everybody. If we’re going to get water in the state, and we can’t have it everywhere, I want it to be like this past winter. I want it to be where the biggest reservoirs are – in the north.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">\u003cb>What sort of La Niña is likely to deliver there?\u003c/b>\u003c/span>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Jan Null:\u003cb> \u003c/b>The ones that have best probability there are the moderate La Niña. With a moderate, it’s 50/50 odds. For Southern California, the odds are much less. But there aren’t that many reservoirs in Southern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Of the 10 worst flood years … only four of those were El Niño, four were neutral and two were la Niña. So again, that’s a pretty big spread. But it does say, if we’re looking at La Niña, you can get flooding in a La Niña. And two of the most memorable flood years in the state were December 1955 and December 1964, and those were both La Niña years.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">There are no guarantees. The range of solutions is too big.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Also, the 800-lb gorilla in the room is our warmer atmosphere over our warmer oceans. So how is this shifting the impact? With a moderate La Niña in 1955, is it the same as a moderate La Niña in 2016? We see that with land temperatures, precipitation patterns. Things don’t stay the same. They are evolving. You don’t keep the same average over time.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cspan class=\"start\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.newsdeeply.com/water/about/\">Water Deeply\u003c/a> is\u003c/span> an independent digital media project dedicated to covering California’s water crisis. The project is part of \u003ca href=\"http://www.newsdeeply.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News Deeply\u003c/a>, a new media startup and social enterprise based in New York.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "A Long, Complicated Battle Over 9,000-Year-Old Bones Is Finally Over",
"headTitle": "A Long, Complicated Battle Over 9,000-Year-Old Bones Is Finally Over | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Last week, there was a big development in the long-running, bitter, complicated battle over a 9,000-year-old set of bones known variously as “Kennewick Man” or “The Ancient One,” depending on whom you ask.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers \u003ca href=\"http://www.history.com/news/army-corps-of-engineers-confirms-kennewick-man-is-native-american\">confirmed\u003c/a> that the ancient bearer of the bones is genetically linked to modern-day Native Americans. Now, under federal law, a group of tribes that has been fighting to rebury him will almost certainly get to do so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It also means that scientists will probably never get another chance to study him, though ancient human remains from North America are incredibly rare, and forensic technology gets better all the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the chafe between science and spirituality,” \u003ca href=\"http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/04/25/long-legal-and-moral-battle-over-kennewick-man-149008\">writes\u003c/a> Kevin Taylor at Indian Country Today, “between people who say the remains have so much to tell us about the ancient human past that they should remain available for research, versus people who feel a kinship with the ancient bones and say they should be reburied to show proper reverence for the dead.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_679014\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 400px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-679014\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/skeleton.png\" alt=\"The skeleton of Kennewick Man is represented by nearly 300 bones and bone fragments. \" width=\"400\" height=\"1099\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The skeleton of Kennewick Man is represented by nearly 300 bones and bone fragments. \u003ccite>(Chip Clark/Smithsonian Institute)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There’s a history to bitter tensions of this sort. Take the recent fight between native Hawaiian protesters and scientists who wanted to erect a telescope on Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano \u003ca href=\"http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/27/us/tmt-hawaii-telescope-controversy/\">considered sacred\u003c/a> by some and “the best location in the world to observe the stars and study the origins of our universe” by others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>None of these \u003ca href=\"http://www.mountgraham.org/content/star-struck-astronomical-abuse-indigenous-sacred-sites\">clashes\u003c/a> exists in a vacuum; they often come on the heels of decades, if not centuries, of genocide and erasure aimed at indigenous peoples and their ways of life. And so an object of scientific interest, be it a bone or a mountain, can come to stand for an entire civilization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some say scientists need to rethink their whole approach to culturally sensitive research. Others say the unfettered pursuit of knowledge ought to trump belief; if the faithful always got their way, we’d still think the Earth was flat. Who gets to decide? The twists and turns in the story of Kennewick Man — which has been \u003ca href=\"http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/kennewick-man-finally-freed-share-his-secrets-180952462/?no-ist=&preview=_page%3D3_page%3D3&page=3\">told before\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/04/25/long-legal-and-moral-battle-over-kennewick-man-149008\">and well\u003c/a> — suggest there’s no easy answer, of course, but certainly provide an incredible case study for the future of this debate.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A forensic mystery, or a moot point?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The fight has been raging for 20 years, ever since a couple of college kids stumbled — literally — across a human skull while wading in a river in Washington state. They thought they’d found a murder victim, and flagged down a nearby cop, who called in a local expert. Instead, they had discovered some of the oldest, most complete human remains ever dug up in North America.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Archaeologists dubbed the skeleton Kennewick Man, after the place he was found, and hoped his bones could help settle one of the greatest mysteries in the story of human migration: how did \u003cem>Homo sapiens\u003c/em>, originating in Africa, end up in the Americas?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The dominant theory was that humans trekked here on foot around 13,000 years ago, during the Ice Age, when seas were lower and a land bridge temporarily connected Siberia and Alaska. But \u003ca href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/28/world/americas/discoveries-challenge-beliefs-on-humans-arrival-in-the-americas.html?_r=0\">other evidence\u003c/a> suggests humans were already living on this continent well before that particular pathway was possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So which was it? Did humans walk here, or somehow — incredible to imagine — \u003cem>paddle\u003c/em>? Was there one wave of migration, or more? A study of Kennewick Man’s bones could reveal what he ate, what he drank, how he hunted, and, of course, his DNA — all clues that could ultimately tell the story of where he, and his forebears, came from and how they got here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a group of Native American tribes considered The Ancient One, as they call him, a direct tribal ancestor — and they didn’t need science to explain how people ended up here. “From our oral histories, we know that our people have been part of this land since the beginning of time,” a leader of the Umatilla tribe \u003ca href=\"https://books.google.com/books?id=_2acRaHk8l8C&lpg=PA296&ots=Vo5ZFSo7eZ&dq=From%20our%20oral%20histories%2C%20we%20know%20that%20our%20people%20have%20been%20part%20of%20this%20land%20since%20the%20beginning%20of%20time&pg=PA296#v=onepage&q&f=false\">wrote\u003c/a> in a statement at the time. “We do not believe that our people migrated here from another continent, as the scientists do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Working together, five tribes demanded that The Ancient One’s remains not be poked or prodded in the name of science, and instead be promptly reburied in accordance with tribal custom — and under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. That \u003ca href=\"http://www.usbr.gov/nagpra/\">federal law\u003c/a>, passed in 1990, requires certain Native American artifacts and remains to be handed over to culturally affiliated tribes or provable descendants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The tribes had good reason to be sensitive,” \u003ca href=\"http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/kennewick-man-finally-freed-share-his-secrets-180952462/#DyWFUQaeudB6jSRX.99\">writes\u003c/a> \u003cem>Smithsonian Magazine’\u003c/em>s Douglas Preston. “The early history of museum collecting of Native American remains is replete with horror stories. In the 19th century, anthropologists and collectors looted fresh Native American graves and burial platforms, dug up corpses and even decapitated dead Indians lying on the field of battle and shipped the heads to Washington for study. Until NAGPRA, museums were filled with American Indian remains acquired without regard for the feelings and religious beliefs of native people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for these bones to fall under the protection of NAGPRA, there had to be proof of a connection between the remains and the people fighting to reclaim them today. The scientists said no such connection existed. The tribal leaders insisted it did; they could feel it in their bones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That question ended up spawning an unprecedented legal and ethical battle in which prominent archaeologists and anthropologists would sue the U.S. government for the chance to study the bones. Femur bones would \u003ca href=\"http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19981211&slug=2788453\">go missing\u003c/a> under unexplained circumstances. Bitter arguments would be pitched over the migration patterns and feeding habits of sea lions, the curvature and racial implications of cheekbones, the validity of oral tradition as courtroom evidence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eventually, the scientists did get a legally approved (though very brief and highly constricted) look at Kennewick Man, and what they learned is truly amazing. Based on the shape of his skull and other features, they theorized that he or his forebears may have been Asian coastal seafarers. They may have journeyed by boat along the south Alaskan shoreline and ultimately all the way down the Americas, hugging the coast and living off kelp, fish, sea lions and the like.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is the “\u003ca href=\"http://natural-history.uoregon.edu/research/paleocoastal-research-project/kelp-highway-hypothesis\">coastal migration\u003c/a>” theory of the peopling of the Americas, which suggests that a wave, or waves, of people traveled and lived along the Pacific coast long before other travelers chased herds of tasty mastodons and mammoths across a land bridge into Alaska.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They also learned a tremendous amount about what Kennewick Man’s life may have been like. Here’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/kennewick-man-finally-freed-share-his-secrets-180952462/?+Archaeology+%7C+Smithsonian.com)=&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+smithsonianmag%2Fhistory-archaeology+(History+&page=2&no-ist=&=&=\">more from Preston\u003c/a>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“Kennewick Man spent a lot of time holding something in front of him while forcibly raising and lowering it; the researchers theorize he was hurling a spear downward into the water, as seal hunters do. His leg bones suggest he often waded in shallow rapids, and he had bone growths consistent with ‘surfer’s ear,’ caused by frequent immersion in cold water. His knee joints suggest he often squatted on his heels. … Many years before Kennewick Man’s death, a heavy blow to his chest broke six ribs. Because he used his right hand to throw spears, five broken ribs on his right side never knitted together. This man was one tough dude.”\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003ch3>Conflict, or collaboration?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>As of last week, it’s likely that this tough dude is headed back to the earth. University of Chicago scientists confirmed another study, from last year, showing that Kennewick Man’s DNA has \u003ca href=\"http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/science/its-official-kennewick-man-is-native-american/\">genetic similarities\u003c/a> to those of modern-day Colville tribal members. Now, members of the Colville tribe and four others say they’ll \u003ca href=\"http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/science/its-official-kennewick-man-is-native-american/\">work together\u003c/a> to complete the repatriation — or reburial — process, and the government has shown zero interest in standing in their way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But while scientists may never get another chance to study these remains, even as biomolecular science is “advancing so rapidly that within five to ten years it may be possible to know what diseases Kennewick Man suffered from and what caused his death,” \u003ca href=\"http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/kennewick-man-finally-freed-share-his-secrets-180952462/?no-ist=&preview=_page%3D3_page%3D3&page=3\">writes\u003c/a> Preston, the story of Kennewick Man raises all sorts of questions as to how researchers might avoid antagonizing local cultures to begin with — or whether they should have to try.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the scientists involved in revealing a genetic connection between Kennewick Man and living Native Americans invited members of the five tribes into the lab, where they \u003ca href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/19/science/new-dna-results-show-kennewick-man-was-native-american.html?_r=0\">put on body suits\u003c/a> and entered a “clean room” to pay their respects to The Ancient One. In the wake of Kennewick, scientists \u003ca href=\"http://www.nature.com/news/ancient-american-genome-rekindles-legal-row-1.17797\">have been reflecting\u003c/a> on ways to work \u003cem>with\u003c/em> indigenous communities when these kinds of conflicts come up:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“Many other researchers are taking a similar approach. [Dennis O’Rourke, a biological anthropologist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City] says that there is no one-size-fits-all strategy to working with native communities. He finds some of the North American Arctic groups he works with eager to contribute to his research, others are less so; and their opinions shift over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>” ‘We really have to change the top-down approach, where we come to people and say “these are our research questions and you should participate, because — SCIENCE,” ‘ says Jennifer Raff, an anthropological geneticist at the University of Texas at Austin.”\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Other scientists say there’s a real danger in altering scientific methods to accommodate religious belief. Elizabeth Weiss, an anthropologist at San Jose State, outlined impediments to her own work in a \u003ca href=\"http://politicsandthelifesciences.org/Contents/Contents-2001-3/PLS2001-3-013.pdf\">2001 paper\u003c/a> on the Kennewick controversy, and argued that regulations like NAGPRA require far too little evidence proving a cultural connection to modern-day native communities. She also suggested that such regulations — which increased around the world in the wake of NAGPRA — can have a chilling effect on scientific research:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“Consider having dedicated a large part of one’s life to unearthing the materials that are now being examined. Even casts and other important works — such as videotapes, photos, and excavation records — are in increasing danger of confiscation. Some scientists have expressed fear that their federal grants would be in jeopardy if they objected too openly to current policies. Under such circumstances, most scientists do not even begin ‘high-risk’ projects. Finds that could threaten Native American origin beliefs are especially likely to be targeted. Defendants could become embroiled for years in expensive lawsuits that neither they nor their institutions can afford …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The politics of bone gathering in Africa are notorious … and one shudders to imagine what might happen if activists could convince modern Africans to claim early human skeletons as their ancestors, so that they too could be reburied.”\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As this saga draws to a close, perhaps only one thing is certain. Wherever science, ethics and history collide, easy answers don’t exist. The distinction between pioneering researcher and grave robber can depend entirely on whom you ask. But there’s one more story worth telling here, that of another very old pile of North American bones that got a whisper of the attention that Kennewick Man has gotten, because the raging fight over what to do with them simply never got started. From \u003ca href=\"http://www.nature.com/news/ancient-american-genome-rekindles-legal-row-1.17797\">Nature\u003c/a>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“Just weeks before Kennewick Man’s remains were discovered, researchers working in Alaska discovered a 10,000-year-old human skeleton. They notified local tribes and quickly came to an agreement that allowed them to excavate and study the remains and keep the tribes involved in the research. ‘You don’t really hear so much about the good cases,’ says Raff.”\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\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=A+Long%2C+Complicated+Battle+Over+9%2C000-Year-Old+Bones+Is+Finally+Over&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Last week, there was a big development in the long-running, bitter, complicated battle over a 9,000-year-old set of bones known variously as “Kennewick Man” or “The Ancient One,” depending on whom you ask.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers \u003ca href=\"http://www.history.com/news/army-corps-of-engineers-confirms-kennewick-man-is-native-american\">confirmed\u003c/a> that the ancient bearer of the bones is genetically linked to modern-day Native Americans. Now, under federal law, a group of tribes that has been fighting to rebury him will almost certainly get to do so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It also means that scientists will probably never get another chance to study him, though ancient human remains from North America are incredibly rare, and forensic technology gets better all the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the chafe between science and spirituality,” \u003ca href=\"http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/04/25/long-legal-and-moral-battle-over-kennewick-man-149008\">writes\u003c/a> Kevin Taylor at Indian Country Today, “between people who say the remains have so much to tell us about the ancient human past that they should remain available for research, versus people who feel a kinship with the ancient bones and say they should be reburied to show proper reverence for the dead.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_679014\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 400px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-679014\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/skeleton.png\" alt=\"The skeleton of Kennewick Man is represented by nearly 300 bones and bone fragments. \" width=\"400\" height=\"1099\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The skeleton of Kennewick Man is represented by nearly 300 bones and bone fragments. \u003ccite>(Chip Clark/Smithsonian Institute)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There’s a history to bitter tensions of this sort. Take the recent fight between native Hawaiian protesters and scientists who wanted to erect a telescope on Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano \u003ca href=\"http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/27/us/tmt-hawaii-telescope-controversy/\">considered sacred\u003c/a> by some and “the best location in the world to observe the stars and study the origins of our universe” by others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>None of these \u003ca href=\"http://www.mountgraham.org/content/star-struck-astronomical-abuse-indigenous-sacred-sites\">clashes\u003c/a> exists in a vacuum; they often come on the heels of decades, if not centuries, of genocide and erasure aimed at indigenous peoples and their ways of life. And so an object of scientific interest, be it a bone or a mountain, can come to stand for an entire civilization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some say scientists need to rethink their whole approach to culturally sensitive research. Others say the unfettered pursuit of knowledge ought to trump belief; if the faithful always got their way, we’d still think the Earth was flat. Who gets to decide? The twists and turns in the story of Kennewick Man — which has been \u003ca href=\"http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/kennewick-man-finally-freed-share-his-secrets-180952462/?no-ist=&preview=_page%3D3_page%3D3&page=3\">told before\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/04/25/long-legal-and-moral-battle-over-kennewick-man-149008\">and well\u003c/a> — suggest there’s no easy answer, of course, but certainly provide an incredible case study for the future of this debate.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A forensic mystery, or a moot point?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The fight has been raging for 20 years, ever since a couple of college kids stumbled — literally — across a human skull while wading in a river in Washington state. They thought they’d found a murder victim, and flagged down a nearby cop, who called in a local expert. Instead, they had discovered some of the oldest, most complete human remains ever dug up in North America.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Archaeologists dubbed the skeleton Kennewick Man, after the place he was found, and hoped his bones could help settle one of the greatest mysteries in the story of human migration: how did \u003cem>Homo sapiens\u003c/em>, originating in Africa, end up in the Americas?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The dominant theory was that humans trekked here on foot around 13,000 years ago, during the Ice Age, when seas were lower and a land bridge temporarily connected Siberia and Alaska. But \u003ca href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/28/world/americas/discoveries-challenge-beliefs-on-humans-arrival-in-the-americas.html?_r=0\">other evidence\u003c/a> suggests humans were already living on this continent well before that particular pathway was possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So which was it? Did humans walk here, or somehow — incredible to imagine — \u003cem>paddle\u003c/em>? Was there one wave of migration, or more? A study of Kennewick Man’s bones could reveal what he ate, what he drank, how he hunted, and, of course, his DNA — all clues that could ultimately tell the story of where he, and his forebears, came from and how they got here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a group of Native American tribes considered The Ancient One, as they call him, a direct tribal ancestor — and they didn’t need science to explain how people ended up here. “From our oral histories, we know that our people have been part of this land since the beginning of time,” a leader of the Umatilla tribe \u003ca href=\"https://books.google.com/books?id=_2acRaHk8l8C&lpg=PA296&ots=Vo5ZFSo7eZ&dq=From%20our%20oral%20histories%2C%20we%20know%20that%20our%20people%20have%20been%20part%20of%20this%20land%20since%20the%20beginning%20of%20time&pg=PA296#v=onepage&q&f=false\">wrote\u003c/a> in a statement at the time. “We do not believe that our people migrated here from another continent, as the scientists do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Working together, five tribes demanded that The Ancient One’s remains not be poked or prodded in the name of science, and instead be promptly reburied in accordance with tribal custom — and under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. That \u003ca href=\"http://www.usbr.gov/nagpra/\">federal law\u003c/a>, passed in 1990, requires certain Native American artifacts and remains to be handed over to culturally affiliated tribes or provable descendants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The tribes had good reason to be sensitive,” \u003ca href=\"http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/kennewick-man-finally-freed-share-his-secrets-180952462/#DyWFUQaeudB6jSRX.99\">writes\u003c/a> \u003cem>Smithsonian Magazine’\u003c/em>s Douglas Preston. “The early history of museum collecting of Native American remains is replete with horror stories. In the 19th century, anthropologists and collectors looted fresh Native American graves and burial platforms, dug up corpses and even decapitated dead Indians lying on the field of battle and shipped the heads to Washington for study. Until NAGPRA, museums were filled with American Indian remains acquired without regard for the feelings and religious beliefs of native people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for these bones to fall under the protection of NAGPRA, there had to be proof of a connection between the remains and the people fighting to reclaim them today. The scientists said no such connection existed. The tribal leaders insisted it did; they could feel it in their bones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That question ended up spawning an unprecedented legal and ethical battle in which prominent archaeologists and anthropologists would sue the U.S. government for the chance to study the bones. Femur bones would \u003ca href=\"http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19981211&slug=2788453\">go missing\u003c/a> under unexplained circumstances. Bitter arguments would be pitched over the migration patterns and feeding habits of sea lions, the curvature and racial implications of cheekbones, the validity of oral tradition as courtroom evidence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eventually, the scientists did get a legally approved (though very brief and highly constricted) look at Kennewick Man, and what they learned is truly amazing. Based on the shape of his skull and other features, they theorized that he or his forebears may have been Asian coastal seafarers. They may have journeyed by boat along the south Alaskan shoreline and ultimately all the way down the Americas, hugging the coast and living off kelp, fish, sea lions and the like.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is the “\u003ca href=\"http://natural-history.uoregon.edu/research/paleocoastal-research-project/kelp-highway-hypothesis\">coastal migration\u003c/a>” theory of the peopling of the Americas, which suggests that a wave, or waves, of people traveled and lived along the Pacific coast long before other travelers chased herds of tasty mastodons and mammoths across a land bridge into Alaska.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They also learned a tremendous amount about what Kennewick Man’s life may have been like. Here’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/kennewick-man-finally-freed-share-his-secrets-180952462/?+Archaeology+%7C+Smithsonian.com)=&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+smithsonianmag%2Fhistory-archaeology+(History+&page=2&no-ist=&=&=\">more from Preston\u003c/a>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“Kennewick Man spent a lot of time holding something in front of him while forcibly raising and lowering it; the researchers theorize he was hurling a spear downward into the water, as seal hunters do. His leg bones suggest he often waded in shallow rapids, and he had bone growths consistent with ‘surfer’s ear,’ caused by frequent immersion in cold water. His knee joints suggest he often squatted on his heels. … Many years before Kennewick Man’s death, a heavy blow to his chest broke six ribs. Because he used his right hand to throw spears, five broken ribs on his right side never knitted together. This man was one tough dude.”\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003ch3>Conflict, or collaboration?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>As of last week, it’s likely that this tough dude is headed back to the earth. University of Chicago scientists confirmed another study, from last year, showing that Kennewick Man’s DNA has \u003ca href=\"http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/science/its-official-kennewick-man-is-native-american/\">genetic similarities\u003c/a> to those of modern-day Colville tribal members. Now, members of the Colville tribe and four others say they’ll \u003ca href=\"http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/science/its-official-kennewick-man-is-native-american/\">work together\u003c/a> to complete the repatriation — or reburial — process, and the government has shown zero interest in standing in their way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But while scientists may never get another chance to study these remains, even as biomolecular science is “advancing so rapidly that within five to ten years it may be possible to know what diseases Kennewick Man suffered from and what caused his death,” \u003ca href=\"http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/kennewick-man-finally-freed-share-his-secrets-180952462/?no-ist=&preview=_page%3D3_page%3D3&page=3\">writes\u003c/a> Preston, the story of Kennewick Man raises all sorts of questions as to how researchers might avoid antagonizing local cultures to begin with — or whether they should have to try.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the scientists involved in revealing a genetic connection between Kennewick Man and living Native Americans invited members of the five tribes into the lab, where they \u003ca href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/19/science/new-dna-results-show-kennewick-man-was-native-american.html?_r=0\">put on body suits\u003c/a> and entered a “clean room” to pay their respects to The Ancient One. In the wake of Kennewick, scientists \u003ca href=\"http://www.nature.com/news/ancient-american-genome-rekindles-legal-row-1.17797\">have been reflecting\u003c/a> on ways to work \u003cem>with\u003c/em> indigenous communities when these kinds of conflicts come up:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“Many other researchers are taking a similar approach. [Dennis O’Rourke, a biological anthropologist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City] says that there is no one-size-fits-all strategy to working with native communities. He finds some of the North American Arctic groups he works with eager to contribute to his research, others are less so; and their opinions shift over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>” ‘We really have to change the top-down approach, where we come to people and say “these are our research questions and you should participate, because — SCIENCE,” ‘ says Jennifer Raff, an anthropological geneticist at the University of Texas at Austin.”\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Other scientists say there’s a real danger in altering scientific methods to accommodate religious belief. Elizabeth Weiss, an anthropologist at San Jose State, outlined impediments to her own work in a \u003ca href=\"http://politicsandthelifesciences.org/Contents/Contents-2001-3/PLS2001-3-013.pdf\">2001 paper\u003c/a> on the Kennewick controversy, and argued that regulations like NAGPRA require far too little evidence proving a cultural connection to modern-day native communities. She also suggested that such regulations — which increased around the world in the wake of NAGPRA — can have a chilling effect on scientific research:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“Consider having dedicated a large part of one’s life to unearthing the materials that are now being examined. Even casts and other important works — such as videotapes, photos, and excavation records — are in increasing danger of confiscation. Some scientists have expressed fear that their federal grants would be in jeopardy if they objected too openly to current policies. Under such circumstances, most scientists do not even begin ‘high-risk’ projects. Finds that could threaten Native American origin beliefs are especially likely to be targeted. Defendants could become embroiled for years in expensive lawsuits that neither they nor their institutions can afford …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The politics of bone gathering in Africa are notorious … and one shudders to imagine what might happen if activists could convince modern Africans to claim early human skeletons as their ancestors, so that they too could be reburied.”\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As this saga draws to a close, perhaps only one thing is certain. Wherever science, ethics and history collide, easy answers don’t exist. The distinction between pioneering researcher and grave robber can depend entirely on whom you ask. But there’s one more story worth telling here, that of another very old pile of North American bones that got a whisper of the attention that Kennewick Man has gotten, because the raging fight over what to do with them simply never got started. From \u003ca href=\"http://www.nature.com/news/ancient-american-genome-rekindles-legal-row-1.17797\">Nature\u003c/a>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“Just weeks before Kennewick Man’s remains were discovered, researchers working in Alaska discovered a 10,000-year-old human skeleton. They notified local tribes and quickly came to an agreement that allowed them to excavate and study the remains and keep the tribes involved in the research. ‘You don’t really hear so much about the good cases,’ says Raff.”\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\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=A+Long%2C+Complicated+Battle+Over+9%2C000-Year-Old+Bones+Is+Finally+Over&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Californians Beat New, Relaxed Target for Water Savings",
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"content": "\u003cp>Urban residents of California beat their goal for saving water in March by turning off their sprinklers when the rain fell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The State Water Board says cities and businesses cut water use by more than 24 percent compared to the same month in 2013. Board chair Felicia Marcus called it “a stunningly welcome number” after a six-month run of declining conservation. The 24.3 percent mark doubled efforts in February, when much of California was dry, with record-high temperatures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_675079\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 829px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-675079\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/watercons_1603.png\" alt=\"March water conservation marked a significant reversal from several months of declining savings in California.\" width=\"829\" height=\"621\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/watercons_1603.png 829w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/watercons_1603-400x300.png 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/watercons_1603-800x599.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/watercons_1603-768x575.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 829px) 100vw, 829px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">March water conservation marked a significant reversal from several months of declining savings in California. \u003ccite>(State Water Resources Control Board)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>March is the first month under newly relaxed conservation requirements. Cities are now expected to use at least 20 percent less water, a break from the previous order of 25 percent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A bright spot continues to be water use per capita by urban Californians, who have throttled back from an average of more than 100 gallons per person, per day in August, to 66 in March, with people in some locations using significantly less.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials say it’s an indication that Californians have stuck to some of the water habits they formed during the state’s most punishing drought on record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An especially soggy March helped depress water use — especially outdoor irrigation — but rainfall in California tapers off dramatically at just this time of year; there’s unlikely to be any “May miracle.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to keep conserving,” warns Marcus. “We may not need the same levels of conservation as last year, but we still need to keep all we can in our reservoirs and groundwater basins in case this winter is just a punctuation mark in a longer drought.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Urban residents of California beat their goal for saving water in March by turning off their sprinklers when the rain fell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The State Water Board says cities and businesses cut water use by more than 24 percent compared to the same month in 2013. Board chair Felicia Marcus called it “a stunningly welcome number” after a six-month run of declining conservation. The 24.3 percent mark doubled efforts in February, when much of California was dry, with record-high temperatures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_675079\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 829px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-675079\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/watercons_1603.png\" alt=\"March water conservation marked a significant reversal from several months of declining savings in California.\" width=\"829\" height=\"621\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/watercons_1603.png 829w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/watercons_1603-400x300.png 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/watercons_1603-800x599.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/watercons_1603-768x575.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 829px) 100vw, 829px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">March water conservation marked a significant reversal from several months of declining savings in California. \u003ccite>(State Water Resources Control Board)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>March is the first month under newly relaxed conservation requirements. Cities are now expected to use at least 20 percent less water, a break from the previous order of 25 percent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A bright spot continues to be water use per capita by urban Californians, who have throttled back from an average of more than 100 gallons per person, per day in August, to 66 in March, with people in some locations using significantly less.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials say it’s an indication that Californians have stuck to some of the water habits they formed during the state’s most punishing drought on record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An especially soggy March helped depress water use — especially outdoor irrigation — but rainfall in California tapers off dramatically at just this time of year; there’s unlikely to be any “May miracle.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to keep conserving,” warns Marcus. “We may not need the same levels of conservation as last year, but we still need to keep all we can in our reservoirs and groundwater basins in case this winter is just a punctuation mark in a longer drought.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Global Warming Is Starving West Coast Waters of Oxygen",
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"content": "\u003cp>Just west of Los Angeles, decimated populations of spiny rockfish rummage for prey among bush-like corals. Cold currents from deep valleys wash nutrients between the Channel Islands, fertilizing plants that are eaten by fish. The fish are eaten by dolphins and pelicans and served with fries to diners watching ocean sunsets from Venice Beach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rockfish populations that crashed off the southern Californian coast in the 1990s have been protected by fishing rules and marine parks. But climate change is making a natural threat to the fish even worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”Gne3W9AHBDJJeaZ5tF6m5XUHhj56nZqJ”]As atmospheric pollution warms the planet and its seas, oxygen levels are declining in the oceans, making it harder for the bottom-dwelling fish to breathe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ocean warming is projected to continue reducing oxygen levels in some hotspots that are naturally low in oxygen, such as the eastern Pacific Ocean. The oxygen declines in coastal waters like California’s threaten to create invisible chemical barriers, boxing vulnerable wildlife into smaller territories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The importance of oxygen loss has been underestimated or overlooked by ocean scientists,” said Lisa Levin, a Scripps Institution of Oceanography professor who is helping to pioneer research into the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Levin’s lab published a study last week revealing the heavy influence of oxygen levels on the biodiversity of worms, molluscs and other creatures that live in West Coast mud, which are eaten by rockfish and other marine predators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As oceans warm, fish and other sea animals need more oxygen, yet the sea water they breathe holds less of it. Ocean circulation changes caused by global warming can also reduce oxygen levels below the ocean’s surface, where it’s absorbed from the atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s jeopardizing fisheries already afflicted by overfishing, wetland losses, water pollution, ocean warming and ocean acidification.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For some things that can’t move, it’s going to kill them,” Levin said. “For things that can swim away, it’s going to shrink their habitat.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oxygen levels can be highly variable, and scientists are still trying to untangle the role climate change may have played in declining West Coast oxygen levels since the 1980s, some of which coincided with local ocean cooling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scripps and federal government scientists calculated in 2010 that the oxygen declines could reduce cowcod habitat in protected Southern California Bight areas by 18 percent by the 2020s, if trends continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Ocean warming and ocean acidification have had much more attention,” Levin said. “The people who have been studying changes in oxygen didn’t raise the issue about global declines until probably eight years ago, and haven’t focused on communicating to the media, to the public, everywhere it needs to go.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Levin led a three-person Scripps research team that analyzed data from biological surveys of ocean mud using advanced statistical techniques. They reported last week in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B that oxygen levels appear to have more influence than temperature or a measure of acidity over the number of small mud-dwelling species found on West Coast coastlines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The results were very different when the researchers examined samples from a different region. In the Arabian sea, the scientists discovered that the measure of ocean acidity was more closely tied to biodiversity levels than oxygen concentrations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The finding helped to illuminate the local and regional nature of the low-oxygen threat, and the complex relationships between warming, acidification and oxygen depletion that are being caused by climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If more data were available from another area, such as the East African coast, I suspect that may be different as well,” said Nancy Rabalais, a Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium professor who was not involved with the research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rabalais said the new Scripps study could help scientists predict how the three major ocean changes caused by global warming — warming, acidification and deoxygenation — could affect biodiversity in key marine habitats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each of the trifecta of global warming impacts tends to harm wildlife. Each of those impacts could be slowed if a United Nations climate treaty, which was negotiated in Paris in December, succeeds in sharply curbing fossil fuel use and deforestation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists point out that battered marine ecosystems would have greater chances of surviving impacts from warming if overfishing, plastic pollution and habitat destruction are also curbed. Marine parks can also help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Extreme oxygen shortfalls already occur in seasonal dead zones, such as in the Gulf of Mexico, which is caused by farming and sewage pollution. By warming seawater, climate change can make dead zones bigger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In areas where oxygen levels are naturally low, including off the West Coast and in the eastern Atlantic and southern Indian oceans, recent modeling showed climate change is already worsening the problem — which can fuel severe oxygen shortfalls that scientists call hypoxia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those impacts were projected by computer models to spread to additional regions during future years and decades. Some high-oxygen parts of oceans, by contrast, might not experience any impacts from the declines this century, the research showed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s hard to attribute a single year of hypoxia to warming,” said Curtis Deutsch, a professor at the University of Washington who contributed to the modeling analysis, which was published this year in the journal Global Biogeochemical Cycles. “And yet, at the same time, we expect it to become more frequent.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists like Deutsch are turning to models to try to understand how climate change may be influencing oxygen levels in oceans. Those concentrations are influenced by a confounding array of natural and human factors, and they haven’t been well measured.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are parts of the ocean where models predict that we can be detecting real, long-term changes in the ocean that are distinct from natural fluctuations right now,” Deutsch said. “For fisheries, it hasn’t been detected in data, but all of the indicators point toward this being an important concern for the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The modeling study honed in on oxygen impacts in the open ocean, but it didn’t reveal or project more complicated changes in coastal regions, such as in the colorful coral and sponge habitats of the Southern California Bight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The findings from the modeling runs corroborated those from similar studies that have been published in recent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These are very expected results,” said John Dunne, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration biogeochemist and climate modeler who has researched the topic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dunne said impacts from projected oxygen declines will matter most in parts of the ocean where levels are naturally low to begin with, such as along the West Coast, including the waters off Los Angeles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Changes in southern California may already be squeezing decimated populations of fish that are popular with fishermen and diners, such as cowcod and other rockfish, into dangerously small territories, further threatening their survival.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At high levels of oxygen, it doesn’t matter,” Dunne said. “At low levels of oxygen, it matters a great deal.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Just west of Los Angeles, decimated populations of spiny rockfish rummage for prey among bush-like corals. Cold currents from deep valleys wash nutrients between the Channel Islands, fertilizing plants that are eaten by fish. The fish are eaten by dolphins and pelicans and served with fries to diners watching ocean sunsets from Venice Beach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rockfish populations that crashed off the southern Californian coast in the 1990s have been protected by fishing rules and marine parks. But climate change is making a natural threat to the fish even worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>As atmospheric pollution warms the planet and its seas, oxygen levels are declining in the oceans, making it harder for the bottom-dwelling fish to breathe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ocean warming is projected to continue reducing oxygen levels in some hotspots that are naturally low in oxygen, such as the eastern Pacific Ocean. The oxygen declines in coastal waters like California’s threaten to create invisible chemical barriers, boxing vulnerable wildlife into smaller territories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The importance of oxygen loss has been underestimated or overlooked by ocean scientists,” said Lisa Levin, a Scripps Institution of Oceanography professor who is helping to pioneer research into the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Levin’s lab published a study last week revealing the heavy influence of oxygen levels on the biodiversity of worms, molluscs and other creatures that live in West Coast mud, which are eaten by rockfish and other marine predators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As oceans warm, fish and other sea animals need more oxygen, yet the sea water they breathe holds less of it. Ocean circulation changes caused by global warming can also reduce oxygen levels below the ocean’s surface, where it’s absorbed from the atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s jeopardizing fisheries already afflicted by overfishing, wetland losses, water pollution, ocean warming and ocean acidification.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For some things that can’t move, it’s going to kill them,” Levin said. “For things that can swim away, it’s going to shrink their habitat.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oxygen levels can be highly variable, and scientists are still trying to untangle the role climate change may have played in declining West Coast oxygen levels since the 1980s, some of which coincided with local ocean cooling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scripps and federal government scientists calculated in 2010 that the oxygen declines could reduce cowcod habitat in protected Southern California Bight areas by 18 percent by the 2020s, if trends continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Ocean warming and ocean acidification have had much more attention,” Levin said. “The people who have been studying changes in oxygen didn’t raise the issue about global declines until probably eight years ago, and haven’t focused on communicating to the media, to the public, everywhere it needs to go.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Levin led a three-person Scripps research team that analyzed data from biological surveys of ocean mud using advanced statistical techniques. 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Each of those impacts could be slowed if a United Nations climate treaty, which was negotiated in Paris in December, succeeds in sharply curbing fossil fuel use and deforestation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists point out that battered marine ecosystems would have greater chances of surviving impacts from warming if overfishing, plastic pollution and habitat destruction are also curbed. Marine parks can also help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Extreme oxygen shortfalls already occur in seasonal dead zones, such as in the Gulf of Mexico, which is caused by farming and sewage pollution. By warming seawater, climate change can make dead zones bigger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In areas where oxygen levels are naturally low, including off the West Coast and in the eastern Atlantic and southern Indian oceans, recent modeling showed climate change is already worsening the problem — which can fuel severe oxygen shortfalls that scientists call hypoxia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those impacts were projected by computer models to spread to additional regions during future years and decades. Some high-oxygen parts of oceans, by contrast, might not experience any impacts from the declines this century, the research showed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s hard to attribute a single year of hypoxia to warming,” said Curtis Deutsch, a professor at the University of Washington who contributed to the modeling analysis, which was published this year in the journal Global Biogeochemical Cycles. “And yet, at the same time, we expect it to become more frequent.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists like Deutsch are turning to models to try to understand how climate change may be influencing oxygen levels in oceans. 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"content": "\u003cp>The Solar Impulse 2 landed in the Phoenix area Monday night, welcomed by spectators at Goodyear Airport as the plane’s pilots continue their quest to be the world’s first solar powered airplane to fly around the Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 745-mile trip took nearly 16 hours — less time than expected, largely due to powerful tailwinds. The plane reached a maximum altitude of 22,000 feet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From \u003ca href=\"http://kjzz.org/\">member station KJZZ \u003c/a>in Phoenix, Andrew Bernier tells our Newscast unit:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“The average speed of Solar Impulse 2 is 45 mph. But the tailwinds were too strong for some portions of the flight — so to slow down, the pilot had to sometimes turn the plane around and fly into the headwinds, essentially flying backward toward Phoenix. Other than that, the pilot said it was a great and sunny flight over the desert.”\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Swiss pilot Andre Borschberg was at the controls for the plane’s 10th stage of a round-the-world flight. Borschberg alternates flying duties with project founder Bertrand Piccard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fuel-free flight project started in March 2015, but it was put on hold in July after the plane’s batteries developed problems during a five-day flight from Japan to Hawaii. It resumed its journey last month, \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/04/24/475473222/experimental-solar-powered-plane-completes-journey-across-the-pacific\">completing a three-day trip\u003c/a> from Hawaii to Mountain View, Calif.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Solar Impulse 2 uses energy gathered from 17,000 solar cells on its surface to power itself. The craft weighs roughly 5,000 pounds and has a wingspan of 236 feet — wider than a Boeing 747.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the Two-Way reported \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/04/21/475113210/experimental-solar-powered-plane-takes-flight-after-9-month-delay\">when the plane left Hawaii\u003c/a>, the team hopes to end the journey \u003ca href=\"http://www.solarimpulse.com/adventure\">where it began\u003c/a> last spring, in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.\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=Solar+Airplane+Lands+In+Phoenix+After+Flight+From+Silicon+Valley&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The Solar Impulse 2 landed in the Phoenix area Monday night, welcomed by spectators at Goodyear Airport as the plane’s pilots continue their quest to be the world’s first solar powered airplane to fly around the Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 745-mile trip took nearly 16 hours — less time than expected, largely due to powerful tailwinds. The plane reached a maximum altitude of 22,000 feet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From \u003ca href=\"http://kjzz.org/\">member station KJZZ \u003c/a>in Phoenix, Andrew Bernier tells our Newscast unit:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“The average speed of Solar Impulse 2 is 45 mph. But the tailwinds were too strong for some portions of the flight — so to slow down, the pilot had to sometimes turn the plane around and fly into the headwinds, essentially flying backward toward Phoenix. Other than that, the pilot said it was a great and sunny flight over the desert.”\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Swiss pilot Andre Borschberg was at the controls for the plane’s 10th stage of a round-the-world flight. Borschberg alternates flying duties with project founder Bertrand Piccard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fuel-free flight project started in March 2015, but it was put on hold in July after the plane’s batteries developed problems during a five-day flight from Japan to Hawaii. It resumed its journey last month, \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/04/24/475473222/experimental-solar-powered-plane-completes-journey-across-the-pacific\">completing a three-day trip\u003c/a> from Hawaii to Mountain View, Calif.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Solar Impulse 2 uses energy gathered from 17,000 solar cells on its surface to power itself. The craft weighs roughly 5,000 pounds and has a wingspan of 236 feet — wider than a Boeing 747.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the Two-Way reported \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/04/21/475113210/experimental-solar-powered-plane-takes-flight-after-9-month-delay\">when the plane left Hawaii\u003c/a>, the team hopes to end the journey \u003ca href=\"http://www.solarimpulse.com/adventure\">where it began\u003c/a> last spring, in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.\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=Solar+Airplane+Lands+In+Phoenix+After+Flight+From+Silicon+Valley&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Buildings Must Improve Their Energy Use; Here's What That Means for You",
"headTitle": "Buildings Must Improve Their Energy Use; Here’s What That Means for You | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Rows of newly minted model homes unspool across a verdant, rolling landscape in El Dorado Hills, a sprawling master-planned community near Sacramento.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Solar panels glint across 1,000 acres of rooftops. On a tidy cul-de-sac, a faux-grass lawn flanks the driveway to the home of the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘It’s important that sustainability not be defined just in terms of environmental sustainability, but equality and income sustainability .’\u003ccite>Tyson Slocum, Public Citizen energy program director\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The two-story residence brims with state-of-the-art energy-saving technology: highly efficient heating and cooling systems, dense wall insulation, triple-paned windows, smog-gobbling roof tiles and “smart” appliances that spring into action when power demand is lowest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Power-sipping homes like this will be critical to the state’s recalibrated energy policies. Those policies now include a law that requires California’s built environment—tens of millions of structures—to operate twice as efficiently by the year 2030, slashing consumption of electricity and natural gas to half their projected levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mandate, intended to reduce the state’s need for carbon-spewing power plants, is part of California’s mission to address climate change by cutting greenhouse-gas emissions. Residential and commercial buildings account for about 20 percent of those pollutants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-672472 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/energy_home_001-e1462201168963.jpg\" alt=\"energy_home_001\" width=\"1930\" height=\"1947\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/energy_home_001-e1462201168963.jpg 1930w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/energy_home_001-e1462201168963-400x404.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/energy_home_001-e1462201168963-800x807.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/energy_home_001-e1462201168963-768x775.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/energy_home_001-e1462201168963-1440x1453.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/energy_home_001-e1462201168963-1920x1937.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/energy_home_001-e1462201168963-1180x1190.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/energy_home_001-e1462201168963-960x968.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/energy_home_001-e1462201168963-32x32.jpg 32w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/energy_home_001-e1462201168963-64x64.jpg 64w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/energy_home_001-e1462201168963-96x96.jpg 96w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/energy_home_001-e1462201168963-128x128.jpg 128w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/energy_home_001-e1462201168963-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1930px) 100vw, 1930px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Exactly how the state’s ambitious goal will be achieved is unclear, and agreement on the price tag is elusive. What is certain is that making homes and other buildings use energy more efficiently will cost money up front, in a state that has some of the country’s most expensive real estate and is struggling to create more affordable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California home prices are more than twice the national average, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials and some builders insist that consumers and businesses will save money in the long run as utility bills shrink and the resale value of houses and commercial structures increases.\u003cbr>\nOthers view the goal as something more akin to the well-appointed homes in El Dorado Hills: a lovely thing to aspire to, difficult to reach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is, however, wide agreement on the enormity of the task, which builds on policies requiring more reliance on renewable-energy sources such as sun and wind and fostering mass transit to get cars off the road.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a long-term project,” said Andrew McAllister, a member of the California Energy Commission. “Everyone has to play a part. There’s no one big solution, no silver bullet. There is a lot of silver buckshot.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new law, created last year by Gov. Jerry Brown and the legislature, offers no blueprint for implementing a policy that could touch millions of homes and nearly every school, church, office building and shopping center in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No action is required for existing homes or commercial buildings unless they undergo significant renovations. And the law stipulates that its implementation not be financially onerous for Californians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But important questions of exactly how much the policy will ultimately cost and who will pay are unresolved, despite related legislation passed to help with the expense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_672475\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 700px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-672475\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/ENERGY-USE.png\" alt=\"A new building code will cover many existing structures.\" width=\"700\" height=\"700\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/ENERGY-USE.png 700w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/ENERGY-USE-400x400.png 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/ENERGY-USE-32x32.png 32w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/ENERGY-USE-64x64.png 64w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/ENERGY-USE-96x96.png 96w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/ENERGY-USE-128x128.png 128w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/ENERGY-USE-150x150.png 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A new building code will cover many existing structures. \u003ccite>(Val B. Mina for CALmatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There are other fundamental questions as well, such as exactly how to measure efficiency, where to start — Brown has suggested beginning with state-owned structures — and how energy upgrades will affect the state’s scarce low-income housing supply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The task of figuring things out lies largely with the Energy Commission and the Public Utilities Commission. The agencies say they hope to know by the middle of next year how to update a tangle of existing building codes and other regulations, modernize the state’s electricity grid to incorporate more renewable energy and craft an educational campaign to inform consumers of what’s coming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Air Resources Board, which regulates air quality in California, will help, as will the major utilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The details are not fleshed out. But to reach our climate targets, investing in energy efficiency is important,” said Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills), author of a landmark California law, signed in 2006 by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, that launched a comprehensive effort to combat climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s going to be costly,” Pavley said. “…To me, the challenge is how to implement the upfront capital cost.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Brown signed the energy-efficiency bill into law last year, he described the changing climate as a “catastrophe” and called on Californians to do their part.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, California has been on an energy diet for decades. Many of the state’s energy programs date to Brown’s first tenure as governor in the 1970s, a response to an oil embargo that sent gasoline prices into the stratosphere. His administration wrote energy efficiency into the building code, and California became the first state to create strict energy standards for appliances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Per capita electricity consumption here has remained mostly flat since 1975, while national energy use has gone up 50 percent, according to the federal Energy Information Assn. Additionally, even though electricity rates in California exceed the national average, residents’ annual bills are among the lowest in the country. California’s aggressive appliance standards, for example, have saved consumers $75 billion since appliance efficiency programs launched in 1978, a state analysis says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state energy commission estimates that new building codes alone will save Californians $1.6 billion over the next 30 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, although the building code is ratcheted up periodically to reflect technological advances, at least half of existing structures were erected before 1978, according to the state commission. Residential and commercial buildings account for about two-thirds of statewide electricity use, so there’s a lot of catching up to do in some quarters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the moment, and until the state’s approach is fleshed out, progress toward the government’s new targets rests heavily on the building code, which is revised every three years. It won’t fully reflect the new law until 2020, but the latest update, to take effect Jan. 1 of next year, does require a higher degree of efficiency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_672476\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1874px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-672476\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/electricity_consumption_sector-1.png\" alt=\"Residential and commercial users consume most of California's available power. \" width=\"1874\" height=\"2031\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/electricity_consumption_sector-1.png 1874w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/electricity_consumption_sector-1-400x434.png 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/electricity_consumption_sector-1-800x867.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/electricity_consumption_sector-1-768x832.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/electricity_consumption_sector-1-1440x1561.png 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/electricity_consumption_sector-1-1180x1279.png 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/electricity_consumption_sector-1-960x1040.png 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1874px) 100vw, 1874px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Residential and commercial users consume most of California’s available power. \u003ccite>(Source: California Energy Commission)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Starting in January, homeowners who embark on major renovations—the type that trigger permits and inspections—may have new requirements for walls and attics, need high-performance lighting or require tankless water heaters, among other items. And inspections for compliance will be, at least in the near term, the most important tool for advancing the energy-efficiency goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Homeowners, however, are less than assiduous about getting permits even when they are required: The energy commission estimates that 90 percent of residential heating and cooling upgrades, for example, are performed without official permission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Enforcement is easier for work performed on large commercial structures, which is more likely to come to the attention of inspectors and can incur heavy violation penalties. And businesses are worried.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Matthew Hargrove, Senior Vice President of governmental affairs at the California Business Properties Assn., represents owners of commercial buildings, who are concerned about the cost of upgrades. He said the last code update, in 2014, required advancements that tripled the cost of redoing lighting systems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mandate seemed simple enough, he said, but “we had lighting contractors saying the requirements were so expensive that their businesses died on the vine” when many building owners chose not to upgrade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Refurbishing buildings that have modern, more efficient infrastructures may be relatively affordable, but those structures are poor candidates to reap significant energy savings, Hargrove said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The real savings are to be found in older commercial buildings, but those are often held by owners who can least afford upgrades, Hargrove said. When a commercial building erected in the 1920s or 1930s requires major work, the cost of bringing it to code may be prohibitive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the unknowns, it seems certain that maximum residential efficiency will come with some sticker shock for homeowners. Estimates vary dramatically, depending on the extent of efficiency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jacob Atalla is Vice President of Sustainability for KB Home, which is building the technologically sophisticated houses in El Dorado Hills. He said the systems in those structures save about $1,000 annually in utility expenses. But the price tag for those houses runs about $50,000 more than for homes without so many energy-saving bells and whistles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The energy commission, however, estimates it will cost only an additional $2,700 for a new home to simply meet the building code taking effect Jan. 1. The agency estimates that over the life of a 30-year mortgage, those code requirements would save a homeowner $7,400 in energy and maintenance expenses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, a commission report last year acknowledged that most Californians stay in homes only five to eight years and “may not recoup the value of a deep retrofit project while they own the home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials point out there are ways to soften the blow. Utility companies currently offer $1 billion a year for programs, some funded by their customers, to encourage energy efficiency. Major utilities and state agencies offer rebates for homeowners who upgrade, and myriad programs help low-income families use less energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, state funds have been set aside to help aging schools upgrade. Schools spent $300 million last year on such improvements as newer windows and modern heating and cooling systems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nonetheless, there is concern that the burden of complying with the requirements will fall heavily on the poorest Californians. Nearly a third of the state’s utility customers are categorized as low-income, according to the Public Utilities Commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They currently receive about $30 million a year in federal weatherproofing assistance, according to the Public Utilities Commission. But they may need more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s important that sustainability not be defined just in terms of environmental sustainability, but equality and income sustainability,” said Tyson Slocum, director of the energy program at Public Citizen, the non-partisan public interest group. “Cost can’t be a barrier to participate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Proponents note that as technology evolves, it gets less expensive. A 2015 state report envisions an $8 billion annual private-sector efficiency marketplace, in which technology companies innovate with products and services to make energy savings reachable for more people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State officials vow that California will find a way to slash its energy footprint as it educates residents about how, and why, to do so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Part of the challenge is a relatively basic education, so that people can understand what their actions imply in terms of energy consumption,” McAllister said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The conditions are absolutely there to achieve our goals,” said, “We can do it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>CALmatters is a non-profit journalism venture dedicated to exploring state policies and politics. For more stories by Julie Cart go to calmatters.org/about/staff/julie-cart/\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Rows of newly minted model homes unspool across a verdant, rolling landscape in El Dorado Hills, a sprawling master-planned community near Sacramento.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Solar panels glint across 1,000 acres of rooftops. On a tidy cul-de-sac, a faux-grass lawn flanks the driveway to the home of the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘It’s important that sustainability not be defined just in terms of environmental sustainability, but equality and income sustainability .’\u003ccite>Tyson Slocum, Public Citizen energy program director\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The two-story residence brims with state-of-the-art energy-saving technology: highly efficient heating and cooling systems, dense wall insulation, triple-paned windows, smog-gobbling roof tiles and “smart” appliances that spring into action when power demand is lowest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Power-sipping homes like this will be critical to the state’s recalibrated energy policies. Those policies now include a law that requires California’s built environment—tens of millions of structures—to operate twice as efficiently by the year 2030, slashing consumption of electricity and natural gas to half their projected levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mandate, intended to reduce the state’s need for carbon-spewing power plants, is part of California’s mission to address climate change by cutting greenhouse-gas emissions. Residential and commercial buildings account for about 20 percent of those pollutants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-672472 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/energy_home_001-e1462201168963.jpg\" alt=\"energy_home_001\" width=\"1930\" height=\"1947\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/energy_home_001-e1462201168963.jpg 1930w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/energy_home_001-e1462201168963-400x404.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/energy_home_001-e1462201168963-800x807.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/energy_home_001-e1462201168963-768x775.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/energy_home_001-e1462201168963-1440x1453.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/energy_home_001-e1462201168963-1920x1937.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/energy_home_001-e1462201168963-1180x1190.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/energy_home_001-e1462201168963-960x968.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/energy_home_001-e1462201168963-32x32.jpg 32w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/energy_home_001-e1462201168963-64x64.jpg 64w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/energy_home_001-e1462201168963-96x96.jpg 96w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/energy_home_001-e1462201168963-128x128.jpg 128w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/energy_home_001-e1462201168963-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1930px) 100vw, 1930px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Exactly how the state’s ambitious goal will be achieved is unclear, and agreement on the price tag is elusive. What is certain is that making homes and other buildings use energy more efficiently will cost money up front, in a state that has some of the country’s most expensive real estate and is struggling to create more affordable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California home prices are more than twice the national average, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials and some builders insist that consumers and businesses will save money in the long run as utility bills shrink and the resale value of houses and commercial structures increases.\u003cbr>\nOthers view the goal as something more akin to the well-appointed homes in El Dorado Hills: a lovely thing to aspire to, difficult to reach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is, however, wide agreement on the enormity of the task, which builds on policies requiring more reliance on renewable-energy sources such as sun and wind and fostering mass transit to get cars off the road.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a long-term project,” said Andrew McAllister, a member of the California Energy Commission. “Everyone has to play a part. There’s no one big solution, no silver bullet. There is a lot of silver buckshot.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new law, created last year by Gov. Jerry Brown and the legislature, offers no blueprint for implementing a policy that could touch millions of homes and nearly every school, church, office building and shopping center in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No action is required for existing homes or commercial buildings unless they undergo significant renovations. And the law stipulates that its implementation not be financially onerous for Californians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But important questions of exactly how much the policy will ultimately cost and who will pay are unresolved, despite related legislation passed to help with the expense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_672475\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 700px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-672475\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/ENERGY-USE.png\" alt=\"A new building code will cover many existing structures.\" width=\"700\" height=\"700\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/ENERGY-USE.png 700w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/ENERGY-USE-400x400.png 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/ENERGY-USE-32x32.png 32w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/ENERGY-USE-64x64.png 64w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/ENERGY-USE-96x96.png 96w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/ENERGY-USE-128x128.png 128w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/ENERGY-USE-150x150.png 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A new building code will cover many existing structures. \u003ccite>(Val B. Mina for CALmatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There are other fundamental questions as well, such as exactly how to measure efficiency, where to start — Brown has suggested beginning with state-owned structures — and how energy upgrades will affect the state’s scarce low-income housing supply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The task of figuring things out lies largely with the Energy Commission and the Public Utilities Commission. The agencies say they hope to know by the middle of next year how to update a tangle of existing building codes and other regulations, modernize the state’s electricity grid to incorporate more renewable energy and craft an educational campaign to inform consumers of what’s coming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Air Resources Board, which regulates air quality in California, will help, as will the major utilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The details are not fleshed out. But to reach our climate targets, investing in energy efficiency is important,” said Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills), author of a landmark California law, signed in 2006 by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, that launched a comprehensive effort to combat climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s going to be costly,” Pavley said. “…To me, the challenge is how to implement the upfront capital cost.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Brown signed the energy-efficiency bill into law last year, he described the changing climate as a “catastrophe” and called on Californians to do their part.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, California has been on an energy diet for decades. Many of the state’s energy programs date to Brown’s first tenure as governor in the 1970s, a response to an oil embargo that sent gasoline prices into the stratosphere. His administration wrote energy efficiency into the building code, and California became the first state to create strict energy standards for appliances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Per capita electricity consumption here has remained mostly flat since 1975, while national energy use has gone up 50 percent, according to the federal Energy Information Assn. Additionally, even though electricity rates in California exceed the national average, residents’ annual bills are among the lowest in the country. California’s aggressive appliance standards, for example, have saved consumers $75 billion since appliance efficiency programs launched in 1978, a state analysis says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state energy commission estimates that new building codes alone will save Californians $1.6 billion over the next 30 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, although the building code is ratcheted up periodically to reflect technological advances, at least half of existing structures were erected before 1978, according to the state commission. Residential and commercial buildings account for about two-thirds of statewide electricity use, so there’s a lot of catching up to do in some quarters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the moment, and until the state’s approach is fleshed out, progress toward the government’s new targets rests heavily on the building code, which is revised every three years. It won’t fully reflect the new law until 2020, but the latest update, to take effect Jan. 1 of next year, does require a higher degree of efficiency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_672476\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1874px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-672476\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/electricity_consumption_sector-1.png\" alt=\"Residential and commercial users consume most of California's available power. \" width=\"1874\" height=\"2031\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/electricity_consumption_sector-1.png 1874w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/electricity_consumption_sector-1-400x434.png 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/electricity_consumption_sector-1-800x867.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/electricity_consumption_sector-1-768x832.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/electricity_consumption_sector-1-1440x1561.png 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/electricity_consumption_sector-1-1180x1279.png 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/05/electricity_consumption_sector-1-960x1040.png 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1874px) 100vw, 1874px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Residential and commercial users consume most of California’s available power. \u003ccite>(Source: California Energy Commission)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Starting in January, homeowners who embark on major renovations—the type that trigger permits and inspections—may have new requirements for walls and attics, need high-performance lighting or require tankless water heaters, among other items. And inspections for compliance will be, at least in the near term, the most important tool for advancing the energy-efficiency goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Homeowners, however, are less than assiduous about getting permits even when they are required: The energy commission estimates that 90 percent of residential heating and cooling upgrades, for example, are performed without official permission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Enforcement is easier for work performed on large commercial structures, which is more likely to come to the attention of inspectors and can incur heavy violation penalties. And businesses are worried.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Matthew Hargrove, Senior Vice President of governmental affairs at the California Business Properties Assn., represents owners of commercial buildings, who are concerned about the cost of upgrades. He said the last code update, in 2014, required advancements that tripled the cost of redoing lighting systems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mandate seemed simple enough, he said, but “we had lighting contractors saying the requirements were so expensive that their businesses died on the vine” when many building owners chose not to upgrade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Refurbishing buildings that have modern, more efficient infrastructures may be relatively affordable, but those structures are poor candidates to reap significant energy savings, Hargrove said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The real savings are to be found in older commercial buildings, but those are often held by owners who can least afford upgrades, Hargrove said. When a commercial building erected in the 1920s or 1930s requires major work, the cost of bringing it to code may be prohibitive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the unknowns, it seems certain that maximum residential efficiency will come with some sticker shock for homeowners. Estimates vary dramatically, depending on the extent of efficiency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jacob Atalla is Vice President of Sustainability for KB Home, which is building the technologically sophisticated houses in El Dorado Hills. He said the systems in those structures save about $1,000 annually in utility expenses. But the price tag for those houses runs about $50,000 more than for homes without so many energy-saving bells and whistles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The energy commission, however, estimates it will cost only an additional $2,700 for a new home to simply meet the building code taking effect Jan. 1. The agency estimates that over the life of a 30-year mortgage, those code requirements would save a homeowner $7,400 in energy and maintenance expenses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, a commission report last year acknowledged that most Californians stay in homes only five to eight years and “may not recoup the value of a deep retrofit project while they own the home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials point out there are ways to soften the blow. Utility companies currently offer $1 billion a year for programs, some funded by their customers, to encourage energy efficiency. Major utilities and state agencies offer rebates for homeowners who upgrade, and myriad programs help low-income families use less energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, state funds have been set aside to help aging schools upgrade. Schools spent $300 million last year on such improvements as newer windows and modern heating and cooling systems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nonetheless, there is concern that the burden of complying with the requirements will fall heavily on the poorest Californians. Nearly a third of the state’s utility customers are categorized as low-income, according to the Public Utilities Commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They currently receive about $30 million a year in federal weatherproofing assistance, according to the Public Utilities Commission. But they may need more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s important that sustainability not be defined just in terms of environmental sustainability, but equality and income sustainability,” said Tyson Slocum, director of the energy program at Public Citizen, the non-partisan public interest group. “Cost can’t be a barrier to participate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Proponents note that as technology evolves, it gets less expensive. A 2015 state report envisions an $8 billion annual private-sector efficiency marketplace, in which technology companies innovate with products and services to make energy savings reachable for more people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State officials vow that California will find a way to slash its energy footprint as it educates residents about how, and why, to do so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Part of the challenge is a relatively basic education, so that people can understand what their actions imply in terms of energy consumption,” McAllister said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The conditions are absolutely there to achieve our goals,” said, “We can do it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>CALmatters is a non-profit journalism venture dedicated to exploring state policies and politics. For more stories by Julie Cart go to calmatters.org/about/staff/julie-cart/\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "grizzly-bears-are-everywhere-in-california-but-the-woods",
"title": "Move to Return Grizzly Bears to California Will Be an Uphill Push",
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"headTitle": "Move to Return Grizzly Bears to California Will Be an Uphill Push | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Who says the grizzly bear has vanished from California? On the contrary, it’s nearly ubiquitous in the Golden State—on everything from the state flag to T-shirts and coffee mugs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, the bears themselves have been absent for nearly a century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the Gold Rush, the best guess is there were probably 10,000 grizzlies in California. But in the space of about 75 years, they were trapped and hunted into extinction. Though no one can say with certainty when the last bear expired, by 1930 even unconfirmed sightings had winked out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They can be brought back,” insists Noah Greenwald, conservation director for the Arizona-based \u003ca href=\"http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Center for Biological Diversity\u003c/a>. In 2014, it \u003ca href=\"http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/mammals/grizzly_bear/pdfs/Grizzly_Recovery_Plan_Petition_.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">petitioned\u003c/a> the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to expand areas for grizzly recovery into California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_663467\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 750px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-663467 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Darley-After-a-Day-of-Sport.jpg\" alt=\"The Gold Rush and repeating rifle proved to be the undoing of the California Grizzly. By the mid 1920s, they had been trapped and hunted into extinction.\" width=\"750\" height=\"557\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Darley-After-a-Day-of-Sport.jpg 750w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Darley-After-a-Day-of-Sport-400x297.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Gold Rush and repeating rifle proved to be the undoing of the California Grizzly. By the mid 1920s, they had been trapped and hunted into extinction. \u003ccite>(University of California/Bancroft Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That petition was denied. The agency said it didn’t want to divert resources from its efforts to rebuild the brown bears’ populations elsewhere \u003ca href=\"http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/11/141130-grizzly-reintroduction-cascades-national-park-environment/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">in the Lower 48\u003c/a>. Currently wildlife officials estimate there are no more than 2,000 grizzlies spread across Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Washington (with a much larger population in Alaska).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Certainly in Yellowstone National Park, which gets more than three million visitors a year, grizzly bears are a tremendous draw there and a real source of joy,” observes Greenwald.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And yes, they can be a source of danger. A female grizzly with cubs killed a hiker in Yellowstone last year—but bear attacks are exceedingly rare. So the Center for Biological Diversity is betting on taking its case directly to the public. It’s gathered about 13,000 signatures on an online petition, and is about to launch the next phase of a \u003ca href=\"http://bringbackthebears.org/#home\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">web and social media campaign\u003c/a> under the banner, “Bring Back the Bear.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_663472\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 465px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-663472\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000-800x450.jpg\" alt='The \"Bring Back the Bear\" campaign features a bearless state flag.' width=\"465\" height=\"262\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 465px) 100vw, 465px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The “Bring Back the Bear” campaign features a bearless state flag. \u003ccite>(Gyro/Center for Biological Diversity)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I do think it’s something—with some education and with further study—something that people could and will rally around,” Greenwald speculates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hollywood hasn’t exactly advanced the cause, doing for Grizzlies more or less what “Jaws” did for sharks—last year’s \u003ca href=\"http://oscar.go.com/news/winners/the-revenant-wins-3-2016-oscars\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Oscar nominee\u003c/a> for best picture being only the latest example. Leonardo DiCaprio’s violent encounter with a mama grizzly was likely the most talked-about scene in “The Revenant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>There Are Bears—And Then There Are Grizzlies\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Right now, the only encounter possible with a native California grizzly, is at the \u003ca href=\"http://www.californiamuseum.org/bear-mind\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">California Museum\u003c/a> in Sacramento, where Monarch, the bear that served as a model for the state flag, stands stuffed behind glass walls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clearly some prefer their grizzlies that way and they’re not alone. State wildlife officials are, to say the least, skeptical of the bid to reestablish the bears in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Listen to the Story:\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nhttp://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/science/2016/04/WEBGrizzlyBearsMiller160502.mp3\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Yellowstone grizzly recording by Bernie Krause/\u003ca href=\"http://www.wildsanctuary.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Wild Sanctuary\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marc Kenyon is a bear biologist; a big, bearded bear of a guy himself, Kenyon heads the state’s Human-Wildlife Conflict Program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That grizzly would turn this thing into a tin can in a hurry,” says Kenyon, showing me the trailers his agency uses to trap and transport injured or wayward black bears.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kenyon’s agency puts the number of black bears in California at somewhere between 30,000 and 60,000—but clearly black bears are not grizzlies, which can easily be twice the size, a thousand pounds or more. And even though the bears would be placed in remote areas, there’s no guarantee they would stay put.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One thing I can tell you about bears is that bears roam,” says Kenyon. “And they’ll roam a long distance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Center for Biological Diversity has identified nearly 8,000 square miles of potential habitat in the remote Sierra Nevada, with a smaller area near the Oregon border. Kenyon’s not sure it’s enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can only imagine how far a grizzly bear in California might roam,” he says, “in search for food, in search for mates, in search for its own habitat, its own territory.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"show-for-small-only\">\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_665058\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 750px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-665058\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Grizzly_Mobile.jpg\" alt=\"Source: Center for Biological Diversity\" width=\"750\" height=\"1135\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: Center for Biological Diversity\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"show-for-medium-up\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"sharedaddy\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-665057\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Grizzly_Desktop.jpg\" alt=\"Source: Center for Biological Diversity (Teodros Hailye/KQED)\" width=\"100%\"> Source: Center for Biological Diversity (Teodros Hailye/KQED)\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"sharedaddy\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>Even advocates, like nature journalist Jason Mark, concede that this wouldn’t be an easy lift.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t want to at all underestimate the challenge of something ambitious like this,” says Mark, author of “\u003ca href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Satellites-High-Country-Searching-Wild/dp/1610915801\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Satellites in the High Country: Searching for the Wild in the Age of Man\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says the hardest part might be “changing the way that we think of what wild nature is good for.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Is it good, for us, just as a place to go recreate and watch and look at, or does wild nature have some intrinsic rights of its own?” he asks. “And in that sense the bear does have a right to return to what was once its homeland.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mark says the large carnivores could have ecological benefits, aiding in seed dispersal and balancing populations of smaller prey animals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Kenyon isn’t convinced that it’s the best thing for species like California’s declining deer population, or even for the bears themselves at this point.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For a stable grizzly bear population, we’re looking in excess of 200 animals—that can find each other,” says Kenyon. By comparison, the Yellowstone \u003ca href=\"http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/10/151001-grizzly-bears-animals-science-conservation-nation/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">grizzly population\u003c/a> numbers about 700.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you get down to a density where the animals can’t find each other, you’re lessening the chance for them to breed,” he says, “and then you’re lessening the chance for the species to survive in the long term.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_663468\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 750px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-663468\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Merriam-Map-of-Bear-Habitat.jpg\" alt=\"C. Hart Merriam's hand-colored map shows grizzlies in widely varied habitats across California. He also identified several subspecies.\" width=\"750\" height=\"952\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Merriam-Map-of-Bear-Habitat.jpg 750w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Merriam-Map-of-Bear-Habitat-400x508.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">C. Hart Merriam’s hand-colored map shows grizzlies in widely varied habitats across California. He also identified six subspecies. \u003ccite>(University of California/Bancroft Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Grizzlies … in Oakland?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which brings us to the Oakland Zoo, where construction crews have started work on its \u003ca href=\"http://www.californiatrail.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">California Trail\u003c/a> project. The exhibit will feature the state’s iconic critters from big cats to condors, and the centerpiece will be a three-acre grizzly “habitat.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know, unfortunately they tell sort of the sad history of humans and wildlife here in California,” says Colleen Kinzley, who directs animal care, conservation and research at the zoo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want people to be aware of that,” she says. “I mean, despite the fact that the grizzly bear is on our flag and our state seal, many people don’t know that grizzlies existed in California and are really a part of this habitat and environment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”tNDxIqCQ6OM8KhFUGLYNbB9Hg9p1oQ7s”]The zoo is preparing for its first bears-in-residence sometime next year. And Kinzley says the best way to “bring back the bears” in the wild would be to let them come back on their own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can’t just plop a large predator into a location and say, ‘Alright, everybody just get along,'” she says. “The bear will lose if you don’t have complete buy-in from all the different constituencies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It would be a long shot, to be sure, but it’s theoretically possible that, say, the tiny population of \u003ca href=\"http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/11/141130-grizzly-reintroduction-cascades-national-park-environment/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">grizzlies in the Washington Cascades\u003c/a> might work their way down into California, much as wolves have \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2015/08/20/gray-wolf-pups-found-in-california-first-in-nearly-a-century/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">drifted down\u003c/a> from Oregon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It would be a long way off but I think probably easier than getting everyone to agree to bring bears from somewhere and put them in California,” says Kinzley. Kenyon agrees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In any case, it’s likely that for a long time to come, the only way to see live grizzlies in California will be with a big fence around them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Featured art by Laura Cunningham, author of \u003ca href=\"https://heydaybooks.com/book/a-state-of-change/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">A State of Change\u003c/a> and co-founder of the desert conservation group \u003ca href=\"http://www.basinandrangewatch.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Basin and Range Watch\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "A small but persistent movement to bring the grizzly back to California is about to take it to the next level.",
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"title": "Move to Return Grizzly Bears to California Will Be an Uphill Push | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Who says the grizzly bear has vanished from California? On the contrary, it’s nearly ubiquitous in the Golden State—on everything from the state flag to T-shirts and coffee mugs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, the bears themselves have been absent for nearly a century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the Gold Rush, the best guess is there were probably 10,000 grizzlies in California. But in the space of about 75 years, they were trapped and hunted into extinction. Though no one can say with certainty when the last bear expired, by 1930 even unconfirmed sightings had winked out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They can be brought back,” insists Noah Greenwald, conservation director for the Arizona-based \u003ca href=\"http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Center for Biological Diversity\u003c/a>. In 2014, it \u003ca href=\"http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/mammals/grizzly_bear/pdfs/Grizzly_Recovery_Plan_Petition_.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">petitioned\u003c/a> the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to expand areas for grizzly recovery into California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_663467\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 750px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-663467 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Darley-After-a-Day-of-Sport.jpg\" alt=\"The Gold Rush and repeating rifle proved to be the undoing of the California Grizzly. By the mid 1920s, they had been trapped and hunted into extinction.\" width=\"750\" height=\"557\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Darley-After-a-Day-of-Sport.jpg 750w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Darley-After-a-Day-of-Sport-400x297.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Gold Rush and repeating rifle proved to be the undoing of the California Grizzly. By the mid 1920s, they had been trapped and hunted into extinction. \u003ccite>(University of California/Bancroft Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That petition was denied. The agency said it didn’t want to divert resources from its efforts to rebuild the brown bears’ populations elsewhere \u003ca href=\"http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/11/141130-grizzly-reintroduction-cascades-national-park-environment/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">in the Lower 48\u003c/a>. Currently wildlife officials estimate there are no more than 2,000 grizzlies spread across Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Washington (with a much larger population in Alaska).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Certainly in Yellowstone National Park, which gets more than three million visitors a year, grizzly bears are a tremendous draw there and a real source of joy,” observes Greenwald.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And yes, they can be a source of danger. A female grizzly with cubs killed a hiker in Yellowstone last year—but bear attacks are exceedingly rare. So the Center for Biological Diversity is betting on taking its case directly to the public. It’s gathered about 13,000 signatures on an online petition, and is about to launch the next phase of a \u003ca href=\"http://bringbackthebears.org/#home\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">web and social media campaign\u003c/a> under the banner, “Bring Back the Bear.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_663472\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 465px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-663472\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000-800x450.jpg\" alt='The \"Bring Back the Bear\" campaign features a bearless state flag.' width=\"465\" height=\"262\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000-400x225.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000-1440x810.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/No-Bearflag_2000.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 465px) 100vw, 465px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The “Bring Back the Bear” campaign features a bearless state flag. \u003ccite>(Gyro/Center for Biological Diversity)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I do think it’s something—with some education and with further study—something that people could and will rally around,” Greenwald speculates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hollywood hasn’t exactly advanced the cause, doing for Grizzlies more or less what “Jaws” did for sharks—last year’s \u003ca href=\"http://oscar.go.com/news/winners/the-revenant-wins-3-2016-oscars\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Oscar nominee\u003c/a> for best picture being only the latest example. Leonardo DiCaprio’s violent encounter with a mama grizzly was likely the most talked-about scene in “The Revenant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>There Are Bears—And Then There Are Grizzlies\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Right now, the only encounter possible with a native California grizzly, is at the \u003ca href=\"http://www.californiamuseum.org/bear-mind\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">California Museum\u003c/a> in Sacramento, where Monarch, the bear that served as a model for the state flag, stands stuffed behind glass walls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clearly some prefer their grizzlies that way and they’re not alone. State wildlife officials are, to say the least, skeptical of the bid to reestablish the bears in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Listen to the Story:\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nhttp://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/science/2016/04/WEBGrizzlyBearsMiller160502.mp3\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Yellowstone grizzly recording by Bernie Krause/\u003ca href=\"http://www.wildsanctuary.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Wild Sanctuary\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marc Kenyon is a bear biologist; a big, bearded bear of a guy himself, Kenyon heads the state’s Human-Wildlife Conflict Program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That grizzly would turn this thing into a tin can in a hurry,” says Kenyon, showing me the trailers his agency uses to trap and transport injured or wayward black bears.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kenyon’s agency puts the number of black bears in California at somewhere between 30,000 and 60,000—but clearly black bears are not grizzlies, which can easily be twice the size, a thousand pounds or more. And even though the bears would be placed in remote areas, there’s no guarantee they would stay put.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One thing I can tell you about bears is that bears roam,” says Kenyon. “And they’ll roam a long distance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Center for Biological Diversity has identified nearly 8,000 square miles of potential habitat in the remote Sierra Nevada, with a smaller area near the Oregon border. Kenyon’s not sure it’s enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can only imagine how far a grizzly bear in California might roam,” he says, “in search for food, in search for mates, in search for its own habitat, its own territory.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"show-for-small-only\">\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_665058\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 750px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-665058\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Grizzly_Mobile.jpg\" alt=\"Source: Center for Biological Diversity\" width=\"750\" height=\"1135\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: Center for Biological Diversity\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"show-for-medium-up\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"sharedaddy\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-665057\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Grizzly_Desktop.jpg\" alt=\"Source: Center for Biological Diversity (Teodros Hailye/KQED)\" width=\"100%\"> Source: Center for Biological Diversity (Teodros Hailye/KQED)\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"sharedaddy\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>Even advocates, like nature journalist Jason Mark, concede that this wouldn’t be an easy lift.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t want to at all underestimate the challenge of something ambitious like this,” says Mark, author of “\u003ca href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Satellites-High-Country-Searching-Wild/dp/1610915801\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Satellites in the High Country: Searching for the Wild in the Age of Man\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says the hardest part might be “changing the way that we think of what wild nature is good for.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Is it good, for us, just as a place to go recreate and watch and look at, or does wild nature have some intrinsic rights of its own?” he asks. “And in that sense the bear does have a right to return to what was once its homeland.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mark says the large carnivores could have ecological benefits, aiding in seed dispersal and balancing populations of smaller prey animals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Kenyon isn’t convinced that it’s the best thing for species like California’s declining deer population, or even for the bears themselves at this point.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For a stable grizzly bear population, we’re looking in excess of 200 animals—that can find each other,” says Kenyon. By comparison, the Yellowstone \u003ca href=\"http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/10/151001-grizzly-bears-animals-science-conservation-nation/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">grizzly population\u003c/a> numbers about 700.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you get down to a density where the animals can’t find each other, you’re lessening the chance for them to breed,” he says, “and then you’re lessening the chance for the species to survive in the long term.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_663468\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 750px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-663468\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Merriam-Map-of-Bear-Habitat.jpg\" alt=\"C. Hart Merriam's hand-colored map shows grizzlies in widely varied habitats across California. He also identified several subspecies.\" width=\"750\" height=\"952\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Merriam-Map-of-Bear-Habitat.jpg 750w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Merriam-Map-of-Bear-Habitat-400x508.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">C. Hart Merriam’s hand-colored map shows grizzlies in widely varied habitats across California. He also identified six subspecies. \u003ccite>(University of California/Bancroft Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Grizzlies … in Oakland?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which brings us to the Oakland Zoo, where construction crews have started work on its \u003ca href=\"http://www.californiatrail.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">California Trail\u003c/a> project. The exhibit will feature the state’s iconic critters from big cats to condors, and the centerpiece will be a three-acre grizzly “habitat.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know, unfortunately they tell sort of the sad history of humans and wildlife here in California,” says Colleen Kinzley, who directs animal care, conservation and research at the zoo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want people to be aware of that,” she says. “I mean, despite the fact that the grizzly bear is on our flag and our state seal, many people don’t know that grizzlies existed in California and are really a part of this habitat and environment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>The zoo is preparing for its first bears-in-residence sometime next year. And Kinzley says the best way to “bring back the bears” in the wild would be to let them come back on their own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can’t just plop a large predator into a location and say, ‘Alright, everybody just get along,'” she says. “The bear will lose if you don’t have complete buy-in from all the different constituencies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It would be a long shot, to be sure, but it’s theoretically possible that, say, the tiny population of \u003ca href=\"http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/11/141130-grizzly-reintroduction-cascades-national-park-environment/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">grizzlies in the Washington Cascades\u003c/a> might work their way down into California, much as wolves have \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2015/08/20/gray-wolf-pups-found-in-california-first-in-nearly-a-century/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">drifted down\u003c/a> from Oregon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It would be a long way off but I think probably easier than getting everyone to agree to bring bears from somewhere and put them in California,” says Kinzley. Kenyon agrees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In any case, it’s likely that for a long time to come, the only way to see live grizzlies in California will be with a big fence around them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Featured art by Laura Cunningham, author of \u003ca href=\"https://heydaybooks.com/book/a-state-of-change/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">A State of Change\u003c/a> and co-founder of the desert conservation group \u003ca href=\"http://www.basinandrangewatch.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Basin and Range Watch\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Opinion: It’s Time to Bring the Grizzly Bear Back to California",
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"content": "\u003cp>In the mid-19th century, there were as many as 10,000 brown bears in California — a greater population density than in Alaska today. The last documented sighting was in 1924. Now all that remains is the profile of the powerful bruin on the state flag.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No doubt some people will freak out at the prospect of the Lower 48’s biggest predator haunting the woods. But there are good reasons to return the animal to the Bear Flag Republic. Grizzly reintroduction would have clear ecological benefits. And it would have cultural benefits, too, by prompting us to rethink what nature is “good for.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California is already crawling with predators. We have mountain lions in Los Angeles — where the Internet-famous “\u003ca href=\"http://www.urbancarnivores.com/p22-the-hollywood-lion/\">Hollywood Lion\u003c/a>” stalks mule dear in Griffith Park — and one in San Francisco, too, where \u003ca href=\"http://www.businessinsider.com/r-mountain-lion-spotted-roaming-around-san-francisco-2015-7\">a cougar was captured on a security camera\u003c/a> last summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘The presence of grizzlies and mountain lions and wolves are reminders that nature in its wilder states is not here to serve us’\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The reappearance of mountain lions is an example of what conservation biologists call “rewilding.” In some instances, like that of the mountain lion, the wild animals find their way back on their own. In other cases, state or federal agencies have made determined efforts to bring back animals hunted and trapped to oblivion or pushed out by development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reintroduction of gray wolves to the Northern Rockies in the late 1990s is the best-known rewilding story. Twenty-one years after wolves were returned to Yellowstone National Park, there is an established population and some have migrated as far as Northern California, where, in August, a pack was confirmed in the state for the first time since 1924.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The return of the gray wolf to the rural West has been hugely controversial, marked by serial court cases, Capitol Hill maneuverings, vigilantism (in the form of poaching animals listed as endangered) and fiery debates that have scorched western communities. For many ranchers and hunters, the return of the wolf represents a dangerous surrendering of human control over the landscape. To supporters of rewilding, the success of the wolf is a kind of ecological restorative justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_654142\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 750px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-654142\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Sheet-Music-I-Love-You-CA.jpg\" alt=\"Grizzlies appear to have loved California's varied habitats--but do Californians love the bears enough to bring them back?\" width=\"750\" height=\"1020\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Sheet-Music-I-Love-You-CA.jpg 750w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Sheet-Music-I-Love-You-CA-400x544.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grizzlies appear to have loved California’s varied habitats–but do Californians love the bears enough to bring them back? \u003ccite>(University of California/Bancroft Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Bringing back grizzly bears to California is the latest rewilding idea. Last year, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/\">Center for Biological Diversity\u003c/a>, an Arizona-based conservation group, filed a petition with the \u003ca href=\"http://www.fws.gov/\">U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service\u003c/a> to consider reintroducing the grizzly in the Southwest and California. The agency denied the request, and now the organization plans to petition the \u003ca href=\"https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/\">California Department of Fish and Wildlife\u003c/a> to bring back the bear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Grizzly bears were a common part of the California landscape and had been there for eons, and we wiped them out,” says \u003ca href=\"http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/about/staff/index.html#noah\">Noah Greenwald\u003c/a>, the endangered species coordinator at the Center for Biological Diversity. “By bringing them back we would be righting a historic wrong.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_663460\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 689px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-663460\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Coho-griz-negative-copy103-copy.jpg\" alt=\"Grizzlies originally occupied varied habitats in California, including river valleys during seasons when salmon were plentiful.\" width=\"689\" height=\"856\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Coho-griz-negative-copy103-copy.jpg 689w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Coho-griz-negative-copy103-copy-400x497.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 689px) 100vw, 689px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grizzlies originally occupied varied habitats in California, including river valleys during seasons when salmon were plentiful. \u003ccite>(Laura Cunningham/Basin and Range Watch)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Returning grizzlies to California would have real ecological advantages. Wildlife biologists have shown that restoring large predators to a landscape can have consequences that ripple across an ecosystem. This phenomenon is called “trophic cascades.” Imagine: a wolf reappears on the scene. Suddenly, the elk and deer have to be alert. Their newly cautious behavior gives aspen and willow a chance to thrive, which provide fresh habitat for beaver and songbirds.\u003ca href=\"https://environment.yale.edu/profile/david-mattson/\"> David Mattson\u003c/a>, a lecturer at the \u003ca href=\"http://environment.yale.edu/\">Yale School of Forestry\u003c/a>, says grizzlies would have “demonstrable ecosystem effects” were they reintroduced to California. Brown bears would assist with seed dispersal and soil aeration as they tear into the ground hunting for gophers and voles. Coastal grizzly would move nutrients upstream and inland via their consumption of spawning salmon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But state wildlife officials are cool on the idea. “Grizzly bears traditionally would roam oak woodlands and even beaches and eat whale carcasses and whatnot,” says California Fish and Wildlife spokesperson \u003ca href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-traverso-895208a\">Jordan Traverso\u003c/a>. “So you’d be introducing them in places where people are now, not the typical black bear habitat. So we are not supportive of that proposal, even a little bit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_654222\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-654222 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Bears-whale.jpeg\" alt=\"Grizzly bears feeding on a beached whale carcass, as imagined by artist Laura Cunningham.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Bears-whale.jpeg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Bears-whale-400x256.jpeg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Bears-whale-800x512.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Bears-whale-768x492.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Bears-whale-1440x922.jpeg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Bears-whale-1920x1230.jpeg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Bears-whale-1180x756.jpeg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Bears-whale-960x615.jpeg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grizzly bears feeding on a beached whale carcass, as imagined by artist Laura Cunningham. \u003ccite>(Laura Cunningham/Basin and Range Watch)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Still, the idea is not as outlandish as it might sound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A study of Europe published in the journal Science found that large carnivores are successfully sharing landscapes with people. Some 17,000 brown bears (\u003cem>Ursus arctos\u003c/em>, essentially the same species as the North American grizzly) live in 22 European countries, making the bear the most abundant large carnivore on the continent. Europe is also home to 12,000 wolves, twice as many as in the United States, despite the continent having twice the population density. The study found that large carnivores “have shown an ability to recolonize areas with moderate human densities if they are allowed, and to persist in highly human-dominated landscapes and in the proximity of urban areas.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://web.stanford.edu/~mwlewis/\">Martin Lewis\u003c/a>, a geographer at \u003ca href=\"http://www.stanford.edu/\">Stanford\u003c/a> who has studied the politics of rewilding, says the problem with grizzly reintroduction is not a lack of suitable habitat. But, he says, “there are questions about coexistence. People can learn to live with them, but there will be trade-offs. There will be encounters, and some of those encounters will be negative.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”yXiMJJ9nodz2h61dfgro0bCts8PBMEwe”]Let’s face it. Wolves eat cattle and prized game like elk. Grizzlies sometimes attack backpackers. Mountain lions sometimes go after hikers. Acknowledging such dangers is not being callous toward human life, but recognizes that the lives of these animals, and the role they play in the environment, also matter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The risks are worth it. The presence of grizzlies and mountain lions and wolves are reminders that nature in its wilder states is not here to serve us, and that wild animals and wild places have their own interests. Can we cohabitate with wild animals though they might pose a threat to us?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such coexistence will require us to rethink some of our assumptions about wild nature. Do we want nature to always conform neatly to human desires — a garden to be tended by our hands, or an idyllic retreat imagined by the Romantics? Or are we willing to live with a nature that is wilder? A nature that is uncontrolled, unpredictable, and possibly dangerous. One where you could end up as lunch if you’re not careful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To accept the return of large carnivores will demand a selflessness to which, as a species, we are unaccustomed. It will also require a measure of courage. After all, it’s easy to love a nature that just looks pretty. It’s a much more difficult task to live with a nature that can be threatening — a wolf pack in the pasture, a lion on the prowl under streetlights and, yes, grizzlies in the woods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Jason Mark is the author of “\u003ca href=\"http://www.islandpress.org/book/satellites-in-the-high-country\">Satellites in the High Country: Searching for the Wild in the Age of Man\u003c/a>” and editor of Sierra magazine.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Featured art by Laura Cunningham, author of \u003ca href=\"https://heydaybooks.com/book/a-state-of-change/\">A State of Change\u003c/a> and co-founder of the desert conservation group \u003ca href=\"http://www.basinandrangewatch.org/\">Basin and Range Watch\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "A naturalist and author argues that the state's symbol belongs back in the state — and not just on t-shirts and coffee mugs.",
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"title": "Opinion: It’s Time to Bring the Grizzly Bear Back to California | KQED",
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"headline": "Opinion: It’s Time to Bring the Grizzly Bear Back to California",
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"nprByline": "\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/authors/jason-mark\" target=\"_blank\">Jason Mark\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>, \u003ca href=\"http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra\" target=\"_blank\">Sierra Magazine\u003c/a>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In the mid-19th century, there were as many as 10,000 brown bears in California — a greater population density than in Alaska today. The last documented sighting was in 1924. Now all that remains is the profile of the powerful bruin on the state flag.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No doubt some people will freak out at the prospect of the Lower 48’s biggest predator haunting the woods. But there are good reasons to return the animal to the Bear Flag Republic. Grizzly reintroduction would have clear ecological benefits. And it would have cultural benefits, too, by prompting us to rethink what nature is “good for.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California is already crawling with predators. We have mountain lions in Los Angeles — where the Internet-famous “\u003ca href=\"http://www.urbancarnivores.com/p22-the-hollywood-lion/\">Hollywood Lion\u003c/a>” stalks mule dear in Griffith Park — and one in San Francisco, too, where \u003ca href=\"http://www.businessinsider.com/r-mountain-lion-spotted-roaming-around-san-francisco-2015-7\">a cougar was captured on a security camera\u003c/a> last summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘The presence of grizzlies and mountain lions and wolves are reminders that nature in its wilder states is not here to serve us’\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The reappearance of mountain lions is an example of what conservation biologists call “rewilding.” In some instances, like that of the mountain lion, the wild animals find their way back on their own. In other cases, state or federal agencies have made determined efforts to bring back animals hunted and trapped to oblivion or pushed out by development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reintroduction of gray wolves to the Northern Rockies in the late 1990s is the best-known rewilding story. Twenty-one years after wolves were returned to Yellowstone National Park, there is an established population and some have migrated as far as Northern California, where, in August, a pack was confirmed in the state for the first time since 1924.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The return of the gray wolf to the rural West has been hugely controversial, marked by serial court cases, Capitol Hill maneuverings, vigilantism (in the form of poaching animals listed as endangered) and fiery debates that have scorched western communities. For many ranchers and hunters, the return of the wolf represents a dangerous surrendering of human control over the landscape. To supporters of rewilding, the success of the wolf is a kind of ecological restorative justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_654142\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 750px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-654142\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Sheet-Music-I-Love-You-CA.jpg\" alt=\"Grizzlies appear to have loved California's varied habitats--but do Californians love the bears enough to bring them back?\" width=\"750\" height=\"1020\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Sheet-Music-I-Love-You-CA.jpg 750w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Sheet-Music-I-Love-You-CA-400x544.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grizzlies appear to have loved California’s varied habitats–but do Californians love the bears enough to bring them back? \u003ccite>(University of California/Bancroft Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Bringing back grizzly bears to California is the latest rewilding idea. Last year, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/\">Center for Biological Diversity\u003c/a>, an Arizona-based conservation group, filed a petition with the \u003ca href=\"http://www.fws.gov/\">U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service\u003c/a> to consider reintroducing the grizzly in the Southwest and California. The agency denied the request, and now the organization plans to petition the \u003ca href=\"https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/\">California Department of Fish and Wildlife\u003c/a> to bring back the bear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Grizzly bears were a common part of the California landscape and had been there for eons, and we wiped them out,” says \u003ca href=\"http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/about/staff/index.html#noah\">Noah Greenwald\u003c/a>, the endangered species coordinator at the Center for Biological Diversity. “By bringing them back we would be righting a historic wrong.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_663460\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 689px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-663460\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Coho-griz-negative-copy103-copy.jpg\" alt=\"Grizzlies originally occupied varied habitats in California, including river valleys during seasons when salmon were plentiful.\" width=\"689\" height=\"856\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Coho-griz-negative-copy103-copy.jpg 689w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Coho-griz-negative-copy103-copy-400x497.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 689px) 100vw, 689px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grizzlies originally occupied varied habitats in California, including river valleys during seasons when salmon were plentiful. \u003ccite>(Laura Cunningham/Basin and Range Watch)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Returning grizzlies to California would have real ecological advantages. Wildlife biologists have shown that restoring large predators to a landscape can have consequences that ripple across an ecosystem. This phenomenon is called “trophic cascades.” Imagine: a wolf reappears on the scene. Suddenly, the elk and deer have to be alert. Their newly cautious behavior gives aspen and willow a chance to thrive, which provide fresh habitat for beaver and songbirds.\u003ca href=\"https://environment.yale.edu/profile/david-mattson/\"> David Mattson\u003c/a>, a lecturer at the \u003ca href=\"http://environment.yale.edu/\">Yale School of Forestry\u003c/a>, says grizzlies would have “demonstrable ecosystem effects” were they reintroduced to California. Brown bears would assist with seed dispersal and soil aeration as they tear into the ground hunting for gophers and voles. Coastal grizzly would move nutrients upstream and inland via their consumption of spawning salmon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But state wildlife officials are cool on the idea. “Grizzly bears traditionally would roam oak woodlands and even beaches and eat whale carcasses and whatnot,” says California Fish and Wildlife spokesperson \u003ca href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-traverso-895208a\">Jordan Traverso\u003c/a>. “So you’d be introducing them in places where people are now, not the typical black bear habitat. So we are not supportive of that proposal, even a little bit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_654222\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-654222 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Bears-whale.jpeg\" alt=\"Grizzly bears feeding on a beached whale carcass, as imagined by artist Laura Cunningham.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Bears-whale.jpeg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Bears-whale-400x256.jpeg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Bears-whale-800x512.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Bears-whale-768x492.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Bears-whale-1440x922.jpeg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Bears-whale-1920x1230.jpeg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Bears-whale-1180x756.jpeg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Bears-whale-960x615.jpeg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grizzly bears feeding on a beached whale carcass, as imagined by artist Laura Cunningham. \u003ccite>(Laura Cunningham/Basin and Range Watch)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Still, the idea is not as outlandish as it might sound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A study of Europe published in the journal Science found that large carnivores are successfully sharing landscapes with people. Some 17,000 brown bears (\u003cem>Ursus arctos\u003c/em>, essentially the same species as the North American grizzly) live in 22 European countries, making the bear the most abundant large carnivore on the continent. Europe is also home to 12,000 wolves, twice as many as in the United States, despite the continent having twice the population density. The study found that large carnivores “have shown an ability to recolonize areas with moderate human densities if they are allowed, and to persist in highly human-dominated landscapes and in the proximity of urban areas.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://web.stanford.edu/~mwlewis/\">Martin Lewis\u003c/a>, a geographer at \u003ca href=\"http://www.stanford.edu/\">Stanford\u003c/a> who has studied the politics of rewilding, says the problem with grizzly reintroduction is not a lack of suitable habitat. But, he says, “there are questions about coexistence. People can learn to live with them, but there will be trade-offs. There will be encounters, and some of those encounters will be negative.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>Let’s face it. Wolves eat cattle and prized game like elk. Grizzlies sometimes attack backpackers. Mountain lions sometimes go after hikers. Acknowledging such dangers is not being callous toward human life, but recognizes that the lives of these animals, and the role they play in the environment, also matter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The risks are worth it. The presence of grizzlies and mountain lions and wolves are reminders that nature in its wilder states is not here to serve us, and that wild animals and wild places have their own interests. Can we cohabitate with wild animals though they might pose a threat to us?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such coexistence will require us to rethink some of our assumptions about wild nature. Do we want nature to always conform neatly to human desires — a garden to be tended by our hands, or an idyllic retreat imagined by the Romantics? Or are we willing to live with a nature that is wilder? A nature that is uncontrolled, unpredictable, and possibly dangerous. One where you could end up as lunch if you’re not careful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To accept the return of large carnivores will demand a selflessness to which, as a species, we are unaccustomed. It will also require a measure of courage. After all, it’s easy to love a nature that just looks pretty. It’s a much more difficult task to live with a nature that can be threatening — a wolf pack in the pasture, a lion on the prowl under streetlights and, yes, grizzlies in the woods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Jason Mark is the author of “\u003ca href=\"http://www.islandpress.org/book/satellites-in-the-high-country\">Satellites in the High Country: Searching for the Wild in the Age of Man\u003c/a>” and editor of Sierra magazine.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Featured art by Laura Cunningham, author of \u003ca href=\"https://heydaybooks.com/book/a-state-of-change/\">A State of Change\u003c/a> and co-founder of the desert conservation group \u003ca href=\"http://www.basinandrangewatch.org/\">Basin and Range Watch\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Weasel Apparently Shuts Down World's Most Powerful Particle Collider",
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"content": "\u003cp>A small mammal has sabotaged the world’s most powerful scientific instrument.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://home.cern/topics/large-hadron-collider\">Large Hadron Collider\u003c/a>, a 17-mile superconducting machine designed to smash protons together at close to the speed of light, went offline overnight. Engineers investigating the mishap found the charred remains of a furry creature near a gnawed-through power cable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had electrical problems, and we are pretty sure this was caused by a small animal,” says Arnaud Marsollier, head of press for \u003ca href=\"http://home.cern/\">CERN\u003c/a>, the organization that runs the $7 billion particle collider in Switzerland. Although they had not conducted a thorough analysis of the remains, Marsollier says they believe the creature was “a weasel, probably.” (Update: An \u003ca href=\"http://indico.cern.ch/event/506407/contributions/1184968/attachments/1265776/1873815/LHC_29042016.pdf\">official briefing document\u003c/a> from CERN indicates the creature may have been a marten.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The shutdown comes as the LHC was preparing to collect new data on the Higgs Boson, a fundamental particle \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2012/07/04/156221787/cern-says-its-detected-a-new-particle-likely-the-higgs-boson\">it discovered\u003c/a> in 2012. The Higgs is believed to endow other particles with mass, and it is considered to be a cornerstone of the modern theory of particle physics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers have seen some hints in recent data that other, yet-undiscovered particles might also be generated inside the LHC. If those other particles exist, they could revolutionize researcher’s understanding of everything from the laws of gravity, to quantum mechanics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unfortunately, Marsollier says, scientists will have to wait while workers bring the machine back online. Repairs will take a few days, but getting the machine fully ready to smash might take another week or two. “It may be mid-May,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These sorts of mishaps are not unheard of, says Marsollier. The LHC is located outside of Geneva. “We are in the countryside, and of course we have wild animals everywhere.” There have been previous incidents, including one in 2009, when a bird is believed to have \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.nature.com/news/2009/11/exclusive_interview_baguette_b.html\">dropped a baguette\u003c/a> onto critical electrical systems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nor are the problems exclusive to the LHC: In 2006, raccoons conducted a \u003ca href=\"http://www.fnal.gov/pub/today/archive/archive_2006/today06-06-19.html\">“coordinated” attack\u003c/a> on a particle accelerator in Illinois.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is unclear whether the animals are trying to stop humanity from unlocking the secrets of the universe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, small mammals cause problems in all sorts of organizations. Yesterday, \u003ca href=\"http://gawker.com/little-scamp-causes-full-minute-of-dead-air-on-npr-on-t-1773672095\">a group of children took National Public Radio off the air for over a minute\u003c/a> before engineers could restore the broadcast.\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=Weasel+Apparently+Shuts+Down+World%27s+Most+Powerful+Particle+Collider&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "The Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland is offline, following a run-in with a small mammal that munched on a power cord.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A small mammal has sabotaged the world’s most powerful scientific instrument.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://home.cern/topics/large-hadron-collider\">Large Hadron Collider\u003c/a>, a 17-mile superconducting machine designed to smash protons together at close to the speed of light, went offline overnight. Engineers investigating the mishap found the charred remains of a furry creature near a gnawed-through power cable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had electrical problems, and we are pretty sure this was caused by a small animal,” says Arnaud Marsollier, head of press for \u003ca href=\"http://home.cern/\">CERN\u003c/a>, the organization that runs the $7 billion particle collider in Switzerland. Although they had not conducted a thorough analysis of the remains, Marsollier says they believe the creature was “a weasel, probably.” (Update: An \u003ca href=\"http://indico.cern.ch/event/506407/contributions/1184968/attachments/1265776/1873815/LHC_29042016.pdf\">official briefing document\u003c/a> from CERN indicates the creature may have been a marten.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The shutdown comes as the LHC was preparing to collect new data on the Higgs Boson, a fundamental particle \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2012/07/04/156221787/cern-says-its-detected-a-new-particle-likely-the-higgs-boson\">it discovered\u003c/a> in 2012. The Higgs is believed to endow other particles with mass, and it is considered to be a cornerstone of the modern theory of particle physics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers have seen some hints in recent data that other, yet-undiscovered particles might also be generated inside the LHC. If those other particles exist, they could revolutionize researcher’s understanding of everything from the laws of gravity, to quantum mechanics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unfortunately, Marsollier says, scientists will have to wait while workers bring the machine back online. Repairs will take a few days, but getting the machine fully ready to smash might take another week or two. “It may be mid-May,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These sorts of mishaps are not unheard of, says Marsollier. The LHC is located outside of Geneva. “We are in the countryside, and of course we have wild animals everywhere.” There have been previous incidents, including one in 2009, when a bird is believed to have \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.nature.com/news/2009/11/exclusive_interview_baguette_b.html\">dropped a baguette\u003c/a> onto critical electrical systems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nor are the problems exclusive to the LHC: In 2006, raccoons conducted a \u003ca href=\"http://www.fnal.gov/pub/today/archive/archive_2006/today06-06-19.html\">“coordinated” attack\u003c/a> on a particle accelerator in Illinois.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is unclear whether the animals are trying to stop humanity from unlocking the secrets of the universe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, small mammals cause problems in all sorts of organizations. Yesterday, \u003ca href=\"http://gawker.com/little-scamp-causes-full-minute-of-dead-air-on-npr-on-t-1773672095\">a group of children took National Public Radio off the air for over a minute\u003c/a> before engineers could restore the broadcast.\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=Weasel+Apparently+Shuts+Down+World%27s+Most+Powerful+Particle+Collider&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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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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"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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"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.",
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"possible": {
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"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.",
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"pri-the-world": {
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"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.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
"title": "Radiolab",
"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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},
"reveal": {
"id": "reveal",
"title": "Reveal",
"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
"airtime": "SAT 4pm-5pm",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
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},
"rightnowish": {
"id": "rightnowish",
"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
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