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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"audio-wrap\">\n\u003ch2>Listen:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/science/2014/03/20140317science.mp3\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15424\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15424\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/pteropod3.gif\" alt=\"In lab tests, acidic waters have dissolved the shells of pteropods when they're still alive. (Woods Hole Oceanic Institution)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In lab tests, acidic waters have dissolved the shells of pteropods when they’re still alive. (Woods Hole Oceanic Institution)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Earlier this year, managers at a hatchery near Vancouver, Canada announced they had \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2014/02/26/acidic-water-blamed-for-bcs-10-million-scallop-die-off/\">lost three years’ worth of scallops\u003c/a> — 10 million animals — to acidic ocean waters. They laid off staff and shut down a processing plant. This was \u003ca href=\"http://earthfix.kcts9.org/water/article/acid-water-take-toll-on-puget-sound-shellfish/\">not the first time\u003c/a> a West Coast shellfish hatchery lost stock to the phenomenon known as ocean acidification.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This has been happening at the hatcheries,” said Richard Feely, a senior scientist at the \u003ca href=\"http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/story/Ocean+Acidification\">National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration\u003c/a>. Feely studies the process by which carbon dioxide absorbed from the atmosphere gradually turns ocean waters more acidic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When these corrosive waters get into the hatcheries of our shell-forming shellfish species, for example oyster larvae on the Washington, Oregon coast, they can kill the oyster larvae within two days,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ocean acidification is worse off the West Coast than anywhere else in North America, and threatens animals up and down the food chain. Scientists are now studying how these corrosive waters are already affecting West Coast marine life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15419\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 264px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-15419 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/FAirweather_2491_small-897x1024.jpg\" alt=\"The Fairweather is one of the research vessels NOAA uses for ocean acidification studies. (NOAA) \" width=\"264\" height=\"301\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Fairweather is one of the research vessels NOAA uses for ocean acidification studies. (NOAA)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For instance, corrosive waters also dissolve the shells of tiny marine snails called pteropods, a favorite food of some salmon species. The dissolution in some cases happens when the animal is still alive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This matters not just if you happen to be a shellfish, or like to eat them — or if you depend on fisheries for your livelihood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can see how this would permeate through the food chain,” said Feely. “From the lowest levels of the food chain up to the highest level. Organisms that mankind really worries about.” Not just salmon and shellfish, he said, but also seals, whales, seabirds and — eventually — us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Feely is leading NOAA’s effort to study the effects of ocean acidification, including what’s happening to pteropods. Since 2007, NOAA has periodically sent ships doing ocean acidification research up and down the West Coast. The ships bristle with scientific equipment, and researchers pack on board to conduct various studies. There was a \u003ca href=\"http://oceanacidification.noaa.gov/WhatsNew/CruiseBlog.aspx\">research cruise last summer\u003c/a>; the next one is scheduled for 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Chemistry of Corrosive Water\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s what’s going on. Humans release a lot of carbon dioxide by burning fossil fuels. Most of that CO2 goes up into the atmosphere and traps heat. That’s what’s contributing to climate change. The rest, about one-quarter of all anthropogenic CO2, gets absorbed by the ocean instead.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘We can actually identify that this is manmade.’\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>For a while, Feely explained, scientists thought that was a good thing. The thinking went, if the ocean absorbed all that carbon dioxide, then it was keeping climate change from being that much worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They don’t think that any more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re beginning to see that this is a very serious problem,” he said. That’s because when the carbon dioxide goes into the ocean, it reacts with water to form carbonic acid (the stuff that gives mineral water its fizz).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”9cbdccd6169afce40db970551f29bf12″]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That sets off a chain of chemical reactions. The end result is, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/story/What+is+Ocean+Acidification%3F\">pH of the oceans is changing\u003c/a>, and the supply of calcium carbonate minerals, the stuff that shellfish use to build their shells, is decreasing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have been able to measure the change in the acidity of the oceans since the Pre-Industrial,” Feely said. “It would be about 26% because of the uptake of carbon dioxide. This is what mankind has done.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the Industrial Age began, he said, humans have dumped about 550 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the oceans. “And we can actually identify that this is manmade,” he said, because the carbon atoms have a unique fingerprint that shows they come from burning fossil fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Why It’s Worse Here\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reason ocean acidification is so bad here on the West Coast is, ironically, also why our coast is so rich with marine life: coastal upwelling.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘You’re asking the organisms to adapt to changes that are in many cases 10 to 100 times faster than anything they’ve seen in the geological past.’\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>In the summer the wind shifts, Feely explained, and it pulls the water at the surface of the ocean away from shore. Then, water from deeper in the ocean rises up to replace it. That deep ocean water is full of stuff that decayed and sank. That means it’s full of nutrients. And it has more carbon dioxide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you have the combined impact of CO2-rich water from the bottom and an additional anthropogenic CO2 from human kind, that combined impact is what has put us over the threshold for these corrosive waters to exist,” said Feely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Past and Future Change\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ocean acidification has happened before in Earth’s history, but Feely said changes on the scale happening now took place over hundreds of thousands or even millions of years. Not a couple of centuries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’re asking the organisms to adapt to changes that are in many cases 10 to 100 times faster than anything they’ve seen in the geological past,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are some small local solutions. Feely has helped oyster hatcheries monitor and prepare for more corrosive waters. And he says they could consider locating hatcheries near seagrass, which takes up carbon dioxide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for the vast oceans, Feely is focused now on monitoring, so he can see the changes as they take place.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/div>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15424\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15424\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/pteropod3.gif\" alt=\"In lab tests, acidic waters have dissolved the shells of pteropods when they're still alive. (Woods Hole Oceanic Institution)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In lab tests, acidic waters have dissolved the shells of pteropods when they’re still alive. (Woods Hole Oceanic Institution)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Earlier this year, managers at a hatchery near Vancouver, Canada announced they had \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2014/02/26/acidic-water-blamed-for-bcs-10-million-scallop-die-off/\">lost three years’ worth of scallops\u003c/a> — 10 million animals — to acidic ocean waters. They laid off staff and shut down a processing plant. This was \u003ca href=\"http://earthfix.kcts9.org/water/article/acid-water-take-toll-on-puget-sound-shellfish/\">not the first time\u003c/a> a West Coast shellfish hatchery lost stock to the phenomenon known as ocean acidification.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This has been happening at the hatcheries,” said Richard Feely, a senior scientist at the \u003ca href=\"http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/story/Ocean+Acidification\">National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration\u003c/a>. Feely studies the process by which carbon dioxide absorbed from the atmosphere gradually turns ocean waters more acidic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When these corrosive waters get into the hatcheries of our shell-forming shellfish species, for example oyster larvae on the Washington, Oregon coast, they can kill the oyster larvae within two days,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ocean acidification is worse off the West Coast than anywhere else in North America, and threatens animals up and down the food chain. Scientists are now studying how these corrosive waters are already affecting West Coast marine life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15419\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 264px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-15419 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/FAirweather_2491_small-897x1024.jpg\" alt=\"The Fairweather is one of the research vessels NOAA uses for ocean acidification studies. (NOAA) \" width=\"264\" height=\"301\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Fairweather is one of the research vessels NOAA uses for ocean acidification studies. (NOAA)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For instance, corrosive waters also dissolve the shells of tiny marine snails called pteropods, a favorite food of some salmon species. The dissolution in some cases happens when the animal is still alive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This matters not just if you happen to be a shellfish, or like to eat them — or if you depend on fisheries for your livelihood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can see how this would permeate through the food chain,” said Feely. “From the lowest levels of the food chain up to the highest level. Organisms that mankind really worries about.” Not just salmon and shellfish, he said, but also seals, whales, seabirds and — eventually — us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Feely is leading NOAA’s effort to study the effects of ocean acidification, including what’s happening to pteropods. Since 2007, NOAA has periodically sent ships doing ocean acidification research up and down the West Coast. The ships bristle with scientific equipment, and researchers pack on board to conduct various studies. There was a \u003ca href=\"http://oceanacidification.noaa.gov/WhatsNew/CruiseBlog.aspx\">research cruise last summer\u003c/a>; the next one is scheduled for 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Chemistry of Corrosive Water\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s what’s going on. Humans release a lot of carbon dioxide by burning fossil fuels. Most of that CO2 goes up into the atmosphere and traps heat. That’s what’s contributing to climate change. The rest, about one-quarter of all anthropogenic CO2, gets absorbed by the ocean instead.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘We can actually identify that this is manmade.’\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>For a while, Feely explained, scientists thought that was a good thing. The thinking went, if the ocean absorbed all that carbon dioxide, then it was keeping climate change from being that much worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They don’t think that any more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re beginning to see that this is a very serious problem,” he said. That’s because when the carbon dioxide goes into the ocean, it reacts with water to form carbonic acid (the stuff that gives mineral water its fizz).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That sets off a chain of chemical reactions. The end result is, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/story/What+is+Ocean+Acidification%3F\">pH of the oceans is changing\u003c/a>, and the supply of calcium carbonate minerals, the stuff that shellfish use to build their shells, is decreasing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have been able to measure the change in the acidity of the oceans since the Pre-Industrial,” Feely said. “It would be about 26% because of the uptake of carbon dioxide. This is what mankind has done.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the Industrial Age began, he said, humans have dumped about 550 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the oceans. “And we can actually identify that this is manmade,” he said, because the carbon atoms have a unique fingerprint that shows they come from burning fossil fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Why It’s Worse Here\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reason ocean acidification is so bad here on the West Coast is, ironically, also why our coast is so rich with marine life: coastal upwelling.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘You’re asking the organisms to adapt to changes that are in many cases 10 to 100 times faster than anything they’ve seen in the geological past.’\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>In the summer the wind shifts, Feely explained, and it pulls the water at the surface of the ocean away from shore. Then, water from deeper in the ocean rises up to replace it. That deep ocean water is full of stuff that decayed and sank. That means it’s full of nutrients. And it has more carbon dioxide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you have the combined impact of CO2-rich water from the bottom and an additional anthropogenic CO2 from human kind, that combined impact is what has put us over the threshold for these corrosive waters to exist,” said Feely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Past and Future Change\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ocean acidification has happened before in Earth’s history, but Feely said changes on the scale happening now took place over hundreds of thousands or even millions of years. Not a couple of centuries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’re asking the organisms to adapt to changes that are in many cases 10 to 100 times faster than anything they’ve seen in the geological past,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are some small local solutions. Feely has helped oyster hatcheries monitor and prepare for more corrosive waters. And he says they could consider locating hatcheries near seagrass, which takes up carbon dioxide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for the vast oceans, Feely is focused now on monitoring, so he can see the changes as they take place.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "California Shakin': 'We've Got a Lot of Earthquakes Ahead of Us'",
"headTitle": "California Shakin’: ‘We’ve Got a Lot of Earthquakes Ahead of Us’ | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15346\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15346\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/deg00013.jpg\" alt=\"The 1906 earthquake (USGS)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A woman surveys earthquake damage following the 1906 San Francisco quake. (USGS)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This is not exactly a news flash for long-time Californians. But scientists are starting to put more numbers on the inevitability that we all live with.\u003cbr>\n[contextly_sidebar id=”75eb0649d1156d7ece36bc7630c70ad7″]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>David Schwartz, U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, \u003ca title=\"Q-Forum - show\" href=\"http://www.kqed.org/a/forum/R201403120930\">told listeners to KQED’s Forum program\u003c/a> that there’s a 63 percent chance of a major quake on the San Andreas Fault sometime in the next 22 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Apparently that’s not enough to worry about, so Schwartz was joined on the program by \u003ca title=\"Am Scientist - bio\" href=\"https://www.americanscientist.org/authors/detail/john-dvorak\">John Dvorak\u003c/a>, author of “\u003ca title=\"Kirkus - review\" href=\"https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/john-dvorak/earthquake-storms/\">Earthquake Storms: The Fascinating History and Volatile Future of the San Andreas Fault\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘Earthquakes are not random events.’\u003ccite>John Dvorak, Geologist\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“Earthquakes are not random events,” said Dvorak, a former USGS scientist. “Earthquakes are clustered in time and space.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the 1906 San Francisco quake represented a break along the northern section of the San Andreas Fault. A middle section north of Los Angeles broke in 1857, “but that southern part, south of Palm Springs, that hasn’t broken since 1680,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Contrary to the popular conception that a quake releases pressure along the fault, thus postponing the next temblor, Dvorak said the likelihood of a second quake rises with the first one. During any given three-day span, he said the odds of a magnitude 7 or larger quake are about 1:100,000 in California. But when a magnitude 7 earthquake occurs, he said the odds of another one at least as big in the next three days go to about 1-in-10.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You don’t need to panic,” said Dvorak. “You just need to have a heightened awareness that the ground could shake again soon.” Schwartz agreed that we can look forward to a whole lotta shakin’ going on. “We’ve got a lot of earthquakes ahead of us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And behind us. Schwartz said that seismologists have a “pretty complete record” going back to about 1600 and that we’ve been enjoying an eerily quiet interval. The hundred years or so starting around 1680, “literally every fault in the Bay Area” produced large earthquakes, releasing “almost as much energy as the 1906 earthquake.” After that, Schwartz said things went relatively quiet until the “Big One” in April, 1906.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”5878627d97357ce29aa9a7578c08516a”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Schwartz said the worst-case scenario for Northern California would be a major break along the East Bay’s \u003ca title=\"Wiki - Hayward Fault\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayward_Fault_Zone\">Hayward Fault\u003c/a> or its neighbor to the north, the Rodgers Creek Fault. “There are two million people who fundamentally live right on top of it,” he said. “We’ve never had a major earthquake in the center of a modern U.S. city and we just really don’t know what’s going to happen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Fracking Opponents Point to Seismic Risk\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, three groups that oppose fracking in California released \u003ca title=\"Shaky Ground - main\" href=\"http://www.shakyground.org/\">a report\u003c/a> warning that a boom in the practice would pose a serious seismic risk to “millions of Californians.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fracking is shorthand for hydraulic fracturing, the technique that uses fluids under high pressure to loosen up oil and gas formations underground. Drilling companies also re-inject wastewater back into the ground, which has been shown to produce minor seismic activity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report appears to be largely a mapping exercise, which shows more than half of California’s “active and new” wastewater injection wells within 10 miles of faults that have been active within the last 200 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>None of the authors are seismologists. Patrick Sullivan, a spokesman for the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the three collaborating organizations, said that the authors consulted with seismologists at the University of California. He also cited recent reports of \u003ca title=\"USGS - release\" href=\"http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=3710#.UyIc3s4QORU\">increased shaking in Oklahoma\u003c/a>, where scientists are “evaluating possible links” to oil and gas operations. Fracking has recently been suspected of triggering \u003ca title=\"NYT - post\" href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/12/us/ohio-looks-at-whether-fracking-led-to-2-quakes.html?hpw&rref=science&_r=0\">tremors in Ohio.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tsunami Threat Varies\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many have pondered why last Sunday’s \u003ca title=\"Times-Standard - post\" href=\"http://www.times-standard.com/breakingnews/ci_25312898/location-sundays-6-9-quake-reduced-impact-north\">6.7 quake off the Northern California coast\u003c/a> did not produce giant, devastating waves. Schwartz explained that tsunamis are produced by the displacement of the sea floor. “That requires sort of an up-and-down movement,” he told listeners. “This was a strike-slip fault, where the movement is lateral, side-to-side, so it really doesn’t affect the sea bottom.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Schwartz also said the temblor was relatively small for that area, citing five other events within 50 miles, bigger than magnitude 7, since about 1900. But he added that smaller events can trigger tsunamis if they cause underwater landslides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both Schwartz and Dvorak agreed on the need for an earthquake warning system in California, but advised not to look to your dog for guidance in the meantime. “There’s no scientific evidence that animals can sense earthquakes before they happen,” says Dvorak.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15346\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15346\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/deg00013.jpg\" alt=\"The 1906 earthquake (USGS)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A woman surveys earthquake damage following the 1906 San Francisco quake. (USGS)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This is not exactly a news flash for long-time Californians. But scientists are starting to put more numbers on the inevitability that we all live with.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>David Schwartz, U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, \u003ca title=\"Q-Forum - show\" href=\"http://www.kqed.org/a/forum/R201403120930\">told listeners to KQED’s Forum program\u003c/a> that there’s a 63 percent chance of a major quake on the San Andreas Fault sometime in the next 22 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Apparently that’s not enough to worry about, so Schwartz was joined on the program by \u003ca title=\"Am Scientist - bio\" href=\"https://www.americanscientist.org/authors/detail/john-dvorak\">John Dvorak\u003c/a>, author of “\u003ca title=\"Kirkus - review\" href=\"https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/john-dvorak/earthquake-storms/\">Earthquake Storms: The Fascinating History and Volatile Future of the San Andreas Fault\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘Earthquakes are not random events.’\u003ccite>John Dvorak, Geologist\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“Earthquakes are not random events,” said Dvorak, a former USGS scientist. “Earthquakes are clustered in time and space.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the 1906 San Francisco quake represented a break along the northern section of the San Andreas Fault. A middle section north of Los Angeles broke in 1857, “but that southern part, south of Palm Springs, that hasn’t broken since 1680,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Contrary to the popular conception that a quake releases pressure along the fault, thus postponing the next temblor, Dvorak said the likelihood of a second quake rises with the first one. During any given three-day span, he said the odds of a magnitude 7 or larger quake are about 1:100,000 in California. But when a magnitude 7 earthquake occurs, he said the odds of another one at least as big in the next three days go to about 1-in-10.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You don’t need to panic,” said Dvorak. “You just need to have a heightened awareness that the ground could shake again soon.” Schwartz agreed that we can look forward to a whole lotta shakin’ going on. “We’ve got a lot of earthquakes ahead of us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And behind us. Schwartz said that seismologists have a “pretty complete record” going back to about 1600 and that we’ve been enjoying an eerily quiet interval. The hundred years or so starting around 1680, “literally every fault in the Bay Area” produced large earthquakes, releasing “almost as much energy as the 1906 earthquake.” After that, Schwartz said things went relatively quiet until the “Big One” in April, 1906.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Schwartz said the worst-case scenario for Northern California would be a major break along the East Bay’s \u003ca title=\"Wiki - Hayward Fault\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayward_Fault_Zone\">Hayward Fault\u003c/a> or its neighbor to the north, the Rodgers Creek Fault. “There are two million people who fundamentally live right on top of it,” he said. “We’ve never had a major earthquake in the center of a modern U.S. city and we just really don’t know what’s going to happen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Fracking Opponents Point to Seismic Risk\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, three groups that oppose fracking in California released \u003ca title=\"Shaky Ground - main\" href=\"http://www.shakyground.org/\">a report\u003c/a> warning that a boom in the practice would pose a serious seismic risk to “millions of Californians.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fracking is shorthand for hydraulic fracturing, the technique that uses fluids under high pressure to loosen up oil and gas formations underground. Drilling companies also re-inject wastewater back into the ground, which has been shown to produce minor seismic activity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report appears to be largely a mapping exercise, which shows more than half of California’s “active and new” wastewater injection wells within 10 miles of faults that have been active within the last 200 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>None of the authors are seismologists. Patrick Sullivan, a spokesman for the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the three collaborating organizations, said that the authors consulted with seismologists at the University of California. He also cited recent reports of \u003ca title=\"USGS - release\" href=\"http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=3710#.UyIc3s4QORU\">increased shaking in Oklahoma\u003c/a>, where scientists are “evaluating possible links” to oil and gas operations. Fracking has recently been suspected of triggering \u003ca title=\"NYT - post\" href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/12/us/ohio-looks-at-whether-fracking-led-to-2-quakes.html?hpw&rref=science&_r=0\">tremors in Ohio.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tsunami Threat Varies\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many have pondered why last Sunday’s \u003ca title=\"Times-Standard - post\" href=\"http://www.times-standard.com/breakingnews/ci_25312898/location-sundays-6-9-quake-reduced-impact-north\">6.7 quake off the Northern California coast\u003c/a> did not produce giant, devastating waves. Schwartz explained that tsunamis are produced by the displacement of the sea floor. “That requires sort of an up-and-down movement,” he told listeners. “This was a strike-slip fault, where the movement is lateral, side-to-side, so it really doesn’t affect the sea bottom.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Schwartz also said the temblor was relatively small for that area, citing five other events within 50 miles, bigger than magnitude 7, since about 1900. But he added that smaller events can trigger tsunamis if they cause underwater landslides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both Schwartz and Dvorak agreed on the need for an earthquake warning system in California, but advised not to look to your dog for guidance in the meantime. “There’s no scientific evidence that animals can sense earthquakes before they happen,” says Dvorak.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "California Takes Aim at Toxic Nap Mats, Paint Strippers",
"headTitle": "California Takes Aim at Toxic Nap Mats, Paint Strippers | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15320\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 727px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/LucyNapMat2.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-15320\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15320\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/LucyNapMat2.jpg\" alt=\"Many children's products, including nap mats, contain flame retardant chemicals known to cause cancer. (Center for Environmental Health)\" width=\"727\" height=\"409\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Many children’s products, including nap mats, contain flame retardant chemicals known to cause cancer. (Center for Environmental Health)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a process lengthier than many had hoped, California is moving toward removing toxic products from the market, one by one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, officials announced the first three \u003ca href=\"https://dtsc.ca.gov/SCP/index.cfm\">proposed targets\u003c/a>: nap mats used by small children in schools, spray polyurethane foam used as insulation and a commonly available paint stripper that has been implicated in the \u003ca href=\"http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6107a2.htm\">deaths of 13 workers\u003c/a> who were refinishing bathtubs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decision on which items to target isn’t yet final. Staff at the state Department of Toxic Substances Control will spend another year “making sure we have selected the right products,” said the Department’s deputy director Meredith Williams. Regulations would begin in mid-2015.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ridding Nap Mats of Cancer-Causing Chemicals\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://dtsc.ca.gov/SCP/Foam_Padded_Sleeping.cfm\">Nap mats\u003c/a> were selected because they often contain a chemical flame retardant called TDCPP, or chlorinated Tris, which is \u003ca href=\"http://oehha.ca.gov/prop65/prop65_list/files/P65single013114.pdf\">known to cause cancer\u003c/a> and may also \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2854790/\">interfere \u003c/a>with a child’s endocrine system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chlorinated Tris was \u003ca href=\"http://www.cpsc.gov/en/Newsroom/News-Releases/1977/CPSC-Bans-TRIS-Treated-Childrens-Garments/\">removed \u003c/a>from children’s pajamas in the 1970s, over concerns about its health effects, but both it and its chemical cousin, brominated Tris, continue to turn up in children’s products such as nursing pillows and infant sleep positioners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In November, Governor Jerry Brown \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2013/11/21/its-official-toxic-flame-retardants-no-longer-required-in-furniture/\">issued new rules\u003c/a> that are likely to eliminate chemical flame retardants from sofas and other upholstered furniture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But despite multiple regulatory actions, “children are still being exposed,” Williams said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new rules would require that manufacturers of nap mats, crib mattresses and sleep positioners, among other products, first disclose whether their products contain Tris, then undergo a lengthy “alternatives assessment” to determine whether the chemical can be excluded without affecting the usefulness of the product.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other chemicals may be harder to remove.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s the case with the second product regulators would like to change: a spray polyurethane foam containing a chemical called \u003ca href=\"https://dtsc.ca.gov/SCP/Spray_Polyurethane_Foam.cfm\">diisocyanate\u003c/a>, which can cause asthma and skin irritation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Safe Alternatives Not Always Available\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alternatives to spray insulation are available, said Williams. “But for the quick-and-dirty spray applications, we’re unaware of any alternatives, so this will be a challenge for manufacturers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The third product category includes paint thinners and other products containing \u003ca href=\"https://dtsc.ca.gov/SCP/Paint_Stripper.cfm\">methylene chloride\u003c/a>, a common solvent that converts to carbon monoxide in the body.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Between 2000 and 2011, according to a \u003ca href=\"http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6107a2.htm\">CDC report\u003c/a>, 13 people died while refinishing bathtubs using products containing methylene chloride stripping agents.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">The soonest consumers might see an outright ban: mid-2016.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Both the paint thinner and spray insulation are sold with warning labels, required in California under the state’s \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/audio/who-profits-from-proposition-65-part-one/\">Prop 65\u003c/a>. But the products are still widely available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams says regulators want to encourage both consumers and manufacturers to ask whether the chemical is necessary, and to look into alternatives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the manufacturer doesn’t remove the chemical, state officials could take a number of regulatory options, including an outright ban on products containing it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The soonest consumers might see an outright ban on a hazardous product would be mid-2016, said Karl Palmer, chief of the Toxics in Products Branch of the DTSC.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Industry: Rules May Not Be “Legally Defensible”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today’s announcement comes after six years of stop-and-start deliberations over how to implement the California Green Chemistry Initiative, which voters passed in 2008.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the gears turned in California, federal legislators have been debating an overhaul of the 38-year-old Toxic Substance Control Act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California decided not to wait,” Williams said. “We’re moving now, we’re naming these products, and we’re excited about it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the press conference on Thursday, state officials expressed concern that weaker federal rules could preempt California’s fledgling program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another worry is that chemical manufacturers will sue the state, adding yet another delay to an already lengthy process.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘California decided not to wait. We’re moving and we’re excited about it.’\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Such lawsuits, said Janet Nudelman, director of program and policy at the Breast Cancer Fund, an advocacy group, are “a tool that the chemical industry pulls out frequently.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The American Chemistry Council hinted at such a possibility, expressing “concern” that the safer products program might not be legally defensible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, says the Breast Cancer Fund’s Nudelman, “I am cautiously optimistic that the state will be able to withstand the lawsuits and go forward with this important program.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A written \u003ca href=\"http://www.americanchemistry.com/Media/PressReleasesTranscripts/ACC-news-releases/ACC-Comments-on-Release-of-California-Draft-Priority-Products-List-as-Part-of-New-State-Regulation.html\">statement \u003c/a>from the American Chemistry Council, a trade group that represents chemical manufacturers, expressed “disappointment” over a process it considers redundant with federal regulation.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Six years after voters passed the California Green Chemistry Initiative, the state lays out its plan to get toxic products off shelves. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15320\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 727px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/LucyNapMat2.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-15320\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15320\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/LucyNapMat2.jpg\" alt=\"Many children's products, including nap mats, contain flame retardant chemicals known to cause cancer. (Center for Environmental Health)\" width=\"727\" height=\"409\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Many children’s products, including nap mats, contain flame retardant chemicals known to cause cancer. (Center for Environmental Health)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a process lengthier than many had hoped, California is moving toward removing toxic products from the market, one by one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, officials announced the first three \u003ca href=\"https://dtsc.ca.gov/SCP/index.cfm\">proposed targets\u003c/a>: nap mats used by small children in schools, spray polyurethane foam used as insulation and a commonly available paint stripper that has been implicated in the \u003ca href=\"http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6107a2.htm\">deaths of 13 workers\u003c/a> who were refinishing bathtubs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decision on which items to target isn’t yet final. Staff at the state Department of Toxic Substances Control will spend another year “making sure we have selected the right products,” said the Department’s deputy director Meredith Williams. Regulations would begin in mid-2015.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ridding Nap Mats of Cancer-Causing Chemicals\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://dtsc.ca.gov/SCP/Foam_Padded_Sleeping.cfm\">Nap mats\u003c/a> were selected because they often contain a chemical flame retardant called TDCPP, or chlorinated Tris, which is \u003ca href=\"http://oehha.ca.gov/prop65/prop65_list/files/P65single013114.pdf\">known to cause cancer\u003c/a> and may also \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2854790/\">interfere \u003c/a>with a child’s endocrine system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chlorinated Tris was \u003ca href=\"http://www.cpsc.gov/en/Newsroom/News-Releases/1977/CPSC-Bans-TRIS-Treated-Childrens-Garments/\">removed \u003c/a>from children’s pajamas in the 1970s, over concerns about its health effects, but both it and its chemical cousin, brominated Tris, continue to turn up in children’s products such as nursing pillows and infant sleep positioners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In November, Governor Jerry Brown \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2013/11/21/its-official-toxic-flame-retardants-no-longer-required-in-furniture/\">issued new rules\u003c/a> that are likely to eliminate chemical flame retardants from sofas and other upholstered furniture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But despite multiple regulatory actions, “children are still being exposed,” Williams said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new rules would require that manufacturers of nap mats, crib mattresses and sleep positioners, among other products, first disclose whether their products contain Tris, then undergo a lengthy “alternatives assessment” to determine whether the chemical can be excluded without affecting the usefulness of the product.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other chemicals may be harder to remove.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s the case with the second product regulators would like to change: a spray polyurethane foam containing a chemical called \u003ca href=\"https://dtsc.ca.gov/SCP/Spray_Polyurethane_Foam.cfm\">diisocyanate\u003c/a>, which can cause asthma and skin irritation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Safe Alternatives Not Always Available\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alternatives to spray insulation are available, said Williams. “But for the quick-and-dirty spray applications, we’re unaware of any alternatives, so this will be a challenge for manufacturers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The third product category includes paint thinners and other products containing \u003ca href=\"https://dtsc.ca.gov/SCP/Paint_Stripper.cfm\">methylene chloride\u003c/a>, a common solvent that converts to carbon monoxide in the body.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Between 2000 and 2011, according to a \u003ca href=\"http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6107a2.htm\">CDC report\u003c/a>, 13 people died while refinishing bathtubs using products containing methylene chloride stripping agents.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">The soonest consumers might see an outright ban: mid-2016.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Both the paint thinner and spray insulation are sold with warning labels, required in California under the state’s \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/audio/who-profits-from-proposition-65-part-one/\">Prop 65\u003c/a>. But the products are still widely available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams says regulators want to encourage both consumers and manufacturers to ask whether the chemical is necessary, and to look into alternatives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the manufacturer doesn’t remove the chemical, state officials could take a number of regulatory options, including an outright ban on products containing it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The soonest consumers might see an outright ban on a hazardous product would be mid-2016, said Karl Palmer, chief of the Toxics in Products Branch of the DTSC.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Industry: Rules May Not Be “Legally Defensible”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today’s announcement comes after six years of stop-and-start deliberations over how to implement the California Green Chemistry Initiative, which voters passed in 2008.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the gears turned in California, federal legislators have been debating an overhaul of the 38-year-old Toxic Substance Control Act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California decided not to wait,” Williams said. “We’re moving now, we’re naming these products, and we’re excited about it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the press conference on Thursday, state officials expressed concern that weaker federal rules could preempt California’s fledgling program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another worry is that chemical manufacturers will sue the state, adding yet another delay to an already lengthy process.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘California decided not to wait. We’re moving and we’re excited about it.’\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Such lawsuits, said Janet Nudelman, director of program and policy at the Breast Cancer Fund, an advocacy group, are “a tool that the chemical industry pulls out frequently.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The American Chemistry Council hinted at such a possibility, expressing “concern” that the safer products program might not be legally defensible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, says the Breast Cancer Fund’s Nudelman, “I am cautiously optimistic that the state will be able to withstand the lawsuits and go forward with this important program.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A written \u003ca href=\"http://www.americanchemistry.com/Media/PressReleasesTranscripts/ACC-news-releases/ACC-Comments-on-Release-of-California-Draft-Priority-Products-List-as-Part-of-New-State-Regulation.html\">statement \u003c/a>from the American Chemistry Council, a trade group that represents chemical manufacturers, expressed “disappointment” over a process it considers redundant with federal regulation.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Utility Regulators Approve Plan to Replace San Onofre Power",
"headTitle": "Utility Regulators Approve Plan to Replace San Onofre Power | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_4339\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4339\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/4338-thumb.jpg\" alt=\"The San Onofre nuclear power plant has been shut down since 2012. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The San Onofre nuclear power plant has been shut down since 2012. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a decision that’s stirring new debate about the future of California’s power supply, utility regulators on Thursday approved a plan that clears the way for Southern California utilities to replace electricity lost to the state’s energy grid when the San Onofre Nuclear Power Station shut down more than two years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Public Utilities Commission voted unanimously to allow Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas and Electric to develop new sources of electricity. The \u003ca href=\"http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Published/G000/M088/K979/88979084.PDF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">agency’s order\u003c/a> requires the companies to get at least part of the new power from renewable sources like wind and solar as well as through conservation and other measures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Specifically, the plan authorizes Edison to obtain between 500 megawatts and 700 megawatts of new capacity, with at least 400 megawatts coming from “preferred sources” like renewables. SDG&E won approval to procure between 500 megawatts and 800 megawatts of new power, with at least 200 megawatts coming from preferred sources. Any power that doesn’t come from renewables is likely to come from gas-fired power plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some environmentalists say the CPUC’s decision increases the odds of seeing more polluting energy as California seeks to address climate change, but Commissioner Mike Florio said no one in the world has managed to run a complex electricity grid without some fossil-fuel energy to handle unexpected shortages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Solar production, for example, surges during the day when the sun is shining, then ebbs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A statement from environmental groups said the decision raises the risk of “new, gas-fired power plants that are often built in low-income communities of color.” They said existing gas plants are contributing to ozone pollution that leaves the Los Angeles basin with some of the dirtiest air in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the decision “does require that a portion of the energy come from renewable sources, the utilities will ultimately get to choose where the bulk of the energy comes from, which could include natural gas,” said the statement from the Sierra Club of California, the California Environmental Justice Alliance and Earthjustice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another influential environmental group, the Natural Resources Defense Council, offered a more positive spin on the CPUC order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sierra Martinez, the NRDC’s legal director for the group’s California energy initiatives, \u003ca href=\"http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/smartinez/its_official_efficiency_clean_energy.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said in a blog post\u003c/a> that the group is disappointed that the commission’s decision authorized new gas-fired generation without taking full account of expected improvements in energy efficiency throughout the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Martinez applauded the order as a “major and symbolic” and “groundbreaking” step that has the potential of replacing all the lost San Onofre power with clean energy:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>The final plan uses efficiency and other “preferred resources”—those resources with lower environmental impacts—like demand response (ways customers can consume less energy at key times during the day) and renewable energy such as wind and solar, as well as some upgrades to the electric system, to replace the vast majority of the lost SONGS generation.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Today’s order did not contain any specific blueprint for power generation. The utilities are developing plans to generate or buy the power, which must be submitted to the commission for review.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mark Nelson, Edison’s director of integrated planning and strategy, said the company was planning to buy the power from the market, if needed. The company was earlier permitted to make major power purchases to compensate for older gas plants that are being phased out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some gas is required to keep the system reliable,” he said. He said newer, cleaner-burning gas plants are not “inconsistent with cleaning up the environment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Production at San Onofre, on the coast in San Diego County, stopped in January 2012, after a small radiation leak led to the discovery of damage to hundreds of virtually new tubes that carry radioactive water. It was closed permanently last year amid a long and costly dispute over whether it was safe to restart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plant had provided enough power for about 1.4 million homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Original post:\u003c/strong> The California Public Utilities Commission is making a final decision today on how to replace the San Onofre nuclear power plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Southern California plant stopped generating power in 2012 after a radiation leak was discovered. It turned out there was more extensive damage to the plant, and in June 2013, Southern California Edison decided to \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/06/07/99105/San-Onofre-Close-San-Diego-Nuclear-Plant\">close it permanently\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The CPUC is expected to issue its decision on how to fill the 2,200 megawatt gap left by closing San Onofre in a \u003ca href=\"www.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/aboutus/commmtgs.htm\">meeting Thursday morning\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A preliminary proposal issued last month would include renewable sources, to be constructed by Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric, as the \u003ca href=\"http://www.dailynews.com/environment-and-nature/20140313/california-vies-to-fill-energy-gap-left-by-closed-san-onofre-nuclear-power-plant\">AP describes\u003c/a>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>The plan calls primarily for the use of clean energy, but one environmental group says it could leave too much leeway for dirtier energy to leak in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the proposal to the California Public Utilities Commission, the two utilities combined would be allowed to generate 1,500 megawatts of additional energy, so long as 60 percent of it came from sources like solar or wind, added efficiency, or voluntary conservation.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This post contains reporting from the Associated Press and KQED’s Molly Samuel and Dan Brekke. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_4339\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4339\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/06/4338-thumb.jpg\" alt=\"The San Onofre nuclear power plant has been shut down since 2012. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The San Onofre nuclear power plant has been shut down since 2012. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a decision that’s stirring new debate about the future of California’s power supply, utility regulators on Thursday approved a plan that clears the way for Southern California utilities to replace electricity lost to the state’s energy grid when the San Onofre Nuclear Power Station shut down more than two years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Public Utilities Commission voted unanimously to allow Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas and Electric to develop new sources of electricity. The \u003ca href=\"http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Published/G000/M088/K979/88979084.PDF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">agency’s order\u003c/a> requires the companies to get at least part of the new power from renewable sources like wind and solar as well as through conservation and other measures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Specifically, the plan authorizes Edison to obtain between 500 megawatts and 700 megawatts of new capacity, with at least 400 megawatts coming from “preferred sources” like renewables. SDG&E won approval to procure between 500 megawatts and 800 megawatts of new power, with at least 200 megawatts coming from preferred sources. Any power that doesn’t come from renewables is likely to come from gas-fired power plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some environmentalists say the CPUC’s decision increases the odds of seeing more polluting energy as California seeks to address climate change, but Commissioner Mike Florio said no one in the world has managed to run a complex electricity grid without some fossil-fuel energy to handle unexpected shortages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Solar production, for example, surges during the day when the sun is shining, then ebbs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A statement from environmental groups said the decision raises the risk of “new, gas-fired power plants that are often built in low-income communities of color.” They said existing gas plants are contributing to ozone pollution that leaves the Los Angeles basin with some of the dirtiest air in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the decision “does require that a portion of the energy come from renewable sources, the utilities will ultimately get to choose where the bulk of the energy comes from, which could include natural gas,” said the statement from the Sierra Club of California, the California Environmental Justice Alliance and Earthjustice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another influential environmental group, the Natural Resources Defense Council, offered a more positive spin on the CPUC order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sierra Martinez, the NRDC’s legal director for the group’s California energy initiatives, \u003ca href=\"http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/smartinez/its_official_efficiency_clean_energy.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said in a blog post\u003c/a> that the group is disappointed that the commission’s decision authorized new gas-fired generation without taking full account of expected improvements in energy efficiency throughout the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Martinez applauded the order as a “major and symbolic” and “groundbreaking” step that has the potential of replacing all the lost San Onofre power with clean energy:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>The final plan uses efficiency and other “preferred resources”—those resources with lower environmental impacts—like demand response (ways customers can consume less energy at key times during the day) and renewable energy such as wind and solar, as well as some upgrades to the electric system, to replace the vast majority of the lost SONGS generation.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Today’s order did not contain any specific blueprint for power generation. The utilities are developing plans to generate or buy the power, which must be submitted to the commission for review.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mark Nelson, Edison’s director of integrated planning and strategy, said the company was planning to buy the power from the market, if needed. The company was earlier permitted to make major power purchases to compensate for older gas plants that are being phased out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some gas is required to keep the system reliable,” he said. He said newer, cleaner-burning gas plants are not “inconsistent with cleaning up the environment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Production at San Onofre, on the coast in San Diego County, stopped in January 2012, after a small radiation leak led to the discovery of damage to hundreds of virtually new tubes that carry radioactive water. It was closed permanently last year amid a long and costly dispute over whether it was safe to restart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plant had provided enough power for about 1.4 million homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Original post:\u003c/strong> The California Public Utilities Commission is making a final decision today on how to replace the San Onofre nuclear power plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Southern California plant stopped generating power in 2012 after a radiation leak was discovered. It turned out there was more extensive damage to the plant, and in June 2013, Southern California Edison decided to \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/06/07/99105/San-Onofre-Close-San-Diego-Nuclear-Plant\">close it permanently\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The CPUC is expected to issue its decision on how to fill the 2,200 megawatt gap left by closing San Onofre in a \u003ca href=\"www.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/aboutus/commmtgs.htm\">meeting Thursday morning\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A preliminary proposal issued last month would include renewable sources, to be constructed by Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric, as the \u003ca href=\"http://www.dailynews.com/environment-and-nature/20140313/california-vies-to-fill-energy-gap-left-by-closed-san-onofre-nuclear-power-plant\">AP describes\u003c/a>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>The plan calls primarily for the use of clean energy, but one environmental group says it could leave too much leeway for dirtier energy to leak in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the proposal to the California Public Utilities Commission, the two utilities combined would be allowed to generate 1,500 megawatts of additional energy, so long as 60 percent of it came from sources like solar or wind, added efficiency, or voluntary conservation.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This post contains reporting from the Associated Press and KQED’s Molly Samuel and Dan Brekke. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Three Years After Disaster, Crescent City Sports a New 'Tsunami-Resistant' Harbor",
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"headTitle": "Three Years After Disaster, Crescent City Sports a New ‘Tsunami-Resistant’ Harbor | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15207\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/CrescentCity_ErnestPerry_1403.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-15207\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15207\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/CrescentCity_ErnestPerry_1403.jpg\" alt=\"Three years after a tsunami destroyed it, Crescent City's Harbor is completely rebuilt. (Ernest Perry)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Three years after a tsunami swept through it, Crescent City’s Harbor is completely rebuilt. (Ernest Perry)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Richard Young admits that \u003ca title=\"Times-Standard - post\" href=\"http://www.times-standard.com/breakingnews/ci_25312898/location-sundays-6-9-quake-reduced-impact-north\">this week’s magnitude 6.9 earthquake\u003c/a> off the Northern California coast made him sit up in bed. This one did not produce a menacing tsunami. But if it had, the Crescent City harbormaster says he’d be ready.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three years ago — almost to the day — a wave generated by Japan’s monstrous \u003ca title=\"NOAA - Tohoku\" href=\"http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/hazard/honshu_11mar2011.shtml\">Tohoku earthquake\u003c/a> destroyed Crescent City’s fishing harbor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“\u003ca title=\"CW - post\" href=\"http://blogs.kqed.org/climatewatch/2011/03/13/crescent-city-its-a-mess-all-right/\">It was devastating\u003c/a>,” recalls Young, “not only for the harbor but for the entire community up here because this harbor and the commercial fishing activity that takes place here is an enormous part of the local economy, the local identity, and we were at risk of losing all of it at that time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three years and $50 million later, Young says, “It’s fair to say we’re all the way back at this point.” The harbor has been rebuilt with new slips and gangways, and a new feature that may be most important of all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the first tsunami-resistant marina that we know of anywhere on the West Coast,” Young adds with pride.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we rebuilt it, we built it much stronger than it was previously. There are more pilings, larger pilings, and the system is designed to resist up to a 50-year tsunami.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Designed by Oakland-based \u003ca title=\"Gerwick - about\" href=\"http://www.gerwick.com/topmenu/aboutgerwick/Pages/aboutcowi.aspx\">Ben C. Gerwick Inc\u003c/a>., the fishing port has added nearly 100 more pilings (the posts that hold the floating docks in place). The new pilings are double the size of the old ones, and driven 30 feet into bedrock under the harbor. But the key new feature is a 400-foot tsunami attenuator dock, designed to withstand a tsunami of the intensity typically seen only twice in a century. Young says that translates roughly to a 12 to 15-foot wave.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nothing is tsunami-proof because obviously we can’t resist all the forces that Mother Nature can throw at us,” admits Young, but, in a repeat of the type of events that caused havoc in 2006 and 2011, “This harbor is designed to resist those forces and suffer minimal, if any damage at all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15228\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/Crescent2011_0524.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-15228\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15228\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/Crescent2011_0524.jpg\" alt=\"Wreckage piled up by the 2011 tsunami that hit Crescent City's harbor. (Craig Miller/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wreckage piled up by the 2011 tsunami that hit Crescent City’s harbor. (Craig Miller/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Young says that it’s been a long road back. He and his staff had just lined up redevelopment plans from a 2006 event, when the larger 2011 wave struck.” Where the \u003ca title=\"SF Gate - post\" href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/TSUNAMI-STRIKES-CRESCENT-CITY-5-to-6-foot-2466620.php\">2006 tsunami damaged things\u003c/a>, the 2011 tsunami just destroyed the harbor,” he recalls. “We’re very happy to get back to the business of running a harbor, instead of building a harbor.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the money to rebuild the harbor came from state and federal disaster grants, with some help from Del Norte County. But the harbor still had to borrow $5 million to finish the job. “Now comes the hard part, which is paying the bills,” says Young.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The hard part is over for Young, however. He says he delayed his retirement in order to stick around and get the job done. Now he’s hanging up his slicker and moving to Chico in the Sierra foothills, where he is unlikely to hear tsunami warning sirens in the night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15207\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/CrescentCity_ErnestPerry_1403.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-15207\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15207\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/CrescentCity_ErnestPerry_1403.jpg\" alt=\"Three years after a tsunami destroyed it, Crescent City's Harbor is completely rebuilt. (Ernest Perry)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Three years after a tsunami swept through it, Crescent City’s Harbor is completely rebuilt. (Ernest Perry)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Richard Young admits that \u003ca title=\"Times-Standard - post\" href=\"http://www.times-standard.com/breakingnews/ci_25312898/location-sundays-6-9-quake-reduced-impact-north\">this week’s magnitude 6.9 earthquake\u003c/a> off the Northern California coast made him sit up in bed. This one did not produce a menacing tsunami. But if it had, the Crescent City harbormaster says he’d be ready.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three years ago — almost to the day — a wave generated by Japan’s monstrous \u003ca title=\"NOAA - Tohoku\" href=\"http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/hazard/honshu_11mar2011.shtml\">Tohoku earthquake\u003c/a> destroyed Crescent City’s fishing harbor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“\u003ca title=\"CW - post\" href=\"http://blogs.kqed.org/climatewatch/2011/03/13/crescent-city-its-a-mess-all-right/\">It was devastating\u003c/a>,” recalls Young, “not only for the harbor but for the entire community up here because this harbor and the commercial fishing activity that takes place here is an enormous part of the local economy, the local identity, and we were at risk of losing all of it at that time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three years and $50 million later, Young says, “It’s fair to say we’re all the way back at this point.” The harbor has been rebuilt with new slips and gangways, and a new feature that may be most important of all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the first tsunami-resistant marina that we know of anywhere on the West Coast,” Young adds with pride.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we rebuilt it, we built it much stronger than it was previously. There are more pilings, larger pilings, and the system is designed to resist up to a 50-year tsunami.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Designed by Oakland-based \u003ca title=\"Gerwick - about\" href=\"http://www.gerwick.com/topmenu/aboutgerwick/Pages/aboutcowi.aspx\">Ben C. Gerwick Inc\u003c/a>., the fishing port has added nearly 100 more pilings (the posts that hold the floating docks in place). The new pilings are double the size of the old ones, and driven 30 feet into bedrock under the harbor. But the key new feature is a 400-foot tsunami attenuator dock, designed to withstand a tsunami of the intensity typically seen only twice in a century. Young says that translates roughly to a 12 to 15-foot wave.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nothing is tsunami-proof because obviously we can’t resist all the forces that Mother Nature can throw at us,” admits Young, but, in a repeat of the type of events that caused havoc in 2006 and 2011, “This harbor is designed to resist those forces and suffer minimal, if any damage at all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15228\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/Crescent2011_0524.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-15228\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15228\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/Crescent2011_0524.jpg\" alt=\"Wreckage piled up by the 2011 tsunami that hit Crescent City's harbor. (Craig Miller/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wreckage piled up by the 2011 tsunami that hit Crescent City’s harbor. (Craig Miller/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Young says that it’s been a long road back. He and his staff had just lined up redevelopment plans from a 2006 event, when the larger 2011 wave struck.” Where the \u003ca title=\"SF Gate - post\" href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/TSUNAMI-STRIKES-CRESCENT-CITY-5-to-6-foot-2466620.php\">2006 tsunami damaged things\u003c/a>, the 2011 tsunami just destroyed the harbor,” he recalls. “We’re very happy to get back to the business of running a harbor, instead of building a harbor.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the money to rebuild the harbor came from state and federal disaster grants, with some help from Del Norte County. But the harbor still had to borrow $5 million to finish the job. “Now comes the hard part, which is paying the bills,” says Young.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The hard part is over for Young, however. He says he delayed his retirement in order to stick around and get the job done. Now he’s hanging up his slicker and moving to Chico in the Sierra foothills, where he is unlikely to hear tsunami warning sirens in the night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Why Distant Dust Storms Matter to California Rainfall",
"headTitle": "Why Distant Dust Storms Matter to California Rainfall | KQED",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"audio-wrap\">\n\u003ch2>Listen:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/science/2014/03/20140310science.mp3\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15129\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/Worldview-Terra_0226-0228Storm_TrueColor-AOT0224.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15129\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/Worldview-Terra_0226-0228Storm_TrueColor-AOT0224.jpg\" alt=\"A storm approaching California on February 24th had what researchers say is a large amount of dust at the center, as shown by the orange areas. (NASA Earth Observing System Data and Information System)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A storm approaching California on February 24 had large amounts of dust at the center, as shown by the highlighted orange areas. (NASA Earth Observing System Data and Information System)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>California’s recent rainstorms, as welcome as they were, haven’t been enough to save the state from a serious drought this year. The rainy season typically winds down by late March.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists are trying to understand why some storms unload lots of rain and snow in California and others don’t. They’re finding it could be linked to dust storms thousands of miles away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Seeds of a Storm\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a windy bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, Kim Prather, an atmospheric chemist at the University of California, San Diego, eyes a bank of dark clouds in the distance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s coming in,” she says. “I think it’s the front.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rain is what Prather and her team have been waiting for. They’ve set up a large truck trailer full of scientific equipment at the Bodega Marine Laboratory, about an hour north of San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clouds are made up of water vapor, but that’s not the only ingredient needed for rain. Tiny particles like pollution, sea spray, dust and smoke, are the seeds of a rainstorm. The water inside a cloud condenses on these aerosols, growing larger and larger until it becomes a raindrop or snowflake that’s heavy enough to fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Large pumps on the trailer next to us are pulling in millions of these particles, so Prather and her team can examine them one by one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We didn’t expect there to be much dust here, but in fact, there are parcels of dust continuously coming across the Pacific right now,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The dust has made its way from the deserts of Asia and Africa. Dust storms send particles miles into the air, then they drift to California in 7 to 10 days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15133\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/Prather.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15133\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/Prather.jpg\" alt=\"Kim Prather watches are air particles are tested, inside a research trailer in Bodega Bay. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"380\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kim Prather watches as her mobile lab tests air particles inside a research trailer in Bodega Bay. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Prather has studied dust like this before, when she \u003ca href=\"http://atofms.ucsd.edu/content/calwater-2009-2011\">flew through Sierra Nevada snowstorms\u003c/a> in a small research plane.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So days with dust, we found, were days where you had the most snow on the ground consistently,” she says. “And it’s not a lot of dust. It’s just the right amount of dust that comes in and seeds the very top of the clouds.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one study, Prather found that the right kind of dust storm \u003ca href=\"http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/feature/intercontinental_rainmakers\">could boost snowfall\u003c/a> in the Sierra Nevada by 40 percent. It happens because dust helps ice crystals grow. Ice formation appears to be the magic recipe for producing lots of precipitation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Ice is a very picky process,” Prather says. “Ice only likes to form on certain surfaces. Dust seems to be very good. Bacteria—biological particles seem to be very good.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yep—bacteria. “Dust will come out of the ground with microbes on it and so there are microbes that are \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/2013/01/29/170459317/bird-plane-bacteria-microbes-thrive-in-storm-clouds\">still alive in those clouds\u003c/a>,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”e2d0ec59e2858dd0f66f678a2f5178d7″]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other particles appear to have the opposite effect. Urban air pollution, both from California and coming over from Asia, seems to reduce precipitation in the Sierra. The particles are small, creating a lot of water droplets that aren’t quite heavy enough to fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prather says there’s still a lot to understand about the effects that particles have on the weather, but the information could help improve weather forecasting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Are we getting more precipitation?” she says. “Are we getting less precipitation? The ultimate goal is to be able to feed this into weather forecast models and improve those models, where they actually take into account the seeds. Right now, they don’t.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updating Weather Models\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“From an operational perspective, we are giving that very serious consideration,” says Bill Lapenta, who runs the \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncep.noaa.gov/\">weather forecasting division\u003c/a> of the National Weather Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Daily weather forecasts come from giant simulations that run on supercomputers. Adding more dynamics, like the behavior of dust storms, increases costs for the agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It adds an additional amount of complexity which then requires more computational resources,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dust and Particles Transported Around the Globe://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQyxFpQCs7U\n\nWeather models are updated generally only once a year, because changes can have far-reaching consequences. “The models have to be run on time, every time,” Lapenta says. The information is key for preparing the public for extreme weather and floods.\n\nStill, Lapenta says he’s hoping to start including dust storms and other sources of particles in the next five years. “I do believe that in the end, including the effects of dust particles in these complex models will help improve the precipitation forecast,” he says.\n\n\u003cstrong>Storing More Water for Drought\u003c/strong>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An improved forecast could help California manage its water supplies better, leading to fuller reservoirs that help buffer California against drought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The storms that provide the beneficial water that we really need badly this year?” says Marty Ralph, director of the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. “It often comes in just a few events each winter, and that’s really the make or break thing for the season.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s \u003ca href=\"http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cdecapp/resapp/getResGraphsMain.action\">network of reservoirs\u003c/a> stores that runoff. But reservoirs are required to release a lot of stored water in the fall and early winter, in order to make room for runoff from extreme storms and protect against floods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the future, it may be possible if we can predict these storms accurately enough ahead of time, we could maybe keep a little extra water in there, knowing that if we had three days lead time we could release that water in a safe and appropriate way,” Ralph says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, if the storms turn out to be small, reservoirs wouldn’t be releasing water that California needs later in the summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dynamically managing reservoirs this way would require a major change in the operating rules. A \u003ca href=\"http://huffman.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/huffman-introduces-bill-to-modernize-army-corps-of-engineers-reservoir\">bill recently introduced\u003c/a> in the U.S. House by Sonoma County Democrat Jared Huffman would provide some of that flexibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given the improvements in weather forecasting science and California’s propensity for drought, many say it’s a change whose time has come.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Scientists are finding that dust storms in Asia and Africa influence how much snow falls in the Sierra Nevada. The research could help make weather forecasting more accurate and improve how California manages its water supply.",
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"description": "Scientists are finding that dust storms in Asia and Africa influence how much snow falls in the Sierra Nevada. The research could help make weather forecasting more accurate and improve how California manages its water supply.",
"title": "Why Distant Dust Storms Matter to California Rainfall | KQED",
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"headline": "Why Distant Dust Storms Matter to California Rainfall",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cdiv class=\"audio-wrap\">\n\u003ch2>Listen:\u003c/h2>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/div>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15129\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/Worldview-Terra_0226-0228Storm_TrueColor-AOT0224.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15129\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/Worldview-Terra_0226-0228Storm_TrueColor-AOT0224.jpg\" alt=\"A storm approaching California on February 24th had what researchers say is a large amount of dust at the center, as shown by the orange areas. (NASA Earth Observing System Data and Information System)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A storm approaching California on February 24 had large amounts of dust at the center, as shown by the highlighted orange areas. (NASA Earth Observing System Data and Information System)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>California’s recent rainstorms, as welcome as they were, haven’t been enough to save the state from a serious drought this year. The rainy season typically winds down by late March.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists are trying to understand why some storms unload lots of rain and snow in California and others don’t. They’re finding it could be linked to dust storms thousands of miles away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Seeds of a Storm\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a windy bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, Kim Prather, an atmospheric chemist at the University of California, San Diego, eyes a bank of dark clouds in the distance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s coming in,” she says. “I think it’s the front.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rain is what Prather and her team have been waiting for. They’ve set up a large truck trailer full of scientific equipment at the Bodega Marine Laboratory, about an hour north of San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clouds are made up of water vapor, but that’s not the only ingredient needed for rain. Tiny particles like pollution, sea spray, dust and smoke, are the seeds of a rainstorm. The water inside a cloud condenses on these aerosols, growing larger and larger until it becomes a raindrop or snowflake that’s heavy enough to fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Large pumps on the trailer next to us are pulling in millions of these particles, so Prather and her team can examine them one by one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We didn’t expect there to be much dust here, but in fact, there are parcels of dust continuously coming across the Pacific right now,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The dust has made its way from the deserts of Asia and Africa. Dust storms send particles miles into the air, then they drift to California in 7 to 10 days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15133\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/Prather.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15133\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/Prather.jpg\" alt=\"Kim Prather watches are air particles are tested, inside a research trailer in Bodega Bay. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"380\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kim Prather watches as her mobile lab tests air particles inside a research trailer in Bodega Bay. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Prather has studied dust like this before, when she \u003ca href=\"http://atofms.ucsd.edu/content/calwater-2009-2011\">flew through Sierra Nevada snowstorms\u003c/a> in a small research plane.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So days with dust, we found, were days where you had the most snow on the ground consistently,” she says. “And it’s not a lot of dust. It’s just the right amount of dust that comes in and seeds the very top of the clouds.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one study, Prather found that the right kind of dust storm \u003ca href=\"http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/feature/intercontinental_rainmakers\">could boost snowfall\u003c/a> in the Sierra Nevada by 40 percent. It happens because dust helps ice crystals grow. Ice formation appears to be the magic recipe for producing lots of precipitation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Ice is a very picky process,” Prather says. “Ice only likes to form on certain surfaces. Dust seems to be very good. Bacteria—biological particles seem to be very good.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yep—bacteria. “Dust will come out of the ground with microbes on it and so there are microbes that are \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/2013/01/29/170459317/bird-plane-bacteria-microbes-thrive-in-storm-clouds\">still alive in those clouds\u003c/a>,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other particles appear to have the opposite effect. Urban air pollution, both from California and coming over from Asia, seems to reduce precipitation in the Sierra. The particles are small, creating a lot of water droplets that aren’t quite heavy enough to fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prather says there’s still a lot to understand about the effects that particles have on the weather, but the information could help improve weather forecasting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Are we getting more precipitation?” she says. “Are we getting less precipitation? The ultimate goal is to be able to feed this into weather forecast models and improve those models, where they actually take into account the seeds. Right now, they don’t.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updating Weather Models\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“From an operational perspective, we are giving that very serious consideration,” says Bill Lapenta, who runs the \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncep.noaa.gov/\">weather forecasting division\u003c/a> of the National Weather Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Daily weather forecasts come from giant simulations that run on supercomputers. Adding more dynamics, like the behavior of dust storms, increases costs for the agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It adds an additional amount of complexity which then requires more computational resources,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dust and Particles Transported Around the Globe://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQyxFpQCs7U\n\nWeather models are updated generally only once a year, because changes can have far-reaching consequences. “The models have to be run on time, every time,” Lapenta says. The information is key for preparing the public for extreme weather and floods.\n\nStill, Lapenta says he’s hoping to start including dust storms and other sources of particles in the next five years. “I do believe that in the end, including the effects of dust particles in these complex models will help improve the precipitation forecast,” he says.\n\n\u003cstrong>Storing More Water for Drought\u003c/strong>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An improved forecast could help California manage its water supplies better, leading to fuller reservoirs that help buffer California against drought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The storms that provide the beneficial water that we really need badly this year?” says Marty Ralph, director of the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. “It often comes in just a few events each winter, and that’s really the make or break thing for the season.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s \u003ca href=\"http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cdecapp/resapp/getResGraphsMain.action\">network of reservoirs\u003c/a> stores that runoff. But reservoirs are required to release a lot of stored water in the fall and early winter, in order to make room for runoff from extreme storms and protect against floods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the future, it may be possible if we can predict these storms accurately enough ahead of time, we could maybe keep a little extra water in there, knowing that if we had three days lead time we could release that water in a safe and appropriate way,” Ralph says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, if the storms turn out to be small, reservoirs wouldn’t be releasing water that California needs later in the summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dynamically managing reservoirs this way would require a major change in the operating rules. A \u003ca href=\"http://huffman.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/huffman-introduces-bill-to-modernize-army-corps-of-engineers-reservoir\">bill recently introduced\u003c/a> in the U.S. House by Sonoma County Democrat Jared Huffman would provide some of that flexibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given the improvements in weather forecasting science and California’s propensity for drought, many say it’s a change whose time has come.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "What We Know -- And Don't Know -- About the Sea Star Die-Off",
"headTitle": "What We Know — And Don’t Know — About the Sea Star Die-Off | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15083\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 573px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-15083 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/1024px-Expl1080_-_Flickr_-_NOAA_Photo_Library.jpg\" alt=\"orange sunflower starfish\" width=\"573\" height=\"430\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The predatory sunflower starfish, Pycnopodia helianthoides, is one of the species dying from sea star wasting disease. (Ed Bowlby/NOAA, Olympic Coast NMS)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Since last summer, scientists and tidepoolers \u003ca href=\"http://data.piscoweb.org/marine1/seastardisease.html\">up and down the Pacific Coast\u003c/a> have noticed starfish dying in startling numbers. Some observers have documented sea star bodies turning to mush, others described the creatures disintegrating, while others found stars that lost their limbs and color. The name of this phenomenon: “\u003ca href=\"http://www.eeb.ucsc.edu/pacificrockyintertidal/data-products/sea-star-wasting/\">sea star wasting disease\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists don’t know how many starfish have died so far. Pete Raimondi, chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at University of California, Santa Cruz, says it could be in the millions. One particularly hard-hit species, the sunflower starfish, has “pretty much disappeared,” Raimondi said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Raimondi and Benjamin Miner, professor of marine biology at Western Washington University, spoke on \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/a/forum/R201403050930\">Forum\u003c/a> about the latest outbreak of this mysterious disease. While similar die-offs have happened before, scientists are flummoxed about the cause.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘The patterns that we’re seeing make it especially perplexing, because we’ve seen major die-offs in regions that are geographically separated.’\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Why is the wasting disease so difficult to nail down? In short, its pervasiveness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Raimondi, researchers studying the problem are leaning toward the theory that “it may be a pathogen of some sort that is distributed through ocean currents or other oceanographic forcing.” Still, there is no scientific consensus on that and neither Raimondi nor Miner is willing to stake a claim on a singular theory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The patterns that we’re seeing make it especially perplexing because we’ve seen major die-offs in regions that are geographically separated,” Miner said. “For example, Santa Barbara, Monterey, the Seattle area, British Columbia and the Vancouver area. And then some areas in between those appear quite healthy. So the locations, in addition to the fact that it’s affecting many species, some of them rather distantly related among sea stars, makes it really challenging.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miner said that, so far, a natural occurrence is the most likely explanation. There is one tantalizing clue. All of the three major starfish die-offs in the past 40 years—the late 1970s, 1983-84 and 1997-98—were \u003cem>associated with\u003c/em> a warm water event. They were not necessarily \u003cem>caused by\u003c/em> a warm water event, however.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”a37a3e7aa97fa0bfe78982b26eaf6597″]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It could be that warm water coming up from the south carried a pathogen, Raimondi said. Or “it could have been a local species that went rogue, essentially, during those warm water events.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the source of sea star wasting disease unclear it would be easy to dismiss the phenomenon as one huge mystery. But in truth, scientists do know a fair amount about the disease, including what is not causing it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong style=\"font-size: 13px\">What Is Not Causing the Die-Off\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In case you’re already pondering some of the following theories, Raimondi suggests you discard them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Plastic pollution: “We’re talking about completely pristine areas to completely degraded areas, and we don’t see any pattern that is suggestive of (plastics).”\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Ocean acidification: “What we’ve seen with respect to ocean acidification is that there are local areas which can be affected, but we don’t see any broad pattern of it.”\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Fukushima radiation: “The trajectory that has been proposed with respect to the distribution of any of the debris really doesn’t come very far south. And with respect to the radiation, that wouldn’t have arrived here yet. Also, just the distribution of the disease and apparent lack of the disease in other areas, really doesn’t lend itself to (a Fukushima link).”\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>A Climate Change Connection Can Neither Be Confirmed Nor Ruled Out\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although climate change is warming the ocean overall, the ocean along the West Coast has been in a cool period, Raimondi said, since the 1997-98 El Niño. “The water’s been cool,” he said. “There may be local warming areas but in general it’s been a cool phase and so it doesn’t appear that this (die-off) is related to any general climate-related warming.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That doesn’t, however, rule out some sort of climate change connection, he said, for example, ocean currents may be moving in different directions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And Miner adds that climate change could, say, be suppressing sea stars’ immune systems and making them more susceptible to a lethal pathogen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/mysterious-epidemic-devastates-starfish-population-pacific-coast/\">PBS NewsHour\u003c/a> had a segment on seastar wasting disease earlier this year, including underwater video of the effects of the disease:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_I_B6U0GtI\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>There Is Hope\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>None of the species affected by the previous die-offs is extinct and most have recovered, albeit slowly. “I don’t think anyone at this point is thinking that this system is not going to recover as well,” said Raimondi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the reasons for Raimondi’s optimism has to do with the life cycle of sea star larvae. Most of the affected species have long-living larvae that can survive the travel to unaffected sections of the coast, where they can populate new areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And not all species are affected in the same way by the wasting disease. Bat stars, which seem not to be negatively affected by the disease, are actually thriving because they’re able to feast on the bodies of other dead sea stars. Giant sea stars have been relatively resistant to it too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15085\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 614px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/Steve-Corey-Flickr.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-15085\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-15085 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/Steve-Corey-Flickr.jpg\" alt=\"bat star\" width=\"614\" height=\"411\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The bat star or Patiria miniata feasts on the carcusses of other sea stars that dying from sea star wasting disease. (Steve Corey/\u003ca href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/22016744@N06/3281278891/in/photolist-5ZXpTZ-a6mvyY-adL8ou-dASYpg-a8i48w-545zdG-2fCxG1-aoWdjj-6fMyed-5YBpqj-8AeGD9-5isrgr-3ccvM2-6fHphM-9cA4xa-8XMHtL-AC49D-aetZNu-tmVUo-aLok2D-8oSPuV-21yrn-s8SyL-a9xtMH-fjxFhU-9AASdo-s8Ss1-a9xuvK-s8TfU-BUyrc-s8TtH-3JGxnb-s8SYa-b52tB-a4ja86-a4n1KG-s8Tay-ah45Wa-5YxbDi-38KRpW-cooZJ7-jcekot-LDGby-PcW7J-s8SEw-s8T6b-9cDqWb-7vzRWv-21ytJ-a9AgqL-ah45GZ\">Flickr\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What We See on Shore Is Only a Small Part of the Problem\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sea stars in tidepool systems and subtidal systems (basically, areas that are always under water, even during low tide) are both suffering from the wasting disease. But Raimondi says the subtidal systems are more affected. This makes gathering accurate data difficult because scientists have limited access to underwater locations and most citizen-scientists who may report their observations encounter starfish in tidepools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Raimondi and Miner encouraged beach goers, fishermen and divers to share their observations—whether on shore or out in the water at \u003ca href=\"http://www.eeb.ucsc.edu/pacificrockyintertidal/data-products/sea-star-wasting/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">seastarwasting.org\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Starfish on the West Coast have been dying in startling numbers. Some observers have documented sea star bodies turning to mush, others described the creatures disintegrating. It's \"sea star wasting disease,\" and scientists don't know what causes it. ",
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"description": "Starfish on the West Coast have been dying in startling numbers. Some observers have documented sea star bodies turning to mush, others described the creatures disintegrating. It's "sea star wasting disease," and scientists don't know what causes it. ",
"title": "What We Know -- And Don't Know -- About the Sea Star Die-Off | KQED",
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"headline": "What We Know -- And Don't Know -- About the Sea Star Die-Off",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15083\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 573px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-15083 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/1024px-Expl1080_-_Flickr_-_NOAA_Photo_Library.jpg\" alt=\"orange sunflower starfish\" width=\"573\" height=\"430\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The predatory sunflower starfish, Pycnopodia helianthoides, is one of the species dying from sea star wasting disease. (Ed Bowlby/NOAA, Olympic Coast NMS)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Since last summer, scientists and tidepoolers \u003ca href=\"http://data.piscoweb.org/marine1/seastardisease.html\">up and down the Pacific Coast\u003c/a> have noticed starfish dying in startling numbers. Some observers have documented sea star bodies turning to mush, others described the creatures disintegrating, while others found stars that lost their limbs and color. The name of this phenomenon: “\u003ca href=\"http://www.eeb.ucsc.edu/pacificrockyintertidal/data-products/sea-star-wasting/\">sea star wasting disease\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists don’t know how many starfish have died so far. Pete Raimondi, chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at University of California, Santa Cruz, says it could be in the millions. One particularly hard-hit species, the sunflower starfish, has “pretty much disappeared,” Raimondi said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Raimondi and Benjamin Miner, professor of marine biology at Western Washington University, spoke on \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/a/forum/R201403050930\">Forum\u003c/a> about the latest outbreak of this mysterious disease. While similar die-offs have happened before, scientists are flummoxed about the cause.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘The patterns that we’re seeing make it especially perplexing, because we’ve seen major die-offs in regions that are geographically separated.’\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Why is the wasting disease so difficult to nail down? In short, its pervasiveness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Raimondi, researchers studying the problem are leaning toward the theory that “it may be a pathogen of some sort that is distributed through ocean currents or other oceanographic forcing.” Still, there is no scientific consensus on that and neither Raimondi nor Miner is willing to stake a claim on a singular theory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The patterns that we’re seeing make it especially perplexing because we’ve seen major die-offs in regions that are geographically separated,” Miner said. “For example, Santa Barbara, Monterey, the Seattle area, British Columbia and the Vancouver area. And then some areas in between those appear quite healthy. So the locations, in addition to the fact that it’s affecting many species, some of them rather distantly related among sea stars, makes it really challenging.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miner said that, so far, a natural occurrence is the most likely explanation. There is one tantalizing clue. All of the three major starfish die-offs in the past 40 years—the late 1970s, 1983-84 and 1997-98—were \u003cem>associated with\u003c/em> a warm water event. They were not necessarily \u003cem>caused by\u003c/em> a warm water event, however.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It could be that warm water coming up from the south carried a pathogen, Raimondi said. Or “it could have been a local species that went rogue, essentially, during those warm water events.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the source of sea star wasting disease unclear it would be easy to dismiss the phenomenon as one huge mystery. But in truth, scientists do know a fair amount about the disease, including what is not causing it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong style=\"font-size: 13px\">What Is Not Causing the Die-Off\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In case you’re already pondering some of the following theories, Raimondi suggests you discard them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Plastic pollution: “We’re talking about completely pristine areas to completely degraded areas, and we don’t see any pattern that is suggestive of (plastics).”\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Ocean acidification: “What we’ve seen with respect to ocean acidification is that there are local areas which can be affected, but we don’t see any broad pattern of it.”\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Fukushima radiation: “The trajectory that has been proposed with respect to the distribution of any of the debris really doesn’t come very far south. And with respect to the radiation, that wouldn’t have arrived here yet. Also, just the distribution of the disease and apparent lack of the disease in other areas, really doesn’t lend itself to (a Fukushima link).”\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>A Climate Change Connection Can Neither Be Confirmed Nor Ruled Out\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although climate change is warming the ocean overall, the ocean along the West Coast has been in a cool period, Raimondi said, since the 1997-98 El Niño. “The water’s been cool,” he said. “There may be local warming areas but in general it’s been a cool phase and so it doesn’t appear that this (die-off) is related to any general climate-related warming.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That doesn’t, however, rule out some sort of climate change connection, he said, for example, ocean currents may be moving in different directions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And Miner adds that climate change could, say, be suppressing sea stars’ immune systems and making them more susceptible to a lethal pathogen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/mysterious-epidemic-devastates-starfish-population-pacific-coast/\">PBS NewsHour\u003c/a> had a segment on seastar wasting disease earlier this year, including underwater video of the effects of the disease:\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/2_I_B6U0GtI'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/2_I_B6U0GtI'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>There Is Hope\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>None of the species affected by the previous die-offs is extinct and most have recovered, albeit slowly. “I don’t think anyone at this point is thinking that this system is not going to recover as well,” said Raimondi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the reasons for Raimondi’s optimism has to do with the life cycle of sea star larvae. Most of the affected species have long-living larvae that can survive the travel to unaffected sections of the coast, where they can populate new areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And not all species are affected in the same way by the wasting disease. Bat stars, which seem not to be negatively affected by the disease, are actually thriving because they’re able to feast on the bodies of other dead sea stars. Giant sea stars have been relatively resistant to it too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_15085\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 614px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/Steve-Corey-Flickr.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-15085\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-15085 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/Steve-Corey-Flickr.jpg\" alt=\"bat star\" width=\"614\" height=\"411\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The bat star or Patiria miniata feasts on the carcusses of other sea stars that dying from sea star wasting disease. (Steve Corey/\u003ca href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/22016744@N06/3281278891/in/photolist-5ZXpTZ-a6mvyY-adL8ou-dASYpg-a8i48w-545zdG-2fCxG1-aoWdjj-6fMyed-5YBpqj-8AeGD9-5isrgr-3ccvM2-6fHphM-9cA4xa-8XMHtL-AC49D-aetZNu-tmVUo-aLok2D-8oSPuV-21yrn-s8SyL-a9xtMH-fjxFhU-9AASdo-s8Ss1-a9xuvK-s8TfU-BUyrc-s8TtH-3JGxnb-s8SYa-b52tB-a4ja86-a4n1KG-s8Tay-ah45Wa-5YxbDi-38KRpW-cooZJ7-jcekot-LDGby-PcW7J-s8SEw-s8T6b-9cDqWb-7vzRWv-21ytJ-a9AgqL-ah45GZ\">Flickr\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What We See on Shore Is Only a Small Part of the Problem\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sea stars in tidepool systems and subtidal systems (basically, areas that are always under water, even during low tide) are both suffering from the wasting disease. But Raimondi says the subtidal systems are more affected. This makes gathering accurate data difficult because scientists have limited access to underwater locations and most citizen-scientists who may report their observations encounter starfish in tidepools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Raimondi and Miner encouraged beach goers, fishermen and divers to share their observations—whether on shore or out in the water at \u003ca href=\"http://www.eeb.ucsc.edu/pacificrockyintertidal/data-products/sea-star-wasting/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">seastarwasting.org\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "New UCSF Lab Studies How Video Games Affect Our Brains",
"headTitle": "New UCSF Lab Studies How Video Games Affect Our Brains | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_14970\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-14970\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/New-Neuroscape-4788JC_CROP2-1024x575.jpg\" alt=\"Gaming, EEG and MRI brain scanning, and -- eventually -- a closed-loop system will help scientists explore the theraputic uses of video games. (Josh Cassidy/KQED)\" width=\"1024\" height=\"575\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gaming, EEG and MRI brain scanning, and — eventually — a closed-loop system will help scientists explore the theraputic uses of video games. (Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003c/strong>This week the University of California, San Francisco debuts a new laboratory devoted to asking whether video games can do more than turn us into couch potatoes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are no test tubes at the \u003ca href=\"http://neuroscapelab.com/\">Neuroscape Lab\u003c/a>. Instead, it looks like some billionaire’s personal video game parlor: dimly lit in a palate of dark grays, punctuated by a red gaming chair and a red circle on the floor where gamers stand (and jump, squat and lunge) during motion-capture games.\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nExploring the “Glass Brain”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The room is dominated by two large screens. One displays the game itself. On the day I visited, it was a futuristic movement-and-concentration game where an avatar on the screen mirrors the player’s body movements as he or she scores by smacking down floating golden orbs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The second screen displays what Adam Gazzaley, a neuroscientist at UCSF, calls “the glass brain,” a mesmerizing, slowly rotating image of a brain pulsing with flashes of light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_14930\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-14930\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/Neuroscape-JoshC-4795_Scale-1024x575.jpg\" alt=\"The "glass brain" projects EEG data onto an MRI scan of the player's brain. (Josh Cassidy/KQED)\" width=\"1024\" height=\"575\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The “glass brain” projects EEG data onto an MRI scan of the player’s brain. (Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The glass brain is a mash-up of two brain scanning techniques. One is static, an MRI image of the player’s brain, captured in a scanner before the game begins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Superimposed on the MRI are signals collected by another brain-scanning technique used by neuroscientists: electroencephalography, or \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/audio/how-to-fly-a-model-helicopter-with-your-brain-and-other-adventures-in-eeg-gaming/\">EEG\u003c/a>. Normally, EEG read-outs look like the horizontal zig-zags of a seismograph. On the glass brain, they’re translated into flashes of red, green and yellow streaks, corresponding to the electric firing between billions of synapses inside in the brain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Right now, there’s a slight delay between the player’s action and when the corresponding brain activity shows up on screen. But technicians are working to close that gap, says Gazzaley, “so that we can see an event in the brain right at the moment it’s happening in the world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">In search of “the world’s first FDA-approved prescribed video game.”\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The next step is to build the game so that it responds to the player’s brain activity, sensing where a particular task activates the brain, and then adjusting to challenge that particular network.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nA Feedback Loop Between Brain and Game\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The game will essentially understand where the weaknesses are, and then change the mechanics to put pressure on those processes to lead to improvements,” Gazalley says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He is one of several researchers trying to understand whether video games could be used as a therapy for people struggling with memory problems, for example, or ADHD. Gazzaley believes games he’s developing could become “the world’s first FDA-approved prescribed video game.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_14933\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-14933\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/Neuroscape-JoshC-4717-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"UCSF neuroscientist Adam Gazzaley runs the Neuroscape lab. (Josh Cassidy/KQED)\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">UCSF neuroscientist Adam Gazzaley runs the Neuroscape lab. (Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Success will hinge on something called “transference,” says C. Shawn Green, a scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who studies the effects of games on the brain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The big crux in the field at the moment is how do we produce really broad effects?” says Green.\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nDoes Video Game Success Transfer to the Real World?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other words, it’s clear that video games do one thing very well: train people to become better gamers. But whether those results “transfer” outside the game into the real world is a source of lively debate among neuroscientists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a paper published in \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24005416\">Nature\u003c/a> last September, UCSF’s Gazzaley and his co-authors showed that older adults were better able to multitask in the real world after training on a game called NeuroRacer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_14937\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 288px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-14937 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/Neuroscape-JoshC-4831_Scale-288x162.jpg\" alt=\"UCSF's Neuroscape Lab was produced in partnership with several high tech companies. (Josh Cassidy/KQED)\" width=\"288\" height=\"162\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">UCSF’s Neuroscape Lab was produced in partnership with several gaming and virtual-realty tech companies. (Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In other words, the training “generalized,” says Robert Knight, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at UC Berkeley and one of Gazzaley’s former advisors. “They didn’t only get better at the task [in the video game]; the performance generalized to other tasks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whether those results will hold in future studies, and whether similar benefits show up in people with, for example, autism, ADHD or stroke, are questions scientists at Neuroscape and elsewhere will continue to explore.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_14970\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-14970\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/New-Neuroscape-4788JC_CROP2-1024x575.jpg\" alt=\"Gaming, EEG and MRI brain scanning, and -- eventually -- a closed-loop system will help scientists explore the theraputic uses of video games. (Josh Cassidy/KQED)\" width=\"1024\" height=\"575\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gaming, EEG and MRI brain scanning, and — eventually — a closed-loop system will help scientists explore the theraputic uses of video games. (Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003c/strong>This week the University of California, San Francisco debuts a new laboratory devoted to asking whether video games can do more than turn us into couch potatoes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are no test tubes at the \u003ca href=\"http://neuroscapelab.com/\">Neuroscape Lab\u003c/a>. Instead, it looks like some billionaire’s personal video game parlor: dimly lit in a palate of dark grays, punctuated by a red gaming chair and a red circle on the floor where gamers stand (and jump, squat and lunge) during motion-capture games.\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nExploring the “Glass Brain”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The room is dominated by two large screens. One displays the game itself. On the day I visited, it was a futuristic movement-and-concentration game where an avatar on the screen mirrors the player’s body movements as he or she scores by smacking down floating golden orbs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The second screen displays what Adam Gazzaley, a neuroscientist at UCSF, calls “the glass brain,” a mesmerizing, slowly rotating image of a brain pulsing with flashes of light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_14930\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-14930\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/Neuroscape-JoshC-4795_Scale-1024x575.jpg\" alt=\"The "glass brain" projects EEG data onto an MRI scan of the player's brain. (Josh Cassidy/KQED)\" width=\"1024\" height=\"575\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The “glass brain” projects EEG data onto an MRI scan of the player’s brain. (Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The glass brain is a mash-up of two brain scanning techniques. One is static, an MRI image of the player’s brain, captured in a scanner before the game begins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Superimposed on the MRI are signals collected by another brain-scanning technique used by neuroscientists: electroencephalography, or \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/audio/how-to-fly-a-model-helicopter-with-your-brain-and-other-adventures-in-eeg-gaming/\">EEG\u003c/a>. Normally, EEG read-outs look like the horizontal zig-zags of a seismograph. On the glass brain, they’re translated into flashes of red, green and yellow streaks, corresponding to the electric firing between billions of synapses inside in the brain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Right now, there’s a slight delay between the player’s action and when the corresponding brain activity shows up on screen. But technicians are working to close that gap, says Gazzaley, “so that we can see an event in the brain right at the moment it’s happening in the world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">In search of “the world’s first FDA-approved prescribed video game.”\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The next step is to build the game so that it responds to the player’s brain activity, sensing where a particular task activates the brain, and then adjusting to challenge that particular network.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nA Feedback Loop Between Brain and Game\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The game will essentially understand where the weaknesses are, and then change the mechanics to put pressure on those processes to lead to improvements,” Gazalley says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He is one of several researchers trying to understand whether video games could be used as a therapy for people struggling with memory problems, for example, or ADHD. Gazzaley believes games he’s developing could become “the world’s first FDA-approved prescribed video game.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_14933\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-14933\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/Neuroscape-JoshC-4717-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"UCSF neuroscientist Adam Gazzaley runs the Neuroscape lab. (Josh Cassidy/KQED)\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">UCSF neuroscientist Adam Gazzaley runs the Neuroscape lab. (Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Success will hinge on something called “transference,” says C. Shawn Green, a scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who studies the effects of games on the brain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The big crux in the field at the moment is how do we produce really broad effects?” says Green.\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nDoes Video Game Success Transfer to the Real World?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other words, it’s clear that video games do one thing very well: train people to become better gamers. But whether those results “transfer” outside the game into the real world is a source of lively debate among neuroscientists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a paper published in \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24005416\">Nature\u003c/a> last September, UCSF’s Gazzaley and his co-authors showed that older adults were better able to multitask in the real world after training on a game called NeuroRacer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_14937\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 288px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-14937 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/Neuroscape-JoshC-4831_Scale-288x162.jpg\" alt=\"UCSF's Neuroscape Lab was produced in partnership with several high tech companies. (Josh Cassidy/KQED)\" width=\"288\" height=\"162\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">UCSF’s Neuroscape Lab was produced in partnership with several gaming and virtual-realty tech companies. (Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In other words, the training “generalized,” says Robert Knight, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at UC Berkeley and one of Gazzaley’s former advisors. “They didn’t only get better at the task [in the video game]; the performance generalized to other tasks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whether those results will hold in future studies, and whether similar benefits show up in people with, for example, autism, ADHD or stroke, are questions scientists at Neuroscape and elsewhere will continue to explore.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Are BPA-Free Plastics Any Safer?",
"headTitle": "Are BPA-Free Plastics Any Safer? | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Mina Kim and Molly Samuel\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_14920\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-14920\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/177267473.jpg\" alt=\"Some plastics leach chemicals that are dangerous to developing fetuses and children. \" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Some plastics leach chemicals that are dangerous to developing fetuses and children.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Maybe you’ve noticed the words “BPA-free” on the packaging of plastic products like sippy cups and Tupperware. Studies have linked the chemical BPA, or Bisphenol A, to a host of health problems, particularly in pregnant women and their infants. But \u003ca href=\"http://www.ceh.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/PlastiPure-Report-on-CEH-Sippy-Cups-Sept-7-2012.pdf\">lab tests\u003c/a> by the Oakland-based advocacy group \u003ca href=\"http://www.ceh.org/\">Center for Environmental Health\u003c/a>, have found that the chemicals used to replace BPA may be just as harmful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED’s Mina Kim spoke with Mariah Blake, who wrote about the findings on plastics and synthetic estrogens in \u003ca href=\"http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/03/tritan-certichem-eastman-bpa-free-plastic-safe\">Mother Jones\u003c/a>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Estrogenic chemicals found in many common products have been linked to a litany of problems in humans and animals. According to one study, the pesticide atrazine can turn male frogs female. DES, which was once prescribed to prevent miscarriages, caused obesity, rare vaginal tumors, infertility, and testicular growths among those exposed in utero. Scientists have tied BPA to ailments including asthma, cancer, infertility, low sperm count, genital deformity, heart disease, liver problems, and ADHD. “Pick a disease, literally pick a disease,” says Frederick vom Saal, a biology professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia who studies BPA.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>In 2008, Blake explained, there was a “BPA panic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The public suddenly became very aware of the fact that BPA was potentially harmful,” Blake said. “Around that time, many manufacturers began moving away from BPA products.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>U.S. law doesn’t require a chemical be proven safe before it goes on the market; a chemical is presumed safe until proven otherwise. Nonetheless, given the public furor, manufacturers began replacing BPA with other kinds of plastics, including one called Tritan, manufactured by Eastman Chemical.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This was the plastic to use if you wanted a truly safe product,” Blake said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”14a2704dbe6d1c95030f95c4050f81be”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But recent tests by the Center for Environmental Health show Tritan is not so safe, after all. The Center sent 18 sippy cups to CertiChem Inc., in Austin, Texas, for testing. The lab found detectable estrogenic activity in chemicals leaching from five of the products, including products containing Tritan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists with CertiChem, Georgetown University and the University of Texas, had already published a National Institutes of Health-funded study in 2011, testing estrogen exposure from a wide range of plastics, including baby bottles and other products advertised as BPA-free. “In some cases,” \u003ca href=\"http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/1003220/\">the researchers reported\u003c/a>, “BPA-free products released chemicals having more EA [estrogenic activity] than did BPA-containing products.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eastman sued CertiChem Inc., to prevent it from publicizing the findings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On its \u003ca href=\"http://www.eastman.com/Markets/Tritan_Safe/Media_Room/Pages/Fact_Sheet.aspx\">website\u003c/a>, Eastman stands by the safety of Tritan. And the American Chemical Council, a plastics industry group, questions if there is even any danger in BPA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Many government bodies around the world have evaluated the scientific evidence on BPA and have declared it safe as used in food contact materials,” the American Chemical Council said in a statement released Tuesday. And it called attention to a \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/2014/02/27/maybe-that-bpa-in-your-canned-food-isnt-so-bad-after-all/\">recent FDA study\u003c/a> that found rats weren’t harmed by BPA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Blake isn’t so sure about that. “I’m actually working on a story about that study now,” she said. “There are a couple of issues that raise questions about its findings.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said the FDA used a breed of rat that’s not sensitive to estrogen and that there appeared to have been contamination in the lab that conducted the study. (A \u003ca href=\"http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/03/tritan-certichem-eastman-bpa-free-plastic-safe\">note at the top of the Mother Jones article\u003c/a> addresses the study.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”7178bca5daad45372b4bc4991aae8121″]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it comes to BPA and possibly other endocrine-disrupting chemicals, Blake said, there is no known safe dose. “Unlike other kinds of chemicals, it’s not like they’re only harmful when you reach a certain threshold,” she said. “The scientists I’ve spoken to who study this chemical say there is no safe level of exposure. Any level of exposure is potentially harmful, especially for young children and developing fetuses.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But she acknowledged, it’s hard to go plastic-free in our plastic world. “It’s a difficult situation because plastic is so ubiquitous and the available evidence suggests that there is no surefire way to avoid exposure as long as you’re using plastics,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/137968638″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Mina Kim and Molly Samuel\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_14920\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-14920\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/177267473.jpg\" alt=\"Some plastics leach chemicals that are dangerous to developing fetuses and children. \" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Some plastics leach chemicals that are dangerous to developing fetuses and children.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Maybe you’ve noticed the words “BPA-free” on the packaging of plastic products like sippy cups and Tupperware. Studies have linked the chemical BPA, or Bisphenol A, to a host of health problems, particularly in pregnant women and their infants. But \u003ca href=\"http://www.ceh.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/PlastiPure-Report-on-CEH-Sippy-Cups-Sept-7-2012.pdf\">lab tests\u003c/a> by the Oakland-based advocacy group \u003ca href=\"http://www.ceh.org/\">Center for Environmental Health\u003c/a>, have found that the chemicals used to replace BPA may be just as harmful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED’s Mina Kim spoke with Mariah Blake, who wrote about the findings on plastics and synthetic estrogens in \u003ca href=\"http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/03/tritan-certichem-eastman-bpa-free-plastic-safe\">Mother Jones\u003c/a>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Estrogenic chemicals found in many common products have been linked to a litany of problems in humans and animals. According to one study, the pesticide atrazine can turn male frogs female. DES, which was once prescribed to prevent miscarriages, caused obesity, rare vaginal tumors, infertility, and testicular growths among those exposed in utero. Scientists have tied BPA to ailments including asthma, cancer, infertility, low sperm count, genital deformity, heart disease, liver problems, and ADHD. “Pick a disease, literally pick a disease,” says Frederick vom Saal, a biology professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia who studies BPA.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>In 2008, Blake explained, there was a “BPA panic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The public suddenly became very aware of the fact that BPA was potentially harmful,” Blake said. “Around that time, many manufacturers began moving away from BPA products.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>U.S. law doesn’t require a chemical be proven safe before it goes on the market; a chemical is presumed safe until proven otherwise. Nonetheless, given the public furor, manufacturers began replacing BPA with other kinds of plastics, including one called Tritan, manufactured by Eastman Chemical.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This was the plastic to use if you wanted a truly safe product,” Blake said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But recent tests by the Center for Environmental Health show Tritan is not so safe, after all. The Center sent 18 sippy cups to CertiChem Inc., in Austin, Texas, for testing. The lab found detectable estrogenic activity in chemicals leaching from five of the products, including products containing Tritan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists with CertiChem, Georgetown University and the University of Texas, had already published a National Institutes of Health-funded study in 2011, testing estrogen exposure from a wide range of plastics, including baby bottles and other products advertised as BPA-free. “In some cases,” \u003ca href=\"http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/1003220/\">the researchers reported\u003c/a>, “BPA-free products released chemicals having more EA [estrogenic activity] than did BPA-containing products.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eastman sued CertiChem Inc., to prevent it from publicizing the findings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On its \u003ca href=\"http://www.eastman.com/Markets/Tritan_Safe/Media_Room/Pages/Fact_Sheet.aspx\">website\u003c/a>, Eastman stands by the safety of Tritan. And the American Chemical Council, a plastics industry group, questions if there is even any danger in BPA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Many government bodies around the world have evaluated the scientific evidence on BPA and have declared it safe as used in food contact materials,” the American Chemical Council said in a statement released Tuesday. And it called attention to a \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/2014/02/27/maybe-that-bpa-in-your-canned-food-isnt-so-bad-after-all/\">recent FDA study\u003c/a> that found rats weren’t harmed by BPA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Blake isn’t so sure about that. “I’m actually working on a story about that study now,” she said. “There are a couple of issues that raise questions about its findings.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said the FDA used a breed of rat that’s not sensitive to estrogen and that there appeared to have been contamination in the lab that conducted the study. (A \u003ca href=\"http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/03/tritan-certichem-eastman-bpa-free-plastic-safe\">note at the top of the Mother Jones article\u003c/a> addresses the study.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it comes to BPA and possibly other endocrine-disrupting chemicals, Blake said, there is no known safe dose. “Unlike other kinds of chemicals, it’s not like they’re only harmful when you reach a certain threshold,” she said. “The scientists I’ve spoken to who study this chemical say there is no safe level of exposure. Any level of exposure is potentially harmful, especially for young children and developing fetuses.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But she acknowledged, it’s hard to go plastic-free in our plastic world. “It’s a difficult situation because plastic is so ubiquitous and the available evidence suggests that there is no surefire way to avoid exposure as long as you’re using plastics,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cdiv class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__shortcodes__shortcodeWrapper'>\n \u003ciframe width='”100%”' height='”166″'\n scrolling='no' frameborder='no'\n src='https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/137968638″&visual=true&”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true”'\n title='”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/137968638″'>\n \u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/div>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Price Tag for October Shutdown of California National Parks: More Than $22 Million",
"headTitle": "Price Tag for October Shutdown of California National Parks: More Than $22 Million | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_14887\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-14887\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/yosemite.jpg\" alt=\"Yosemite is one of the most-visited national parks in California. (Craig Miller/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Yosemite is one of the most-visited national parks in California. (Craig Miller/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The 16-day government shutdown last October was a significant economic blow to the Bay Area and communities near other California national parks. A \u003ca href=\"http://www.nature.nps.gov/socialscience/docs%5CEconomic2013ShutdownReport_Final_nrss_VSE.pdf\">study released Monday\u003c/a> by the National Park Service says the shutdown was responsible for a loss of $22.6 million in visitor spending at six of the state’s most popular national parks:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Yosemite National Park:\u003c/strong> $6.7 million\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Golden Gate National Recreation Area\u003c/strong>: $6.1 million\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Sequoia National Park:\u003c/strong> $2.9 million\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Joshua Tree National Park:\u003c/strong> $2.4 millon\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Point Reyes National Seashore: \u003c/strong>$2.3 million\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Muir Woods National Monument:\u003c/strong> $2.2 million\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>The shutdown forced closure of most facilities in most national parks for 16 days last October. That meant about 260,000 fewer visitors at the Golden Gate National Recreation Area compared to prior Octobers. That was the second highest visitor reduction nationwide after the 330,000 loss at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, a popular autumn destination on the North Carolina-Tennessee border. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have 17 million visitors a year,” said GGNRA spokeswoman Alexandra Picavet. “And to have that long of a period that we were unavailable to visitors, it just was an aberration.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nationally, there were 7.8 million fewer national park visitors in October 2013 than the average for the previous three Octobers. The report estimates lost visitor spending nationwide at $414 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the shutdown’s impact didn’t fall equally on all parks. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nation’s \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/2013/02/11/welcoming-pinnacles-to-the-elite-club-of-national-parks/\">newest national park\u003c/a>, Pinnacles, located about 110 miles southeast of San Francisco, largely avoided the ill effects of the government shutdown. That’s thanks, in part, to the shutdown coming at an opportune time for the park: October falls in the middle of the off-season, before the park brings back non-essential staff for the busy season in December, explained Pinnacles spokeswoman Nichole Andler.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And Pinnacles has had another advantage, she said. “Just becoming a new national park, our visibility has been really highly raised, both with local residents and people coming from greater distances.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2012, the park created 147 jobs and generated $12.7 million for neighboring communities, according to a \u003ca href=\"http://www.nature.nps.gov/socialscience/docs%5CNPSVSE2012_final_nrss.pdf\">second report\u003c/a> released by the National Park Service on Monday. That’s when it was still a national monument. Pinnacles became a national park in January 2013. (The numbers on 2013 economic contributions aren’t out yet.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials in towns near the park have hoped that with the elevated designation, more tourists and money would come to the area. Soledad, situated at the western entrance of the park, has attempted an ambitious re-branding campaign to become “the gateway” to Pinnacles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve never really had a lot of tourists,” Soledad Mayor Fred Ledesma said, “but we noticed right away when the designation changed, numbers were up 30 to 40 percent.” Ledesma said he hopes a new visitors’ center will help point tourists to other local attractions including wineries. “I think we’re just barely starting to see people realize the residual effects of the Pinnacles,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The economic impact in San Benito County, on the eastern side of the park has been less noticeable, said Debbie Taylor, president and CEO of San Benito County Chamber of Commerce. The park’s eastern entrance is about 30 miles south of the county seat of Hollister along relatively little-visited Highway 25. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We definitely have seen more traffic, more visitors,” Taylor said. But commercial activity is arriving in a trickle, she said, and not entirely because of the park. “Businesses that are opening are still within the city limits, and they’re not necessarily opening because of the park.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "National Park Services says loss of visitor spending hit some communities hard. But Pinnacles, the nation's newest national park, ducked the worst of the problems. ",
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"title": "Price Tag for October Shutdown of California National Parks: More Than $22 Million | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_14887\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-14887\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/03/yosemite.jpg\" alt=\"Yosemite is one of the most-visited national parks in California. (Craig Miller/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Yosemite is one of the most-visited national parks in California. (Craig Miller/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The 16-day government shutdown last October was a significant economic blow to the Bay Area and communities near other California national parks. A \u003ca href=\"http://www.nature.nps.gov/socialscience/docs%5CEconomic2013ShutdownReport_Final_nrss_VSE.pdf\">study released Monday\u003c/a> by the National Park Service says the shutdown was responsible for a loss of $22.6 million in visitor spending at six of the state’s most popular national parks:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Yosemite National Park:\u003c/strong> $6.7 million\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Golden Gate National Recreation Area\u003c/strong>: $6.1 million\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Sequoia National Park:\u003c/strong> $2.9 million\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Joshua Tree National Park:\u003c/strong> $2.4 millon\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Point Reyes National Seashore: \u003c/strong>$2.3 million\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Muir Woods National Monument:\u003c/strong> $2.2 million\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>The shutdown forced closure of most facilities in most national parks for 16 days last October. That meant about 260,000 fewer visitors at the Golden Gate National Recreation Area compared to prior Octobers. That was the second highest visitor reduction nationwide after the 330,000 loss at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, a popular autumn destination on the North Carolina-Tennessee border. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have 17 million visitors a year,” said GGNRA spokeswoman Alexandra Picavet. “And to have that long of a period that we were unavailable to visitors, it just was an aberration.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nationally, there were 7.8 million fewer national park visitors in October 2013 than the average for the previous three Octobers. The report estimates lost visitor spending nationwide at $414 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the shutdown’s impact didn’t fall equally on all parks. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nation’s \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/2013/02/11/welcoming-pinnacles-to-the-elite-club-of-national-parks/\">newest national park\u003c/a>, Pinnacles, located about 110 miles southeast of San Francisco, largely avoided the ill effects of the government shutdown. That’s thanks, in part, to the shutdown coming at an opportune time for the park: October falls in the middle of the off-season, before the park brings back non-essential staff for the busy season in December, explained Pinnacles spokeswoman Nichole Andler.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And Pinnacles has had another advantage, she said. “Just becoming a new national park, our visibility has been really highly raised, both with local residents and people coming from greater distances.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2012, the park created 147 jobs and generated $12.7 million for neighboring communities, according to a \u003ca href=\"http://www.nature.nps.gov/socialscience/docs%5CNPSVSE2012_final_nrss.pdf\">second report\u003c/a> released by the National Park Service on Monday. That’s when it was still a national monument. Pinnacles became a national park in January 2013. (The numbers on 2013 economic contributions aren’t out yet.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials in towns near the park have hoped that with the elevated designation, more tourists and money would come to the area. Soledad, situated at the western entrance of the park, has attempted an ambitious re-branding campaign to become “the gateway” to Pinnacles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve never really had a lot of tourists,” Soledad Mayor Fred Ledesma said, “but we noticed right away when the designation changed, numbers were up 30 to 40 percent.” Ledesma said he hopes a new visitors’ center will help point tourists to other local attractions including wineries. “I think we’re just barely starting to see people realize the residual effects of the Pinnacles,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The economic impact in San Benito County, on the eastern side of the park has been less noticeable, said Debbie Taylor, president and CEO of San Benito County Chamber of Commerce. The park’s eastern entrance is about 30 miles south of the county seat of Hollister along relatively little-visited Highway 25. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We definitely have seen more traffic, more visitors,” Taylor said. But commercial activity is arriving in a trickle, she said, and not entirely because of the park. “Businesses that are opening are still within the city limits, and they’re not necessarily opening because of the park.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"audio-wrap\">\n\u003ch2>Listen:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/science/2014/02/20140303science.mp3\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>Why seek out entirely new approaches to treating brain disease? Because the ones we have aren’t good enough, says Stanford University law professor Hank Greely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Mental illness and neurological disease extract an enormous toll in human suffering as well as in dollars,” says \u003ca href=\"http://www.law.stanford.edu/profile/hank-greely\">Greely\u003c/a>. “It’s frustrating that we haven’t made more progress.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s the context for a growing interest in the field of “electroceuticals,” in which small jolts of electricity (about 1/200\u003csup>th \u003c/sup>of what’s used in \u003ca href=\"http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/brain-stimulation-therapies/brain-stimulation-therapies.shtml\">ECT therapy\u003c/a>, in case you’re wondering) are directed toward the brain to change the way neurons fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Rise of “Electroceuticals”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In hundreds of studies over the last decade, scientists have looked at whether electroceuticals might, among other applications, help people with chronic pain or depression, or help them stop smoking.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘Mental illness and neurological disease extract an enormous toll in human suffering and in dollars.’\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>At a recent meeting of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.iom.edu/\">Institute of Medicine\u003c/a>’s Neuroscience Forum, of which Greely is a member, members decided that the field of electroceuticals, while still at an early stage, is “worth paying some attention to,” says Greely, and will be the topic of an upcoming white paper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Broadly speaking, brain stimulation techniques fall into two categories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first is invasive brain stimulation, in which electrodes are surgically implanted inside the brain, as a treatment, for example, for Parkinson’s disease. Non-invasive brain stimulation can be done without surgery—either with electrodes, ultrasound, or a powerful \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/2009/07/17/reporters-notes-depression-advancements/\">electromagnetic coil\u003c/a>, and it includes a technique known as \u003ca href=\"http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/psychiatry/specialty_areas/brain_stimulation/tdcs.html\">transcranial direct current stimulation\u003c/a>, or tDCS.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What’s interesting about tDCS is that anyone can do it, including for reasons that have nothing to do with disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Brain Stimulation for the Masses\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Take, for example, the Foc.us headset, which costs about $250, is unregulated by the FDA and, according to its website, allows users to “overclock” their brains to focus better and score higher. (Foc.us didn’t respond to KQED’s requests for an interview.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_14774\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 226px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-14774 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/02/photo-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Jared Seehafer built a tDCS machine for about $100.\" width=\"226\" height=\"301\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jared Seehafer built a tDCS machine for about $100.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For as little as a tenth of that price you can make your own tDCS kit, using instructions easily found on \u003ca href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjpJPCTytP8\">YouTube\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s what Jared Seehafer did. The 28-year-old medical device consultant lives in San Francisco and heads the \u003ca href=\"http://www.meetup.com/Bay-Area-Brain-Hackers/\">Bay Area Brain Hackers\u003c/a> group, and made his own tDCS machine using an \u003ca href=\"http://www.arduino.cc/\">Arduino \u003c/a>kit, an LCD screen and a “couple of rudimentary buttons” hooked up to two electrodes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s powered by one nine-volt battery, producing about 1-2 milliamps, approximately what it takes to light one small LED bulb, or about one percent of what comes out of a wall socket. It’s the same amount of electricity researchers have used in lab studies on tDCS.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One such lab study inspired Seehafer to start experimenting with tDCS as a hobbyist: an experiment conducted byVince Clark, Director of the \u003ca href=\"http://hospitals.unm.edu/outpt/brain/neuro_lomas.shtml\">University of New Mexico’s Psychology Clinical Neuroscience Center\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were interested in how can we take an average healthy person and improve their ability to learn something new?” explains Clark.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With funding from the Department of Defense, Clark set up an experiment in which subjects studied a series of complicated pictures. Hidden in each was a “threatening” object, such as a suspicious package or someone with a weapon. The goal was to see how fast the subject could spot the objects, with a tDCS treatment and without it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we found,” says Clark, “is that the people that received a full dose of tDCS learned twice as much in the same hour of training as people that received a very low dose of tDCS, or no tDCS at all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Reasons for Caution\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clark is a big believer in tDCS. He thinks it could become a new kind of medicine with fewer side effects than drugs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What concerns some researchers, even those who believe tDCS may be therapeutic, is that the commercial and DIY tDCS experiments aren’t being properly controlled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://bme.ccny.cuny.edu/people/faculty/mbikson\">Marom Bikson\u003c/a>, an associate professor of biomedical engineering at City College of New York, studies the effects of electricity on the human body. He strongly objects to the idea of tDCS devices as “playthings” that could be used constructively and safely outside of a laboratory’s strict controls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are deliberate ways that people might apply electricity unsafely to themselves,” Bikson says. “There are also accidental ways. You may make a device at home, but you may not design it correctly. You may design it correctly and then you may drop it on the ground and now its performance changed. You may buy a device from a company that does not follow medical device standards,and now the performance of that device may be very random. It may—who knows what?—it may interact with your cell phone in an unpredictable way and start producing an unpredictable output. ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 13px\">“There are just so many questions that are raised when things start to leave the rigorous environment of an academic or clinical center.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I tried it anyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Curiosity Gets the Upper Hand\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_14773\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 277px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-14773 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/02/AmytDCS-768x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"One radio reporter + two electrodes = a telephone that looks Photoshopped. (Jared Seehafer)\" width=\"277\" height=\"368\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">One radio reporter + two electrodes = a telephone that looks Photoshopped. (Jared Seehafer)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After work one evening, Jared Seehafer came into KQED to show me his homemade tDCS device. Seehafer told me to put on a terrycloth headband, the kind favored by 1970s tennis players. Then he slid two padded electrodes, each attached to a white wire and moistened with saline solution, above my eyebrows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At first, there was nothing. But then I started to feel a slight burning sensation, just beneath the electrodes. It wasn’t painful, but it stung a bit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After a few minutes, something subtler set in: a kind of visual crispness. I stared at a phone on the desk in front of me. It looked like it had been sharpened in Photoshop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Is it possible I feel more energetic?” I asked Seehafer, “a little more awake?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was very subtle. I may have been imagining it. But when Seehafer ran a placebo test on me, discreetly turning the machine off, I noticed the change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Later, I described my experience to a couple of experts, to see whether they thought I could have been imagining it. They weren’t surprised I felt something. It’s well established that a small amount of electricity can pass through the skull and into the brain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s going to take many more years of strict clinical studies to see whether tDCS is a therapy that can be useful, or whether it’s just a footnote in the long history of medicine.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "While scientists study whether \"electroceuticals\" might treat depression or chronic pain, among other ailments, DIY \"brain hackers\" (including this reporter) are trying it out on themselves. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>Why seek out entirely new approaches to treating brain disease? Because the ones we have aren’t good enough, says Stanford University law professor Hank Greely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Mental illness and neurological disease extract an enormous toll in human suffering as well as in dollars,” says \u003ca href=\"http://www.law.stanford.edu/profile/hank-greely\">Greely\u003c/a>. “It’s frustrating that we haven’t made more progress.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s the context for a growing interest in the field of “electroceuticals,” in which small jolts of electricity (about 1/200\u003csup>th \u003c/sup>of what’s used in \u003ca href=\"http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/brain-stimulation-therapies/brain-stimulation-therapies.shtml\">ECT therapy\u003c/a>, in case you’re wondering) are directed toward the brain to change the way neurons fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Rise of “Electroceuticals”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In hundreds of studies over the last decade, scientists have looked at whether electroceuticals might, among other applications, help people with chronic pain or depression, or help them stop smoking.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘Mental illness and neurological disease extract an enormous toll in human suffering and in dollars.’\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>At a recent meeting of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.iom.edu/\">Institute of Medicine\u003c/a>’s Neuroscience Forum, of which Greely is a member, members decided that the field of electroceuticals, while still at an early stage, is “worth paying some attention to,” says Greely, and will be the topic of an upcoming white paper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Broadly speaking, brain stimulation techniques fall into two categories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first is invasive brain stimulation, in which electrodes are surgically implanted inside the brain, as a treatment, for example, for Parkinson’s disease. Non-invasive brain stimulation can be done without surgery—either with electrodes, ultrasound, or a powerful \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/2009/07/17/reporters-notes-depression-advancements/\">electromagnetic coil\u003c/a>, and it includes a technique known as \u003ca href=\"http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/psychiatry/specialty_areas/brain_stimulation/tdcs.html\">transcranial direct current stimulation\u003c/a>, or tDCS.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What’s interesting about tDCS is that anyone can do it, including for reasons that have nothing to do with disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Brain Stimulation for the Masses\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Take, for example, the Foc.us headset, which costs about $250, is unregulated by the FDA and, according to its website, allows users to “overclock” their brains to focus better and score higher. (Foc.us didn’t respond to KQED’s requests for an interview.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_14774\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 226px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-14774 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/02/photo-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Jared Seehafer built a tDCS machine for about $100.\" width=\"226\" height=\"301\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jared Seehafer built a tDCS machine for about $100.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For as little as a tenth of that price you can make your own tDCS kit, using instructions easily found on \u003ca href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjpJPCTytP8\">YouTube\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s what Jared Seehafer did. The 28-year-old medical device consultant lives in San Francisco and heads the \u003ca href=\"http://www.meetup.com/Bay-Area-Brain-Hackers/\">Bay Area Brain Hackers\u003c/a> group, and made his own tDCS machine using an \u003ca href=\"http://www.arduino.cc/\">Arduino \u003c/a>kit, an LCD screen and a “couple of rudimentary buttons” hooked up to two electrodes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s powered by one nine-volt battery, producing about 1-2 milliamps, approximately what it takes to light one small LED bulb, or about one percent of what comes out of a wall socket. It’s the same amount of electricity researchers have used in lab studies on tDCS.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One such lab study inspired Seehafer to start experimenting with tDCS as a hobbyist: an experiment conducted byVince Clark, Director of the \u003ca href=\"http://hospitals.unm.edu/outpt/brain/neuro_lomas.shtml\">University of New Mexico’s Psychology Clinical Neuroscience Center\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were interested in how can we take an average healthy person and improve their ability to learn something new?” explains Clark.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With funding from the Department of Defense, Clark set up an experiment in which subjects studied a series of complicated pictures. Hidden in each was a “threatening” object, such as a suspicious package or someone with a weapon. The goal was to see how fast the subject could spot the objects, with a tDCS treatment and without it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we found,” says Clark, “is that the people that received a full dose of tDCS learned twice as much in the same hour of training as people that received a very low dose of tDCS, or no tDCS at all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Reasons for Caution\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clark is a big believer in tDCS. He thinks it could become a new kind of medicine with fewer side effects than drugs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What concerns some researchers, even those who believe tDCS may be therapeutic, is that the commercial and DIY tDCS experiments aren’t being properly controlled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://bme.ccny.cuny.edu/people/faculty/mbikson\">Marom Bikson\u003c/a>, an associate professor of biomedical engineering at City College of New York, studies the effects of electricity on the human body. He strongly objects to the idea of tDCS devices as “playthings” that could be used constructively and safely outside of a laboratory’s strict controls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are deliberate ways that people might apply electricity unsafely to themselves,” Bikson says. “There are also accidental ways. You may make a device at home, but you may not design it correctly. You may design it correctly and then you may drop it on the ground and now its performance changed. You may buy a device from a company that does not follow medical device standards,and now the performance of that device may be very random. It may—who knows what?—it may interact with your cell phone in an unpredictable way and start producing an unpredictable output. ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 13px\">“There are just so many questions that are raised when things start to leave the rigorous environment of an academic or clinical center.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I tried it anyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Curiosity Gets the Upper Hand\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_14773\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 277px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-14773 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/02/AmytDCS-768x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"One radio reporter + two electrodes = a telephone that looks Photoshopped. (Jared Seehafer)\" width=\"277\" height=\"368\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">One radio reporter + two electrodes = a telephone that looks Photoshopped. (Jared Seehafer)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After work one evening, Jared Seehafer came into KQED to show me his homemade tDCS device. Seehafer told me to put on a terrycloth headband, the kind favored by 1970s tennis players. Then he slid two padded electrodes, each attached to a white wire and moistened with saline solution, above my eyebrows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At first, there was nothing. But then I started to feel a slight burning sensation, just beneath the electrodes. It wasn’t painful, but it stung a bit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After a few minutes, something subtler set in: a kind of visual crispness. I stared at a phone on the desk in front of me. It looked like it had been sharpened in Photoshop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Is it possible I feel more energetic?” I asked Seehafer, “a little more awake?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was very subtle. I may have been imagining it. But when Seehafer ran a placebo test on me, discreetly turning the machine off, I noticed the change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Later, I described my experience to a couple of experts, to see whether they thought I could have been imagining it. They weren’t surprised I felt something. It’s well established that a small amount of electricity can pass through the skull and into the brain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s going to take many more years of strict clinical studies to see whether tDCS is a therapy that can be useful, or whether it’s just a footnote in the long history of medicine.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"headTitle": "Bay Area: Do You Know Where Your Water Comes From? | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>The Bay Area water system is a byzantine patchwork of agencies — more than 50 in all — that provides water to customers. Some are the ones you see on your water bill. Others are middlemen that provide water to local agencies at the the wholesale level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And some of that water makes a long journey. Southern California has the reputation for tapping far-flung sources for its water needs, but the Bay Area is in the same boat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than two-thirds of the Bay Area’s water supply comes from outside the region, which means in extreme drought years like this one, local water districts are competing with many others around the state for limited supplies.\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nBay Area Water Districts by Major Source of Supply\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://www.google.com/fusiontables/embedviz?q=select+col3+from+1NIm7PuuPiHOm1RAm-VjyIsNslYCnTSSCWzLDS3c&viz=MAP&h=false&lat=37.72079799420169&lng=-122.23845001696753&t=1&z=8&l=col3&y=2&tmplt=2&hml=KML\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"640\" height=\"500\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/02/key6.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-14726\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/02/key6.jpg\" alt=\"key6\" width=\"640\" height=\"153\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hetch Hetchy Water System\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nThe system originates more than 100 miles from its primary customers, in Yosemite National Park. O’Shaughnessy Dam was built on the Tuolumne River in 1923 to create Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. The water travels through a series of pipelines before it reaches the Bay Area and blends with five local reservoirs. The Tuolumne River joins the San Joaquin River and flows into the Delta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2012, advocates of restoring Hetch Hetchy Valley \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/audio/century-old-battle-over-yosemites-second-valley-heats-up/\">put a measure on the San Francisco ballot\u003c/a> that would have required the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission to study draining the reservoir and shifting the water to other storage facilities. The measure was defeated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_14633\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/02/HetchHetchy-1024x368.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-14633\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/02/HetchHetchy-1024x368.jpg\" alt=\"Click to enlarge map. (Credit: By Shannon1 [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons)\" width=\"1024\" height=\"368\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Click to enlarge map. (Credit: By Shannon1 \u003ca href=\"http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AHetchhetchyprojmap.jpg\">via Wikimedia Commons\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_14635\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 218px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/02/DWR_USGS_bay_deltamap-826x1024.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-14635\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/02/DWR_USGS_bay_deltamap-826x1024.jpg\" alt=\"(Source: CA DWR and USGS)\" width=\"218\" height=\"269\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Click to enlarge map. (Source: CA DWR and USGS)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nCalifornia’s two major rivers, the Sacramento and San Joaquin, fed by half a dozen others, \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/series/ca-delta/\">come together in this inland delta\u003c/a> just east of San Francisco Bay. The Delta’s watershed makes up about 45 percent of the state in all. Two-thirds of Californians use Delta water, delivered mainly through two major canal systems, the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the prolonged drought, water officials have warned that there \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/01/31/state-water-project-deliveries-canceled-because-of-drought\">could be no water deliveries\u003c/a> from either project this year, except for some drinking water supplies. The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta has seen \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/series/ca-delta/\">dramatic ecological decline\u003c/a> due to habitat loss, invasive species and highly altered water flow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Russian River Water System\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nThe 110-mile Russian River begins north of the Bay Area in Mendocino County and flows south until it reaches the Pacific Ocean west of Santa Rosa. There are three major reservoirs that are part of the water system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mokelumne River Water System\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nThis river originates in the Central Sierra Nevada and flows west until it reaches the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and San Francisco Bay. The East Bay Municipal Utility District built Pardee Dam on the river near Stockton in 1929. Water is delivered to the Bay Area through the 85-mile Mokelumne Aqueduct, which diverts the river’s water before it reaches the Delta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_14640\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 900px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/02/EBMUD.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-14640\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/02/EBMUD.jpg\" alt=\"Click to enlarge map. (Source: EBMUD)\" width=\"900\" height=\"390\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Click to enlarge map. (Source: EBMUD)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lake Berryessa\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nThe 23 mile-long reservoir was created in Napa County in the 1950s, when the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation built Monticello Dam on Putah Creek.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Local Water Supplies\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nMany water districts use water from the surrounding watershed. It comes from local streams and rivers, fed by rainfall or is pumped from underground aquifers. Some districts also recycle water, which is primarily used for landscape irrigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>http://www.kqed.org/assets/graph/drought-2005ws-0214.jsp\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Additional research by Shara Tonn.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The Bay Area water system is a byzantine patchwork of agencies — more than 50 in all — that provides water to customers. Some are the ones you see on your water bill. Others are middlemen that provide water to local agencies at the the wholesale level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And some of that water makes a long journey. Southern California has the reputation for tapping far-flung sources for its water needs, but the Bay Area is in the same boat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than two-thirds of the Bay Area’s water supply comes from outside the region, which means in extreme drought years like this one, local water districts are competing with many others around the state for limited supplies.\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nBay Area Water Districts by Major Source of Supply\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://www.google.com/fusiontables/embedviz?q=select+col3+from+1NIm7PuuPiHOm1RAm-VjyIsNslYCnTSSCWzLDS3c&viz=MAP&h=false&lat=37.72079799420169&lng=-122.23845001696753&t=1&z=8&l=col3&y=2&tmplt=2&hml=KML\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"640\" height=\"500\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/02/key6.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-14726\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/02/key6.jpg\" alt=\"key6\" width=\"640\" height=\"153\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hetch Hetchy Water System\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nThe system originates more than 100 miles from its primary customers, in Yosemite National Park. O’Shaughnessy Dam was built on the Tuolumne River in 1923 to create Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. The water travels through a series of pipelines before it reaches the Bay Area and blends with five local reservoirs. The Tuolumne River joins the San Joaquin River and flows into the Delta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2012, advocates of restoring Hetch Hetchy Valley \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/audio/century-old-battle-over-yosemites-second-valley-heats-up/\">put a measure on the San Francisco ballot\u003c/a> that would have required the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission to study draining the reservoir and shifting the water to other storage facilities. The measure was defeated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_14633\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/02/HetchHetchy-1024x368.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-14633\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/02/HetchHetchy-1024x368.jpg\" alt=\"Click to enlarge map. (Credit: By Shannon1 [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons)\" width=\"1024\" height=\"368\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Click to enlarge map. (Credit: By Shannon1 \u003ca href=\"http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AHetchhetchyprojmap.jpg\">via Wikimedia Commons\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_14635\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 218px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/02/DWR_USGS_bay_deltamap-826x1024.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-14635\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/02/DWR_USGS_bay_deltamap-826x1024.jpg\" alt=\"(Source: CA DWR and USGS)\" width=\"218\" height=\"269\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Click to enlarge map. (Source: CA DWR and USGS)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nCalifornia’s two major rivers, the Sacramento and San Joaquin, fed by half a dozen others, \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/series/ca-delta/\">come together in this inland delta\u003c/a> just east of San Francisco Bay. The Delta’s watershed makes up about 45 percent of the state in all. Two-thirds of Californians use Delta water, delivered mainly through two major canal systems, the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the prolonged drought, water officials have warned that there \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/01/31/state-water-project-deliveries-canceled-because-of-drought\">could be no water deliveries\u003c/a> from either project this year, except for some drinking water supplies. The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta has seen \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/series/ca-delta/\">dramatic ecological decline\u003c/a> due to habitat loss, invasive species and highly altered water flow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Russian River Water System\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nThe 110-mile Russian River begins north of the Bay Area in Mendocino County and flows south until it reaches the Pacific Ocean west of Santa Rosa. There are three major reservoirs that are part of the water system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mokelumne River Water System\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nThis river originates in the Central Sierra Nevada and flows west until it reaches the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and San Francisco Bay. The East Bay Municipal Utility District built Pardee Dam on the river near Stockton in 1929. Water is delivered to the Bay Area through the 85-mile Mokelumne Aqueduct, which diverts the river’s water before it reaches the Delta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_14640\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 900px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/02/EBMUD.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-14640\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/02/EBMUD.jpg\" alt=\"Click to enlarge map. (Source: EBMUD)\" width=\"900\" height=\"390\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Click to enlarge map. (Source: EBMUD)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lake Berryessa\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nThe 23 mile-long reservoir was created in Napa County in the 1950s, when the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation built Monticello Dam on Putah Creek.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Local Water Supplies\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nMany water districts use water from the surrounding watershed. It comes from local streams and rivers, fed by rainfall or is pumped from underground aquifers. Some districts also recycle water, which is primarily used for landscape irrigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>http://www.kqed.org/assets/graph/drought-2005ws-0214.jsp\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Additional research by Shara Tonn.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"tagline": "The flip side of gentrification, told through one town",
"info": "Gentrification is changing cities across America, forcing people from neighborhoods they have long called home. Call them the displaced. Now those priced out of the Bay Area are looking for a better life in an unlikely place. American Suburb follows this migration to one California town along the Delta, 45 miles from San Francisco. But is this once sleepy suburb ready for them?",
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"tagline": "Exploring the Bay Area, one question at a time",
"info": "KQED’s new podcast, Bay Curious, gets to the bottom of the mysteries — both profound and peculiar — that give the Bay Area its unique identity. And we’ll do it with your help! You ask the questions. You decide what Bay Curious investigates. And you join us on the journey to find the answers.",
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"info": "KQED’s statewide radio news program providing daily coverage of issues, trends and public policy decisions.",
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"order": 8
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},
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"order": 1
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"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
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"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"order": 9
},
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"id": "fresh-air",
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"hidden-brain": {
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"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
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"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
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"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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"order": 18
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},
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"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
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},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
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},
"masters-of-scale": {
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"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
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"source": "WaitWhat"
},
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"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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