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"title": "Geminids Meteor Shower to Light Up Bay Area Sky With 120 Meteors Per Hour",
"headTitle": "Geminids Meteor Shower to Light Up Bay Area Sky With 120 Meteors Per Hour | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>The dazzling finale of a season of meteor showers is at hand!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Late Wednesday night on Dec. 13 and into Thursday morning on Dec. 14, the Geminids meteor shower will reach its peak activity. Considered one of the year’s most spectacular and reliable showers, the Geminids produce as many as 120 meteors every hour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The December Geminids are a bit like the fireworks finale, except for a season of meteor showers that started with the August Perseids and moved along through the Orionids in October and the Lyrids in November.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How and when to see Geminids\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To see the Geminids, plan a late-night trip to a viewing location as far from city lights as you can get, and dress warmly. Bring something to sit or lay down on — a chair or a picnic blanket — and get comfortable. Plan to spend at least 30 minutes, preferably more, since it can take that long for your eyes to become dark adapted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985657\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985657\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/2020_Geminid_radiant_visual-NASA.png\" alt=\"An digital rendering of the constelations in the stars forming two brothers alongside a crab. \" width=\"1024\" height=\"709\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/2020_Geminid_radiant_visual-NASA.png 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/2020_Geminid_radiant_visual-NASA-800x554.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/2020_Geminid_radiant_visual-NASA-1020x706.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/2020_Geminid_radiant_visual-NASA-160x111.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/2020_Geminid_radiant_visual-NASA-768x532.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Illustration of the constellation Gemini (center) depicted by the twin brothers of Greek mythology. The constellation Cancer is to the left, and the V-shape of stars forming the head of Taurus the Bull is on the right. The bright yellow dots around the twins’ heads mark the appearance of 388 individual Geminids meteors, revealing the shower’s “radiant” point. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>By midnight, the region of the sky the meteors will appear to fly from — the \u003ca href=\"https://earthsky.org/constellations/gemini-heres-your-constellation/\">constellation Gemini\u003c/a>, this shower’s “radiant” — will be high in the eastern sky, almost directly overhead. The twin stars Castor and Pollux mark the spot to \u003ca href=\"https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/meteor-shower/geminids.html\">center your gaze on\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Relax, taking the entire sky into your gaze. Meteors can appear anywhere in the sky at any moment. Each fiery streak of light you see can be a thrill, and with a shower like the Geminids, there will be plenty to see.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Geminids meteors are bright and move fast, and tend to be yellow in color. And this year, the moon will be absent from the night sky, only slightly past its new phase, so there will be no moonlight to interfere with viewing.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What causes the Geminids shower?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/meteors-meteorites/geminids/\">Geminids\u003c/a>, like all meteor showers, are the result of Earth passing through a cloud of dust in space. The bits of dust, most no larger than a pebble, are incinerated by friction when they hit our atmosphere at speeds of tens of miles per second.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985658\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1400px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985658 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/3200phaethon-illustration-NASAJPL-CaltechIPAC.jpg\" alt=\"A puffy-donut looking planet emits yellow gas. \" width=\"1400\" height=\"788\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/3200phaethon-illustration-NASAJPL-CaltechIPAC.jpg 1400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/3200phaethon-illustration-NASAJPL-CaltechIPAC-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/3200phaethon-illustration-NASAJPL-CaltechIPAC-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/3200phaethon-illustration-NASAJPL-CaltechIPAC-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/3200phaethon-illustration-NASAJPL-CaltechIPAC-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Illustration of the asteroid, or so-called ‘rock comet,’ 3200 Phaethon, source of the dust that forms the Geminids meteor shower. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech/IPAC)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The source of dust for most meteor showers is comets, so-called “dirty snowballs” that pass close to the sun and spew out gas when some of their frozen materials evaporate, leaving a trail of debris in their wake. If the comet’s path happens to cross Earth’s orbit, we can see a meteor shower.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We see meteor showers in the morning hours, when we’re located on the side of the Earth leading into the dust cloud.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Geminids shower is special. Its dust particles were not left behind by a comet but by a sun-grazing asteroid named 3200 Phaethon. Phaethon’s behavior of shedding dust like a comet has astronomers thinking it could be the rocky remnant core of a dead comet, one whose volatile ice has mostly been lost over time. More recent observations have highlighted the possibility that 3200 Phaethon \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/solar-system/asteroids-comet-like-tail-is-not-made-of-dust-solar-observatories-reveal/\">may not shed dust at all\u003c/a>, as a typical comet does, but may have ejected the Geminids material long ago in a cataclysmic event.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985660\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 240px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985660 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/PIA22185.gif\" alt=\"A gray fuzzy gif of an asteroid. \" width=\"240\" height=\"240\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Animation of a sequence of radio telescope images of the asteroid 3200 Phaethon, created by the Arecibo Observatory. \u003ccite>(NASA/Arecibo Observatory/NSF)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>3200 Phaethon orbits the sun every 1.4 years and is little more than three miles in diameter. Like most comets Phaethon’s orbit is highly elliptical, and carries it within 13 million miles of the sun — three times closer than the planet Mercury!\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Meteor showers through the year\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://stardate.org/nightsky/meteors\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meteor showers\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> occur throughout the year, and there are no fewer than 40 \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.go-astronomy.com/solar-system/meteors.php\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">recognized annual showers\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, each supplied by a different sun-grazing comet — not all of which have even been discovered. Most of these showers produce few meteors, some as low as two or three meteors per hour. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Geminids, however, top the charts with the highest rates and brighter-than-average meteors, so if you can only manage to get up for one or two meteor showers each year, this one should be first on your list.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The dazzling finale of a season of meteor showers is at hand!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Late Wednesday night on Dec. 13 and into Thursday morning on Dec. 14, the Geminids meteor shower will reach its peak activity. Considered one of the year’s most spectacular and reliable showers, the Geminids produce as many as 120 meteors every hour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The December Geminids are a bit like the fireworks finale, except for a season of meteor showers that started with the August Perseids and moved along through the Orionids in October and the Lyrids in November.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How and when to see Geminids\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To see the Geminids, plan a late-night trip to a viewing location as far from city lights as you can get, and dress warmly. Bring something to sit or lay down on — a chair or a picnic blanket — and get comfortable. Plan to spend at least 30 minutes, preferably more, since it can take that long for your eyes to become dark adapted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985657\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985657\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/2020_Geminid_radiant_visual-NASA.png\" alt=\"An digital rendering of the constelations in the stars forming two brothers alongside a crab. \" width=\"1024\" height=\"709\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/2020_Geminid_radiant_visual-NASA.png 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/2020_Geminid_radiant_visual-NASA-800x554.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/2020_Geminid_radiant_visual-NASA-1020x706.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/2020_Geminid_radiant_visual-NASA-160x111.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/2020_Geminid_radiant_visual-NASA-768x532.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Illustration of the constellation Gemini (center) depicted by the twin brothers of Greek mythology. The constellation Cancer is to the left, and the V-shape of stars forming the head of Taurus the Bull is on the right. The bright yellow dots around the twins’ heads mark the appearance of 388 individual Geminids meteors, revealing the shower’s “radiant” point. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>By midnight, the region of the sky the meteors will appear to fly from — the \u003ca href=\"https://earthsky.org/constellations/gemini-heres-your-constellation/\">constellation Gemini\u003c/a>, this shower’s “radiant” — will be high in the eastern sky, almost directly overhead. The twin stars Castor and Pollux mark the spot to \u003ca href=\"https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/meteor-shower/geminids.html\">center your gaze on\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Relax, taking the entire sky into your gaze. Meteors can appear anywhere in the sky at any moment. Each fiery streak of light you see can be a thrill, and with a shower like the Geminids, there will be plenty to see.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Geminids meteors are bright and move fast, and tend to be yellow in color. And this year, the moon will be absent from the night sky, only slightly past its new phase, so there will be no moonlight to interfere with viewing.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What causes the Geminids shower?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/meteors-meteorites/geminids/\">Geminids\u003c/a>, like all meteor showers, are the result of Earth passing through a cloud of dust in space. The bits of dust, most no larger than a pebble, are incinerated by friction when they hit our atmosphere at speeds of tens of miles per second.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985658\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1400px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985658 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/3200phaethon-illustration-NASAJPL-CaltechIPAC.jpg\" alt=\"A puffy-donut looking planet emits yellow gas. \" width=\"1400\" height=\"788\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/3200phaethon-illustration-NASAJPL-CaltechIPAC.jpg 1400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/3200phaethon-illustration-NASAJPL-CaltechIPAC-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/3200phaethon-illustration-NASAJPL-CaltechIPAC-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/3200phaethon-illustration-NASAJPL-CaltechIPAC-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/3200phaethon-illustration-NASAJPL-CaltechIPAC-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Illustration of the asteroid, or so-called ‘rock comet,’ 3200 Phaethon, source of the dust that forms the Geminids meteor shower. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech/IPAC)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The source of dust for most meteor showers is comets, so-called “dirty snowballs” that pass close to the sun and spew out gas when some of their frozen materials evaporate, leaving a trail of debris in their wake. If the comet’s path happens to cross Earth’s orbit, we can see a meteor shower.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We see meteor showers in the morning hours, when we’re located on the side of the Earth leading into the dust cloud.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Geminids shower is special. Its dust particles were not left behind by a comet but by a sun-grazing asteroid named 3200 Phaethon. Phaethon’s behavior of shedding dust like a comet has astronomers thinking it could be the rocky remnant core of a dead comet, one whose volatile ice has mostly been lost over time. More recent observations have highlighted the possibility that 3200 Phaethon \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/solar-system/asteroids-comet-like-tail-is-not-made-of-dust-solar-observatories-reveal/\">may not shed dust at all\u003c/a>, as a typical comet does, but may have ejected the Geminids material long ago in a cataclysmic event.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985660\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 240px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985660 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/PIA22185.gif\" alt=\"A gray fuzzy gif of an asteroid. \" width=\"240\" height=\"240\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Animation of a sequence of radio telescope images of the asteroid 3200 Phaethon, created by the Arecibo Observatory. \u003ccite>(NASA/Arecibo Observatory/NSF)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>3200 Phaethon orbits the sun every 1.4 years and is little more than three miles in diameter. Like most comets Phaethon’s orbit is highly elliptical, and carries it within 13 million miles of the sun — three times closer than the planet Mercury!\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Meteor showers through the year\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://stardate.org/nightsky/meteors\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meteor showers\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> occur throughout the year, and there are no fewer than 40 \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.go-astronomy.com/solar-system/meteors.php\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">recognized annual showers\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, each supplied by a different sun-grazing comet — not all of which have even been discovered. Most of these showers produce few meteors, some as low as two or three meteors per hour. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Geminids, however, top the charts with the highest rates and brighter-than-average meteors, so if you can only manage to get up for one or two meteor showers each year, this one should be first on your list.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Radioactive Objects Found at San Francisco's Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Raise New Concerns",
"headTitle": "Radioactive Objects Found at San Francisco’s Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Raise New Concerns | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 1:30 p.m. Thursday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Navy said it detected another piece of radioactive material — a chip of glass smaller than a dime — during recent routine testing at the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The discovery, announced this week, is the latest in a steady drip of troubling findings at one of the city’s most ambitious redevelopment projects. It comes just months after the Navy reported finding a radioactive deck marker, the size of a silver dollar, that once guided ships at night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The discoveries raise fresh questions about the city’s plans to build thousands of homes on one of the nation’s largest and most polluted Superfund sites amid ongoing cleanup efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response, community members with Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice and attorneys with UC Berkeley’s Environmental Law Clinic on Thursday announced their intention to sue the Navy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for failing to properly clean up toxic and radioactive waste at the shipyard.[pullquote align-\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Kamillah Ealom, community organizer, Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice\"]‘The Navy owes it to us to clean up the toxic and radioactive nightmare of a mess it made over half a century ago.’[/pullquote]“The Navy owes it to us to clean up the toxic and radioactive nightmare of a mess it made over half a century ago. We will keep fighting for health and justice,” said Kamillah Ealom, a community organizer with Greenaction and longtime resident of the nearby Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood, in a statement announcing the lawsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Navy said it found the “pea-sized” shard of glass last April, buried half a foot in the soil at Parcel B of the site, several hundred feet from the bay, and within half a mile of homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It sent the radioactive shard and surrounding soil to a laboratory for further analysis to determine specific contaminants but has not yet released those findings, Navy officials told the Hunters Point Shipyard Citizens Advisory Committee this week. \u003ca href=\"https://hpscac.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/HPNS-Fieldwork-Update_HPSCAC_04Dec2023.pdf\">Slides from the Navy’s briefing (PDF)\u003c/a> indicate that it believes the community and on-site personnel are not at risk and “the relative dose of radiation from the object is low.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Months later, in August, the Navy found the radioactive deck marker, still intact, a couple of inches below the ground in loose soil at nearby Parcel C.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Navy did not comment for this story but confirmed the discovery of the two objects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Arieann Harrison, founder and CEO of the Marie Harrison Community Foundation, an environmental justice group serving the Bayview community, said the Navy’s most recent radioactive discoveries are hardly surprising and correlate with the results of independent testing done on nearby residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The things that we have been complaining about and telling them about, about the high rates of cancer and also respiratory lung disease, is actually obvious,” said Harrison, a fifth-generation Bayview resident, after participating in a press conference on Thursday at the site. “So when is there going to be some form of humanity where they actually admit that there’s been some human harm? That it’s been harmful and impactful on the community in a negative way?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985697\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/20231207-Bayview-Presser-015-JY-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985697\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/20231207-Bayview-Presser-015-JY-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A Black woman standing outside between several other people speaks into microphones. \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/20231207-Bayview-Presser-015-JY-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/20231207-Bayview-Presser-015-JY-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/20231207-Bayview-Presser-015-JY-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/20231207-Bayview-Presser-015-JY-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/20231207-Bayview-Presser-015-JY-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/20231207-Bayview-Presser-015-JY-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Arieann Harrison (center), founder and CEO of the Marie Harrison Community Foundation, speaks to reporters on Thursday at the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, detailing a lawsuit she and other community activists plan to file against the Navy and US Environmental Protection Agency. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Retired nuclear policy expert Daniel Hirsch, the former director of the Environmental and Nuclear Policy Program at UC Santa Cruz, said the most recent revelation — about the glass shard — is concerning because the Navy intends to eventually release the property to San Francisco and allow a developer to build over 10,000 homes there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You don’t just have a single piece of small glass that’s radioactive; this is part of a much larger piece of glass,” said Hirsch, who has provided technical assistance to the nearby community. “I think this is indicative of a reason for the community to be concerned.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hirsch added, “It’s very puzzling that measurements [on the glass shard] were made half a year ago, and they’ve only now announced that they had found radiation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Located next to a historically Black neighborhood where more than 35,000 people live, the Tetris-shaped 866-acre shipyard comprises concrete docking bays and abandoned buildings that jut out of San Francisco’s southeast shoreline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the middle of the last century, the Navy used the site to decontaminate ships after atomic bomb tests, a process that contaminated the soil with radionuclides, heavy metals and petroleum fuels, among other toxic compounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2021, the Navy found nearly two dozen samples at the site contaminated by Strontium-90, a radioactive isotope that can cause cancer. In September 2018, the agency recovered another radioactive deck marker, more than a decade after the federal government \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Radioactive-object-found-near-homes-at-Hunters-13228476.php\">declared the area safe and free of radioactive waste\u003c/a>.[aside label=\"related coverage\" tag=\"bayview-hunters-point\"]Environmental advocates believe these instances should have triggered a complete retesting of the site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EPA has alleged that Tetra Tech EC, a contractor hired by the Navy to conduct remediation activities at the site, falsified reports during the cleanup project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2018, two former Tetra Tech supervisors \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/radiation-control-technician-supervisors-sentenced-falsifying-former-hunter-s-point\">pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges\u003c/a> for falsifying records, and a federal judge sentenced them to prison. The company has denied wrongdoing and said the two employees were solely responsible for the fraudulent actions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of our primary concerns is that the Navy is not living up to the agreement that they made with the regulators about how they’re going to handle the Tetra Tech radiological fraud,” said Steve Castleman, an attorney with UC Berkeley’s Environmental Law Clinic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castleman said his group plans to file its lawsuit in 60 days to compel the Navy and EPA to address radioactive and toxic contamination at the site, arguing that the cleanup standards adopted in 2006 were too lenient.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If they’re going to build housing that’s going to be lived in for 100 years or more, we want to make sure that all of the contamination that they can remove is removed,” he said. “And that will require the Navy to tighten up their cleanup standards and to retest 100% of the work that Tetra Tech did because they did it fraudulently.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Otherwise, the health and safety of construction workers on the site and its future residents will be “endangered significantly,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castleman also noted the increased risks due to sea-level rise, brought on by human-caused climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“First of all, the bay will rise, so that is dangerous to the surface of the shipyard. But also, the groundwater is going to rise with the bay,” he said. “And the danger is that the groundwater will inundate the landfill and then the contamination will spread with the groundwater. And that is a very dangerous thing.”\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 1:30 p.m. Thursday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Navy said it detected another piece of radioactive material — a chip of glass smaller than a dime — during recent routine testing at the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The discovery, announced this week, is the latest in a steady drip of troubling findings at one of the city’s most ambitious redevelopment projects. It comes just months after the Navy reported finding a radioactive deck marker, the size of a silver dollar, that once guided ships at night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The discoveries raise fresh questions about the city’s plans to build thousands of homes on one of the nation’s largest and most polluted Superfund sites amid ongoing cleanup efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response, community members with Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice and attorneys with UC Berkeley’s Environmental Law Clinic on Thursday announced their intention to sue the Navy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for failing to properly clean up toxic and radioactive waste at the shipyard.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“The Navy owes it to us to clean up the toxic and radioactive nightmare of a mess it made over half a century ago. We will keep fighting for health and justice,” said Kamillah Ealom, a community organizer with Greenaction and longtime resident of the nearby Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood, in a statement announcing the lawsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Navy said it found the “pea-sized” shard of glass last April, buried half a foot in the soil at Parcel B of the site, several hundred feet from the bay, and within half a mile of homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It sent the radioactive shard and surrounding soil to a laboratory for further analysis to determine specific contaminants but has not yet released those findings, Navy officials told the Hunters Point Shipyard Citizens Advisory Committee this week. \u003ca href=\"https://hpscac.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/HPNS-Fieldwork-Update_HPSCAC_04Dec2023.pdf\">Slides from the Navy’s briefing (PDF)\u003c/a> indicate that it believes the community and on-site personnel are not at risk and “the relative dose of radiation from the object is low.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Months later, in August, the Navy found the radioactive deck marker, still intact, a couple of inches below the ground in loose soil at nearby Parcel C.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Navy did not comment for this story but confirmed the discovery of the two objects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Arieann Harrison, founder and CEO of the Marie Harrison Community Foundation, an environmental justice group serving the Bayview community, said the Navy’s most recent radioactive discoveries are hardly surprising and correlate with the results of independent testing done on nearby residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The things that we have been complaining about and telling them about, about the high rates of cancer and also respiratory lung disease, is actually obvious,” said Harrison, a fifth-generation Bayview resident, after participating in a press conference on Thursday at the site. “So when is there going to be some form of humanity where they actually admit that there’s been some human harm? That it’s been harmful and impactful on the community in a negative way?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985697\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/20231207-Bayview-Presser-015-JY-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985697\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/20231207-Bayview-Presser-015-JY-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A Black woman standing outside between several other people speaks into microphones. \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/20231207-Bayview-Presser-015-JY-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/20231207-Bayview-Presser-015-JY-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/20231207-Bayview-Presser-015-JY-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/20231207-Bayview-Presser-015-JY-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/20231207-Bayview-Presser-015-JY-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/20231207-Bayview-Presser-015-JY-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Arieann Harrison (center), founder and CEO of the Marie Harrison Community Foundation, speaks to reporters on Thursday at the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, detailing a lawsuit she and other community activists plan to file against the Navy and US Environmental Protection Agency. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Retired nuclear policy expert Daniel Hirsch, the former director of the Environmental and Nuclear Policy Program at UC Santa Cruz, said the most recent revelation — about the glass shard — is concerning because the Navy intends to eventually release the property to San Francisco and allow a developer to build over 10,000 homes there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You don’t just have a single piece of small glass that’s radioactive; this is part of a much larger piece of glass,” said Hirsch, who has provided technical assistance to the nearby community. “I think this is indicative of a reason for the community to be concerned.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hirsch added, “It’s very puzzling that measurements [on the glass shard] were made half a year ago, and they’ve only now announced that they had found radiation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Located next to a historically Black neighborhood where more than 35,000 people live, the Tetris-shaped 866-acre shipyard comprises concrete docking bays and abandoned buildings that jut out of San Francisco’s southeast shoreline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the middle of the last century, the Navy used the site to decontaminate ships after atomic bomb tests, a process that contaminated the soil with radionuclides, heavy metals and petroleum fuels, among other toxic compounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2021, the Navy found nearly two dozen samples at the site contaminated by Strontium-90, a radioactive isotope that can cause cancer. In September 2018, the agency recovered another radioactive deck marker, more than a decade after the federal government \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Radioactive-object-found-near-homes-at-Hunters-13228476.php\">declared the area safe and free of radioactive waste\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Environmental advocates believe these instances should have triggered a complete retesting of the site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EPA has alleged that Tetra Tech EC, a contractor hired by the Navy to conduct remediation activities at the site, falsified reports during the cleanup project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2018, two former Tetra Tech supervisors \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/radiation-control-technician-supervisors-sentenced-falsifying-former-hunter-s-point\">pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges\u003c/a> for falsifying records, and a federal judge sentenced them to prison. The company has denied wrongdoing and said the two employees were solely responsible for the fraudulent actions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of our primary concerns is that the Navy is not living up to the agreement that they made with the regulators about how they’re going to handle the Tetra Tech radiological fraud,” said Steve Castleman, an attorney with UC Berkeley’s Environmental Law Clinic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castleman said his group plans to file its lawsuit in 60 days to compel the Navy and EPA to address radioactive and toxic contamination at the site, arguing that the cleanup standards adopted in 2006 were too lenient.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If they’re going to build housing that’s going to be lived in for 100 years or more, we want to make sure that all of the contamination that they can remove is removed,” he said. “And that will require the Navy to tighten up their cleanup standards and to retest 100% of the work that Tetra Tech did because they did it fraudulently.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Otherwise, the health and safety of construction workers on the site and its future residents will be “endangered significantly,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castleman also noted the increased risks due to sea-level rise, brought on by human-caused climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“First of all, the bay will rise, so that is dangerous to the surface of the shipyard. But also, the groundwater is going to rise with the bay,” he said. “And the danger is that the groundwater will inundate the landfill and then the contamination will spread with the groundwater. And that is a very dangerous thing.”\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Is California Still on Track to Meet Its Goal of 100% Clean Power by 2045?",
"headTitle": "Is California Still on Track to Meet Its Goal of 100% Clean Power by 2045? | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>California leaders have been busy of late making their climate case on the international conference circuit. State delegates are currently at the 28th Conference of Parties, or COP28, an international climate meeting held this year in Dubai, and many also attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC, hosted in San Francisco last month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The message from California’s leaders is that the state is achieving its ambitious climate goals while also growing its massive economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a sustainable development forum at APEC last month, California Energy Commission Chair David Hochschild, the state’s top energy official, called the state “a postcard from the future” that will run “through electric wires, not through pipes.”[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Danny Cullenward, University of Pennsylvania's Kleinman Center for Energy Policy\"]‘You can be really excited about the future while also being kind of sober about where we are and the scale of what needs to happen in the future, none of which is ordained. It’s going to take a lot of work to get where we want to go.’[/pullquote]But serious challenges remain. California reports its emissions over the past two years\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2023-05/2022%20GHG%20Estimates%20Report%20for%20Item%203900-001-3237.pdf\"> have gone up when they should be going down\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They need to be going down by about 15 or 16 million tons a year every year through 2030 for us to hit our minimum statutory target,” said Danny Cullenward, a senior fellow at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That minimum 2030 target stipulates that statewide emissions drop below 40% of what they were in 1990.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Moreover, California does not include the harmful greenhouse gasses released from major wildfires in its emissions accounting. Researchers estimate that the state’s devastating 2020 wildfire year \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-10-20/california-wildfires-offset-greenhouse-gas-reductions\">erased two decades’ worth of gains\u003c/a> Californians have made in emission cuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED recently spoke with a handful of climate scientists to get their take on California’s energy trajectory. Most agreed that the state has a strong chance of delivering on its \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billCompareClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB1020&showamends=false\">100% clean power mandate by 2045\u003c/a>, offering a bright spot in humanity’s race to eliminate the root causes of climate change: burning fossil fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Below are different aspects of the clean energy transition that California leaders and outside experts consider crucial to effectively transitioning to a carbon-free system. Overall, they said, there was much to celebrate — like the meteoric rise of battery storage — as California races toward its energy targets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jump straight to:\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003ca href=\"#anchor1\">Carbon-free electricity\u003c/a>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003ca href=\"#anchor2\">Storage\u003c/a>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003ca href=\"#anchor3\">Electric vehicles\u003c/a>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003ca href=\"#anchor4\">Offshore wind\u003c/a>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003ca href=\"#anchor5\">Environmental justice\u003c/a>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003ca href=\"#anchor6\">Electricity prices\u003c/a>\u003c/b>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca id=\"anchor1\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Carbon-free electricity\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1931649\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 5472px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/GettyImages-1027371114.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1931649\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/GettyImages-1027371114.jpg\" alt=\"A large solar panel array, with a city skyline in the background.\" width=\"5472\" height=\"3648\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/GettyImages-1027371114.jpg 5472w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/GettyImages-1027371114-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/GettyImages-1027371114-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/GettyImages-1027371114-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/GettyImages-1027371114-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/GettyImages-1027371114-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/GettyImages-1027371114-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/GettyImages-1027371114-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/GettyImages-1027371114-960x640.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/GettyImages-1027371114-240x160.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/GettyImages-1027371114-375x250.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/GettyImages-1027371114-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 5472px) 100vw, 5472px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Solar panels are mounted atop the roof of the Los Angeles Convention Center on Sept. 5, 2018, in Los Angeles. The solar array of 6,228 panels is expected to generate 3.4 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually. \u003ccite>(Mario Tama/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Where we are now: \u003c/b>The energy pulsing through California’s grid is 60% clean and carbon-free overall, meaning it comes from renewable sources like solar and wind and zero-carbon sources like hydropower and nuclear. The state’s energy commission anticipates carbon-free energy will comprise two-thirds of retail sales in 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Alternative energy is the wrong word to use today to describe renewables,” Hochschild said at his APEC talk last month. They are not alternative because they comprise the majority of the state’s energy sources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billCompareClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB1020&showamends=false\">set benchmarks\u003c/a> for the state to reach 90% clean electricity by 2035 and 95% by 2040, moving toward California’s previously established goal of 100% by 2045. This means energy would come from renewable sources, like solar and wind and zero-carbon sources like nuclear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recently, the California Public Utilities Commission approved plans to \u003ca href=\"https://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Published/G000/M502/K651/502651263.PDF\">add 86,000 megawatts (PDF)\u003c/a> of energy to the grid by 2035 to allow for more room as the state electrifies. That would more than double what is currently available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>What the experts are saying\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dan Kammen, UC Berkeley energy professor: \u003c/b>The state has produced\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/05/07/1097376890/for-a-brief-moment-calif-fully-powered-itself-with-renewable-energy\"> more than 100%\u003c/a> of its energy from renewables for brief periods during the last few spring seasons. “Where California is today is remarkable,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Merrian Borgeson, California climate and clean energy policy director at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC): \u003c/b>The state is moving in the right direction toward meeting these goals but faces challenges connecting all the new renewable projects to the grid. Those projects must submit an application to the state’s grid managers at the California Independent System Operator, known as CAISO, before connecting to the grid. And the approval queue is very backlogged.[aside label=\"related coverage\" tag=\"clean-energy\"]“California’s in this place where we don’t need new goals. We just need to implement like crazy,” Borgeson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>James Bushnell, UC Davis energy economist: \u003c/b>California is an incubator for climate ideas. As the state moves toward its goals, it can share lessons learned with other governments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The way I think about it is not in terms of make or break targets, but what we’re trying to do is rapidly expand zero-carbon energy and get a sense of what the implications and costs and challenges are,” Bushnell said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s progress in adding renewables to the grid in the last decade has been rapid, but currently, California is “bumping up against a bunch of different constraints” that may be transitory or signs that we’re “reaching a plateau where further reductions are just more difficult,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ranjit Deshmukh, UC Santa Barbara environmental studies professor: \u003c/b>California’s growth in clean energy is non-linear, and the state might have picked through the low-hanging fruit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As you get closer to that [100% clean energy] goal, it gets harder and harder to manage your system,” Deshmukh said, given the variability of wind and solar. “We have to introduce more energy storage to manage that variability and shift our generation to times when the sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow. So the challenge is going to get harder and harder.”\u003cbr>\n\u003ca id=\"anchor2\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Storage\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985631\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1240px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/pge_tesla_elkhorn_battery_1237809909.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985631 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/pge_tesla_elkhorn_battery_1237809909.jpeg\" alt=\"A large outdoor battery-storage facility next to a power plant with a large smokestack.\" width=\"1240\" height=\"698\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/pge_tesla_elkhorn_battery_1237809909.jpeg 1240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/pge_tesla_elkhorn_battery_1237809909-800x450.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/pge_tesla_elkhorn_battery_1237809909-1020x574.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/pge_tesla_elkhorn_battery_1237809909-160x90.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/pge_tesla_elkhorn_battery_1237809909-768x432.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1240px) 100vw, 1240px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tesla Megapack batteries at the Elkhorn Battery Energy Storage System next to the Vistra Moss Landing natural gas-fired power plant in Moss Landing on California’s central coast. \u003ccite>(David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Where we are now: \u003c/b>The state’s ability to store energy through large-scale batteries has grown more than \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/news/2023-10/california-sees-unprecedented-growth-energy-storage-key-component-states-clean\">sevenfold \u003c/a>in the past four years. The batteries can store enough energy to power 6.6 million homes for up to four hours and helped the state avert blackouts during a September 2022 10-day heat wave.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/Battery_graphic.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985632 alignright\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/Battery_graphic.jpeg\" alt=\"A charge showing the increase in California's energy storage resources between 2019 and 2023,\" width=\"228\" height=\"228\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/Battery_graphic.jpeg 810w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/Battery_graphic-800x800.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/Battery_graphic-160x160.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/Battery_graphic-768x768.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 228px) 100vw, 228px\">\u003c/a>What the experts are saying\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NRDC’s Borgeson: \u003c/b>Battery storage is one of the main resources needed to shut down fossil-fuel-powered plants, and storage must keep growing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The storage story has been really, really amazing,” Borgeson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>UCSB’s Deshmukh\u003c/b>\u003cb>: \u003c/b>The costs of storage are dropping. “The question is how fast we put storage on the ground,” Deshmukh said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you install storage earlier, prices are higher, but adding the storage increases understanding of how to add storage and will help bring costs down. Ultimately, he said, we must remember that ratepayers will pay those costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>UC Davis’ Bushnell: \u003c/b>There is some resource competition, both in terms of materials and production capacity, as demand for electric-vehicle batteries and storage batteries both surge.\u003cbr>\n\u003ca id=\"anchor3\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Electric vehicles\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985634\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/GettyImages-1405480915.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985634 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/GettyImages-1405480915.jpeg\" alt=\"A white electric car getting charged.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"701\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/GettyImages-1405480915.jpeg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/GettyImages-1405480915-800x548.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/GettyImages-1405480915-1020x698.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/GettyImages-1405480915-160x110.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/GettyImages-1405480915-768x526.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An electric car charges at a mall parking lot on June 27, 2022, in Corte Madera, Marin County. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Where we are now: \u003c/b>In 2018, 5% of California’s new vehicle sales were zero-emission vehicles. According to the state’s energy commission, that figure was 27% this month. California mandates that all new cars sold by 2035 be hybrid or electric.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is really indicative that EVs are going to win,” Hochschild of the state’s Energy Commission said. California’s current top-selling car is electric: a Tesla.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>What the experts are saying\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NRDC’s Borgeson: \u003c/b>Californians are buoyed by the state goal to get off internal combustion vehicles. But, Borgeson said, “People are buying them because the cars are working for people in their daily lives.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>UC Berkeley’s Kammen: \u003c/b>California’s 2035 goal is too lax.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We should be moving that date forward, that looks way too conservative now. That number should be 2030. I would argue we could do it in 2028,” Kammen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>UCSB’s Deshmukh:\u003c/b> Increased EV sales will lead to emissions reductions. “But there’s evidence that people use EVs as their secondary vehicles, and they still keep gasoline cars for the long drives,” Deshmukh said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As EVs get better and even more popular, California must keep pace by growing public-charging infrastructure. “If folks start thinking that public charging is going to be a constraint, vehicles won’t grow as quickly as we hope they would,” Deshmukh said.\u003cbr>\n\u003ca id=\"anchor4\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Offshore wind\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1980916\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/12/GettyImages-1407548832.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1980916\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/12/GettyImages-1407548832.jpg\" alt=\"Wind turbines at sea.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"736\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/12/GettyImages-1407548832.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/12/GettyImages-1407548832-800x575.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/12/GettyImages-1407548832-1020x733.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/12/GettyImages-1407548832-160x115.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/12/GettyImages-1407548832-768x552.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wind turbines generate electricity at the Block Island Wind Farm, the first commercial offshore wind farm in the United States, on July 7, 2022, near Block Island, Rhode Island. \u003ccite>(John Moore/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Where we are now: \u003c/b>California’s goals partly depend on \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/filebrowser/download/4361\">producing 25 gigawatts of electricity by 2045\u003c/a> from offshore wind. That would be enough energy to power 25 million homes. Officials plan to install floating wind turbines in two locations: one off Humboldt Bay in Northern California and another near Morro Bay off the state’s central coast. The federal government auctioned off 583 square miles of ocean waters for the job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>What the experts are saying\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>UC Berkeley’s Kammen: \u003c/b>“We’re way behind on building offshore wind,” Kammen said. He called the resource the “ultimate battery” because it is available when solar and onshore wind are often unavailable and can be used to make hydrogen, which can store energy later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NRDC’s Borgeson: \u003c/b>“The goals that the state has set are directionally right and very, very aggressive, appropriately so,” Borgeson said. “The state has been setting all the right signals for offshore wind to be viable in California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>UCSB’s Deshmukh: \u003c/b>“Offshore wind progress is always slow because just to get the industry off the ground requires a lot of effort and investment,” Deshmukh said. It requires building infrastructure like ports, specialized vessels and transmission lines.\u003cbr>\n\u003ca id=\"anchor5\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Environmental justice\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985635\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/RS29464_SOLAR_021318_429-qut.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985635\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/RS29464_SOLAR_021318_429-qut.jpeg\" alt=\"A man in a hard hat installs solar panels on the roof of a house.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1282\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/RS29464_SOLAR_021318_429-qut.jpeg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/RS29464_SOLAR_021318_429-qut-800x534.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/RS29464_SOLAR_021318_429-qut-1020x681.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/RS29464_SOLAR_021318_429-qut-160x107.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/RS29464_SOLAR_021318_429-qut-768x513.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/RS29464_SOLAR_021318_429-qut-1536x1026.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Andrew Hayes, with Grid Alternatives, helps install solar panels on the roof of a home in a lower-income neighborhood in Vallejo, Solano County, on Feb. 13, 2018. \u003ccite>(Lauren Hanussak/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Where we are now: \u003c/b>California’s landmark environmental justice law, \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB617\">AB 617\u003c/a>, is intended to clear up dirty air for Richmond, West Oakland and other industrial communities across the state, in part through the use of clean energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law has been heralded by some as groundbreaking and derided by others as toothless. Experts say \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/01/california-air-quality-environmental-justice-law/?series=california-environmental-justice\">it’s unclear if it is working\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state also has other initiatives, like those aimed at \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/news/2023-09/california-energy-commission-launches-38-million-project-ev-charging-low-income\">bringing EV charging to lower-income and disadvantaged communities\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, many experts and advocates feel the state is failing to meet environmental justice goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>What the experts are saying\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>UC Berkeley’s Kammen: \u003c/b>The state should be installing solar and storage on affordable housing and co-locating transit hubs where people with lower-income live, he said. “We are way behind on environmental justice.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>UCSB’s Deshmukh: \u003c/b>As California decarbonizes, we have to make sure disadvantaged and minority communities receive their fair share of benefits “whether they are health benefits from reduced air pollution by retiring fossil fuel plants, or receiving incentives for clean energy technologies, or the share of jobs in the clean energy technologies,” Deshmukh said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state must also work to make sure lower-income and minority communities are not unfairly burdened by increases in costs for both electricity or natural gas, especially as the state works to cut natural gas from our energy mix.\u003cbr>\n\u003ca id=\"anchor6\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Electricity prices\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985636\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/04262023_ksuzuki_warmweather-426-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985636\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/04262023_ksuzuki_warmweather-426-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A utility meter.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1277\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/04262023_ksuzuki_warmweather-426-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/04262023_ksuzuki_warmweather-426-qut-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/04262023_ksuzuki_warmweather-426-qut-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/04262023_ksuzuki_warmweather-426-qut-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/04262023_ksuzuki_warmweather-426-qut-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/04262023_ksuzuki_warmweather-426-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A PG&E electricity meter on a residential building in Berkeley on April 26, 2023. \u003ccite>(Kori Suzuki/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Where we are now: \u003c/b>Californians pay \u003ca href=\"https://www.statista.com/statistics/630090/states-with-the-average-electricity-price-for-the-residential-sector-in-the-us/\">one of the highest retail electricity rates\u003c/a> in the United States. That’s a problem for a state pushing people to go all-electric.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>What the experts are saying\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>UC Davis’ Bushnell: \u003c/b>“Electricity prices are extremely high in California,” Bushnell said, which puts a headwind in front of California’s momentum on everything from transportation to home electricity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NRDC’s Borgeson: \u003c/b>It’s much cheaper to power things with clean power than customers’ current rates. “This really, really, really vital price signal is currently, in my view, wrong,” she said. The state should be focusing on how to change this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>UCSB’s Deshmukh: \u003c/b>How the state achieves clean electricity in a cost-effective way to ratepayers is crucial, especially given other considerations like conservation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While solar farms in the desert may provide less expensive energy, they can hurt the plants and animals that live there. Putting solar panels on the built environment decreases this drawback but is more expensive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "California's leaders are busy making the case that the state is on track to meet its ambitious clean energy mandate, while also growing its economy. But major challenges remain in the nation's largest state, where carbon emissions continued to increase over the last 2 years.",
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"description": "California's leaders are busy making the case that the state is on track to meet its ambitious clean energy mandate, while also growing its economy. But major challenges remain in the nation's largest state, where carbon emissions continued to increase over the last 2 years.",
"title": "Is California Still on Track to Meet Its Goal of 100% Clean Power by 2045? | KQED",
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"headline": "Is California Still on Track to Meet Its Goal of 100% Clean Power by 2045?",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California leaders have been busy of late making their climate case on the international conference circuit. State delegates are currently at the 28th Conference of Parties, or COP28, an international climate meeting held this year in Dubai, and many also attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC, hosted in San Francisco last month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The message from California’s leaders is that the state is achieving its ambitious climate goals while also growing its massive economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a sustainable development forum at APEC last month, California Energy Commission Chair David Hochschild, the state’s top energy official, called the state “a postcard from the future” that will run “through electric wires, not through pipes.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘You can be really excited about the future while also being kind of sober about where we are and the scale of what needs to happen in the future, none of which is ordained. It’s going to take a lot of work to get where we want to go.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But serious challenges remain. California reports its emissions over the past two years\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2023-05/2022%20GHG%20Estimates%20Report%20for%20Item%203900-001-3237.pdf\"> have gone up when they should be going down\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They need to be going down by about 15 or 16 million tons a year every year through 2030 for us to hit our minimum statutory target,” said Danny Cullenward, a senior fellow at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That minimum 2030 target stipulates that statewide emissions drop below 40% of what they were in 1990.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Moreover, California does not include the harmful greenhouse gasses released from major wildfires in its emissions accounting. Researchers estimate that the state’s devastating 2020 wildfire year \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-10-20/california-wildfires-offset-greenhouse-gas-reductions\">erased two decades’ worth of gains\u003c/a> Californians have made in emission cuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED recently spoke with a handful of climate scientists to get their take on California’s energy trajectory. Most agreed that the state has a strong chance of delivering on its \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billCompareClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB1020&showamends=false\">100% clean power mandate by 2045\u003c/a>, offering a bright spot in humanity’s race to eliminate the root causes of climate change: burning fossil fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Below are different aspects of the clean energy transition that California leaders and outside experts consider crucial to effectively transitioning to a carbon-free system. Overall, they said, there was much to celebrate — like the meteoric rise of battery storage — as California races toward its energy targets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jump straight to:\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003ca href=\"#anchor1\">Carbon-free electricity\u003c/a>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003ca href=\"#anchor2\">Storage\u003c/a>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003ca href=\"#anchor3\">Electric vehicles\u003c/a>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003ca href=\"#anchor4\">Offshore wind\u003c/a>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003ca href=\"#anchor5\">Environmental justice\u003c/a>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003ca href=\"#anchor6\">Electricity prices\u003c/a>\u003c/b>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca id=\"anchor1\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Carbon-free electricity\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1931649\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 5472px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/GettyImages-1027371114.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1931649\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/GettyImages-1027371114.jpg\" alt=\"A large solar panel array, with a city skyline in the background.\" width=\"5472\" height=\"3648\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/GettyImages-1027371114.jpg 5472w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/GettyImages-1027371114-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/GettyImages-1027371114-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/GettyImages-1027371114-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/GettyImages-1027371114-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/GettyImages-1027371114-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/GettyImages-1027371114-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/GettyImages-1027371114-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/GettyImages-1027371114-960x640.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/GettyImages-1027371114-240x160.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/GettyImages-1027371114-375x250.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/GettyImages-1027371114-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 5472px) 100vw, 5472px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Solar panels are mounted atop the roof of the Los Angeles Convention Center on Sept. 5, 2018, in Los Angeles. The solar array of 6,228 panels is expected to generate 3.4 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually. \u003ccite>(Mario Tama/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Where we are now: \u003c/b>The energy pulsing through California’s grid is 60% clean and carbon-free overall, meaning it comes from renewable sources like solar and wind and zero-carbon sources like hydropower and nuclear. The state’s energy commission anticipates carbon-free energy will comprise two-thirds of retail sales in 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Alternative energy is the wrong word to use today to describe renewables,” Hochschild said at his APEC talk last month. They are not alternative because they comprise the majority of the state’s energy sources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billCompareClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB1020&showamends=false\">set benchmarks\u003c/a> for the state to reach 90% clean electricity by 2035 and 95% by 2040, moving toward California’s previously established goal of 100% by 2045. This means energy would come from renewable sources, like solar and wind and zero-carbon sources like nuclear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recently, the California Public Utilities Commission approved plans to \u003ca href=\"https://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Published/G000/M502/K651/502651263.PDF\">add 86,000 megawatts (PDF)\u003c/a> of energy to the grid by 2035 to allow for more room as the state electrifies. That would more than double what is currently available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>What the experts are saying\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dan Kammen, UC Berkeley energy professor: \u003c/b>The state has produced\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/05/07/1097376890/for-a-brief-moment-calif-fully-powered-itself-with-renewable-energy\"> more than 100%\u003c/a> of its energy from renewables for brief periods during the last few spring seasons. “Where California is today is remarkable,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Merrian Borgeson, California climate and clean energy policy director at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC): \u003c/b>The state is moving in the right direction toward meeting these goals but faces challenges connecting all the new renewable projects to the grid. Those projects must submit an application to the state’s grid managers at the California Independent System Operator, known as CAISO, before connecting to the grid. And the approval queue is very backlogged.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“California’s in this place where we don’t need new goals. We just need to implement like crazy,” Borgeson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>James Bushnell, UC Davis energy economist: \u003c/b>California is an incubator for climate ideas. As the state moves toward its goals, it can share lessons learned with other governments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The way I think about it is not in terms of make or break targets, but what we’re trying to do is rapidly expand zero-carbon energy and get a sense of what the implications and costs and challenges are,” Bushnell said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s progress in adding renewables to the grid in the last decade has been rapid, but currently, California is “bumping up against a bunch of different constraints” that may be transitory or signs that we’re “reaching a plateau where further reductions are just more difficult,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ranjit Deshmukh, UC Santa Barbara environmental studies professor: \u003c/b>California’s growth in clean energy is non-linear, and the state might have picked through the low-hanging fruit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As you get closer to that [100% clean energy] goal, it gets harder and harder to manage your system,” Deshmukh said, given the variability of wind and solar. “We have to introduce more energy storage to manage that variability and shift our generation to times when the sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow. So the challenge is going to get harder and harder.”\u003cbr>\n\u003ca id=\"anchor2\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Storage\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985631\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1240px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/pge_tesla_elkhorn_battery_1237809909.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985631 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/pge_tesla_elkhorn_battery_1237809909.jpeg\" alt=\"A large outdoor battery-storage facility next to a power plant with a large smokestack.\" width=\"1240\" height=\"698\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/pge_tesla_elkhorn_battery_1237809909.jpeg 1240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/pge_tesla_elkhorn_battery_1237809909-800x450.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/pge_tesla_elkhorn_battery_1237809909-1020x574.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/pge_tesla_elkhorn_battery_1237809909-160x90.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/pge_tesla_elkhorn_battery_1237809909-768x432.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1240px) 100vw, 1240px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tesla Megapack batteries at the Elkhorn Battery Energy Storage System next to the Vistra Moss Landing natural gas-fired power plant in Moss Landing on California’s central coast. \u003ccite>(David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Where we are now: \u003c/b>The state’s ability to store energy through large-scale batteries has grown more than \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/news/2023-10/california-sees-unprecedented-growth-energy-storage-key-component-states-clean\">sevenfold \u003c/a>in the past four years. The batteries can store enough energy to power 6.6 million homes for up to four hours and helped the state avert blackouts during a September 2022 10-day heat wave.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/Battery_graphic.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985632 alignright\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/Battery_graphic.jpeg\" alt=\"A charge showing the increase in California's energy storage resources between 2019 and 2023,\" width=\"228\" height=\"228\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/Battery_graphic.jpeg 810w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/Battery_graphic-800x800.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/Battery_graphic-160x160.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/Battery_graphic-768x768.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 228px) 100vw, 228px\">\u003c/a>What the experts are saying\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NRDC’s Borgeson: \u003c/b>Battery storage is one of the main resources needed to shut down fossil-fuel-powered plants, and storage must keep growing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The storage story has been really, really amazing,” Borgeson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>UCSB’s Deshmukh\u003c/b>\u003cb>: \u003c/b>The costs of storage are dropping. “The question is how fast we put storage on the ground,” Deshmukh said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you install storage earlier, prices are higher, but adding the storage increases understanding of how to add storage and will help bring costs down. Ultimately, he said, we must remember that ratepayers will pay those costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>UC Davis’ Bushnell: \u003c/b>There is some resource competition, both in terms of materials and production capacity, as demand for electric-vehicle batteries and storage batteries both surge.\u003cbr>\n\u003ca id=\"anchor3\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Electric vehicles\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985634\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/GettyImages-1405480915.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985634 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/GettyImages-1405480915.jpeg\" alt=\"A white electric car getting charged.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"701\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/GettyImages-1405480915.jpeg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/GettyImages-1405480915-800x548.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/GettyImages-1405480915-1020x698.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/GettyImages-1405480915-160x110.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/GettyImages-1405480915-768x526.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An electric car charges at a mall parking lot on June 27, 2022, in Corte Madera, Marin County. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Where we are now: \u003c/b>In 2018, 5% of California’s new vehicle sales were zero-emission vehicles. According to the state’s energy commission, that figure was 27% this month. California mandates that all new cars sold by 2035 be hybrid or electric.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is really indicative that EVs are going to win,” Hochschild of the state’s Energy Commission said. California’s current top-selling car is electric: a Tesla.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>What the experts are saying\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NRDC’s Borgeson: \u003c/b>Californians are buoyed by the state goal to get off internal combustion vehicles. But, Borgeson said, “People are buying them because the cars are working for people in their daily lives.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>UC Berkeley’s Kammen: \u003c/b>California’s 2035 goal is too lax.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We should be moving that date forward, that looks way too conservative now. That number should be 2030. I would argue we could do it in 2028,” Kammen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>UCSB’s Deshmukh:\u003c/b> Increased EV sales will lead to emissions reductions. “But there’s evidence that people use EVs as their secondary vehicles, and they still keep gasoline cars for the long drives,” Deshmukh said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As EVs get better and even more popular, California must keep pace by growing public-charging infrastructure. “If folks start thinking that public charging is going to be a constraint, vehicles won’t grow as quickly as we hope they would,” Deshmukh said.\u003cbr>\n\u003ca id=\"anchor4\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Offshore wind\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1980916\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/12/GettyImages-1407548832.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1980916\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/12/GettyImages-1407548832.jpg\" alt=\"Wind turbines at sea.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"736\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/12/GettyImages-1407548832.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/12/GettyImages-1407548832-800x575.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/12/GettyImages-1407548832-1020x733.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/12/GettyImages-1407548832-160x115.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/12/GettyImages-1407548832-768x552.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wind turbines generate electricity at the Block Island Wind Farm, the first commercial offshore wind farm in the United States, on July 7, 2022, near Block Island, Rhode Island. \u003ccite>(John Moore/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Where we are now: \u003c/b>California’s goals partly depend on \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/filebrowser/download/4361\">producing 25 gigawatts of electricity by 2045\u003c/a> from offshore wind. That would be enough energy to power 25 million homes. Officials plan to install floating wind turbines in two locations: one off Humboldt Bay in Northern California and another near Morro Bay off the state’s central coast. The federal government auctioned off 583 square miles of ocean waters for the job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>What the experts are saying\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>UC Berkeley’s Kammen: \u003c/b>“We’re way behind on building offshore wind,” Kammen said. He called the resource the “ultimate battery” because it is available when solar and onshore wind are often unavailable and can be used to make hydrogen, which can store energy later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NRDC’s Borgeson: \u003c/b>“The goals that the state has set are directionally right and very, very aggressive, appropriately so,” Borgeson said. “The state has been setting all the right signals for offshore wind to be viable in California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>UCSB’s Deshmukh: \u003c/b>“Offshore wind progress is always slow because just to get the industry off the ground requires a lot of effort and investment,” Deshmukh said. It requires building infrastructure like ports, specialized vessels and transmission lines.\u003cbr>\n\u003ca id=\"anchor5\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Environmental justice\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985635\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/RS29464_SOLAR_021318_429-qut.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985635\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/RS29464_SOLAR_021318_429-qut.jpeg\" alt=\"A man in a hard hat installs solar panels on the roof of a house.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1282\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/RS29464_SOLAR_021318_429-qut.jpeg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/RS29464_SOLAR_021318_429-qut-800x534.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/RS29464_SOLAR_021318_429-qut-1020x681.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/RS29464_SOLAR_021318_429-qut-160x107.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/RS29464_SOLAR_021318_429-qut-768x513.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/RS29464_SOLAR_021318_429-qut-1536x1026.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Andrew Hayes, with Grid Alternatives, helps install solar panels on the roof of a home in a lower-income neighborhood in Vallejo, Solano County, on Feb. 13, 2018. \u003ccite>(Lauren Hanussak/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Where we are now: \u003c/b>California’s landmark environmental justice law, \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB617\">AB 617\u003c/a>, is intended to clear up dirty air for Richmond, West Oakland and other industrial communities across the state, in part through the use of clean energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law has been heralded by some as groundbreaking and derided by others as toothless. Experts say \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/01/california-air-quality-environmental-justice-law/?series=california-environmental-justice\">it’s unclear if it is working\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state also has other initiatives, like those aimed at \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/news/2023-09/california-energy-commission-launches-38-million-project-ev-charging-low-income\">bringing EV charging to lower-income and disadvantaged communities\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, many experts and advocates feel the state is failing to meet environmental justice goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>What the experts are saying\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>UC Berkeley’s Kammen: \u003c/b>The state should be installing solar and storage on affordable housing and co-locating transit hubs where people with lower-income live, he said. “We are way behind on environmental justice.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>UCSB’s Deshmukh: \u003c/b>As California decarbonizes, we have to make sure disadvantaged and minority communities receive their fair share of benefits “whether they are health benefits from reduced air pollution by retiring fossil fuel plants, or receiving incentives for clean energy technologies, or the share of jobs in the clean energy technologies,” Deshmukh said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state must also work to make sure lower-income and minority communities are not unfairly burdened by increases in costs for both electricity or natural gas, especially as the state works to cut natural gas from our energy mix.\u003cbr>\n\u003ca id=\"anchor6\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Electricity prices\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985636\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/04262023_ksuzuki_warmweather-426-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985636\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/04262023_ksuzuki_warmweather-426-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A utility meter.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1277\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/04262023_ksuzuki_warmweather-426-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/04262023_ksuzuki_warmweather-426-qut-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/04262023_ksuzuki_warmweather-426-qut-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/04262023_ksuzuki_warmweather-426-qut-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/04262023_ksuzuki_warmweather-426-qut-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/12/04262023_ksuzuki_warmweather-426-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A PG&E electricity meter on a residential building in Berkeley on April 26, 2023. \u003ccite>(Kori Suzuki/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Where we are now: \u003c/b>Californians pay \u003ca href=\"https://www.statista.com/statistics/630090/states-with-the-average-electricity-price-for-the-residential-sector-in-the-us/\">one of the highest retail electricity rates\u003c/a> in the United States. That’s a problem for a state pushing people to go all-electric.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>What the experts are saying\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>UC Davis’ Bushnell: \u003c/b>“Electricity prices are extremely high in California,” Bushnell said, which puts a headwind in front of California’s momentum on everything from transportation to home electricity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NRDC’s Borgeson: \u003c/b>It’s much cheaper to power things with clean power than customers’ current rates. “This really, really, really vital price signal is currently, in my view, wrong,” she said. The state should be focusing on how to change this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>UCSB’s Deshmukh: \u003c/b>How the state achieves clean electricity in a cost-effective way to ratepayers is crucial, especially given other considerations like conservation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While solar farms in the desert may provide less expensive energy, they can hurt the plants and animals that live there. Putting solar panels on the built environment decreases this drawback but is more expensive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Oakland Might Have Lost Its 'Coal War' — and Could Have to Pay Millions",
"headTitle": "Oakland Might Have Lost Its ‘Coal War’ — and Could Have to Pay Millions | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11641853/oakland-heads-to-trial-over-coal-ban\">years-long battle over a plan to build a terminal for exporting coal\u003c/a> near the Port of Oakland is now in the hands of an Alameda County Superior Court judge, who will decide whether the project can move forward or if Oakland will have to pay millions for developers’ lost profits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The day before Thanksgiving, Judge Noël Wise ruled that the city thwarted the project, siding with developers including Phil Tagami, who wants to build the export terminal at the West Oakland Army Base. Tagami runs companies affiliated with the project, including Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal, or OBOT.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, local environmental justice advocates continue to push back against it over concerns that the project would further degrade air quality for the community of West Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tagami has said Oakland breached its contract with him and previously sued the city for allegedly blocking necessary documents related to the project from moving forward, which created delays that caused him to miss key construction milestones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The terminal would be unique and the preferred terminal on the West Coast to transfer coal from Utah to Japan,” Barry Lee, the attorney representing the developers, said in court on Friday. He claimed that the city “did everything it could to interfere” with the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys representing the city of Oakland said that Tagami missed key deadlines and failed to uphold his end of the lease. “They have utterly failed to meet their burdens” of the contract, attorney Danielle Leonard said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Oakland could pay millions of dollars in damages\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In total, Tagami is asking for $159 million in damages or, alternatively, the chance to move forward with the project by receiving an extension to complete construction milestones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to a \u003ca href=\"https://nocoalinoakland.info/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/2023-11-22-Pltfs-Remedy-Phase-Trial-Brief.pdf\">pretrial brief (PDF),\u003c/a> OBOT is seeking an extension of at least two years and five months to meet its construction requirements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>James Wolff, CEO of Enchant Energy, who was previously involved with the project, said in witness testimony this week that he believes “there were billions of tons of coal to export through this facility” and that the coal prospects “encouraged us to move forward and we secured customers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city countered that the developers’ projected profits are speculative and unreliable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This court has no discretion to award any damages at all,” Leonard said on Friday during closing arguments for the trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California law is clear that lost profits from a future third-party business relationship are typically consequential, not actual damages,” the city wrote in \u003ca href=\"https://nocoalinoakland.info/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/2023-11-27-City-Pretrial-Brief-4-re-Availability-of-Legal-Damages.pdf\">pretrial filings (PDF)\u003c/a>. “It is not enough to say, for example, that this was a development contract and the City has interfered with that development, therefore, OBOT should get its estimated lost future profits.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The judge ultimately found that the city breached its contract with Tagami, who argued officials blocked him from executing his plans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her decision over whether Oakland — and, by extension, taxpayers — will have to pay Tagami back millions or let the project move forward is expected in the coming weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>West Oakland pushes back\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Environmental groups continue to oppose the coal terminal project for its potential to increase pollution in West Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A 2016 \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11000374/study-backs-oaklands-case-for-blocking-coal-terminal#coalanalysis\">report by Environmental Science Associates\u003c/a> found that coal flowing through the ship-to-rail terminal would largely impact lower-income communities near the port, including in West Oakland, western San Leandro and Emeryville.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Environmental Science Associates 2016 report\"]‘This increase in [greenhouse gas] emissions would contribute incrementally to global climate change along with sea-level rise that would be experienced locally in Oakland.’[/pullquote]Coal dust from the millions of tons of fossil fuels that could pass through the terminal could worsen air pollution, increasing the risk of respiratory and heart disease for those living near the export terminal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The neighborhoods surrounding the heavily industrialized port are already choked by some of the state’s dirtiest air, largely from a near-constant stream of semi-trucks moving goods in and out. Coal transported through the terminal to later burn overseas would add to greenhouse gas emissions globally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This increase in [greenhouse gas] emissions would contribute incrementally to global climate change along with sea-level rise that would be experienced locally in Oakland,” the report reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Steve Masover has been working since about 2016 with the community group No Coal in Oakland, coordinating opposition to the project and raising awareness of how it could cause environmental harm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As an East Bay resident, there can’t be a coal terminal in Oakland,” Masover said. “The outcome of this case notwithstanding, there are many options available for how we might see that it never comes to pass that coal is shipped through Oakland.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city could appeal the judge’s decision if the project is allowed to move forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "An Alameda County Superior Court judge may also determine if the project could move forward with an extension. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11641853/oakland-heads-to-trial-over-coal-ban\">years-long battle over a plan to build a terminal for exporting coal\u003c/a> near the Port of Oakland is now in the hands of an Alameda County Superior Court judge, who will decide whether the project can move forward or if Oakland will have to pay millions for developers’ lost profits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The day before Thanksgiving, Judge Noël Wise ruled that the city thwarted the project, siding with developers including Phil Tagami, who wants to build the export terminal at the West Oakland Army Base. Tagami runs companies affiliated with the project, including Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal, or OBOT.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, local environmental justice advocates continue to push back against it over concerns that the project would further degrade air quality for the community of West Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tagami has said Oakland breached its contract with him and previously sued the city for allegedly blocking necessary documents related to the project from moving forward, which created delays that caused him to miss key construction milestones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The terminal would be unique and the preferred terminal on the West Coast to transfer coal from Utah to Japan,” Barry Lee, the attorney representing the developers, said in court on Friday. He claimed that the city “did everything it could to interfere” with the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys representing the city of Oakland said that Tagami missed key deadlines and failed to uphold his end of the lease. “They have utterly failed to meet their burdens” of the contract, attorney Danielle Leonard said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Oakland could pay millions of dollars in damages\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In total, Tagami is asking for $159 million in damages or, alternatively, the chance to move forward with the project by receiving an extension to complete construction milestones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to a \u003ca href=\"https://nocoalinoakland.info/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/2023-11-22-Pltfs-Remedy-Phase-Trial-Brief.pdf\">pretrial brief (PDF),\u003c/a> OBOT is seeking an extension of at least two years and five months to meet its construction requirements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>James Wolff, CEO of Enchant Energy, who was previously involved with the project, said in witness testimony this week that he believes “there were billions of tons of coal to export through this facility” and that the coal prospects “encouraged us to move forward and we secured customers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city countered that the developers’ projected profits are speculative and unreliable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This court has no discretion to award any damages at all,” Leonard said on Friday during closing arguments for the trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California law is clear that lost profits from a future third-party business relationship are typically consequential, not actual damages,” the city wrote in \u003ca href=\"https://nocoalinoakland.info/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/2023-11-27-City-Pretrial-Brief-4-re-Availability-of-Legal-Damages.pdf\">pretrial filings (PDF)\u003c/a>. “It is not enough to say, for example, that this was a development contract and the City has interfered with that development, therefore, OBOT should get its estimated lost future profits.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The judge ultimately found that the city breached its contract with Tagami, who argued officials blocked him from executing his plans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her decision over whether Oakland — and, by extension, taxpayers — will have to pay Tagami back millions or let the project move forward is expected in the coming weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>West Oakland pushes back\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Environmental groups continue to oppose the coal terminal project for its potential to increase pollution in West Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A 2016 \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11000374/study-backs-oaklands-case-for-blocking-coal-terminal#coalanalysis\">report by Environmental Science Associates\u003c/a> found that coal flowing through the ship-to-rail terminal would largely impact lower-income communities near the port, including in West Oakland, western San Leandro and Emeryville.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘This increase in [greenhouse gas] emissions would contribute incrementally to global climate change along with sea-level rise that would be experienced locally in Oakland.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Coal dust from the millions of tons of fossil fuels that could pass through the terminal could worsen air pollution, increasing the risk of respiratory and heart disease for those living near the export terminal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The neighborhoods surrounding the heavily industrialized port are already choked by some of the state’s dirtiest air, largely from a near-constant stream of semi-trucks moving goods in and out. Coal transported through the terminal to later burn overseas would add to greenhouse gas emissions globally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This increase in [greenhouse gas] emissions would contribute incrementally to global climate change along with sea-level rise that would be experienced locally in Oakland,” the report reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Steve Masover has been working since about 2016 with the community group No Coal in Oakland, coordinating opposition to the project and raising awareness of how it could cause environmental harm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As an East Bay resident, there can’t be a coal terminal in Oakland,” Masover said. “The outcome of this case notwithstanding, there are many options available for how we might see that it never comes to pass that coal is shipped through Oakland.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city could appeal the judge’s decision if the project is allowed to move forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The oil industry has long leaked methane into the atmosphere, contributing to the greenhouse gasses that are warming the planet. Now, new federal rules aim to dramatically reduce that pollution in the next 15 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Biden administration has issued strict new regulations to reduce methane from oil and gas industry operations. The announcement from the Environmental Protection Agency comes as world leaders are in Dubai for the annual United Nations climate meeting, where \u003ca href=\"https://www.globalmethanepledge.org/events/methane-cop28\">controlling methane is a big focus\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Methane is the main ingredient in natural gas. It stays in the atmosphere for a shorter time than carbon dioxide — the most abundant greenhouse gas from humans. But methane is a \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/gmi/importance-methane\">much more potent climate-warming gas\u003c/a>. Research shows that even small amounts of methane escaping into the atmosphere can \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/07/14/1187648553/natural-gas-can-rival-coals-climate-warming-potential-when-leaks-are-counted\">equal the climate-warming effects of burning coal\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>EPA Administrator Michael Regan, in a written statement, called the new final rule an “historic action to reduce climate pollution, protecting people and the planet.” He says the regulation is part of President Biden’s ambitious climate change efforts to zero out the country’s greenhouse gasses by 2050 and meet goals in the landmark Paris climate agreement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EPA estimates the new rule will reduce methane emissions nearly 80% below what they were projected to be, and that will “prevent an estimated 58 million tons of methane emissions from 2024 to 2038.” The agency says that’s the equivalent climate warming power “as all the carbon dioxide emitted by the power sector in 2021.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EPA says that over that period, the amount of methane that will be captured or leaks avoided would be enough to heat nearly 8 million American homes for a winter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency also estimates the final rule will have net financial benefits of at least $7.3 billion a year from 2024 to 2038. Included in that accounting are the cost of deploying new technologies, climate savings, and health benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Human-caused methane emissions are responsible for about 30% of global warming today, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/44216/eye_on_methane_summary.pdf?sequence=3\">United Nations Environment Programme\u003c/a>. Most of the methane emitted by humans comes from the energy sector, agriculture and landfills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new rule includes a “Super Emitter Program” that allows third parties, including environmental groups, to detect and report large methane releases from oil and gas sites. The EPA says studies show these large emitters account for almost half the methane emissions from the oil and gas industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The industry is also required to phase out routine natural gas flaring at new oil wells. Drillers often flare or burn gas from the ground with more valuable oil when there isn’t a pipeline nearby to transport the gas to buyers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new rule also requires “comprehensive monitoring” for methane leaks from well sites and compressor stations. In addition to regularly inspecting sites, the EPA says oil and gas companies must choose “low-cost and innovative methane monitoring technologies” to detect leaks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the rule creates standards for reducing emissions from equipment, such as controllers, pumps and storage tanks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some states already have methane emissions programs. They will now have two years to submit them to EPA for approval to ensure they comply with the new federal regulation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With other countries also zeroing in on methane as a key climate risk, it’s a signal to operators worldwide that clean-up time is here,” says Fred Krupp, Environmental Defense Fund president, in a statement. EDF is among groups that have established methane monitoring programs, including plans to \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpr.org/2023/08/17/methane-satellite-ball-aerospace-boulder/\">launch a $90 million satellite\u003c/a> to detect methane from oil and gas fields.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though the new rules are aimed at the oil industry, they’re getting praise from some larger companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“BP welcomes the finalization of a federal methane rule for new, modified and — for the first time — existing sources,” Orlando Alvarez, chairman and president of BP America, says in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But smaller companies have been critical, fearing increased costs that could make some wells unprofitable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The industry’s largest trade group, the American Petroleum Institute, says it’s still reviewing the final rule. Earlier this year, API detailed its concerns in \u003ca href=\"https://www.api.org/~/media/files/news/2023/02/13/api-comments-epa-supplemental-proposed-methane-rule\">comments submitted to the EPA\u003c/a>. Among them, API mentioned potential legal issues with using third-party monitors for the “Super Emitter Program.” The group says the EPA “must establish requirements for monitoring of third-party data” and provide limits on how that information is released to the public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A senior EPA official says the agency made changes based on such comments. The official says now the EPA will certify groups with methane monitoring expertise, assess reports of releases for accuracy, and then notify a responsible company of the release so they can fix it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s unclear whether that will satisfy API’s concerns, but the comments highlight something many people involved in this rulemaking process assume: the new regulations will likely be challenged in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=EPA+aims+to+slash+the+oil+industry%27s+climate-warming+methane+pollution&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EPA says that over that period, the amount of methane that will be captured or leaks avoided would be enough to heat nearly 8 million American homes for a winter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency also estimates the final rule will have net financial benefits of at least $7.3 billion a year from 2024 to 2038. Included in that accounting are the cost of deploying new technologies, climate savings, and health benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Human-caused methane emissions are responsible for about 30% of global warming today, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/44216/eye_on_methane_summary.pdf?sequence=3\">United Nations Environment Programme\u003c/a>. Most of the methane emitted by humans comes from the energy sector, agriculture and landfills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new rule includes a “Super Emitter Program” that allows third parties, including environmental groups, to detect and report large methane releases from oil and gas sites. The EPA says studies show these large emitters account for almost half the methane emissions from the oil and gas industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The industry is also required to phase out routine natural gas flaring at new oil wells. Drillers often flare or burn gas from the ground with more valuable oil when there isn’t a pipeline nearby to transport the gas to buyers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new rule also requires “comprehensive monitoring” for methane leaks from well sites and compressor stations. In addition to regularly inspecting sites, the EPA says oil and gas companies must choose “low-cost and innovative methane monitoring technologies” to detect leaks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the rule creates standards for reducing emissions from equipment, such as controllers, pumps and storage tanks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some states already have methane emissions programs. They will now have two years to submit them to EPA for approval to ensure they comply with the new federal regulation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With other countries also zeroing in on methane as a key climate risk, it’s a signal to operators worldwide that clean-up time is here,” says Fred Krupp, Environmental Defense Fund president, in a statement. EDF is among groups that have established methane monitoring programs, including plans to \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpr.org/2023/08/17/methane-satellite-ball-aerospace-boulder/\">launch a $90 million satellite\u003c/a> to detect methane from oil and gas fields.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though the new rules are aimed at the oil industry, they’re getting praise from some larger companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“BP welcomes the finalization of a federal methane rule for new, modified and — for the first time — existing sources,” Orlando Alvarez, chairman and president of BP America, says in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But smaller companies have been critical, fearing increased costs that could make some wells unprofitable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The industry’s largest trade group, the American Petroleum Institute, says it’s still reviewing the final rule. Earlier this year, API detailed its concerns in \u003ca href=\"https://www.api.org/~/media/files/news/2023/02/13/api-comments-epa-supplemental-proposed-methane-rule\">comments submitted to the EPA\u003c/a>. Among them, API mentioned potential legal issues with using third-party monitors for the “Super Emitter Program.” The group says the EPA “must establish requirements for monitoring of third-party data” and provide limits on how that information is released to the public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A senior EPA official says the agency made changes based on such comments. The official says now the EPA will certify groups with methane monitoring expertise, assess reports of releases for accuracy, and then notify a responsible company of the release so they can fix it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s unclear whether that will satisfy API’s concerns, but the comments highlight something many people involved in this rulemaking process assume: the new regulations will likely be challenged in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=EPA+aims+to+slash+the+oil+industry%27s+climate-warming+methane+pollution&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Like its name suggests, the brown dog tick dines on dog blood. But as temperatures rise, they’re more likely to feast on you, too. That’s a problem, because the brown dog tick is a vector for Rocky Mountain spotted fever, a disease that’s deadly to both dogs and humans.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>To pet a dog is to know peace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But who’s this interloper? \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a brown dog tick.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re the most widespread tick in the world, and the most adapted to living among us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown dog ticks are thought to have evolved alongside burrowing carnivores like foxes and weasels – and came indoors when we domesticated dogs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They can be found in and around homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And what’s worse, they spread bacteria that can be deadly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They aren’t the ticks known for carrying Lyme disease. Those are blacklegged ticks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The brown dog tick has grooves along its back, and they’re a solid, reddish brown. See the difference?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote]\u003cbr>\nADDITIONAL RESOURCES\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"https://doi.org/10.1093/jme/tjad085\">Assistant professor of animal science at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Laura Backus, whose research on the brown dog tick we explored in this episode, has spent a lot of time looking into tick populations in California and Mexico during her Ph.D. and postdoc at the University of California, Davis. Check out her team’s work exploring the role of wildlife in tick-borne diseases in this paper!\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/\">Microscopist T Josek took the incredible pictures of the brown dog tick’s Haller’s organ you saw in this episode. Learn more about their organization, Bugscope at the University of Illinois’s Beckman Institute here.\u003cbr>\n[/pullquote]\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No matter what kind of tick they are, they want one thing: blood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And to find that blood, they use what’s called the Haller’s organ, one near the tip of each foreleg.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ticks use them to pick up chemical signals from the air: carbon dioxide, pheromones and humidity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists believe the Haller’s organ even lets ticks detect the body heat of their prey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All ticks have them, but they use them differently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The blacklegged tick “quests” – it stays put, waving its forelegs to sense when it can hop aboard a host.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The brown dog tick hunts, using that Haller’s organ to home in on a potential target.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As its name suggests, a brown dog tick is happy to take all its meals from dogs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in the right conditions, the brown dog tick will dine on you, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a problem, because they can transmit bacteria that cause Rocky Mountain spotted fever, a terrible disease that can kill both dogs and humans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rocky Mountain spotted fever usually occurs in small clusters in the United States and is relatively rare. But outbreaks in northern Mexico have killed hundreds of people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And rising temperatures due to climate change are sparking some troubling tick behavior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it’s particularly hot out, brown dog ticks start craving human blood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To investigate this, University of California, Davis researchers put a very good dog in a box and a very good human in another, connected by a plastic tube with hungry brown dog ticks inside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Don’t worry – there’s a screen here and here. The ticks can’t actually get them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At room temperature, the ticks preferred dogs. But when researchers heated up the tube, to 100 degrees Fahrenheit, brown dog ticks preferred – you guessed it – us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists are still trying to determine why. In the meantime, researchers are developing vaccines to protect us from the disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tick treatments can keep the pests off of dogs. But they’re expensive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Sonoran Desert, in Southern California, volunteers remove ticks by putting their tweezers right up against a dog’s skin and pulling straight up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This one is full of dog blood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And they give the dogs oral medicine for free.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Look at these happy pals!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And then it’s back to the petting frenzy you both deserve.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"description": "Like its name suggests, the brown dog tick dines on dog blood. But as temperatures rise, they're more likely to feast on you, too. That's a problem, because the brown dog tick is a vector for Rocky Mountain spotted fever, a disease that's deadly to both dogs and humans.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re the most widespread tick in the world, and the most adapted to living among us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown dog ticks are thought to have evolved alongside burrowing carnivores like foxes and weasels – and came indoors when we domesticated dogs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They can be found in and around homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And what’s worse, they spread bacteria that can be deadly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They aren’t the ticks known for carrying Lyme disease. Those are blacklegged ticks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The brown dog tick has grooves along its back, and they’re a solid, reddish brown. See the difference?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cbr>\nADDITIONAL RESOURCES\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"https://doi.org/10.1093/jme/tjad085\">Assistant professor of animal science at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Laura Backus, whose research on the brown dog tick we explored in this episode, has spent a lot of time looking into tick populations in California and Mexico during her Ph.D. and postdoc at the University of California, Davis. Check out her team’s work exploring the role of wildlife in tick-borne diseases in this paper!\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/\">Microscopist T Josek took the incredible pictures of the brown dog tick’s Haller’s organ you saw in this episode. Learn more about their organization, Bugscope at the University of Illinois’s Beckman Institute here.\u003cbr>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No matter what kind of tick they are, they want one thing: blood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And to find that blood, they use what’s called the Haller’s organ, one near the tip of each foreleg.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ticks use them to pick up chemical signals from the air: carbon dioxide, pheromones and humidity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists believe the Haller’s organ even lets ticks detect the body heat of their prey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All ticks have them, but they use them differently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The blacklegged tick “quests” – it stays put, waving its forelegs to sense when it can hop aboard a host.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The brown dog tick hunts, using that Haller’s organ to home in on a potential target.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As its name suggests, a brown dog tick is happy to take all its meals from dogs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in the right conditions, the brown dog tick will dine on you, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a problem, because they can transmit bacteria that cause Rocky Mountain spotted fever, a terrible disease that can kill both dogs and humans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rocky Mountain spotted fever usually occurs in small clusters in the United States and is relatively rare. But outbreaks in northern Mexico have killed hundreds of people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And rising temperatures due to climate change are sparking some troubling tick behavior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it’s particularly hot out, brown dog ticks start craving human blood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To investigate this, University of California, Davis researchers put a very good dog in a box and a very good human in another, connected by a plastic tube with hungry brown dog ticks inside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Don’t worry – there’s a screen here and here. The ticks can’t actually get them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At room temperature, the ticks preferred dogs. But when researchers heated up the tube, to 100 degrees Fahrenheit, brown dog ticks preferred – you guessed it – us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists are still trying to determine why. In the meantime, researchers are developing vaccines to protect us from the disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tick treatments can keep the pests off of dogs. But they’re expensive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Sonoran Desert, in Southern California, volunteers remove ticks by putting their tweezers right up against a dog’s skin and pulling straight up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This one is full of dog blood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And they give the dogs oral medicine for free.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Look at these happy pals!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And then it’s back to the petting frenzy you both deserve.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Annual Climate Negotiations Are About To Start. Do They Matter?",
"headTitle": "Annual Climate Negotiations Are About To Start. Do They Matter? | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>A major annual international climate meeting kicks off later this week in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>World leaders are meeting from Nov. 30 to Dec. 12 to discuss the effects of climate change, efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and the increasingly pressing question of who will pay for the costs of a hotter planet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attendance at the annual negotiations \u003ca href=\"https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/parties-non-party-stakeholders/non-party-stakeholders/statistics-on-non-party-stakeholders/statistics-on-participation-and-in-session-engagement\">has ballooned\u003c/a> and hit an \u003ca href=\"https://unfccc.int/news/cop27-reaches-breakthrough-agreement-on-new-loss-and-damage-fund-for-vulnerable-countries#:~:text=COP27%20brought%20together%20more%20than,how%20it%20impacts%20their%20lives.\">estimated 45,000 people\u003c/a> last year. Thousands of climate scientists, mayors, activists, corporate executives, and representatives of major oil companies will also fly to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/01/12/1148810078/the-uae-names-the-head-of-its-main-state-oil-company-to-lead-cop28\">petroleum-dependent host country\u003c/a> to attend hundreds of side events.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The meeting comes at the close of the hottest year ever recorded on Earth. Extreme weather is killing people around the world. And while it’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/10/30/1208241783/its-unlikely-but-not-impossible-to-limit-global-warming-to-1-5-celsius-study-fin\">still possible\u003c/a> for humans to avoid catastrophic climate change effects — such as mass extinctions and runaway sea level rise by the end of this century — it is only possible if greenhouse gas pollution falls dramatically and immediately, scientists warn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, a fight is brewing over whether the countries most responsible for causing climate change will \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/11/07/1133270753/climate-change-loss-damage-cop27\">follow through on promises\u003c/a> to help the most vulnerable countries \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/11/08/1053669015/who-pays-for-climate-change\">foot the bill\u003c/a> for adapting to a hotter world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s what you need to know about what’s at stake and what to expect.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Why is this meeting happening and what is it supposed to achieve?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This meeting happens every year and is arranged by the branch of the United Nations that handles global negotiations about climate change. In U.N.-speak, the climate meeting is called the Conference of the Parties, or COP. This is the 28th Conference of the Parties, so it’s called COP28.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the end of the 2015 COP meeting, world leaders signed the landmark Paris Climate Agreement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Paris Agreement requires virtually every country on Earth to pledge how much they’ll cut planet-warming pollution and update those plans every few years. The goal is to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius compared to temperatures in the late 1800s, and ideally no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, world leaders are required to review humanity’s collective progress toward that goal. And the situation is not good.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A U.N. \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/11/20/1213207121/this-is-how-far-behind-the-world-is-on-controlling-planet-warming-pollution\">analysis released this month\u003c/a> found that global greenhouse gas emissions are still rising, and the planet is on track for at least 2.5 degrees Celsius of warming by the end of the century. And while it’s still possible to stay below 2 degrees of warming — and every tenth of a degree of warming the world avoids will save lives — scientists warn that the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/10/30/1208241783/its-unlikely-but-not-impossible-to-limit-global-warming-to-1-5-celsius-study-fin\">1.5-degree target is slipping away\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>These meetings have been happening for 30 years, and it feels like climate change is only getting worse. Do they really matter?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Last year’s COP27 meeting in Egypt ended with a watered-down agreement that left out language calling for a phaseout of all fossil fuels — the biggest driver of global warming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The summits have become a circus, “with the petrostates as the ringmasters” and everyone else as “the clowns,” Sandrine Dixson-Declève \u003ca href=\"https://www.clubofrome.org/blog-post/decleve-cop27/\">wrote last year\u003c/a>, as co-president of The Club of Rome, a nonprofit in Switzerland that works on climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The problem, Dixson-Declève told NPR, is combining international negotiations with a trade show. The number of lobbyists who attend the events has soared, she says, and civil society groups struggle to afford the cost of reserving pavilion space in the COP conference hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some are actually given easier access than others because they can pay for it. And that means that those that have pavilions might be able to invite certain governments to come and have a conversation,” Dixson-Declève says. “It may not seem like direct lobbying, but it is potentially indirect lobbying, depending on where the conversation goes. So I think it’s incredibly important that we take into consideration this aspect, which has created a very unfair playing field.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet the COP meetings remain crucial events for activists and poor countries hit hardest by climate-fueled disasters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the big values of the U.N. process, actually, is that everybody’s at the table,” says David Waskow, director of the International Climate Initiative at the World Resources Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The meetings are not “a panacea,” Waskow adds, but they “give us a sense of the direction we need to travel in and also can be a catalyst.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rishikesh Ram Bhandary, assistant director of the Global Economic Governance Initiative at Boston University, says he understands the public’s frustration with the climate talks. Part of it seems to stem from a mismatch between the U.N.’s multilateral process, which ensures every country has a say but often delivers incremental progress, and the urgency people feel as the impacts of climate change get worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That tension has only grown as the United Arab Emirates, a big oil producer, prepares to host this year’s meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given its knowledge of oil and gas, the UAE has a chance to chart a practical but ambitious path to move the world off of fossil fuels, Dixson-Declève says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That would be the perfect scenario,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the world seems to be moving in the opposite direction. António Guterres, the U.N. secretary-general, \u003ca href=\"https://productiongap.org/unsg-message-2023/\">said earlier in November\u003c/a> that governments “are literally doubling down on fossil fuel production.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://apps.npr.org/dailygraphics/graphics/co2-cop28-20231120/?initialWidth=953&childId=responsive-embed-co2-cop28-20231120&parentTitle=Everything%20you%20need%20to%20know%20about%20the%20COP28%20climate%20change%20meeting%20%3A%20NPR&parentUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.npr.org%2F2023%2F11%2F27%2F1209676382%2Fcop28-climate-change-conference-faq\" width=\"1000\" height=\"620\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What will be a contentious topic at these talks?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>One of the biggest debates will be the overcompensation that wealthier countries could pay to nations hardest hit by climate change. It’s known as “loss and damage.” Lower-income countries bear the brunt of climate impacts, such as floods, fires and drought that cause billions of dollars in destruction. But they have contributed little to the planetary warming driving those disasters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Countries like the U.S. and those in Europe built their wealth through fossil fuel use and are responsible for most of the heat-trapping emissions in the atmosphere today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For years, developing nations have argued that they’re owed for the damage caused by climate change. Loss and damage funding could be used to prepare for future impacts, like building infrastructure or \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/11/07/1133270753/climate-change-loss-damage-cop27\">relocating communities\u003c/a>, as well as compensating them for \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/11/07/1133270753/climate-change-loss-damage-cop27\">irreplaceable cultural resources\u003c/a> that have been lost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the 2022 climate summit, countries \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/11/20/1137349916/did-the-world-make-progress-on-climate-change-heres-what-was-decided-at-global-t\">made a historic agreement\u003c/a> to create a fund, especially for that purpose. Since then, negotiations have been bumpy. Countries have argued about which nations should pay into the fund, which should be eligible to receive funding, and where the fund is housed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Right now, \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/climate-change-cop28-loss-damage-fund-abu-dhabi-bd4969f1b23254a7311d1ad4f4289d9b\">the plan is\u003c/a> for the World Bank to house the “loss and damage” fund temporarily. But global leaders would need to sign off on that plan at the COP28 talks. And some developing countries are concerned about the plan because it only urges, not requires, richer countries to contribute funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985562\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985562\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/ap23302774547951-e588f5868c0b80d8995b55a0d7a8712917cc8953-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Rescuers remove mud and debris as they search for people feared trapped after a landslide near a temple on the outskirts of Shimla, Himachal Pradesh state, Aug. 14, 2023.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/ap23302774547951-e588f5868c0b80d8995b55a0d7a8712917cc8953-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/ap23302774547951-e588f5868c0b80d8995b55a0d7a8712917cc8953-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/ap23302774547951-e588f5868c0b80d8995b55a0d7a8712917cc8953-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/ap23302774547951-e588f5868c0b80d8995b55a0d7a8712917cc8953-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/ap23302774547951-e588f5868c0b80d8995b55a0d7a8712917cc8953-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/ap23302774547951-e588f5868c0b80d8995b55a0d7a8712917cc8953-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/ap23302774547951-e588f5868c0b80d8995b55a0d7a8712917cc8953-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/ap23302774547951-e588f5868c0b80d8995b55a0d7a8712917cc8953-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rescuers search for people after a landslide in India in August that was caused by torrential rains. Climate-driven disasters are particularly destructive in places that are not wealthy, and such disasters can set off cycles of destruction, debt and further vulnerability. \u003ccite>(Pradeep Kumar/AP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Why is money such a big topic at the meeting?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Industrialized countries have pledged $100 billion annually to developing countries to help them adapt to global warming and move away from fossil fuels, but studies suggest much more money is needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The needs for climate finance are much, much higher — more on the order of a trillion dollars per year,” says Laura Kuhl, assistant professor of public policy and international affairs at Northeastern University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent assessment from the \u003ca href=\"https://www.oecd.org/environment/growth-accelerated-in-the-climate-finance-provided-and-mobilised-in-2021-but-developed-countries-remain-short.htm\">Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development\u003c/a> says developing countries will need at least $2.4 trillion each year by 2026.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This money — called “climate finance” — can help developing countries switch from planet-heating fossil fuels to clean energy. It also includes money for adapting to climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stacy-ann Robinson, an associate professor of environmental studies at Colby College, says you can’t talk about climate finance without talking about climate justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Countries in the Global South,” Robinson says, “are saying, ‘Listen, we contributed the least to historical greenhouse gas emissions, but based on a number of factors — environmental and otherwise — we will be impacted the most.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why back in 2009 at the climate conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, industrialized nations announced that \u003cem>they\u003c/em> would take the lead on climate finance. They pledged that by 2020, they would give $100 billion each year toward funding climate adaptation and reducing fossil fuel use in the Global South.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They missed the 2020 goal. And although industrialized nations \u003ca href=\"https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.oecd.org/climate-change/finance-usd-100-billion-goal/__;!!Iwwt!TcowzyOv2FKzOEQ2b2ribe2pUfpddVlARAVq0htz59aiMKvGjGYB7r4G9AdEE25TLeLgv9DyTp0S-yui5pg%24\">may have finally reached the $100 billion\u003c/a> mark in 2022, in Dubai, the discussions will center on how to get closer to the trillion dollar range. This will involve engaging countries, institutions like the World Bank and the IMF, and the private sector.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How do wars in the Middle East and Ukraine affect climate talks this year?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>They won’t help. Climate diplomacy is already contentious. The conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East are further complicating, if not worsening, diplomatic relations among some of the world’s largest historic contributors to climate change — namely, the United States, Russia and China.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>U.N. Secretary-General Guterres acknowledged the problem in recent remarks, saying that it’s clear that world leaders face “distractions” from addressing climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has trashed its relations with the U.S. and the European Union, which have been providing Ukraine with billions of dollars in aid and weaponry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At last year’s climate talks, representatives from developing countries raised questions about why rich countries like the U.S. have been quick to deliver weapons while slow-walking funds for climate adaptation and clean energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those concerns are likely to come up again in Dubai, as the U.S. is now delivering billions of dollars more to Israel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Israel’s continued bombardment of the Gaza Strip is also raising the ire of other countries in the Middle East and Global South, and a broader regional conflict could cause chaos in the world’s energy markets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of this makes it more difficult for world leaders to maintain consensus and focus on addressing the global issue of human-caused climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=FAQ%3A+Annual+climate+negotiations+are+about+to+start.+Do+they+matter%3F&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A major annual international climate meeting kicks off later this week in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>World leaders are meeting from Nov. 30 to Dec. 12 to discuss the effects of climate change, efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and the increasingly pressing question of who will pay for the costs of a hotter planet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attendance at the annual negotiations \u003ca href=\"https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/parties-non-party-stakeholders/non-party-stakeholders/statistics-on-non-party-stakeholders/statistics-on-participation-and-in-session-engagement\">has ballooned\u003c/a> and hit an \u003ca href=\"https://unfccc.int/news/cop27-reaches-breakthrough-agreement-on-new-loss-and-damage-fund-for-vulnerable-countries#:~:text=COP27%20brought%20together%20more%20than,how%20it%20impacts%20their%20lives.\">estimated 45,000 people\u003c/a> last year. Thousands of climate scientists, mayors, activists, corporate executives, and representatives of major oil companies will also fly to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/01/12/1148810078/the-uae-names-the-head-of-its-main-state-oil-company-to-lead-cop28\">petroleum-dependent host country\u003c/a> to attend hundreds of side events.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The meeting comes at the close of the hottest year ever recorded on Earth. Extreme weather is killing people around the world. And while it’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/10/30/1208241783/its-unlikely-but-not-impossible-to-limit-global-warming-to-1-5-celsius-study-fin\">still possible\u003c/a> for humans to avoid catastrophic climate change effects — such as mass extinctions and runaway sea level rise by the end of this century — it is only possible if greenhouse gas pollution falls dramatically and immediately, scientists warn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, a fight is brewing over whether the countries most responsible for causing climate change will \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/11/07/1133270753/climate-change-loss-damage-cop27\">follow through on promises\u003c/a> to help the most vulnerable countries \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/11/08/1053669015/who-pays-for-climate-change\">foot the bill\u003c/a> for adapting to a hotter world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s what you need to know about what’s at stake and what to expect.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Why is this meeting happening and what is it supposed to achieve?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This meeting happens every year and is arranged by the branch of the United Nations that handles global negotiations about climate change. In U.N.-speak, the climate meeting is called the Conference of the Parties, or COP. This is the 28th Conference of the Parties, so it’s called COP28.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the end of the 2015 COP meeting, world leaders signed the landmark Paris Climate Agreement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Paris Agreement requires virtually every country on Earth to pledge how much they’ll cut planet-warming pollution and update those plans every few years. The goal is to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius compared to temperatures in the late 1800s, and ideally no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, world leaders are required to review humanity’s collective progress toward that goal. And the situation is not good.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A U.N. \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/11/20/1213207121/this-is-how-far-behind-the-world-is-on-controlling-planet-warming-pollution\">analysis released this month\u003c/a> found that global greenhouse gas emissions are still rising, and the planet is on track for at least 2.5 degrees Celsius of warming by the end of the century. And while it’s still possible to stay below 2 degrees of warming — and every tenth of a degree of warming the world avoids will save lives — scientists warn that the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/10/30/1208241783/its-unlikely-but-not-impossible-to-limit-global-warming-to-1-5-celsius-study-fin\">1.5-degree target is slipping away\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>These meetings have been happening for 30 years, and it feels like climate change is only getting worse. Do they really matter?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Last year’s COP27 meeting in Egypt ended with a watered-down agreement that left out language calling for a phaseout of all fossil fuels — the biggest driver of global warming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The summits have become a circus, “with the petrostates as the ringmasters” and everyone else as “the clowns,” Sandrine Dixson-Declève \u003ca href=\"https://www.clubofrome.org/blog-post/decleve-cop27/\">wrote last year\u003c/a>, as co-president of The Club of Rome, a nonprofit in Switzerland that works on climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The problem, Dixson-Declève told NPR, is combining international negotiations with a trade show. The number of lobbyists who attend the events has soared, she says, and civil society groups struggle to afford the cost of reserving pavilion space in the COP conference hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some are actually given easier access than others because they can pay for it. And that means that those that have pavilions might be able to invite certain governments to come and have a conversation,” Dixson-Declève says. “It may not seem like direct lobbying, but it is potentially indirect lobbying, depending on where the conversation goes. So I think it’s incredibly important that we take into consideration this aspect, which has created a very unfair playing field.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet the COP meetings remain crucial events for activists and poor countries hit hardest by climate-fueled disasters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the big values of the U.N. process, actually, is that everybody’s at the table,” says David Waskow, director of the International Climate Initiative at the World Resources Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The meetings are not “a panacea,” Waskow adds, but they “give us a sense of the direction we need to travel in and also can be a catalyst.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rishikesh Ram Bhandary, assistant director of the Global Economic Governance Initiative at Boston University, says he understands the public’s frustration with the climate talks. Part of it seems to stem from a mismatch between the U.N.’s multilateral process, which ensures every country has a say but often delivers incremental progress, and the urgency people feel as the impacts of climate change get worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That tension has only grown as the United Arab Emirates, a big oil producer, prepares to host this year’s meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given its knowledge of oil and gas, the UAE has a chance to chart a practical but ambitious path to move the world off of fossil fuels, Dixson-Declève says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That would be the perfect scenario,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the world seems to be moving in the opposite direction. António Guterres, the U.N. secretary-general, \u003ca href=\"https://productiongap.org/unsg-message-2023/\">said earlier in November\u003c/a> that governments “are literally doubling down on fossil fuel production.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://apps.npr.org/dailygraphics/graphics/co2-cop28-20231120/?initialWidth=953&childId=responsive-embed-co2-cop28-20231120&parentTitle=Everything%20you%20need%20to%20know%20about%20the%20COP28%20climate%20change%20meeting%20%3A%20NPR&parentUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.npr.org%2F2023%2F11%2F27%2F1209676382%2Fcop28-climate-change-conference-faq\" width=\"1000\" height=\"620\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What will be a contentious topic at these talks?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>One of the biggest debates will be the overcompensation that wealthier countries could pay to nations hardest hit by climate change. It’s known as “loss and damage.” Lower-income countries bear the brunt of climate impacts, such as floods, fires and drought that cause billions of dollars in destruction. But they have contributed little to the planetary warming driving those disasters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Countries like the U.S. and those in Europe built their wealth through fossil fuel use and are responsible for most of the heat-trapping emissions in the atmosphere today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For years, developing nations have argued that they’re owed for the damage caused by climate change. Loss and damage funding could be used to prepare for future impacts, like building infrastructure or \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/11/07/1133270753/climate-change-loss-damage-cop27\">relocating communities\u003c/a>, as well as compensating them for \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/11/07/1133270753/climate-change-loss-damage-cop27\">irreplaceable cultural resources\u003c/a> that have been lost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the 2022 climate summit, countries \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/11/20/1137349916/did-the-world-make-progress-on-climate-change-heres-what-was-decided-at-global-t\">made a historic agreement\u003c/a> to create a fund, especially for that purpose. Since then, negotiations have been bumpy. Countries have argued about which nations should pay into the fund, which should be eligible to receive funding, and where the fund is housed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Right now, \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/climate-change-cop28-loss-damage-fund-abu-dhabi-bd4969f1b23254a7311d1ad4f4289d9b\">the plan is\u003c/a> for the World Bank to house the “loss and damage” fund temporarily. But global leaders would need to sign off on that plan at the COP28 talks. And some developing countries are concerned about the plan because it only urges, not requires, richer countries to contribute funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985562\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985562\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/ap23302774547951-e588f5868c0b80d8995b55a0d7a8712917cc8953-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Rescuers remove mud and debris as they search for people feared trapped after a landslide near a temple on the outskirts of Shimla, Himachal Pradesh state, Aug. 14, 2023.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/ap23302774547951-e588f5868c0b80d8995b55a0d7a8712917cc8953-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/ap23302774547951-e588f5868c0b80d8995b55a0d7a8712917cc8953-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/ap23302774547951-e588f5868c0b80d8995b55a0d7a8712917cc8953-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/ap23302774547951-e588f5868c0b80d8995b55a0d7a8712917cc8953-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/ap23302774547951-e588f5868c0b80d8995b55a0d7a8712917cc8953-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/ap23302774547951-e588f5868c0b80d8995b55a0d7a8712917cc8953-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/ap23302774547951-e588f5868c0b80d8995b55a0d7a8712917cc8953-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/ap23302774547951-e588f5868c0b80d8995b55a0d7a8712917cc8953-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rescuers search for people after a landslide in India in August that was caused by torrential rains. Climate-driven disasters are particularly destructive in places that are not wealthy, and such disasters can set off cycles of destruction, debt and further vulnerability. \u003ccite>(Pradeep Kumar/AP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Why is money such a big topic at the meeting?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Industrialized countries have pledged $100 billion annually to developing countries to help them adapt to global warming and move away from fossil fuels, but studies suggest much more money is needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The needs for climate finance are much, much higher — more on the order of a trillion dollars per year,” says Laura Kuhl, assistant professor of public policy and international affairs at Northeastern University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent assessment from the \u003ca href=\"https://www.oecd.org/environment/growth-accelerated-in-the-climate-finance-provided-and-mobilised-in-2021-but-developed-countries-remain-short.htm\">Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development\u003c/a> says developing countries will need at least $2.4 trillion each year by 2026.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This money — called “climate finance” — can help developing countries switch from planet-heating fossil fuels to clean energy. It also includes money for adapting to climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stacy-ann Robinson, an associate professor of environmental studies at Colby College, says you can’t talk about climate finance without talking about climate justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Countries in the Global South,” Robinson says, “are saying, ‘Listen, we contributed the least to historical greenhouse gas emissions, but based on a number of factors — environmental and otherwise — we will be impacted the most.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why back in 2009 at the climate conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, industrialized nations announced that \u003cem>they\u003c/em> would take the lead on climate finance. They pledged that by 2020, they would give $100 billion each year toward funding climate adaptation and reducing fossil fuel use in the Global South.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They missed the 2020 goal. And although industrialized nations \u003ca href=\"https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.oecd.org/climate-change/finance-usd-100-billion-goal/__;!!Iwwt!TcowzyOv2FKzOEQ2b2ribe2pUfpddVlARAVq0htz59aiMKvGjGYB7r4G9AdEE25TLeLgv9DyTp0S-yui5pg%24\">may have finally reached the $100 billion\u003c/a> mark in 2022, in Dubai, the discussions will center on how to get closer to the trillion dollar range. This will involve engaging countries, institutions like the World Bank and the IMF, and the private sector.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How do wars in the Middle East and Ukraine affect climate talks this year?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>They won’t help. Climate diplomacy is already contentious. The conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East are further complicating, if not worsening, diplomatic relations among some of the world’s largest historic contributors to climate change — namely, the United States, Russia and China.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>U.N. Secretary-General Guterres acknowledged the problem in recent remarks, saying that it’s clear that world leaders face “distractions” from addressing climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has trashed its relations with the U.S. and the European Union, which have been providing Ukraine with billions of dollars in aid and weaponry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At last year’s climate talks, representatives from developing countries raised questions about why rich countries like the U.S. have been quick to deliver weapons while slow-walking funds for climate adaptation and clean energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those concerns are likely to come up again in Dubai, as the U.S. is now delivering billions of dollars more to Israel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Israel’s continued bombardment of the Gaza Strip is also raising the ire of other countries in the Middle East and Global South, and a broader regional conflict could cause chaos in the world’s energy markets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of this makes it more difficult for world leaders to maintain consensus and focus on addressing the global issue of human-caused climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=FAQ%3A+Annual+climate+negotiations+are+about+to+start.+Do+they+matter%3F&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The Rintaro restaurant staff was preparing osechi — a traditional meal to celebrate Japanese New Year. They’d been working on it all week, and on Dec. 31, 2022, they were just putting on the finishing touches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s when they noticed water rising through the floor drains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The staff climbed onto the tables. And as the water kept coming, they clambered through a window and waded out into the street, where needles and cars were floating around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985522\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/image3-1-scaled-e1700518806701.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1985522\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/image3-1-scaled-e1700518806701-800x1067.jpeg\" alt=\"Flooding inside a restaurant.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1067\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/image3-1-scaled-e1700518806701-800x1067.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/image3-1-scaled-e1700518806701-1020x1360.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/image3-1-scaled-e1700518806701-160x213.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/image3-1-scaled-e1700518806701-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/image3-1-scaled-e1700518806701-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/image3-1-scaled-e1700518806701-1536x2048.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/image3-1-scaled-e1700518806701.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Inside Rintaro restaurant in San Francisco, the water rose up through the floor drains on Dec. 31, 2022. \u003ccite>(Sylvan Mishima Brackett)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Daniel Swain, climate scientist, UCLA\"]‘The storms that are out there are progressively more juiced-up than they used to be.’[/pullquote]“It was flooded basically as far as you could see,” said Rintaro owner Sylvan Mishima Brackett, gesturing up and down 14th St. in San Francisco’s Mission district. “It was just one gigantic lake.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, scientists are \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1984737/el-nino-is-back-will-that-mean-rain-and-snow-for-californias-2023-winter\">forecasting\u003c/a> what could be another wetter-than-normal winter for California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Watersheds are already more saturated; reservoir levels are already running higher,” UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain said. “So the background conditions are more favorable for a quicker development of flooding.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The world is warmer than in recorded history, so the atmosphere can hold more water vapor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The storms that are out there are progressively more juiced-up than they used to be,” said Swain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11938273,news_11932941,science_1984737\" label=\"Related Stories\"]The Bay Area’s aging wastewater systems were not built for that volume of rain. Last winter, they spilled \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11938273/our-worst-nightmare-as-storms-raged-millions-of-gallons-of-sewage-spilled-into-bay-area-waterways-streets-and-yards\">tens of millions of gallons\u003c/a> of raw or partially treated sewage into waterways and streets. Sejal Choksi-Chugh, executive director of the environmental group Baykeeper, said cities need to upgrade their infrastructure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And one of the ones that’s been kicking and screaming the hardest not wanting to change is, surprisingly, San Francisco,” Choksi-Chugh said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco is one of the few cities in California that runs stormwater and sewage through a single-pipe system. So when it floods, human waste rises from the sewer into the streets — or homes or businesses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2021, the Regional Water Board \u003ca href=\"https://waterboards.ca.gov/sanfranciscobay/board_info/agendas/2021/November/5_cao.pdf\">ordered\u003c/a> San Francisco to begin flood reduction work, which the city had been \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11932941/its-been-a-fight-for-our-homes-the-ongoing-saga-to-fix-san-franciscos-sewers\">putting off since 1964\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985521\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/image0-scaled-e1700518786961.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1985521\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/image0-scaled-e1700518786961-800x1067.jpeg\" alt=\"People stand outside of a building as water continues to rise.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1067\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/image0-scaled-e1700518786961-800x1067.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/image0-scaled-e1700518786961-1020x1360.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/image0-scaled-e1700518786961-160x213.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/image0-scaled-e1700518786961-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/image0-scaled-e1700518786961-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/image0-scaled-e1700518786961-1536x2048.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/image0-scaled-e1700518786961.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Staff stands on the tables at Rintaro restaurant in San Francisco on Dec. 31, 2022. \u003ccite>(Sylvan Mishima Brackett)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s making pipes bigger, it’s adding more pipes,” said Sarah Minick, utility planning manager at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. “It’s just increasing the capacity of our sewer system so that it can manage more rainwater.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city is now spending \u003ca href=\"https://sfpuc.org/about-us/news/el-nino-predictions-sfpuc-asks-san-franciscans-prepare-wet-rainy-season\">$634 million on projects\u003c/a> in three \u003ca href=\"https://sfplanninggis.org/floodmap/\">low-lying neighborhoods\u003c/a>. Work in the West Portal neighborhood near 15th Avenue and Wawona Street is expected to be completed this year. In the Mission near 17th and Folsom streets — the neighborhood where Rintaro is located — it’s scheduled to begin this fall and finish in 2027. The city is still planning its work along lower Alemany Boulevard, from Stoneybrook Avenue to Industrial Street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city is asking residents to purchase flood insurance and floodproof their properties. It has a \u003ca href=\"https://sfpuc.org/programs/grants/floodwater-management-grant-program\">grant program\u003c/a> to help with costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brackett says he applied for a grant, but the city told him he wasn’t eligible. He paid out of pocket to install a new waterproof fence and a backflow preventer so the city sewer pipes wouldn’t back up through the restaurant floor again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s heard of the planned upgrades in his neighborhood but hasn’t seen any construction yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’d like to see them taking it seriously,” said Brackett. “Like for real. Because I think it’s going to happen again.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The Rintaro restaurant staff was preparing osechi — a traditional meal to celebrate Japanese New Year. They’d been working on it all week, and on Dec. 31, 2022, they were just putting on the finishing touches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s when they noticed water rising through the floor drains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The staff climbed onto the tables. And as the water kept coming, they clambered through a window and waded out into the street, where needles and cars were floating around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985522\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/image3-1-scaled-e1700518806701.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1985522\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/image3-1-scaled-e1700518806701-800x1067.jpeg\" alt=\"Flooding inside a restaurant.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1067\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/image3-1-scaled-e1700518806701-800x1067.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/image3-1-scaled-e1700518806701-1020x1360.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/image3-1-scaled-e1700518806701-160x213.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/image3-1-scaled-e1700518806701-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/image3-1-scaled-e1700518806701-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/image3-1-scaled-e1700518806701-1536x2048.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/image3-1-scaled-e1700518806701.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Inside Rintaro restaurant in San Francisco, the water rose up through the floor drains on Dec. 31, 2022. \u003ccite>(Sylvan Mishima Brackett)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The Bay Area’s aging wastewater systems were not built for that volume of rain. Last winter, they spilled \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11938273/our-worst-nightmare-as-storms-raged-millions-of-gallons-of-sewage-spilled-into-bay-area-waterways-streets-and-yards\">tens of millions of gallons\u003c/a> of raw or partially treated sewage into waterways and streets. Sejal Choksi-Chugh, executive director of the environmental group Baykeeper, said cities need to upgrade their infrastructure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And one of the ones that’s been kicking and screaming the hardest not wanting to change is, surprisingly, San Francisco,” Choksi-Chugh said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco is one of the few cities in California that runs stormwater and sewage through a single-pipe system. So when it floods, human waste rises from the sewer into the streets — or homes or businesses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2021, the Regional Water Board \u003ca href=\"https://waterboards.ca.gov/sanfranciscobay/board_info/agendas/2021/November/5_cao.pdf\">ordered\u003c/a> San Francisco to begin flood reduction work, which the city had been \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11932941/its-been-a-fight-for-our-homes-the-ongoing-saga-to-fix-san-franciscos-sewers\">putting off since 1964\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985521\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/image0-scaled-e1700518786961.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1985521\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/image0-scaled-e1700518786961-800x1067.jpeg\" alt=\"People stand outside of a building as water continues to rise.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1067\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/image0-scaled-e1700518786961-800x1067.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/image0-scaled-e1700518786961-1020x1360.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/image0-scaled-e1700518786961-160x213.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/image0-scaled-e1700518786961-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/image0-scaled-e1700518786961-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/image0-scaled-e1700518786961-1536x2048.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/image0-scaled-e1700518786961.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Staff stands on the tables at Rintaro restaurant in San Francisco on Dec. 31, 2022. \u003ccite>(Sylvan Mishima Brackett)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s making pipes bigger, it’s adding more pipes,” said Sarah Minick, utility planning manager at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. “It’s just increasing the capacity of our sewer system so that it can manage more rainwater.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city is now spending \u003ca href=\"https://sfpuc.org/about-us/news/el-nino-predictions-sfpuc-asks-san-franciscans-prepare-wet-rainy-season\">$634 million on projects\u003c/a> in three \u003ca href=\"https://sfplanninggis.org/floodmap/\">low-lying neighborhoods\u003c/a>. Work in the West Portal neighborhood near 15th Avenue and Wawona Street is expected to be completed this year. In the Mission near 17th and Folsom streets — the neighborhood where Rintaro is located — it’s scheduled to begin this fall and finish in 2027. The city is still planning its work along lower Alemany Boulevard, from Stoneybrook Avenue to Industrial Street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city is asking residents to purchase flood insurance and floodproof their properties. It has a \u003ca href=\"https://sfpuc.org/programs/grants/floodwater-management-grant-program\">grant program\u003c/a> to help with costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brackett says he applied for a grant, but the city told him he wasn’t eligible. He paid out of pocket to install a new waterproof fence and a backflow preventer so the city sewer pipes wouldn’t back up through the restaurant floor again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s heard of the planned upgrades in his neighborhood but hasn’t seen any construction yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’d like to see them taking it seriously,” said Brackett. “Like for real. Because I think it’s going to happen again.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "draft-living-in-californias-sierra-foothills-residents-confront-climate-change",
"title": "Facing the Fire: California's Sierra Foothills Residents Race to Adapt",
"publishDate": 1700511569,
"format": "standard",
"headTitle": "Facing the Fire: California’s Sierra Foothills Residents Race to Adapt | KQED",
"labelTerm": {
"term": 5140,
"site": "science"
},
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of the third season of KQED’s podcast Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America. You can \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/podcasts/soldout\" data-stringify-link=\"https://www.kqed.org/podcasts/soldout\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\">find that series here\u003c/a> and read about why \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1984697/why-kqed-focused-a-season-of-its-housing-podcast-on-climate-change#:~:text=Sold%20Out%20Is%20Back%20With%20Season%203&text=Host%20Erin%20Baldassari%20leads%20a,an%20affordable%20place%20to%20live.\" data-stringify-link=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1984697/why-kqed-focused-a-season-of-its-housing-podcast-on-climate-change#:~:text=Sold%20Out%20Is%20Back%20With%20Season%203&text=Host%20Erin%20Baldassari%20leads%20a,an%20affordable%20place%20to%20live.\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\">KQED chose to focus a season of its housing podcast on climate change\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]S[/dropcap]hari Wilson woke up and stared at the sun, dull and orange against a ruddy sky. She checked the Air Quality Index app on her phone and put on a mask.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I felt just kind of down,” she said. “You know, there’s that orange sky, gray day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like millions of people across the Midwest and Northeast this past June, she saw smoke from Canadian wildfires. Though the fires were thousands of miles away, she couldn’t shake an uneasy feeling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I felt trapped in the smoke,” she said. “And it made me think a lot about my friends in California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shari Wilson and her husband had moved back to their home state of Michigan less than a year prior. Before that, they had spent nearly four decades in California, more than half of it in Nevada City, a small town on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains, about an hour’s drive from Lake Tahoe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985405\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985405 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230815-BlueForestInitiative-61-BL-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230815-BlueForestInitiative-61-BL-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230815-BlueForestInitiative-61-BL-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230815-BlueForestInitiative-61-BL-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230815-BlueForestInitiative-61-BL-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230815-BlueForestInitiative-61-BL-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230815-BlueForestInitiative-61-BL-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dark clouds roll into Nevada City, Nevada County, on Aug. 15, 2023.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The quintessential Gold Rush-era town, complete with a vibrant arts scene and quaint, historic downtown, is surrounded by pine forests. Shari Wilson’s husband, Mark Wilson, said when they first moved there, those trees were a big part of the draw.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had a great evergreen tree that grew two feet away from our deck,” he said. “We thought, ‘This is so great, we can watch the birds.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For more than two decades, the idea that a wildfire could level their house seemed distant. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/a-walk-in-the-ashes-of-the-tubbs-fire-five-years-later-in-sonoma-county/\">2017 Tubbs Fire\u003c/a> in California’s wine country brought it home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire tore through a suburban neighborhood, killing 22 people. A year later, \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-08-20/five-years-after-the-camp-fire-paradise-survivors-see-hard-future-for-maui\">the Camp Fire\u003c/a> decimated the town of Paradise and killed 85 people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That made it real,” Mark Wilson said. “And it became a real feeling that this could easily happen to us tomorrow.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985421\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985421\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230809-SoldOutParadise-59-BL-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A sign in the form of a cross sits next to the side of a road in dusk light.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230809-SoldOutParadise-59-BL-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230809-SoldOutParadise-59-BL-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230809-SoldOutParadise-59-BL-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230809-SoldOutParadise-59-BL-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230809-SoldOutParadise-59-BL-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230809-SoldOutParadise-59-BL-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A memorial reads, ‘Faith, Hope, Paradise,’ in Paradise on Aug. 9, 2023. The Camp Fire, a deadly fire that destroyed much of the towns of Paradise and Concow, swept through the area in 2018. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The couple started thinking about where else to live. Shari Wilson was quick to say it wasn’t just due to the fires. “We aren’t climate refugees,” she said. They both grew up in Michigan and wanted to live close to family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when this summer’s smoke began to blot out the sun, Mark Wilson said it was a grim reminder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It made me sad because it was a reminder that it’s not just California. It’s not just in one place. It’s everywhere,” he said. “And no matter where you go, climate change is going to catch up with you.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985407\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985407 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230627-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-19-BL-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A red sign with white lettering is nailed to a tree.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230627-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-19-BL-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230627-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-19-BL-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230627-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-19-BL-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230627-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-19-BL-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230627-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-19-BL-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230627-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-19-BL-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sign advertising defensible space clearance for wildfire preparation hangs on a tree along the San Juan Ridge near Nevada City on June 27, 2023. The area is heavily forested and borders the Yuba River near historic towns that date back to the 1849 California Gold Rush. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As rising global temperatures bake the surrounding pine trees, oaks and madrones of the Sierra Nevada mountains, residents living in its scattered communities have a choice: to remain in the fire’s path or hedge their bets elsewhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is a question my family found ourselves facing, but in reverse, after my partner inherited a house in Nevada County. It is a place where we both spent our childhoods and where we hoped to one day raise our daughter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire has always been part of the bargain of living there. But as climate change fuels wildfires of unprecedented proportions, it’s rewriting the terms of that old agreement. As it does, that’s forced us, like many in the forested foothills, to renegotiate what we’re willing to do — and how much we’re willing to risk — to live there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC1360589321&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Nevada County, measures to mitigate the threat of wildfires are underway, but their effectiveness has been stunted by decades of land management policies that sought to suppress all fires and led to an overabundance of brush and trees. Now, residents are racing to make up for lost time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For communities across the globe similarly poised on the knife’s edge of catastrophe — whether the threat is rising seas, stronger hurricanes or longer periods of extreme heat — the question is how to preserve and protect these places, or as retired fire scientist and Nevada County resident Jo Ann Fites-Kaufman put it, “What does it mean to live in different environments? What does it mean to grow up in an area? What does it mean to be human?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Barbara’s house\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>My partner’s mom, Barbara, was 79 when she passed away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She left behind a two-bedroom Mediterranean-style home with an orange exterior, its hue varied and weathered, one wall splashed robin’s egg blue. Situated on a 13-acre property in the northwestern corner of Nevada County, the house is not only a mausoleum of her artifacts but a physical manifestation of her memory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barbara had suffered a stroke, and we spent 10 days in the hospital hoping for an improvement in her condition that never came. During that time, and in the weeks after she passed away, the house was a vessel for our grief. It held us because it held so much of her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985313\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985313 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230627-SoldOutBarbaraHouse-Barbaras-House_North-San-Juan_1-EB.jpg\" alt=\"A one level house with a tile roof is surrounded by trees.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1273\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230627-SoldOutBarbaraHouse-Barbaras-House_North-San-Juan_1-EB.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230627-SoldOutBarbaraHouse-Barbaras-House_North-San-Juan_1-EB-800x530.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230627-SoldOutBarbaraHouse-Barbaras-House_North-San-Juan_1-EB-1020x676.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230627-SoldOutBarbaraHouse-Barbaras-House_North-San-Juan_1-EB-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230627-SoldOutBarbaraHouse-Barbaras-House_North-San-Juan_1-EB-768x509.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230627-SoldOutBarbaraHouse-Barbaras-House_North-San-Juan_1-EB-1536x1018.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Barbara built her home with wildfires in mind. The walls are made from a concrete-like material a foot thick that’s rated to withstand 12 hours of burning. S-shaped tiles line the roof, and a gravel driveway encircles the home. Photographed in August 2023. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When we finally turned off the lights and locked the doors to return home to the Bay Area, we did so reluctantly, wondering how and when we might move our lives there. Beneath our decision was an emerging hope for our not-yet-one-year-old daughter — that, although she would never know her grandmother, she might know the house her grandmother built.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That summer, smoke from two dozen wildfires loomed over Nevada County and drifted across the state. On one particularly bad day in the Bay Area, it grew so thick \u003ca href=\"https://www.newyorker.com/culture/video-dept/the-day-the-san-francisco-sky-turned-orange\">daylight turned to dusk\u003c/a>. It was then when I first began to wonder what kind of future our daughter might inherit if we chose to move to Nevada County, and what it would be like to live in a place where my own memories were constantly clashing with new realities.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Nothing left to burn\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>They call her the voice of doom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From her home office overlooking the Yuba River in Nevada County, Pascale Fusshoeller translates the precise, militaristic jargon of wildland firefighting departments into English, conveying need-to-know information on a fire’s origins, its speed and direction to readers across the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985197\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985197\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66840_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-70-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"The charred remains of burnt trees stand out from newly grown plants in a field.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66840_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-70-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66840_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-70-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66840_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-70-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66840_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-70-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66840_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-70-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66840_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-70-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66840_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-70-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jim Mathias, Wildfire Prevention and Safety Manager of the Fire Safe Council of Nevada County, drives through an area of the county burned by wildfire on June 26, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Fusshoeller co-founded and edits YubaNet.com, which began in 1999 as the Internet burgeoned from niche to mainstream. She and her wife, Susan Levitz, both career journalists, intended to run a community events page.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That changed, Fusshoeller said, the day the site went live, and she spotted a towering plume of smoke rising from the ridge facing their home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s how we got into fire information,” she said. She hasn’t looked back. “It helps people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985203\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985203\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-BEAR-TRAP-PRESCRIBED-BURN_NEVADA-COUNTY_05-EB-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"People wearing hard hats work digging in a forest.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-BEAR-TRAP-PRESCRIBED-BURN_NEVADA-COUNTY_05-EB-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-BEAR-TRAP-PRESCRIBED-BURN_NEVADA-COUNTY_05-EB-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-BEAR-TRAP-PRESCRIBED-BURN_NEVADA-COUNTY_05-EB-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-BEAR-TRAP-PRESCRIBED-BURN_NEVADA-COUNTY_05-EB-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-BEAR-TRAP-PRESCRIBED-BURN_NEVADA-COUNTY_05-EB-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-BEAR-TRAP-PRESCRIBED-BURN_NEVADA-COUNTY_05-EB-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-BEAR-TRAP-PRESCRIBED-BURN_NEVADA-COUNTY_05-EB-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Crew members from the Fire Safe Council of Nevada County walk to the site where they performed a ‘mop up’ following a prescribed burn in Nevada County on June 21, 2023. Using hand tools, the crew members will ensure that all of the fire has been extinguished. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For Fusshoeller, this means that whenever a fire occurs in the Sierra Nevada mountains, her days start early and end late.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/there-s-no-more-typical-wildfire-season-california-it-may-n934521\">It used to be\u003c/a> that fire season began in August and wrapped up by the end of September. Now, she says if there is a “fire season” at all, it begins in May and ends in November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And of course, some years, there’s large fires in December,” she added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As global temperatures rise, so, too, does the number of wildfires. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, across the western United States, human-caused climate change has doubled the cumulative area burned by wildfires over natural levels since 1984.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985422\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2006px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985422\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/IPCC_AR6_WGII_Figure_2_FAQ_2.3.1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"2006\" height=\"728\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/IPCC_AR6_WGII_Figure_2_FAQ_2.3.1.png 2006w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/IPCC_AR6_WGII_Figure_2_FAQ_2.3.1-800x290.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/IPCC_AR6_WGII_Figure_2_FAQ_2.3.1-1020x370.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/IPCC_AR6_WGII_Figure_2_FAQ_2.3.1-160x58.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/IPCC_AR6_WGII_Figure_2_FAQ_2.3.1-768x279.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/IPCC_AR6_WGII_Figure_2_FAQ_2.3.1-1536x557.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/IPCC_AR6_WGII_Figure_2_FAQ_2.3.1-1920x697.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2006px) 100vw, 2006px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Figure FAQ2.3.1 | (a) Springs Fire, May 2, 2013, Thousand Oaks, California, USA (photo by Michael Robinson Chávez, Los Angeles Times). (b) Cumulative area burned by wildfire in the western USA, with (orange) and without (yellow) the increased heat and aridity of climate change. \u003ccite>(IPCC Sixth Assessment Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Patrick Gonzalez, a forest ecologist and climate change scientist at UC Berkeley, said the problem is particularly acute in California, where \u003ca href=\"https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/western-megadrought-is-the-worst-in-1-200-years/#:~:text=An%20exceptionally%20dry%20year%20in%202021%20helped%20break%20the%20record,least%20a%20couple%20of%20decades.\">a prolonged drought in recent years\u003c/a> has dried out plants and soils.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In Northern and Central California, almost all of the increase in burned area [over natural levels] has come from human-caused climate change since 1996,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, \u003ca href=\"https://34c031f8-c9fd-4018-8c5a-4159cdff6b0d-cdn-endpoint.azureedge.net/-/media/calfire-website/our-impact/fire-statistics/featured-items/top20_destruction.pdf?rev=ee6ea855632a4b56a46adea1d3c8022f&hash=5B8B3A1A35CBB52CB0ED7A010F0B52E0\">18 of the state’s 20 most destructive wildfires (PDF)\u003c/a> have occurred since 2003. Nevada County had been spared. Looking at a map, Fusshoeller noted that all the surrounding counties had experienced large and destructive wildfires during that time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s not to say that one day we will not have a large catastrophic fire here,” she said. Nevada County shares the same mix of vegetation, topography and climate conditions. “There is nothing else left to burn in the foothills.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The forerunner\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>There is something very Californian about believing it’s possible to survive anywhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joan Didion knew this. In her 1968 collection of essays, \u003cem>Slouching Toward Bethlehem\u003c/em>, Didion wrote of the desert metropolis’ clime, “Los Angeles weather is the weather of catastrophe, of apocalypse, and, just as the reliably long and bitter winters of New England determine the way life is lived there, so the violence and the unpredictability of the Santa Ana affect the entire quality of life in Los Angeles, accentuate its impermanence, its unreliability.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The same could be said of the entire state. Where early white settlers found a floodplain, they built their capital city, Sacramento. And even amid the rubble of the city’s most destructive earthquake, San Franciscans nonetheless rebuilt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985404\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985404\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SoldOut-Diptych-02.jpg\" alt=\"Left: Dark smoke billows above a structure. Right: Light gray and reddish smoke rises above a home surrounded by trees.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"923\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SoldOut-Diptych-02.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SoldOut-Diptych-02-800x385.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SoldOut-Diptych-02-1020x490.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SoldOut-Diptych-02-160x77.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SoldOut-Diptych-02-768x369.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SoldOut-Diptych-02-1536x738.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: A column of smoke rises behind a house in Lake Wildwood, California, as Mark and Kathy Baldassari prepare to evacuate from the 49er Fire on Sept. 11, 1988. Right: Smoke from the 49er Fire rises behind homes in Lake Wildwood, a small community in Nevada County, on Sept. 11, 1988. The fire burned through nearly 36,000 acres and destroyed almost 150 homes, making it California’s third most destructive wildfire at the time. Now, it’s not even in the top 20. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Mark and Kathy Baldassari)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>My own earliest memory, if an infant can be said to have one, is of a thick column of gray and black smoke rising behind my family’s house the day we evacuated from a wildfire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.theunion.com/opinion/49er-fire-memories-where-were-you-30-years-ago-today/article_960384f0-6667-5f66-a6f9-fb0508006a76.html\">It was Sept. 11, 1988\u003c/a>. I was just over a year old. My dad would later describe the fire’s path: not a continuous wall, but jagged, like fingers on a hand, touching some homes, refusing others — sparing ours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And you kind of wonder why,” he mused, “why did it spare that house and burn that one?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was called the 49er Fire because it broke out near Highway 49 in Nevada County. It tore through nearly 36,000 acres of forest and grasslands and destroyed almost 150 homes. At the time, it was the state’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/sacramento/news/49er-fire-destruction/\">third-largest wildfire\u003c/a> and is still the county’s most destructive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985219\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985219\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-SO-S3-E6-SCAN-1-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Several houses beside fire-scorched terrain.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1543\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-SO-S3-E6-SCAN-1-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-SO-S3-E6-SCAN-1-KQED-800x617.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-SO-S3-E6-SCAN-1-KQED-1020x787.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-SO-S3-E6-SCAN-1-KQED-160x123.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-SO-S3-E6-SCAN-1-KQED-768x593.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-SO-S3-E6-SCAN-1-KQED-1536x1185.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-SO-S3-E6-SCAN-1-KQED-1920x1481.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The 1988 49er Fire burned through nearly 36,000 acres in Nevada County and destroyed almost 150 homes. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Mark and Kathy Baldassari)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a prediction that feels prescient today, Jerry Partain, then-director of California’s Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, now called Cal Fire, \u003ca href=\"https://www.newspapers.com/image/624226617/?clipping_id=115881062&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjYyNDIyNjYxNywiaWF0IjoxNjk4OTU1MDA4LCJleHAiOjE2OTkwNDE0MDh9.s5IFZHnqPAFNjR2pbvWX3mHL3voE5oItjgwOsPg0Srk\">told \u003cem>The Sacramento Bee\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, “This [fire] is the classic. This is what we’ve been preaching about for the past several years. This is just the forerunner.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What Partain had been preaching about — fireproofing homes and managing the surrounding vegetation — is now a familiar sermon to anyone living in Northern California today, but one that was met with obstinance by the willful inhabitants of that era, a generally unyielding lot with a profound distrust of government matronism and a deep reverence for stick-to-itiveness, the miner’s luck and the sanctity of private property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Speaking with \u003cem>The Sacramento Bee\u003c/em>, Partain stood in front of a map detailing the fire’s course, acknowledging there was no way to save every home. “It will continue to happen in the future,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985217\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985217 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-SIERRA-STORYTELLING-FESTIVAL_NORTH-SAN-JUAN01-EB-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"People sit on blankets and fold out chairs in a grassy space.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-SIERRA-STORYTELLING-FESTIVAL_NORTH-SAN-JUAN01-EB-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-SIERRA-STORYTELLING-FESTIVAL_NORTH-SAN-JUAN01-EB-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-SIERRA-STORYTELLING-FESTIVAL_NORTH-SAN-JUAN01-EB-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-SIERRA-STORYTELLING-FESTIVAL_NORTH-SAN-JUAN01-EB-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-SIERRA-STORYTELLING-FESTIVAL_NORTH-SAN-JUAN01-EB-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-SIERRA-STORYTELLING-FESTIVAL_NORTH-SAN-JUAN01-EB-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-SIERRA-STORYTELLING-FESTIVAL_NORTH-SAN-JUAN01-EB-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Attendees lounge on the grass during the dinner hour at the Sierra Storytelling Festival at the North Columbia Schoolhouse Cultural Center in North San Juan on July 8, 2023. (Photo by Erin Baldassari/KQED) \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>With the future came more residents, living with more risk. Between 1990 and 2010, the county’s population \u003ca href=\"https://www.nevadacountyca.gov/378/Demographics-Statistics\">grew 26%\u003c/a>, mirroring a trend seen across the \u003ca href=\"https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/wui-issues-resolutions-report.pdf\">country (PDF)\u003c/a> as more people than ever flooded into wildland areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, nearly \u003ca href=\"https://silvis.forest.wisc.edu/data/wui-change/\">half of all homes built during that time period\u003c/a> were constructed in areas designated at “high or extreme risk of wildfire,” according to the Center for Insurance Policy and Research. Nevada County was no exception, where more than \u003ca href=\"https://www.nevadacountyca.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=5247\">nine out of every 10\u003c/a> residents live in “high or very high” fire hazard zones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That wildfires have become more destructive over the past 40 years is simple math, UC Berkeley’s Gonzalez said. “The losses of homes and people, who sadly die in a wildfire, is a function of the number of people who live in fire-prone areas,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985215\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985215 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY14-EB-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"The smoldering remains of a fire near a house.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY14-EB-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY14-EB-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY14-EB-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY14-EB-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY14-EB-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY14-EB-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY14-EB-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A controlled fire burns near a home on a private property in Penn Valley, a small, rural community in Nevada County, California, on June 22, 2023. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He continued: “Climate change is exacerbating the risk. So, that makes it even more important [to limit] the number of people who move into or build new houses in fire-prone areas.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Brute reckoning\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The 49er Fire left its mark on my psyche, attuning me to dry, summer winds, focusing my attention on anything that could produce an errant spark, and heightening my awareness, early on, of my own precarity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for many in Nevada County, myself included, it was still only a glimpse into a distant future. Brute reckoning came much later, in 2018, with the Camp Fire in Paradise, California, which is one county away from Nevada County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985409\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985409 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-19-BL-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Trucks with piles of logs in the truck beds form a line in a lot near a wooded area.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-19-BL-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-19-BL-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-19-BL-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-19-BL-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-19-BL-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-19-BL-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Vehicles filled with green waste wait in line during a free residential disposal hosted by the Fire Safe Council of Nevada County in Grass Valley on June 26, 2023. Residents can bring all tree and plant trimmings, weeds, leaves, branches, and pine needles, except for some plants like scotch broom and poison oak, in an effort to create defensible space on their properties. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>YubaNet’s Fusshoeller held a town hall event a week after the fire began. Minutes after the doors opened, the seats had filled to capacity, followed by the building’s overflow rooms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And then there were still people outside,” Fusshoeller recalled. “It was the whole community. They were scared.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire became a wake-up call — and a rallying cry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We regularly hear that this is the next Camp Fire,” said Jamie Jones, the executive director of the Fire Safe Council of Nevada County, a nonprofit formed in the wake of the 49er Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985202\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985202\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-BEAR-TRAP-PRESCRIBED-BURN_NEVADA-COUNTY_01-EB-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A group of people wearing hard hats walk along a roadway beside a stretch of burnt forest.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-BEAR-TRAP-PRESCRIBED-BURN_NEVADA-COUNTY_01-EB-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-BEAR-TRAP-PRESCRIBED-BURN_NEVADA-COUNTY_01-EB-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-BEAR-TRAP-PRESCRIBED-BURN_NEVADA-COUNTY_01-EB-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-BEAR-TRAP-PRESCRIBED-BURN_NEVADA-COUNTY_01-EB-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-BEAR-TRAP-PRESCRIBED-BURN_NEVADA-COUNTY_01-EB-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-BEAR-TRAP-PRESCRIBED-BURN_NEVADA-COUNTY_01-EB-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-BEAR-TRAP-PRESCRIBED-BURN_NEVADA-COUNTY_01-EB-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Crew members from the Fire Safe Council of Nevada County walk to the site where they were performing a ‘mop up’ following a prescribed burn in Nevada County on June 21, 2023. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We have watersheds that if a fire starts on the wrong day and the wrong conditions — or you could call it the right conditions — we could have a potential catastrophic loss like Paradise did,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spurred by that rallying cry, Jones’ organization ballooned from three employees to more than 50, with its own land management crew, \u003ca href=\"https://www.areyoufiresafe.com/programs/defensible-space-advisory-visit-dsav\">free advisory visits\u003c/a> for homeowners, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.areyoufiresafe.com/programs/chipping-program\">roving wood-chipper\u003c/a>, and a robust grant-writing department, among \u003ca href=\"https://www.areyoufiresafe.com/programs\">other initiatives\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It became a huge priority to fund [wildfire] mitigation work,” Jones said. “We just kind of grabbed the bull by the horns and said, ‘We’ll do it. We’ll be that large nonprofit to work in this space.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985191\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985191 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66792_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-08-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Two people use a rake-like device to remove all of the dried green waste from the bed of a truck.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66792_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-08-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66792_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-08-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66792_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-08-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66792_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-08-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66792_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-08-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66792_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-08-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66792_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-08-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Employees help people unload green waste during a free residential disposal hosted by the Fire Safe Council of Nevada County in Grass Valley on June 26, 2023. Residents can bring all tree and plant trimmings, weeds, leaves, branches, and pine needles, except for some plants like scotch broom and poison oak, in an effort to create defensible space on their properties. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But the Camp Fire also incited residents to act. Today, Nevada County, with a population of just over \u003ca href=\"https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/nevadacountycalifornia/PST045222\">100,000 people\u003c/a>, boasts the highest number of \u003ca href=\"https://www.nfpa.org/education-and-research/wildfire/firewise-usa\">Firewise Communities\u003c/a> in the country — a program run by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) that encourages neighborhoods to organize and collectively complete fire safety projects, such as thinning trees along evacuation routes and clearing excess brush on individual properties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the Camp Fire, Jones said there were 22 Firewise Communities in the county. As of October, there were 94, according to the NFPA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it speaks volumes to how committed our community is to protecting their families, their loved ones, their neighbors, and the community that we live in,” Jones said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, she said \u003ca href=\"https://www.capradio.org/articles/2021/06/23/newsom-misled-the-public-about-wildfire-prevention-efforts-ahead-of-worst-fire-season-on-record/\">progress remains stilted in other ways\u003c/a>. For instance, Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2019 \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2020/01/29/governor-newsom-announces-completion-of-emergency-projects-to-protect-wildfire-vulnerable-communities/\">fast-tracked 35 wildfire defense projects\u003c/a> across the state, including one in Nevada County, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nevadacountyca.gov/3748/Ponderosa-West-Grass-Valley-Defense-Zone#:~:text=The%20shaded%20fuel%20break%20lies,Newtown%20Road%20to%20the%20north.\">Ponderosa West Grass Valley Defense Zone shaded fuel break\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.ponderosawestproject.org/\">project\u003c/a> provided free brush clearing on residents’ properties to allow firefighters to more easily defend the town of Grass Valley. But four years after the first phase began, many of the property owners have failed to maintain their land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985410\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985410\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-75-BL-qut-1.jpg\" alt=\"One hand holds up a paper map while the other hand points to an area on the map.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-75-BL-qut-1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-75-BL-qut-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-75-BL-qut-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-75-BL-qut-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-75-BL-qut-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-75-BL-qut-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jim Mathias, the wildfire prevention and safety manager of the Fire Safe Council of Nevada County, holds a map of a plan for a shaded fuel break in southern Nevada County on June 26, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On a recent tour, Jones pointed to a property where the homeowner had positioned himself as a poster child of compliance. Crispy brush and small trees, perfect kindling for a big wildfire, now crowded beneath towering oak and manzanita trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He sold two years into the project,” she lamented. The new property owner never picked up the work. Continued compliance requires constant care — and a long memory.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Our place on the planet\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As the spokesperson for the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe, Shelly Covert carries with her a cultural memory that spans centuries. What it takes to live in wildland areas today, she said, is in some ways not so different from when her relatives lived freely off the land — and that is constant tending.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For her relatives, that meant cutting trees, harvesting smaller branches, and collecting reeds — work now done with chainsaws and machines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985420\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985420 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/GettyImages-1241501048-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A woman's face is reflected in a mirror with brown writing.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/GettyImages-1241501048-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/GettyImages-1241501048-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/GettyImages-1241501048-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/GettyImages-1241501048-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/GettyImages-1241501048-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/GettyImages-1241501048-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/GettyImages-1241501048-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/GettyImages-1241501048-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shelly Covert, spokesperson for the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe, in Nevada City, on June 6, 2022. \u003ccite>(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The difference, she said, is that the Nisenan used these materials in their homes, acorn granaries, tools and baskets. That these same actions also made the forests more resilient to — and protected the Nisenan from — catastrophic wildfires was secondary. Today, the accumulation of these same plant materials is a burden.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nobody wants it,” she said. “So, how are forests ever going to be tended in that way again when we don’t need the freaking stuff that’s all over the ground?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nevada County’s Fire Safe Council is trying to help relieve that burden with a free \u003ca href=\"https://www.areyoufiresafe.com/programs/residential-green-waste-disposal-2023\">green waste disposal site\u003c/a> in Grass Valley. This past June, on the last day it was open for the season, crews heaped logs into towering piles, mounded branches atop each other, and stacked firewood for the taking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985193\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985193 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66813_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-38-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person wearing a large wicker hat and sunglasses stands in front of piles of wood and speaks to the driver of a vehicle.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66813_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-38-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66813_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-38-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66813_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-38-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66813_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-38-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66813_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-38-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66813_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-38-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66813_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-38-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jonny Sjobeck (left) talks with Roland Harrison during a free green waste residential disposal hosted by the Fire Safe Council of Nevada County in Grass Valley on June 26, 2023. Residents can bring all tree and plant trimmings, weeds, leaves, branches, and pine needles, except for some plants like scotch broom and poison oak, in an effort to create defensible space on their properties. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Suzi and Doug Clipperton waited in line for their turn to unload the towering pile of branches in the back of their truck. They had moved to the county from Palm Springs two years ago, and though their property is relatively small, at one acre, it still produces an abundance of vegetation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without the green waste disposal site, Suzi Clipperton said she would be forced to pay to get rid of the materials at the dump.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s so expensive, even the green waste,” she said. “Over $25 a truckload, over and over several times a month.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Getting to a truly sustainable lifestyle in the forested foothills is still a long way off, Covert said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just the way we’ve built our built lives,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that’s not what people, myself included, want to talk to her about these days. All we want to talk to her about is how to use fire to fight fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985211\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985211\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY06-EB-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person holds a device to dried grass to start a fire.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY06-EB-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY06-EB-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY06-EB-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY06-EB-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY06-EB-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY06-EB-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY06-EB-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dylan Drummond wields a drip torch, which he uses to ignite grasses during a prescribed burn on a private property in Penn Valley, a small, rural community in Nevada County on June 22, 2023. The burn aims to reduce the brush and grasses that fuel megafires while also helping to restore native plants to the region. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The practice, called controlled or prescribed burns, has gained momentum in recent years as a way to clear the brush and grasses that fuel megafires. But Covert’s relatives also burned the land to remove bug infestations from trees, clear land for hunting and travel and promote certain kinds of plants. Public officials have been increasingly turning to her to tap into the tribe’s cultural knowledge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On one hand, Covert said she appreciates having a seat at the table, an opportunity her grandparents were never afforded. On the other, she said it’s hard for her not to roll her eyes during those same meetings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Don’t tell me those old people didn’t sit there and say, ‘You can’t not burn the land.’ It was unfathomable to them,” she said. “We have to burn the land, and we have to burn our dead.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985413\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985413\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County15-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Green plants sprout from a burned land.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County15-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County15-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County15-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County15-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County15-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County15-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This yampa root survives a prescribed burn on a private property in Penn Valley, a small, rural community in Nevada County, California, on June 22, 2023. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When white settlers arrived during the Gold Rush, they not only outlawed the practice of burning the land but also the Nisenan practice of cremating their dead. And, while government officials now recognize fire as essential to maintaining forest health, Nisenan cremations are still outlawed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During those ceremonies, the nearest female relatives of the deceased would mix pine pitch with ash to blacken their heads and shoulders, washing their faces only after the mixture had worn off, thus defining the period of mourning. Other relatives and friends gathered around to sing and cry. Every year, an annual mourning ceremony, or “Second Burning,” was held for everyone who died that year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My grandma said that the old ladies used to wipe each other’s tears and hold each other up because they were so fraught with sadness,” Covert said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To Covert, burning the land and burning the dead are not two practices with distinct purposes and outcomes. They are the same practice for the same purpose of binding humanity to all other life and to the land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985210\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985210\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY04-EB-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A fire burns dried grasses around the truck of a tree.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY04-EB-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY04-EB-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY04-EB-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY04-EB-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY04-EB-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY04-EB-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY04-EB-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Workers perform a prescribed burn on a private property in Penn Valley, a small, rural community in Nevada County on June 22, 2023. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She said the cremation ceremony is at the core: “It is the kickstarter of all these other protocols that come into play that are respect for the land, respect for the animals, respect for the spirit, respect for one another. And that’s it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is the foundation that allows them to see themselves as both indebted to a place and responsible for it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have thumbs. We can light fire. We can pull and tend the rubbish in the forests,” Covert said. “That is our place on this planet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Good fire\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In a small community on the western flank of Nevada County, atop a ridge overlooking Lake Wildwood, where the 49er Fire raged 35 years ago, three young men holding drip torches set fire to the land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was an abnormally cool June day. The crew of roughly a dozen, dressed in flannel shirts, blue jeans and boots, worked methodically downhill. Some held water bladders to douse fires burning into tree roots. Others were posted at control lines to ensure the fire stayed within its boundaries. One roamed the perimeter on a motorcycle to watch for spotfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985414\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985414\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County11-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A man holds a water hose near a smoked filled forest area.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County11-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County11-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County11-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County11-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County11-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County11-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kevin Bratton uses a hose to douse the roots of a pine tree during a prescribed burn on a private property in Penn Valley, a small, rural community in Nevada County on June 22, 2023. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>They were lighting a controlled burn on the roughly 80-acre property, with the twin goals of reducing the wildfire risk and promoting native plants, which often need the low-intensity fires to drop seeds or sprout from dormancy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you see the effects of fire, it all makes sense,” said Tim Van Wagner, an organic farmer in Nevada County and broadcast burn practitioner, who led the burn that day. “All of a sudden, you actually realize the insanity of how we have been able to suppress fire and the damage it’s done.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The more fuel there is to burn, the hotter the fire becomes, and the more likely they are to \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-07-20/california-forests-are-vanishing-as-wildfires-worsen\">permanently incinerate\u003c/a> even the most fire-adapted forests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985214\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985214\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY13-EB-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person in a baseball cap walks through a smokey open space.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY13-EB-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY13-EB-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY13-EB-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY13-EB-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY13-EB-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY13-EB-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY13-EB-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tim Van Wagner, a broadcast burn practitioner, oversees a prescribed burn on a private property in Penn Valley, a small, rural community in Nevada County on June 22, 2023. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But bringing “good fire” back hasn’t been easy, said fire historian and author Stephen Pyne.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We spent 50 years trying to take all fire out of the landscape,” he said, “and we’ve spent 50 years trying to put good fire back in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal regulators restricted broadcast burns beginning in 1910, following a particularly fearsome spate of fires known as the “Big Blowup,” when some 3 million acres of forestland in Idaho and Montana \u003ca href=\"https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5444731.pdf\">burned over the course of two short days (PDF)\u003c/a>, killing 86 people — the most in US history, until \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/maui-hawaii-fires-death-toll-rcna105387\">this year’s fires in Maui\u003c/a>. By the time the National Parks Service \u003ca href=\"https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2019/11/californias-wildfire-controlled-prescribed-burns-native-americans/#:~:text=In%201968%2C%20the%20National%20Park,introduced%20fire%20to%20their%20landscapes.\">changed its policy\u003c/a> in 1968, areas that had been accustomed to periodic fires were overloaded with fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Combine that excess vegetation with rising temperatures, and Pyne said existing models of fire behavior no longer hold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They are being overwhelmed,” he said. “We’re seeing it in Canada now and parts of the Mediterranean, as well as parts of the U.S., and we’re creating a new world out of this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Humans once controlled fire. Now, Pyne said fire is controlling us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve taken what had always been our best friend, and we’re making it our worst enemy,” he said. “Even if we tame the climate, we remove the fossil fuel part of it, we still have a relentless obligation to work with fire in the lands that remain.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985415\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985415\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County02-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A man looks up and away from the camera while holding his arm out while brush burns nearby.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County02-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County02-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County02-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County02-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County02-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County02-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tim Van Wagner, a broadcast burn practitioner, oversees a prescribed burn on private property in Penn Valley, a small, rural community in Nevada County, on June 22, 2023. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In California, policy leaders from Gov. Newsom down to local leaders are encouraging controlled burns. But the process has been hampered, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1979560/cal-fire-fumbles-key-responsibilities-to-prevent-catastrophic-wildfires-despite-historic-budget\">in part\u003c/a>, by the slow rollout of its certification program for burn bosses. The designation is crucial for people like Van Wagner because it would allow them to tap into a \u003ca href=\"https://wildfiretaskforce.org/prescribed-fire-liability-claims-fund-pilot/#:~:text=Administered%20by%20CAL%20FIRE%2C%20the,burn%20boss%20or%20cultural%20practitioner.\">$20 million pool of insurance to cover damages from fires set under prescribed conditions\u003c/a>. But, as of August, there were \u003ca href=\"https://osfm.fire.ca.gov/divisions/state-fire-training/cfstes-professional-certification/state-certified-prescribed-fire-burn-boss/\">only two dozen state-certified burn bosses\u003c/a> in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It hasn’t been a smooth process,” said Van Wagner, who is in the process of obtaining the certification. Without access to insurance, “it can be a basic game-over,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985401\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985401 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SoldOut-Diptych-01.jpg\" alt=\"Left: A man walks through dry yellow grasses while using a torch to light the grass on fire.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"881\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SoldOut-Diptych-01.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SoldOut-Diptych-01-800x367.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SoldOut-Diptych-01-1020x468.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SoldOut-Diptych-01-160x73.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SoldOut-Diptych-01-768x352.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SoldOut-Diptych-01-1536x705.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dylan Drummond wields a drip torch, which he uses to ignite grasses during a prescribed burn on private property in Penn Valley, a small, rural community in Nevada County, on June 22, 2023. The burn aims to reduce the brush and grasses that fuel mega-fires while also helping to restore native plants to the region. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>According to the U.S. Forest Service, \u003ca href=\"https://www.fs.usda.gov/news/releases/statement-forest-service-chief-randy-moore-announcing-pause-prescribed-fire\">fewer than 1%\u003c/a> of controlled burns get out of control, but they still make neighbors nervous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s foreign to most people,” Van Wagner said. “So, there’s more of a fear response than understanding.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Fancy Fechser, who owns the Nevada County property where Van Wagner was burning, learning to live with fire is part of what it means to live in the foothills. She and her husband moved there with their family from Los Angeles in 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the luck of the draw here, and that’s something you have to live with,” she said. “But the control you can have — I mean, I feel so much better now that we did this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985417\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985417\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Fancy-Fechser_Penn-Valley_01-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Two people stand on the side of a hill with a forest behind them.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Fancy-Fechser_Penn-Valley_01-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Fancy-Fechser_Penn-Valley_01-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Fancy-Fechser_Penn-Valley_01-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Fancy-Fechser_Penn-Valley_01-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Fancy-Fechser_Penn-Valley_01-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Fancy-Fechser_Penn-Valley_01-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fancy Fechser (right) talks with prescribed burn practitioner Tim Van Wagner following a prescribed burn on her property in Penn Valley on June 16, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Fechser hopes that in the long run, the work done here will make both her property and the surrounding community safer from megafires and that it’ll be more resilient for the climate changes to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t love looking at a charred backyard, but I know the point,” she said. “We have to look in the future here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Grieving the future\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For Oakland-based journalist Erica Hellerstein, part of looking into California’s future means grieving — not a lost past, but a future that may never come to be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reflecting on this idea in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.codastory.com/rewriting-history/grieving-california/\">2022 Coda Story essay\u003c/a>, she wrote, “A building that burns can be rebuilt. But if fire incinerates a state of mind, can that be put back together?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985209\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985209\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-ERICA-HELLERSTEIN_OAKLAND_03-EB-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person with long hairs sits in front of a bookshelf indoors.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-ERICA-HELLERSTEIN_OAKLAND_03-EB-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-ERICA-HELLERSTEIN_OAKLAND_03-EB-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-ERICA-HELLERSTEIN_OAKLAND_03-EB-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-ERICA-HELLERSTEIN_OAKLAND_03-EB-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-ERICA-HELLERSTEIN_OAKLAND_03-EB-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-ERICA-HELLERSTEIN_OAKLAND_03-EB-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-ERICA-HELLERSTEIN_OAKLAND_03-EB-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland-based journalist Erica Hellerstein poses for a portrait in her apartment overlooking Lake Merritt on June 30, 2023. In her Coda Story essay, Grieving California, she explored feelings of climate anxiety associated with grief — specifically, ‘grieving a future that may never come to pass’ as a result of warming global temperatures. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Hellerstein remembers the rupture when her memories of the past severed from her expectations of the future. It was September 2020, and smoke from fires burning across the state had smothered the sky. She watched, with jarring dissonance, as partygoers in hazmat masks waited outside a nightclub in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They were just pretending everything was normal,” she said. “That was another turning point for me, just cognitively of being like, ‘OK, yeah, things are really not what I remember from my childhood growing up here.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For me, it was visiting Paradise this summer five years after the Camp Fire ravaged the area, and seeing its pine trees replaced with shrubby manzanita and sprouting oaks. As fires and drought kill the mixed conifer trees that give the Sierra foothills their signature beauty, other plants more accustomed to Southern California’s clime are slowly replacing them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985418\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985418\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230809-SoldOutParadise-46-BL-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A house sits on a hillside dotted with green shrubs and dry grasses in the foreground.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230809-SoldOutParadise-46-BL-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230809-SoldOutParadise-46-BL-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230809-SoldOutParadise-46-BL-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230809-SoldOutParadise-46-BL-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230809-SoldOutParadise-46-BL-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230809-SoldOutParadise-46-BL-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Empty lots dot the side of a residential area of Paradise on Aug. 9, 2023. The Camp Fire, a deadly fire that destroyed much of the towns of Paradise and Concow, swept through the area in 2018. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These pine trees — whose smell, earthy and fresh after the first fall rain, is permanently imprinted in my olfactory memory — are some of the most threatened. Of all the impacts climate change may bring, their prospective loss is one I haven’t quite reconciled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s so much grief there because we’ve had it so good in our life,” said Sam Hinrichs, a resident of Nevada County for 35 years. “We’ve had it so good, and we didn’t pay attention to that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hinrichs was once a volunteer firefighter and used to do wildfire mitigation work. Now, she sits on the board of the North San Juan Fire Protection District in Nevada County. She’s keenly aware of her own risk of living three miles down a gravel road, surrounded by forest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I do look at those climate maps, and I see where the danger zones are,” she said. “I think about fire every day, all the time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985419\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985419\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Inimim-Forest_San-Juan-Ridge_05-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A dead tree is surrounded by green trees.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Inimim-Forest_San-Juan-Ridge_05-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Inimim-Forest_San-Juan-Ridge_05-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Inimim-Forest_San-Juan-Ridge_05-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Inimim-Forest_San-Juan-Ridge_05-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Inimim-Forest_San-Juan-Ridge_05-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Inimim-Forest_San-Juan-Ridge_05-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A dead tree stands in the Inimim Forest on Aug. 9, 2023. A prolonged drought in California that began in 2000 and has been the most extreme since the 1500s has resulted in significant tree mortality. The mixed conifer trees of the mid-elevation Sierra Nevada Foothills are particularly threatened. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She’s watched the pine trees around her house turn brown from bark beetles that thrive in hotter weather and overproduce, killing the trees they feed on. It’s something she wants her son, Stanley, to see, so he can learn what to do about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though he’s only 6 years old, she’s already gotten him involved in tending their land, identifying which pine and cedar trees to fell, their seedlings replanted upslope, where it’s cooler, and which Black Oaks that can tolerate warmer weather, to leave in place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not feeling precious about [the pines] anymore,” she said. “I just want to give him skills for resilience and noticing what needs to happen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985423\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985423\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Inimim-Forest_San-Juan-Ridge_03-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A clearing in a wooded area.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Inimim-Forest_San-Juan-Ridge_03-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Inimim-Forest_San-Juan-Ridge_03-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Inimim-Forest_San-Juan-Ridge_03-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Inimim-Forest_San-Juan-Ridge_03-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Inimim-Forest_San-Juan-Ridge_03-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Inimim-Forest_San-Juan-Ridge_03-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A significantly thinned area of the Inimim Forest on the San Juan Ridge in Nevada County on Aug. 9, 2023, co-managed by the federal Bureau of Land Management and the Yuba Watershed Institute, a local nonprofit that got its start in the back-to-the-land movement of the 1970s. The management plan has thinned the forest, allowing light to filter through the trees and keeping brush close to the ground, making the area more likely to survive a wildfire. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Noticing, and knowing, what needs to happen is not an innate skill. It’s one Hinrichs developed from growing up in the area and from hand-clearing most of her 17-acre property. Using chainsaws and pole saws, she’s worked acre-by-acre, determining which plants hold birds’ nests or provide cover for nursing deers and which can be removed. It’s a labor-intensive process, but it also gives her unique insight into the forest’s health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The quail have come back since we’ve done this clearing,” she said. “I had only 12 quail, and now we’re up to like, 40, which is really cool.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hinrichs cannot know whether these efforts will be enough to save her home from a wildfire. Like many in this more remote part of the county, she lives without an insurer willing to cover her losses, relying instead on her own prevention efforts of hand-clearing the land and using prescribed fire to reduce her risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I married this land. I’ve made this my project,” she said. “If my house burns down, I’ll build another one. Probably. I’m trying to make it so my house doesn’t burn down, but fire is also just part of this place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Taking care\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In her book, \u003cem>Fire Monks: Zen Mind Meets Wildfire\u003c/em>, Berkeley author Colleen Morton Busch describes how a group of Buddhist monks at the Tassajara Zen Center in California’s Carmel Valley prepared for a wildfire bearing down on them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was 2008, during the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Tassajara-monks-practice-Zen-of-firefighting-3277372.php\">Basin Complex Fire\u003c/a>, and there was a debate among the monks and their students about the Zen Buddhist idea of non-attachment. Some argued to let the monastery burn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985206\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985206\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-COLLEEN-MORTON-BUSCH_BERKELEY_02-EB-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person with glasses sits at a table in an indoor setting.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-COLLEEN-MORTON-BUSCH_BERKELEY_02-EB-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-COLLEEN-MORTON-BUSCH_BERKELEY_02-EB-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-COLLEEN-MORTON-BUSCH_BERKELEY_02-EB-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-COLLEEN-MORTON-BUSCH_BERKELEY_02-EB-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-COLLEEN-MORTON-BUSCH_BERKELEY_02-EB-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-COLLEEN-MORTON-BUSCH_BERKELEY_02-EB-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-COLLEEN-MORTON-BUSCH_BERKELEY_02-EB-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Berkeley author Colleen Morton Busch poses for a portrait at her home on Sept. 19, 2023. Morton Busch is the author of ‘Fire Monks: Zen Mind Meets Wildfire,’ which describes the ways a group of monks at the Tassajara Zen Center in California’s Carmel Valley prepared and then defended against a wildfire bearing down on them. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the end, a group of five decided to stay and defend it. Morton-Busch wrote:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A clever Zen teacher might say that standing back and letting the monastery burn belies a kind of attachment to the idea of non-attachment. That trying to save it when it could all burn anyway is true non-attachment. In trying to save Tassajara from the fire, or your own life from disaster, you can’t be sure you will. In fact, you can lose everything you love in a moment. And that’s not a reason to give up. If anything, it’s a reason to turn toward the fire, recognizing it as a force of both creation and destruction and to take care of what’s right in front of you because that’s all you actually have.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some ways, the fire bearing down on Tassajara is a lot like climate change — a planetary fire bearing down on all of us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other ways, it is very different. The monks had one fire to contend with, but across the globe, we all face a different climate. It may be a hurricane in one area, record-breaking temperatures in another, deadly wildfires one year, heavy rains the next.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, there are the ways these changes quietly manifest, and are mourned or endured, in each heart and mind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Barbara was alive, and in the years since she passed away, most of our monthly trips up there were, and still are, spent tending the land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985469\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985469\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Barbaras-House_North-San-Juan_3-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A river and bank with trees.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1273\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Barbaras-House_North-San-Juan_3-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Barbaras-House_North-San-Juan_3-qut-800x530.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Barbaras-House_North-San-Juan_3-qut-1020x676.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Barbaras-House_North-San-Juan_3-qut-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Barbaras-House_North-San-Juan_3-qut-768x509.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Barbaras-House_North-San-Juan_3-qut-1536x1018.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Yuba River winds through the Sierra Nevada foothills north of Hoyt’s Crossing in August 2023. The river is one of many world-class amenities that lure people to the area. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a continuous cycle of labor defined by the seasons, we begin after the first fall rain, limbing trees and pulling the flammable and invasive scotch broom. In the spring, we mow down annual grasses to preemptively rob the summer’s fires of their fuel. This year, I’ll bring my now four-year-old along with me. Together, we’ll gather branches from the ground to stack for kindling. And hopefully one day, we’ll both learn how to put good fire on the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is something liberating about this labor, which is itself a daily act of defiance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is here, in Nevada County and places like it, where no veneer of denialism can cover the stark realities already underway and where there is little time to brood over what is to come because there is too much work to be done now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In these places, precariously poised on the knife’s edge of a shifting climate, the choice is clear: leave or turn toward the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "In the Sierra Nevada foothills, residents confront what it means to live in fire country in an era of increasingly destructive wildfires.",
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"title": "Facing the Fire: California's Sierra Foothills Residents Race to Adapt | KQED",
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"headline": "Facing the Fire: California's Sierra Foothills Residents Race to Adapt",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of the third season of KQED’s podcast Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America. You can \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/podcasts/soldout\" data-stringify-link=\"https://www.kqed.org/podcasts/soldout\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\">find that series here\u003c/a> and read about why \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1984697/why-kqed-focused-a-season-of-its-housing-podcast-on-climate-change#:~:text=Sold%20Out%20Is%20Back%20With%20Season%203&text=Host%20Erin%20Baldassari%20leads%20a,an%20affordable%20place%20to%20live.\" data-stringify-link=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1984697/why-kqed-focused-a-season-of-its-housing-podcast-on-climate-change#:~:text=Sold%20Out%20Is%20Back%20With%20Season%203&text=Host%20Erin%20Baldassari%20leads%20a,an%20affordable%20place%20to%20live.\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\">KQED chose to focus a season of its housing podcast on climate change\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">S\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>hari Wilson woke up and stared at the sun, dull and orange against a ruddy sky. She checked the Air Quality Index app on her phone and put on a mask.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I felt just kind of down,” she said. “You know, there’s that orange sky, gray day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like millions of people across the Midwest and Northeast this past June, she saw smoke from Canadian wildfires. Though the fires were thousands of miles away, she couldn’t shake an uneasy feeling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I felt trapped in the smoke,” she said. “And it made me think a lot about my friends in California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shari Wilson and her husband had moved back to their home state of Michigan less than a year prior. Before that, they had spent nearly four decades in California, more than half of it in Nevada City, a small town on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains, about an hour’s drive from Lake Tahoe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985405\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985405 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230815-BlueForestInitiative-61-BL-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230815-BlueForestInitiative-61-BL-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230815-BlueForestInitiative-61-BL-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230815-BlueForestInitiative-61-BL-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230815-BlueForestInitiative-61-BL-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230815-BlueForestInitiative-61-BL-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230815-BlueForestInitiative-61-BL-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dark clouds roll into Nevada City, Nevada County, on Aug. 15, 2023.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The quintessential Gold Rush-era town, complete with a vibrant arts scene and quaint, historic downtown, is surrounded by pine forests. Shari Wilson’s husband, Mark Wilson, said when they first moved there, those trees were a big part of the draw.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had a great evergreen tree that grew two feet away from our deck,” he said. “We thought, ‘This is so great, we can watch the birds.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For more than two decades, the idea that a wildfire could level their house seemed distant. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/a-walk-in-the-ashes-of-the-tubbs-fire-five-years-later-in-sonoma-county/\">2017 Tubbs Fire\u003c/a> in California’s wine country brought it home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire tore through a suburban neighborhood, killing 22 people. A year later, \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-08-20/five-years-after-the-camp-fire-paradise-survivors-see-hard-future-for-maui\">the Camp Fire\u003c/a> decimated the town of Paradise and killed 85 people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That made it real,” Mark Wilson said. “And it became a real feeling that this could easily happen to us tomorrow.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985421\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985421\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230809-SoldOutParadise-59-BL-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A sign in the form of a cross sits next to the side of a road in dusk light.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230809-SoldOutParadise-59-BL-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230809-SoldOutParadise-59-BL-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230809-SoldOutParadise-59-BL-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230809-SoldOutParadise-59-BL-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230809-SoldOutParadise-59-BL-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230809-SoldOutParadise-59-BL-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A memorial reads, ‘Faith, Hope, Paradise,’ in Paradise on Aug. 9, 2023. The Camp Fire, a deadly fire that destroyed much of the towns of Paradise and Concow, swept through the area in 2018. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The couple started thinking about where else to live. Shari Wilson was quick to say it wasn’t just due to the fires. “We aren’t climate refugees,” she said. They both grew up in Michigan and wanted to live close to family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when this summer’s smoke began to blot out the sun, Mark Wilson said it was a grim reminder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It made me sad because it was a reminder that it’s not just California. It’s not just in one place. It’s everywhere,” he said. “And no matter where you go, climate change is going to catch up with you.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985407\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985407 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230627-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-19-BL-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A red sign with white lettering is nailed to a tree.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230627-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-19-BL-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230627-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-19-BL-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230627-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-19-BL-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230627-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-19-BL-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230627-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-19-BL-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230627-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-19-BL-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sign advertising defensible space clearance for wildfire preparation hangs on a tree along the San Juan Ridge near Nevada City on June 27, 2023. The area is heavily forested and borders the Yuba River near historic towns that date back to the 1849 California Gold Rush. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As rising global temperatures bake the surrounding pine trees, oaks and madrones of the Sierra Nevada mountains, residents living in its scattered communities have a choice: to remain in the fire’s path or hedge their bets elsewhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is a question my family found ourselves facing, but in reverse, after my partner inherited a house in Nevada County. It is a place where we both spent our childhoods and where we hoped to one day raise our daughter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire has always been part of the bargain of living there. But as climate change fuels wildfires of unprecedented proportions, it’s rewriting the terms of that old agreement. As it does, that’s forced us, like many in the forested foothills, to renegotiate what we’re willing to do — and how much we’re willing to risk — to live there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC1360589321&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Nevada County, measures to mitigate the threat of wildfires are underway, but their effectiveness has been stunted by decades of land management policies that sought to suppress all fires and led to an overabundance of brush and trees. Now, residents are racing to make up for lost time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For communities across the globe similarly poised on the knife’s edge of catastrophe — whether the threat is rising seas, stronger hurricanes or longer periods of extreme heat — the question is how to preserve and protect these places, or as retired fire scientist and Nevada County resident Jo Ann Fites-Kaufman put it, “What does it mean to live in different environments? What does it mean to grow up in an area? What does it mean to be human?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Barbara’s house\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>My partner’s mom, Barbara, was 79 when she passed away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She left behind a two-bedroom Mediterranean-style home with an orange exterior, its hue varied and weathered, one wall splashed robin’s egg blue. Situated on a 13-acre property in the northwestern corner of Nevada County, the house is not only a mausoleum of her artifacts but a physical manifestation of her memory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barbara had suffered a stroke, and we spent 10 days in the hospital hoping for an improvement in her condition that never came. During that time, and in the weeks after she passed away, the house was a vessel for our grief. It held us because it held so much of her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985313\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985313 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230627-SoldOutBarbaraHouse-Barbaras-House_North-San-Juan_1-EB.jpg\" alt=\"A one level house with a tile roof is surrounded by trees.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1273\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230627-SoldOutBarbaraHouse-Barbaras-House_North-San-Juan_1-EB.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230627-SoldOutBarbaraHouse-Barbaras-House_North-San-Juan_1-EB-800x530.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230627-SoldOutBarbaraHouse-Barbaras-House_North-San-Juan_1-EB-1020x676.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230627-SoldOutBarbaraHouse-Barbaras-House_North-San-Juan_1-EB-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230627-SoldOutBarbaraHouse-Barbaras-House_North-San-Juan_1-EB-768x509.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230627-SoldOutBarbaraHouse-Barbaras-House_North-San-Juan_1-EB-1536x1018.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Barbara built her home with wildfires in mind. The walls are made from a concrete-like material a foot thick that’s rated to withstand 12 hours of burning. S-shaped tiles line the roof, and a gravel driveway encircles the home. Photographed in August 2023. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When we finally turned off the lights and locked the doors to return home to the Bay Area, we did so reluctantly, wondering how and when we might move our lives there. Beneath our decision was an emerging hope for our not-yet-one-year-old daughter — that, although she would never know her grandmother, she might know the house her grandmother built.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That summer, smoke from two dozen wildfires loomed over Nevada County and drifted across the state. On one particularly bad day in the Bay Area, it grew so thick \u003ca href=\"https://www.newyorker.com/culture/video-dept/the-day-the-san-francisco-sky-turned-orange\">daylight turned to dusk\u003c/a>. It was then when I first began to wonder what kind of future our daughter might inherit if we chose to move to Nevada County, and what it would be like to live in a place where my own memories were constantly clashing with new realities.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Nothing left to burn\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>They call her the voice of doom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From her home office overlooking the Yuba River in Nevada County, Pascale Fusshoeller translates the precise, militaristic jargon of wildland firefighting departments into English, conveying need-to-know information on a fire’s origins, its speed and direction to readers across the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985197\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985197\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66840_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-70-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"The charred remains of burnt trees stand out from newly grown plants in a field.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66840_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-70-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66840_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-70-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66840_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-70-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66840_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-70-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66840_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-70-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66840_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-70-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66840_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-70-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jim Mathias, Wildfire Prevention and Safety Manager of the Fire Safe Council of Nevada County, drives through an area of the county burned by wildfire on June 26, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Fusshoeller co-founded and edits YubaNet.com, which began in 1999 as the Internet burgeoned from niche to mainstream. She and her wife, Susan Levitz, both career journalists, intended to run a community events page.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That changed, Fusshoeller said, the day the site went live, and she spotted a towering plume of smoke rising from the ridge facing their home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s how we got into fire information,” she said. She hasn’t looked back. “It helps people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985203\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985203\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-BEAR-TRAP-PRESCRIBED-BURN_NEVADA-COUNTY_05-EB-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"People wearing hard hats work digging in a forest.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-BEAR-TRAP-PRESCRIBED-BURN_NEVADA-COUNTY_05-EB-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-BEAR-TRAP-PRESCRIBED-BURN_NEVADA-COUNTY_05-EB-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-BEAR-TRAP-PRESCRIBED-BURN_NEVADA-COUNTY_05-EB-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-BEAR-TRAP-PRESCRIBED-BURN_NEVADA-COUNTY_05-EB-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-BEAR-TRAP-PRESCRIBED-BURN_NEVADA-COUNTY_05-EB-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-BEAR-TRAP-PRESCRIBED-BURN_NEVADA-COUNTY_05-EB-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-BEAR-TRAP-PRESCRIBED-BURN_NEVADA-COUNTY_05-EB-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Crew members from the Fire Safe Council of Nevada County walk to the site where they performed a ‘mop up’ following a prescribed burn in Nevada County on June 21, 2023. Using hand tools, the crew members will ensure that all of the fire has been extinguished. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For Fusshoeller, this means that whenever a fire occurs in the Sierra Nevada mountains, her days start early and end late.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/there-s-no-more-typical-wildfire-season-california-it-may-n934521\">It used to be\u003c/a> that fire season began in August and wrapped up by the end of September. Now, she says if there is a “fire season” at all, it begins in May and ends in November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And of course, some years, there’s large fires in December,” she added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As global temperatures rise, so, too, does the number of wildfires. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, across the western United States, human-caused climate change has doubled the cumulative area burned by wildfires over natural levels since 1984.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985422\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2006px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985422\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/IPCC_AR6_WGII_Figure_2_FAQ_2.3.1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"2006\" height=\"728\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/IPCC_AR6_WGII_Figure_2_FAQ_2.3.1.png 2006w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/IPCC_AR6_WGII_Figure_2_FAQ_2.3.1-800x290.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/IPCC_AR6_WGII_Figure_2_FAQ_2.3.1-1020x370.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/IPCC_AR6_WGII_Figure_2_FAQ_2.3.1-160x58.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/IPCC_AR6_WGII_Figure_2_FAQ_2.3.1-768x279.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/IPCC_AR6_WGII_Figure_2_FAQ_2.3.1-1536x557.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/IPCC_AR6_WGII_Figure_2_FAQ_2.3.1-1920x697.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2006px) 100vw, 2006px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Figure FAQ2.3.1 | (a) Springs Fire, May 2, 2013, Thousand Oaks, California, USA (photo by Michael Robinson Chávez, Los Angeles Times). (b) Cumulative area burned by wildfire in the western USA, with (orange) and without (yellow) the increased heat and aridity of climate change. \u003ccite>(IPCC Sixth Assessment Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Patrick Gonzalez, a forest ecologist and climate change scientist at UC Berkeley, said the problem is particularly acute in California, where \u003ca href=\"https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/western-megadrought-is-the-worst-in-1-200-years/#:~:text=An%20exceptionally%20dry%20year%20in%202021%20helped%20break%20the%20record,least%20a%20couple%20of%20decades.\">a prolonged drought in recent years\u003c/a> has dried out plants and soils.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In Northern and Central California, almost all of the increase in burned area [over natural levels] has come from human-caused climate change since 1996,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, \u003ca href=\"https://34c031f8-c9fd-4018-8c5a-4159cdff6b0d-cdn-endpoint.azureedge.net/-/media/calfire-website/our-impact/fire-statistics/featured-items/top20_destruction.pdf?rev=ee6ea855632a4b56a46adea1d3c8022f&hash=5B8B3A1A35CBB52CB0ED7A010F0B52E0\">18 of the state’s 20 most destructive wildfires (PDF)\u003c/a> have occurred since 2003. Nevada County had been spared. Looking at a map, Fusshoeller noted that all the surrounding counties had experienced large and destructive wildfires during that time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s not to say that one day we will not have a large catastrophic fire here,” she said. Nevada County shares the same mix of vegetation, topography and climate conditions. “There is nothing else left to burn in the foothills.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The forerunner\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>There is something very Californian about believing it’s possible to survive anywhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joan Didion knew this. In her 1968 collection of essays, \u003cem>Slouching Toward Bethlehem\u003c/em>, Didion wrote of the desert metropolis’ clime, “Los Angeles weather is the weather of catastrophe, of apocalypse, and, just as the reliably long and bitter winters of New England determine the way life is lived there, so the violence and the unpredictability of the Santa Ana affect the entire quality of life in Los Angeles, accentuate its impermanence, its unreliability.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The same could be said of the entire state. Where early white settlers found a floodplain, they built their capital city, Sacramento. And even amid the rubble of the city’s most destructive earthquake, San Franciscans nonetheless rebuilt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985404\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985404\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SoldOut-Diptych-02.jpg\" alt=\"Left: Dark smoke billows above a structure. Right: Light gray and reddish smoke rises above a home surrounded by trees.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"923\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SoldOut-Diptych-02.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SoldOut-Diptych-02-800x385.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SoldOut-Diptych-02-1020x490.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SoldOut-Diptych-02-160x77.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SoldOut-Diptych-02-768x369.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SoldOut-Diptych-02-1536x738.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: A column of smoke rises behind a house in Lake Wildwood, California, as Mark and Kathy Baldassari prepare to evacuate from the 49er Fire on Sept. 11, 1988. Right: Smoke from the 49er Fire rises behind homes in Lake Wildwood, a small community in Nevada County, on Sept. 11, 1988. The fire burned through nearly 36,000 acres and destroyed almost 150 homes, making it California’s third most destructive wildfire at the time. Now, it’s not even in the top 20. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Mark and Kathy Baldassari)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>My own earliest memory, if an infant can be said to have one, is of a thick column of gray and black smoke rising behind my family’s house the day we evacuated from a wildfire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.theunion.com/opinion/49er-fire-memories-where-were-you-30-years-ago-today/article_960384f0-6667-5f66-a6f9-fb0508006a76.html\">It was Sept. 11, 1988\u003c/a>. I was just over a year old. My dad would later describe the fire’s path: not a continuous wall, but jagged, like fingers on a hand, touching some homes, refusing others — sparing ours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And you kind of wonder why,” he mused, “why did it spare that house and burn that one?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was called the 49er Fire because it broke out near Highway 49 in Nevada County. It tore through nearly 36,000 acres of forest and grasslands and destroyed almost 150 homes. At the time, it was the state’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/sacramento/news/49er-fire-destruction/\">third-largest wildfire\u003c/a> and is still the county’s most destructive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985219\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985219\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-SO-S3-E6-SCAN-1-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Several houses beside fire-scorched terrain.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1543\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-SO-S3-E6-SCAN-1-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-SO-S3-E6-SCAN-1-KQED-800x617.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-SO-S3-E6-SCAN-1-KQED-1020x787.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-SO-S3-E6-SCAN-1-KQED-160x123.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-SO-S3-E6-SCAN-1-KQED-768x593.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-SO-S3-E6-SCAN-1-KQED-1536x1185.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-SO-S3-E6-SCAN-1-KQED-1920x1481.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The 1988 49er Fire burned through nearly 36,000 acres in Nevada County and destroyed almost 150 homes. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Mark and Kathy Baldassari)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a prediction that feels prescient today, Jerry Partain, then-director of California’s Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, now called Cal Fire, \u003ca href=\"https://www.newspapers.com/image/624226617/?clipping_id=115881062&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjYyNDIyNjYxNywiaWF0IjoxNjk4OTU1MDA4LCJleHAiOjE2OTkwNDE0MDh9.s5IFZHnqPAFNjR2pbvWX3mHL3voE5oItjgwOsPg0Srk\">told \u003cem>The Sacramento Bee\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, “This [fire] is the classic. This is what we’ve been preaching about for the past several years. This is just the forerunner.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What Partain had been preaching about — fireproofing homes and managing the surrounding vegetation — is now a familiar sermon to anyone living in Northern California today, but one that was met with obstinance by the willful inhabitants of that era, a generally unyielding lot with a profound distrust of government matronism and a deep reverence for stick-to-itiveness, the miner’s luck and the sanctity of private property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Speaking with \u003cem>The Sacramento Bee\u003c/em>, Partain stood in front of a map detailing the fire’s course, acknowledging there was no way to save every home. “It will continue to happen in the future,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985217\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985217 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-SIERRA-STORYTELLING-FESTIVAL_NORTH-SAN-JUAN01-EB-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"People sit on blankets and fold out chairs in a grassy space.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-SIERRA-STORYTELLING-FESTIVAL_NORTH-SAN-JUAN01-EB-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-SIERRA-STORYTELLING-FESTIVAL_NORTH-SAN-JUAN01-EB-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-SIERRA-STORYTELLING-FESTIVAL_NORTH-SAN-JUAN01-EB-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-SIERRA-STORYTELLING-FESTIVAL_NORTH-SAN-JUAN01-EB-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-SIERRA-STORYTELLING-FESTIVAL_NORTH-SAN-JUAN01-EB-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-SIERRA-STORYTELLING-FESTIVAL_NORTH-SAN-JUAN01-EB-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-SIERRA-STORYTELLING-FESTIVAL_NORTH-SAN-JUAN01-EB-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Attendees lounge on the grass during the dinner hour at the Sierra Storytelling Festival at the North Columbia Schoolhouse Cultural Center in North San Juan on July 8, 2023. (Photo by Erin Baldassari/KQED) \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>With the future came more residents, living with more risk. Between 1990 and 2010, the county’s population \u003ca href=\"https://www.nevadacountyca.gov/378/Demographics-Statistics\">grew 26%\u003c/a>, mirroring a trend seen across the \u003ca href=\"https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/wui-issues-resolutions-report.pdf\">country (PDF)\u003c/a> as more people than ever flooded into wildland areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, nearly \u003ca href=\"https://silvis.forest.wisc.edu/data/wui-change/\">half of all homes built during that time period\u003c/a> were constructed in areas designated at “high or extreme risk of wildfire,” according to the Center for Insurance Policy and Research. Nevada County was no exception, where more than \u003ca href=\"https://www.nevadacountyca.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=5247\">nine out of every 10\u003c/a> residents live in “high or very high” fire hazard zones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That wildfires have become more destructive over the past 40 years is simple math, UC Berkeley’s Gonzalez said. “The losses of homes and people, who sadly die in a wildfire, is a function of the number of people who live in fire-prone areas,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985215\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985215 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY14-EB-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"The smoldering remains of a fire near a house.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY14-EB-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY14-EB-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY14-EB-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY14-EB-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY14-EB-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY14-EB-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY14-EB-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A controlled fire burns near a home on a private property in Penn Valley, a small, rural community in Nevada County, California, on June 22, 2023. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He continued: “Climate change is exacerbating the risk. So, that makes it even more important [to limit] the number of people who move into or build new houses in fire-prone areas.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Brute reckoning\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The 49er Fire left its mark on my psyche, attuning me to dry, summer winds, focusing my attention on anything that could produce an errant spark, and heightening my awareness, early on, of my own precarity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for many in Nevada County, myself included, it was still only a glimpse into a distant future. Brute reckoning came much later, in 2018, with the Camp Fire in Paradise, California, which is one county away from Nevada County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985409\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985409 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-19-BL-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Trucks with piles of logs in the truck beds form a line in a lot near a wooded area.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-19-BL-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-19-BL-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-19-BL-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-19-BL-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-19-BL-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-19-BL-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Vehicles filled with green waste wait in line during a free residential disposal hosted by the Fire Safe Council of Nevada County in Grass Valley on June 26, 2023. Residents can bring all tree and plant trimmings, weeds, leaves, branches, and pine needles, except for some plants like scotch broom and poison oak, in an effort to create defensible space on their properties. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>YubaNet’s Fusshoeller held a town hall event a week after the fire began. Minutes after the doors opened, the seats had filled to capacity, followed by the building’s overflow rooms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And then there were still people outside,” Fusshoeller recalled. “It was the whole community. They were scared.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire became a wake-up call — and a rallying cry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We regularly hear that this is the next Camp Fire,” said Jamie Jones, the executive director of the Fire Safe Council of Nevada County, a nonprofit formed in the wake of the 49er Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985202\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985202\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-BEAR-TRAP-PRESCRIBED-BURN_NEVADA-COUNTY_01-EB-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A group of people wearing hard hats walk along a roadway beside a stretch of burnt forest.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-BEAR-TRAP-PRESCRIBED-BURN_NEVADA-COUNTY_01-EB-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-BEAR-TRAP-PRESCRIBED-BURN_NEVADA-COUNTY_01-EB-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-BEAR-TRAP-PRESCRIBED-BURN_NEVADA-COUNTY_01-EB-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-BEAR-TRAP-PRESCRIBED-BURN_NEVADA-COUNTY_01-EB-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-BEAR-TRAP-PRESCRIBED-BURN_NEVADA-COUNTY_01-EB-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-BEAR-TRAP-PRESCRIBED-BURN_NEVADA-COUNTY_01-EB-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-BEAR-TRAP-PRESCRIBED-BURN_NEVADA-COUNTY_01-EB-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Crew members from the Fire Safe Council of Nevada County walk to the site where they were performing a ‘mop up’ following a prescribed burn in Nevada County on June 21, 2023. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We have watersheds that if a fire starts on the wrong day and the wrong conditions — or you could call it the right conditions — we could have a potential catastrophic loss like Paradise did,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spurred by that rallying cry, Jones’ organization ballooned from three employees to more than 50, with its own land management crew, \u003ca href=\"https://www.areyoufiresafe.com/programs/defensible-space-advisory-visit-dsav\">free advisory visits\u003c/a> for homeowners, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.areyoufiresafe.com/programs/chipping-program\">roving wood-chipper\u003c/a>, and a robust grant-writing department, among \u003ca href=\"https://www.areyoufiresafe.com/programs\">other initiatives\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It became a huge priority to fund [wildfire] mitigation work,” Jones said. “We just kind of grabbed the bull by the horns and said, ‘We’ll do it. We’ll be that large nonprofit to work in this space.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985191\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985191 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66792_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-08-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Two people use a rake-like device to remove all of the dried green waste from the bed of a truck.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66792_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-08-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66792_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-08-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66792_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-08-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66792_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-08-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66792_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-08-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66792_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-08-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66792_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-08-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Employees help people unload green waste during a free residential disposal hosted by the Fire Safe Council of Nevada County in Grass Valley on June 26, 2023. Residents can bring all tree and plant trimmings, weeds, leaves, branches, and pine needles, except for some plants like scotch broom and poison oak, in an effort to create defensible space on their properties. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But the Camp Fire also incited residents to act. Today, Nevada County, with a population of just over \u003ca href=\"https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/nevadacountycalifornia/PST045222\">100,000 people\u003c/a>, boasts the highest number of \u003ca href=\"https://www.nfpa.org/education-and-research/wildfire/firewise-usa\">Firewise Communities\u003c/a> in the country — a program run by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) that encourages neighborhoods to organize and collectively complete fire safety projects, such as thinning trees along evacuation routes and clearing excess brush on individual properties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the Camp Fire, Jones said there were 22 Firewise Communities in the county. As of October, there were 94, according to the NFPA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it speaks volumes to how committed our community is to protecting their families, their loved ones, their neighbors, and the community that we live in,” Jones said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, she said \u003ca href=\"https://www.capradio.org/articles/2021/06/23/newsom-misled-the-public-about-wildfire-prevention-efforts-ahead-of-worst-fire-season-on-record/\">progress remains stilted in other ways\u003c/a>. For instance, Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2019 \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2020/01/29/governor-newsom-announces-completion-of-emergency-projects-to-protect-wildfire-vulnerable-communities/\">fast-tracked 35 wildfire defense projects\u003c/a> across the state, including one in Nevada County, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nevadacountyca.gov/3748/Ponderosa-West-Grass-Valley-Defense-Zone#:~:text=The%20shaded%20fuel%20break%20lies,Newtown%20Road%20to%20the%20north.\">Ponderosa West Grass Valley Defense Zone shaded fuel break\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.ponderosawestproject.org/\">project\u003c/a> provided free brush clearing on residents’ properties to allow firefighters to more easily defend the town of Grass Valley. But four years after the first phase began, many of the property owners have failed to maintain their land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985410\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985410\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-75-BL-qut-1.jpg\" alt=\"One hand holds up a paper map while the other hand points to an area on the map.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-75-BL-qut-1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-75-BL-qut-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-75-BL-qut-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-75-BL-qut-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-75-BL-qut-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-75-BL-qut-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jim Mathias, the wildfire prevention and safety manager of the Fire Safe Council of Nevada County, holds a map of a plan for a shaded fuel break in southern Nevada County on June 26, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On a recent tour, Jones pointed to a property where the homeowner had positioned himself as a poster child of compliance. Crispy brush and small trees, perfect kindling for a big wildfire, now crowded beneath towering oak and manzanita trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He sold two years into the project,” she lamented. The new property owner never picked up the work. Continued compliance requires constant care — and a long memory.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Our place on the planet\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As the spokesperson for the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe, Shelly Covert carries with her a cultural memory that spans centuries. What it takes to live in wildland areas today, she said, is in some ways not so different from when her relatives lived freely off the land — and that is constant tending.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For her relatives, that meant cutting trees, harvesting smaller branches, and collecting reeds — work now done with chainsaws and machines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985420\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985420 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/GettyImages-1241501048-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A woman's face is reflected in a mirror with brown writing.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/GettyImages-1241501048-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/GettyImages-1241501048-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/GettyImages-1241501048-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/GettyImages-1241501048-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/GettyImages-1241501048-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/GettyImages-1241501048-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/GettyImages-1241501048-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/GettyImages-1241501048-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shelly Covert, spokesperson for the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe, in Nevada City, on June 6, 2022. \u003ccite>(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The difference, she said, is that the Nisenan used these materials in their homes, acorn granaries, tools and baskets. That these same actions also made the forests more resilient to — and protected the Nisenan from — catastrophic wildfires was secondary. Today, the accumulation of these same plant materials is a burden.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nobody wants it,” she said. “So, how are forests ever going to be tended in that way again when we don’t need the freaking stuff that’s all over the ground?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nevada County’s Fire Safe Council is trying to help relieve that burden with a free \u003ca href=\"https://www.areyoufiresafe.com/programs/residential-green-waste-disposal-2023\">green waste disposal site\u003c/a> in Grass Valley. This past June, on the last day it was open for the season, crews heaped logs into towering piles, mounded branches atop each other, and stacked firewood for the taking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985193\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985193 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66813_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-38-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person wearing a large wicker hat and sunglasses stands in front of piles of wood and speaks to the driver of a vehicle.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66813_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-38-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66813_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-38-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66813_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-38-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66813_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-38-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66813_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-38-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66813_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-38-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RS66813_230626-HousingNevadaCoWildfire-38-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jonny Sjobeck (left) talks with Roland Harrison during a free green waste residential disposal hosted by the Fire Safe Council of Nevada County in Grass Valley on June 26, 2023. Residents can bring all tree and plant trimmings, weeds, leaves, branches, and pine needles, except for some plants like scotch broom and poison oak, in an effort to create defensible space on their properties. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Suzi and Doug Clipperton waited in line for their turn to unload the towering pile of branches in the back of their truck. They had moved to the county from Palm Springs two years ago, and though their property is relatively small, at one acre, it still produces an abundance of vegetation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without the green waste disposal site, Suzi Clipperton said she would be forced to pay to get rid of the materials at the dump.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s so expensive, even the green waste,” she said. “Over $25 a truckload, over and over several times a month.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Getting to a truly sustainable lifestyle in the forested foothills is still a long way off, Covert said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just the way we’ve built our built lives,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that’s not what people, myself included, want to talk to her about these days. All we want to talk to her about is how to use fire to fight fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985211\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985211\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY06-EB-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person holds a device to dried grass to start a fire.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY06-EB-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY06-EB-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY06-EB-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY06-EB-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY06-EB-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY06-EB-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY06-EB-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dylan Drummond wields a drip torch, which he uses to ignite grasses during a prescribed burn on a private property in Penn Valley, a small, rural community in Nevada County on June 22, 2023. The burn aims to reduce the brush and grasses that fuel megafires while also helping to restore native plants to the region. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The practice, called controlled or prescribed burns, has gained momentum in recent years as a way to clear the brush and grasses that fuel megafires. But Covert’s relatives also burned the land to remove bug infestations from trees, clear land for hunting and travel and promote certain kinds of plants. Public officials have been increasingly turning to her to tap into the tribe’s cultural knowledge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On one hand, Covert said she appreciates having a seat at the table, an opportunity her grandparents were never afforded. On the other, she said it’s hard for her not to roll her eyes during those same meetings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Don’t tell me those old people didn’t sit there and say, ‘You can’t not burn the land.’ It was unfathomable to them,” she said. “We have to burn the land, and we have to burn our dead.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985413\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985413\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County15-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Green plants sprout from a burned land.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County15-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County15-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County15-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County15-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County15-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County15-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This yampa root survives a prescribed burn on a private property in Penn Valley, a small, rural community in Nevada County, California, on June 22, 2023. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When white settlers arrived during the Gold Rush, they not only outlawed the practice of burning the land but also the Nisenan practice of cremating their dead. And, while government officials now recognize fire as essential to maintaining forest health, Nisenan cremations are still outlawed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During those ceremonies, the nearest female relatives of the deceased would mix pine pitch with ash to blacken their heads and shoulders, washing their faces only after the mixture had worn off, thus defining the period of mourning. Other relatives and friends gathered around to sing and cry. Every year, an annual mourning ceremony, or “Second Burning,” was held for everyone who died that year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My grandma said that the old ladies used to wipe each other’s tears and hold each other up because they were so fraught with sadness,” Covert said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To Covert, burning the land and burning the dead are not two practices with distinct purposes and outcomes. They are the same practice for the same purpose of binding humanity to all other life and to the land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985210\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985210\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY04-EB-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A fire burns dried grasses around the truck of a tree.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY04-EB-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY04-EB-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY04-EB-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY04-EB-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY04-EB-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY04-EB-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY04-EB-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Workers perform a prescribed burn on a private property in Penn Valley, a small, rural community in Nevada County on June 22, 2023. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She said the cremation ceremony is at the core: “It is the kickstarter of all these other protocols that come into play that are respect for the land, respect for the animals, respect for the spirit, respect for one another. And that’s it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is the foundation that allows them to see themselves as both indebted to a place and responsible for it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have thumbs. We can light fire. We can pull and tend the rubbish in the forests,” Covert said. “That is our place on this planet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Good fire\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In a small community on the western flank of Nevada County, atop a ridge overlooking Lake Wildwood, where the 49er Fire raged 35 years ago, three young men holding drip torches set fire to the land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was an abnormally cool June day. The crew of roughly a dozen, dressed in flannel shirts, blue jeans and boots, worked methodically downhill. Some held water bladders to douse fires burning into tree roots. Others were posted at control lines to ensure the fire stayed within its boundaries. One roamed the perimeter on a motorcycle to watch for spotfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985414\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985414\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County11-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A man holds a water hose near a smoked filled forest area.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County11-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County11-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County11-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County11-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County11-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County11-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kevin Bratton uses a hose to douse the roots of a pine tree during a prescribed burn on a private property in Penn Valley, a small, rural community in Nevada County on June 22, 2023. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>They were lighting a controlled burn on the roughly 80-acre property, with the twin goals of reducing the wildfire risk and promoting native plants, which often need the low-intensity fires to drop seeds or sprout from dormancy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you see the effects of fire, it all makes sense,” said Tim Van Wagner, an organic farmer in Nevada County and broadcast burn practitioner, who led the burn that day. “All of a sudden, you actually realize the insanity of how we have been able to suppress fire and the damage it’s done.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The more fuel there is to burn, the hotter the fire becomes, and the more likely they are to \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-07-20/california-forests-are-vanishing-as-wildfires-worsen\">permanently incinerate\u003c/a> even the most fire-adapted forests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985214\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985214\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY13-EB-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person in a baseball cap walks through a smokey open space.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY13-EB-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY13-EB-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY13-EB-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY13-EB-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY13-EB-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY13-EB-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-PRESCRIBED-BURN_PENN-VALLEY_NEVADA-COUNTY13-EB-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tim Van Wagner, a broadcast burn practitioner, oversees a prescribed burn on a private property in Penn Valley, a small, rural community in Nevada County on June 22, 2023. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But bringing “good fire” back hasn’t been easy, said fire historian and author Stephen Pyne.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We spent 50 years trying to take all fire out of the landscape,” he said, “and we’ve spent 50 years trying to put good fire back in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal regulators restricted broadcast burns beginning in 1910, following a particularly fearsome spate of fires known as the “Big Blowup,” when some 3 million acres of forestland in Idaho and Montana \u003ca href=\"https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5444731.pdf\">burned over the course of two short days (PDF)\u003c/a>, killing 86 people — the most in US history, until \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/maui-hawaii-fires-death-toll-rcna105387\">this year’s fires in Maui\u003c/a>. By the time the National Parks Service \u003ca href=\"https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2019/11/californias-wildfire-controlled-prescribed-burns-native-americans/#:~:text=In%201968%2C%20the%20National%20Park,introduced%20fire%20to%20their%20landscapes.\">changed its policy\u003c/a> in 1968, areas that had been accustomed to periodic fires were overloaded with fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Combine that excess vegetation with rising temperatures, and Pyne said existing models of fire behavior no longer hold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They are being overwhelmed,” he said. “We’re seeing it in Canada now and parts of the Mediterranean, as well as parts of the U.S., and we’re creating a new world out of this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Humans once controlled fire. Now, Pyne said fire is controlling us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve taken what had always been our best friend, and we’re making it our worst enemy,” he said. “Even if we tame the climate, we remove the fossil fuel part of it, we still have a relentless obligation to work with fire in the lands that remain.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985415\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985415\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County02-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A man looks up and away from the camera while holding his arm out while brush burns nearby.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County02-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County02-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County02-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County02-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County02-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Prescribed-Burn_Penn-Valley_Nevada-County02-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tim Van Wagner, a broadcast burn practitioner, oversees a prescribed burn on private property in Penn Valley, a small, rural community in Nevada County, on June 22, 2023. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In California, policy leaders from Gov. Newsom down to local leaders are encouraging controlled burns. But the process has been hampered, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1979560/cal-fire-fumbles-key-responsibilities-to-prevent-catastrophic-wildfires-despite-historic-budget\">in part\u003c/a>, by the slow rollout of its certification program for burn bosses. The designation is crucial for people like Van Wagner because it would allow them to tap into a \u003ca href=\"https://wildfiretaskforce.org/prescribed-fire-liability-claims-fund-pilot/#:~:text=Administered%20by%20CAL%20FIRE%2C%20the,burn%20boss%20or%20cultural%20practitioner.\">$20 million pool of insurance to cover damages from fires set under prescribed conditions\u003c/a>. But, as of August, there were \u003ca href=\"https://osfm.fire.ca.gov/divisions/state-fire-training/cfstes-professional-certification/state-certified-prescribed-fire-burn-boss/\">only two dozen state-certified burn bosses\u003c/a> in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It hasn’t been a smooth process,” said Van Wagner, who is in the process of obtaining the certification. Without access to insurance, “it can be a basic game-over,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985401\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985401 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SoldOut-Diptych-01.jpg\" alt=\"Left: A man walks through dry yellow grasses while using a torch to light the grass on fire.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"881\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SoldOut-Diptych-01.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SoldOut-Diptych-01-800x367.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SoldOut-Diptych-01-1020x468.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SoldOut-Diptych-01-160x73.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SoldOut-Diptych-01-768x352.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SoldOut-Diptych-01-1536x705.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dylan Drummond wields a drip torch, which he uses to ignite grasses during a prescribed burn on private property in Penn Valley, a small, rural community in Nevada County, on June 22, 2023. The burn aims to reduce the brush and grasses that fuel mega-fires while also helping to restore native plants to the region. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>According to the U.S. Forest Service, \u003ca href=\"https://www.fs.usda.gov/news/releases/statement-forest-service-chief-randy-moore-announcing-pause-prescribed-fire\">fewer than 1%\u003c/a> of controlled burns get out of control, but they still make neighbors nervous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s foreign to most people,” Van Wagner said. “So, there’s more of a fear response than understanding.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Fancy Fechser, who owns the Nevada County property where Van Wagner was burning, learning to live with fire is part of what it means to live in the foothills. She and her husband moved there with their family from Los Angeles in 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the luck of the draw here, and that’s something you have to live with,” she said. “But the control you can have — I mean, I feel so much better now that we did this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985417\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985417\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Fancy-Fechser_Penn-Valley_01-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Two people stand on the side of a hill with a forest behind them.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Fancy-Fechser_Penn-Valley_01-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Fancy-Fechser_Penn-Valley_01-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Fancy-Fechser_Penn-Valley_01-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Fancy-Fechser_Penn-Valley_01-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Fancy-Fechser_Penn-Valley_01-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Fancy-Fechser_Penn-Valley_01-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fancy Fechser (right) talks with prescribed burn practitioner Tim Van Wagner following a prescribed burn on her property in Penn Valley on June 16, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Fechser hopes that in the long run, the work done here will make both her property and the surrounding community safer from megafires and that it’ll be more resilient for the climate changes to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t love looking at a charred backyard, but I know the point,” she said. “We have to look in the future here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Grieving the future\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For Oakland-based journalist Erica Hellerstein, part of looking into California’s future means grieving — not a lost past, but a future that may never come to be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reflecting on this idea in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.codastory.com/rewriting-history/grieving-california/\">2022 Coda Story essay\u003c/a>, she wrote, “A building that burns can be rebuilt. But if fire incinerates a state of mind, can that be put back together?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985209\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985209\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-ERICA-HELLERSTEIN_OAKLAND_03-EB-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person with long hairs sits in front of a bookshelf indoors.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-ERICA-HELLERSTEIN_OAKLAND_03-EB-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-ERICA-HELLERSTEIN_OAKLAND_03-EB-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-ERICA-HELLERSTEIN_OAKLAND_03-EB-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-ERICA-HELLERSTEIN_OAKLAND_03-EB-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-ERICA-HELLERSTEIN_OAKLAND_03-EB-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-ERICA-HELLERSTEIN_OAKLAND_03-EB-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-ERICA-HELLERSTEIN_OAKLAND_03-EB-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland-based journalist Erica Hellerstein poses for a portrait in her apartment overlooking Lake Merritt on June 30, 2023. In her Coda Story essay, Grieving California, she explored feelings of climate anxiety associated with grief — specifically, ‘grieving a future that may never come to pass’ as a result of warming global temperatures. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Hellerstein remembers the rupture when her memories of the past severed from her expectations of the future. It was September 2020, and smoke from fires burning across the state had smothered the sky. She watched, with jarring dissonance, as partygoers in hazmat masks waited outside a nightclub in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They were just pretending everything was normal,” she said. “That was another turning point for me, just cognitively of being like, ‘OK, yeah, things are really not what I remember from my childhood growing up here.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For me, it was visiting Paradise this summer five years after the Camp Fire ravaged the area, and seeing its pine trees replaced with shrubby manzanita and sprouting oaks. As fires and drought kill the mixed conifer trees that give the Sierra foothills their signature beauty, other plants more accustomed to Southern California’s clime are slowly replacing them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985418\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985418\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230809-SoldOutParadise-46-BL-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A house sits on a hillside dotted with green shrubs and dry grasses in the foreground.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230809-SoldOutParadise-46-BL-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230809-SoldOutParadise-46-BL-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230809-SoldOutParadise-46-BL-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230809-SoldOutParadise-46-BL-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230809-SoldOutParadise-46-BL-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/230809-SoldOutParadise-46-BL-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Empty lots dot the side of a residential area of Paradise on Aug. 9, 2023. The Camp Fire, a deadly fire that destroyed much of the towns of Paradise and Concow, swept through the area in 2018. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These pine trees — whose smell, earthy and fresh after the first fall rain, is permanently imprinted in my olfactory memory — are some of the most threatened. Of all the impacts climate change may bring, their prospective loss is one I haven’t quite reconciled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s so much grief there because we’ve had it so good in our life,” said Sam Hinrichs, a resident of Nevada County for 35 years. “We’ve had it so good, and we didn’t pay attention to that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hinrichs was once a volunteer firefighter and used to do wildfire mitigation work. Now, she sits on the board of the North San Juan Fire Protection District in Nevada County. She’s keenly aware of her own risk of living three miles down a gravel road, surrounded by forest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I do look at those climate maps, and I see where the danger zones are,” she said. “I think about fire every day, all the time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985419\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985419\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Inimim-Forest_San-Juan-Ridge_05-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A dead tree is surrounded by green trees.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Inimim-Forest_San-Juan-Ridge_05-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Inimim-Forest_San-Juan-Ridge_05-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Inimim-Forest_San-Juan-Ridge_05-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Inimim-Forest_San-Juan-Ridge_05-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Inimim-Forest_San-Juan-Ridge_05-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Inimim-Forest_San-Juan-Ridge_05-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A dead tree stands in the Inimim Forest on Aug. 9, 2023. A prolonged drought in California that began in 2000 and has been the most extreme since the 1500s has resulted in significant tree mortality. The mixed conifer trees of the mid-elevation Sierra Nevada Foothills are particularly threatened. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She’s watched the pine trees around her house turn brown from bark beetles that thrive in hotter weather and overproduce, killing the trees they feed on. It’s something she wants her son, Stanley, to see, so he can learn what to do about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though he’s only 6 years old, she’s already gotten him involved in tending their land, identifying which pine and cedar trees to fell, their seedlings replanted upslope, where it’s cooler, and which Black Oaks that can tolerate warmer weather, to leave in place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not feeling precious about [the pines] anymore,” she said. “I just want to give him skills for resilience and noticing what needs to happen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985423\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985423\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Inimim-Forest_San-Juan-Ridge_03-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A clearing in a wooded area.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Inimim-Forest_San-Juan-Ridge_03-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Inimim-Forest_San-Juan-Ridge_03-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Inimim-Forest_San-Juan-Ridge_03-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Inimim-Forest_San-Juan-Ridge_03-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Inimim-Forest_San-Juan-Ridge_03-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Inimim-Forest_San-Juan-Ridge_03-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A significantly thinned area of the Inimim Forest on the San Juan Ridge in Nevada County on Aug. 9, 2023, co-managed by the federal Bureau of Land Management and the Yuba Watershed Institute, a local nonprofit that got its start in the back-to-the-land movement of the 1970s. The management plan has thinned the forest, allowing light to filter through the trees and keeping brush close to the ground, making the area more likely to survive a wildfire. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Noticing, and knowing, what needs to happen is not an innate skill. It’s one Hinrichs developed from growing up in the area and from hand-clearing most of her 17-acre property. Using chainsaws and pole saws, she’s worked acre-by-acre, determining which plants hold birds’ nests or provide cover for nursing deers and which can be removed. It’s a labor-intensive process, but it also gives her unique insight into the forest’s health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The quail have come back since we’ve done this clearing,” she said. “I had only 12 quail, and now we’re up to like, 40, which is really cool.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hinrichs cannot know whether these efforts will be enough to save her home from a wildfire. Like many in this more remote part of the county, she lives without an insurer willing to cover her losses, relying instead on her own prevention efforts of hand-clearing the land and using prescribed fire to reduce her risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I married this land. I’ve made this my project,” she said. “If my house burns down, I’ll build another one. Probably. I’m trying to make it so my house doesn’t burn down, but fire is also just part of this place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Taking care\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In her book, \u003cem>Fire Monks: Zen Mind Meets Wildfire\u003c/em>, Berkeley author Colleen Morton Busch describes how a group of Buddhist monks at the Tassajara Zen Center in California’s Carmel Valley prepared for a wildfire bearing down on them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was 2008, during the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Tassajara-monks-practice-Zen-of-firefighting-3277372.php\">Basin Complex Fire\u003c/a>, and there was a debate among the monks and their students about the Zen Buddhist idea of non-attachment. Some argued to let the monastery burn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985206\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985206\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-COLLEEN-MORTON-BUSCH_BERKELEY_02-EB-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person with glasses sits at a table in an indoor setting.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-COLLEEN-MORTON-BUSCH_BERKELEY_02-EB-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-COLLEEN-MORTON-BUSCH_BERKELEY_02-EB-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-COLLEEN-MORTON-BUSCH_BERKELEY_02-EB-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-COLLEEN-MORTON-BUSCH_BERKELEY_02-EB-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-COLLEEN-MORTON-BUSCH_BERKELEY_02-EB-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-COLLEEN-MORTON-BUSCH_BERKELEY_02-EB-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231110-COLLEEN-MORTON-BUSCH_BERKELEY_02-EB-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Berkeley author Colleen Morton Busch poses for a portrait at her home on Sept. 19, 2023. Morton Busch is the author of ‘Fire Monks: Zen Mind Meets Wildfire,’ which describes the ways a group of monks at the Tassajara Zen Center in California’s Carmel Valley prepared and then defended against a wildfire bearing down on them. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the end, a group of five decided to stay and defend it. Morton-Busch wrote:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A clever Zen teacher might say that standing back and letting the monastery burn belies a kind of attachment to the idea of non-attachment. That trying to save it when it could all burn anyway is true non-attachment. In trying to save Tassajara from the fire, or your own life from disaster, you can’t be sure you will. In fact, you can lose everything you love in a moment. And that’s not a reason to give up. If anything, it’s a reason to turn toward the fire, recognizing it as a force of both creation and destruction and to take care of what’s right in front of you because that’s all you actually have.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some ways, the fire bearing down on Tassajara is a lot like climate change — a planetary fire bearing down on all of us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other ways, it is very different. The monks had one fire to contend with, but across the globe, we all face a different climate. It may be a hurricane in one area, record-breaking temperatures in another, deadly wildfires one year, heavy rains the next.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, there are the ways these changes quietly manifest, and are mourned or endured, in each heart and mind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Barbara was alive, and in the years since she passed away, most of our monthly trips up there were, and still are, spent tending the land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985469\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985469\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Barbaras-House_North-San-Juan_3-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A river and bank with trees.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1273\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Barbaras-House_North-San-Juan_3-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Barbaras-House_North-San-Juan_3-qut-800x530.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Barbaras-House_North-San-Juan_3-qut-1020x676.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Barbaras-House_North-San-Juan_3-qut-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Barbaras-House_North-San-Juan_3-qut-768x509.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/Barbaras-House_North-San-Juan_3-qut-1536x1018.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Yuba River winds through the Sierra Nevada foothills north of Hoyt’s Crossing in August 2023. The river is one of many world-class amenities that lure people to the area. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a continuous cycle of labor defined by the seasons, we begin after the first fall rain, limbing trees and pulling the flammable and invasive scotch broom. In the spring, we mow down annual grasses to preemptively rob the summer’s fires of their fuel. This year, I’ll bring my now four-year-old along with me. Together, we’ll gather branches from the ground to stack for kindling. And hopefully one day, we’ll both learn how to put good fire on the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is something liberating about this labor, which is itself a daily act of defiance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is here, in Nevada County and places like it, where no veneer of denialism can cover the stark realities already underway and where there is little time to brood over what is to come because there is too much work to be done now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In these places, precariously poised on the knife’s edge of a shifting climate, the choice is clear: leave or turn toward the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update 11:45 a.m., Friday: \u003c/strong>State energy regulators approved a plan Thursday that allows PG&E to raise rates on its customers to help the utility pay for burying power lines to prevent wildfires, as well as investments in clean energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E plans to put more than 1,200 miles of lines underground in the most wildfire-prone parts of the state. The utility wanted to do more, but regulators said that plan was too expensive and didn’t think PG&E could complete the work on time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The alternate proposed decision reflects our expectation that PG&E must substantially drive down risks from its infrastructure and improve overall safety for ratepayers,” said Alice Busching Reynolds, president of the California Public Utilities Commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ratepayers will see an average increase of about $30 a month on their bills next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Original story, 7:30 a.m., Thursday: \u003c/strong>California regulators plan to resume a vote on Thursday on whether to approve PG&E’s latest rate increase proposal, which has an estimated price tag of nearly $6 billion. If approved, the plan would result in an estimated monthly average customer rate increase of about $40.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposal would pay for the utility to bury 2,000 miles of its power lines by 2026. PG&E has said the plan would also fund investments in other wildfire mitigation work and clean energy growth, and it has argued that the undergrounding plan would help prevent its equipment from touching off the next big Northern California wildfire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Public Utilities Commission bristled at the cost of PG&E’s proposal and expressed skepticism that the company could complete the undergrounding work on time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The utility needs state approval to raise customer rates and to pay for the costly undergrounding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials have released two alternative proposals. They intended to vote on the various options earlier this month but pushed that back until Thursday’s meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plans ask PG&E to keep more lines above ground but install protective covers to insulate them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One proposal would allow the company to bury 200 miles of line and install 1,800 miles of insulation and other safety measures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The second plan would install 1,230 miles of line underground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both plans would result in an estimated average monthly bill increase of just over $30, or about $10 less per month than PG&E’s plan, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/-/media/cpuc-website/industries-and-topics/documents/pge/grcs/updatedfaq-pge-grc-111323.pdf\">according to a commission fact sheet\u003c/a>. [aside postID=science_1985295 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/fema-1_custom-b66ce655e4b269118416609d9fcc1af1f259f12a-s1300-c85.jpg']PG&E’s equipment sparked the 2018 Camp Fire that killed 85 people, burned 13,900 homes and destroyed much of the town of Paradise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The utility eventually pleaded guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter for its role in igniting the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E filed for bankruptcy in January 2019 when it was faced with shelling out billions of dollars in damages to the victims of these and other wildfires started by its equipment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The utility’s infrastructure also started the 2021 Dixie Fire, which torched more than a million acres and burned all the way across the Sierra Nevada.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1950703/climate-change-is-driving-californias-wildfires-the-kincade-fire-not-so-much\">Climate change has greatly amplified\u003c/a> California’s wildfire risk, especially in PG&E’s territory. A problem that has also been exacerbated by more people moving into forested areas and fire officials suppressing wildfires over many decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In recent years, PG&E has shut off power to especially at-risk neighborhoods during strong, dry wind storms — and the utility argues its undergrounding plans would prevent the need for these “public safety power shutoffs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once approved by the commission, customers would see changes to their bills beginning Jan. 1, 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update 11:45 a.m., Friday: \u003c/strong>State energy regulators approved a plan Thursday that allows PG&E to raise rates on its customers to help the utility pay for burying power lines to prevent wildfires, as well as investments in clean energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E plans to put more than 1,200 miles of lines underground in the most wildfire-prone parts of the state. The utility wanted to do more, but regulators said that plan was too expensive and didn’t think PG&E could complete the work on time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The alternate proposed decision reflects our expectation that PG&E must substantially drive down risks from its infrastructure and improve overall safety for ratepayers,” said Alice Busching Reynolds, president of the California Public Utilities Commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ratepayers will see an average increase of about $30 a month on their bills next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Original story, 7:30 a.m., Thursday: \u003c/strong>California regulators plan to resume a vote on Thursday on whether to approve PG&E’s latest rate increase proposal, which has an estimated price tag of nearly $6 billion. If approved, the plan would result in an estimated monthly average customer rate increase of about $40.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposal would pay for the utility to bury 2,000 miles of its power lines by 2026. PG&E has said the plan would also fund investments in other wildfire mitigation work and clean energy growth, and it has argued that the undergrounding plan would help prevent its equipment from touching off the next big Northern California wildfire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Public Utilities Commission bristled at the cost of PG&E’s proposal and expressed skepticism that the company could complete the undergrounding work on time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The utility needs state approval to raise customer rates and to pay for the costly undergrounding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials have released two alternative proposals. They intended to vote on the various options earlier this month but pushed that back until Thursday’s meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plans ask PG&E to keep more lines above ground but install protective covers to insulate them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One proposal would allow the company to bury 200 miles of line and install 1,800 miles of insulation and other safety measures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The second plan would install 1,230 miles of line underground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both plans would result in an estimated average monthly bill increase of just over $30, or about $10 less per month than PG&E’s plan, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/-/media/cpuc-website/industries-and-topics/documents/pge/grcs/updatedfaq-pge-grc-111323.pdf\">according to a commission fact sheet\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>PG&E’s equipment sparked the 2018 Camp Fire that killed 85 people, burned 13,900 homes and destroyed much of the town of Paradise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The utility eventually pleaded guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter for its role in igniting the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E filed for bankruptcy in January 2019 when it was faced with shelling out billions of dollars in damages to the victims of these and other wildfires started by its equipment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The utility’s infrastructure also started the 2021 Dixie Fire, which torched more than a million acres and burned all the way across the Sierra Nevada.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1950703/climate-change-is-driving-californias-wildfires-the-kincade-fire-not-so-much\">Climate change has greatly amplified\u003c/a> California’s wildfire risk, especially in PG&E’s territory. A problem that has also been exacerbated by more people moving into forested areas and fire officials suppressing wildfires over many decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In recent years, PG&E has shut off power to especially at-risk neighborhoods during strong, dry wind storms — and the utility argues its undergrounding plans would prevent the need for these “public safety power shutoffs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once approved by the commission, customers would see changes to their bills beginning Jan. 1, 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The annual \u003ca href=\"https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/meteors-meteorites/leonids/\">Leonids meteor shower\u003c/a> will reach peak activity on the morning of Nov. 18 this year, when it is expected to produce 10-15 meteors per hour under good weather conditions and dark skies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you want to see them, target your viewing hours anytime from midnight to dawn on Saturday morning — though meteor activity may increase as the morning hours grow later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985364\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985364 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/meteors-leonids-carter-roberts-2.jpg\" alt=\"Blue and yellow streaks across the star-filled night sky. \" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/meteors-leonids-carter-roberts-2.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/meteors-leonids-carter-roberts-2-160x90.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Timed exposure capturing several luminous trails of the Leonids meteor shower \u003ccite>(Eastbay Astronomical Society/Carter Roberts)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>How to watch, what to look for\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The key to a good meteor viewing experience is timing and location. Timing-wise, the best hours are after midnight, in the early morning, between 2–4 a.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for location, your two watchwords should be safe and dark, as far from sources of urban light pollution as possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A clear view of the eastern sky, without obstructions like trees, hills or buildings, is also important. The sky is the canvas on which the meteor shower paints its luminous streaks, so like any art gallery experience, there should be nothing blocking your line of sight to this work of art.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Leonids’ “radiant” point — the spot in the sky the meteors appear to streak from — is in the\u003ca href=\"https://earthsky.org/constellations/leo-heres-your-constellation/\"> constellation Leo\u003c/a>, the Lion, recognizable by the backward question mark formed by some of its stars. The bright star Regulus punctuates the dot of the question mark.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985363\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1101px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985363 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/stellarium-leo-nov18.jpg\" alt=\"Constelations of ranging shapes and sizes. \" width=\"1101\" height=\"802\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/stellarium-leo-nov18.jpg 1101w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/stellarium-leo-nov18-800x583.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/stellarium-leo-nov18-1020x743.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/stellarium-leo-nov18-160x117.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/stellarium-leo-nov18-768x559.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1101px) 100vw, 1101px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An eastward view of the sky at 3 a.m. on Nov. 18, centered on the constellation Leo, the radiant point of the Leonids meteor shower. \u003ccite>(Ben Burress/Made using Stellarium)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Leo rises on the eastern horizon around midnight and spends the rest of the morning climbing higher into the sky. By dawn, it is high above the southeastern horizon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Get comfortable. Bring a chair or a blanket to roll out on the ground. Meteor hunting takes patience, and you’ll have the best experience if you spend at least an hour, preferably more, under the stars. Gaze eastward, taking in as much of the sky as you can. Though meteors will appear to streak from Leo, they can appear anywhere in the sky anytime.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>Dark skies\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Though we live in a sprawling metropolitan area and the skies are inundated by urban light pollution, there are \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/quest/155/dark-secrets\">plenty of spots\u003c/a> fringing the Bay Area where the sky is partially shielded and relatively darker — or, at least, less bright — conditions can be found. In the South Bay, Henry Coe State Park is a good location. There are some roadside opportunities on the peninsula east of Skyline Blvd. In the East Bay, the Sunol area, Mount Diablo, the East Bay hills and Tilden Park are places to consider. And northward toward Sonoma and Napa counties provide plenty of rural back roads that offer dark promise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just check the weather to gauge how clouds or fog might impact viewing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The good news is that the waxing crescent moon sets early, leaving meteor-watching hours unimpacted by moonlight.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>What is a meteor shower?\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://leonid.arc.nasa.gov/meteor.html\">meteor\u003c/a>, or “shooting star,” is a tiny speck of rock or metal that hits Earth’s atmosphere at high speed and burns up in a fiery flash. If you’ve watched a video of a spacecraft reentering Earth’s atmosphere on its way home and falling in a bright streaking shroud, then you’ve seen the phenomenon that produces a meteor. In the case of the spacecraft, its speed is a mere few thousand miles per hour, while a typical meteor hits the atmosphere, moving tens of miles per second, making it fall fast and furious.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985358\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 483px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985358 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/1036624main_leonid-1999-nasa.jpg\" alt=\"Streaking white lines across a dark night sky. \" width=\"483\" height=\"283\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/1036624main_leonid-1999-nasa.jpg 483w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/1036624main_leonid-1999-nasa-160x94.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 483px) 100vw, 483px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Leonids meteor “storm” during increased activity in 1999 \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/\">meteor shower\u003c/a> happens when the Earth moves through a trail of dust left behind by a comet sometime in the past. A comet is like a big, dirty snowball, and when it gets close to the sun, some of its ice is heated and evaporates, carrying into space dust that scatters in the comet’s trail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Earth itself moves around the sun at a speed of 18 miles per second, and when combined with the orbital velocity of the dust stream, meteor entry speeds can reach 20 or 30 miles per second. The result here on the ground is a meteor shower, with individual meteors appearing to fall from the direction the Earth is moving through space — the shower’s radiant point. This is why we typically only see a meteor shower in the morning hours when our location is on the side of the Earth moving forward into the dust stream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meteors you see burn up high in the atmosphere, at altitudes of 40 to 50 miles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Cometary Origin\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The comet that left behind the stream of dust that is the source of Leonids meteors is called 55\u003ca href=\"https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/comets/55p-tempel-tuttle/\">/Temple-Tuttle\u003c/a>. Temple-Tuttle orbits the sun once every 33 years and was last seen in our part of the solar system back in 1998. The comet will return in 2031, adding more dust to its orbital trail and potentially boosting future Leonids activity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985359\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 683px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985359\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/anatomy-of-a-comet.en_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"683\" height=\"482\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/anatomy-of-a-comet.en_.jpg 683w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/anatomy-of-a-comet.en_-160x113.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Anatomy of a comet. The dust trail left behind by a comet as it passes near the sun is the source of meteor showers. When the Earth moves through the dust tail, bits of dust are incinerated by friction in the atmosphere.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, the Leonids have been known to produce meteor storms following the close passage of Temple-Tuttle. In 1966, Leonids fell at a breathtaking rate of thousands of meteors per minute for some observers. Following its 1998 passage, Leonids’ activity increased impressively over the next two or three years — though nothing like the storm of 1966.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The annual \u003ca href=\"https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/meteors-meteorites/leonids/\">Leonids meteor shower\u003c/a> will reach peak activity on the morning of Nov. 18 this year, when it is expected to produce 10-15 meteors per hour under good weather conditions and dark skies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you want to see them, target your viewing hours anytime from midnight to dawn on Saturday morning — though meteor activity may increase as the morning hours grow later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985364\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985364 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/meteors-leonids-carter-roberts-2.jpg\" alt=\"Blue and yellow streaks across the star-filled night sky. \" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/meteors-leonids-carter-roberts-2.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/meteors-leonids-carter-roberts-2-160x90.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Timed exposure capturing several luminous trails of the Leonids meteor shower \u003ccite>(Eastbay Astronomical Society/Carter Roberts)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>How to watch, what to look for\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The key to a good meteor viewing experience is timing and location. Timing-wise, the best hours are after midnight, in the early morning, between 2–4 a.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for location, your two watchwords should be safe and dark, as far from sources of urban light pollution as possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A clear view of the eastern sky, without obstructions like trees, hills or buildings, is also important. The sky is the canvas on which the meteor shower paints its luminous streaks, so like any art gallery experience, there should be nothing blocking your line of sight to this work of art.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Leonids’ “radiant” point — the spot in the sky the meteors appear to streak from — is in the\u003ca href=\"https://earthsky.org/constellations/leo-heres-your-constellation/\"> constellation Leo\u003c/a>, the Lion, recognizable by the backward question mark formed by some of its stars. The bright star Regulus punctuates the dot of the question mark.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985363\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1101px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985363 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/stellarium-leo-nov18.jpg\" alt=\"Constelations of ranging shapes and sizes. \" width=\"1101\" height=\"802\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/stellarium-leo-nov18.jpg 1101w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/stellarium-leo-nov18-800x583.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/stellarium-leo-nov18-1020x743.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/stellarium-leo-nov18-160x117.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/stellarium-leo-nov18-768x559.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1101px) 100vw, 1101px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An eastward view of the sky at 3 a.m. on Nov. 18, centered on the constellation Leo, the radiant point of the Leonids meteor shower. \u003ccite>(Ben Burress/Made using Stellarium)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Leo rises on the eastern horizon around midnight and spends the rest of the morning climbing higher into the sky. By dawn, it is high above the southeastern horizon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Get comfortable. Bring a chair or a blanket to roll out on the ground. Meteor hunting takes patience, and you’ll have the best experience if you spend at least an hour, preferably more, under the stars. Gaze eastward, taking in as much of the sky as you can. Though meteors will appear to streak from Leo, they can appear anywhere in the sky anytime.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>Dark skies\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Though we live in a sprawling metropolitan area and the skies are inundated by urban light pollution, there are \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/quest/155/dark-secrets\">plenty of spots\u003c/a> fringing the Bay Area where the sky is partially shielded and relatively darker — or, at least, less bright — conditions can be found. In the South Bay, Henry Coe State Park is a good location. There are some roadside opportunities on the peninsula east of Skyline Blvd. In the East Bay, the Sunol area, Mount Diablo, the East Bay hills and Tilden Park are places to consider. And northward toward Sonoma and Napa counties provide plenty of rural back roads that offer dark promise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just check the weather to gauge how clouds or fog might impact viewing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The good news is that the waxing crescent moon sets early, leaving meteor-watching hours unimpacted by moonlight.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>What is a meteor shower?\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://leonid.arc.nasa.gov/meteor.html\">meteor\u003c/a>, or “shooting star,” is a tiny speck of rock or metal that hits Earth’s atmosphere at high speed and burns up in a fiery flash. If you’ve watched a video of a spacecraft reentering Earth’s atmosphere on its way home and falling in a bright streaking shroud, then you’ve seen the phenomenon that produces a meteor. In the case of the spacecraft, its speed is a mere few thousand miles per hour, while a typical meteor hits the atmosphere, moving tens of miles per second, making it fall fast and furious.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985358\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 483px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985358 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/1036624main_leonid-1999-nasa.jpg\" alt=\"Streaking white lines across a dark night sky. \" width=\"483\" height=\"283\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/1036624main_leonid-1999-nasa.jpg 483w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/1036624main_leonid-1999-nasa-160x94.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 483px) 100vw, 483px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Leonids meteor “storm” during increased activity in 1999 \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/\">meteor shower\u003c/a> happens when the Earth moves through a trail of dust left behind by a comet sometime in the past. A comet is like a big, dirty snowball, and when it gets close to the sun, some of its ice is heated and evaporates, carrying into space dust that scatters in the comet’s trail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Earth itself moves around the sun at a speed of 18 miles per second, and when combined with the orbital velocity of the dust stream, meteor entry speeds can reach 20 or 30 miles per second. The result here on the ground is a meteor shower, with individual meteors appearing to fall from the direction the Earth is moving through space — the shower’s radiant point. This is why we typically only see a meteor shower in the morning hours when our location is on the side of the Earth moving forward into the dust stream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meteors you see burn up high in the atmosphere, at altitudes of 40 to 50 miles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Cometary Origin\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The comet that left behind the stream of dust that is the source of Leonids meteors is called 55\u003ca href=\"https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/comets/55p-tempel-tuttle/\">/Temple-Tuttle\u003c/a>. Temple-Tuttle orbits the sun once every 33 years and was last seen in our part of the solar system back in 1998. The comet will return in 2031, adding more dust to its orbital trail and potentially boosting future Leonids activity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985359\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 683px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985359\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/anatomy-of-a-comet.en_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"683\" height=\"482\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/anatomy-of-a-comet.en_.jpg 683w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/anatomy-of-a-comet.en_-160x113.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Anatomy of a comet. The dust trail left behind by a comet as it passes near the sun is the source of meteor showers. When the Earth moves through the dust tail, bits of dust are incinerated by friction in the atmosphere.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, the Leonids have been known to produce meteor storms following the close passage of Temple-Tuttle. In 1966, Leonids fell at a breathtaking rate of thousands of meteors per minute for some observers. Following its 1998 passage, Leonids’ activity increased impressively over the next two or three years — though nothing like the storm of 1966.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Bay Area Climate Activists Rally Against Exxon Mobil CEO's APEC Speech",
"headTitle": "Bay Area Climate Activists Rally Against Exxon Mobil CEO’s APEC Speech | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 2:20 p.m. Wednesday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Exxon Mobil’s CEO Darren Woods spoke to leaders gathered in San Francisco for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperative summit today and said his company and the oil industry can be part of the solution to reduce emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As he spoke, hundreds protested outside, marching across San Francisco and, at times, attempting to prevent attendees from entering the summit by blocking entrances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The advocates pressed the oil company to stop its business with fossil fuels and criticized APEC summit leaders for providing the energy giant with an international platform.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few of the activists staged a “symbolic wedding,” officiated by a person dressed up as a devil, denouncing Citi’s financial assistance for \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/10/12/1205357429/exxonmobil-makes-a-60-billion-oil-deal-doubling-down-on-fossil-fuels\">Exxon Mobil’s $60 billion deal to acquire one of the country’s biggest oil fields in Texas\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985379\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231115-APECClimateProtest-18-BL.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985379 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231115-APECClimateProtest-18-BL.jpg\" alt=\"A theatrical performance of a devil as an officiant during a protest wedding.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231115-APECClimateProtest-18-BL.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231115-APECClimateProtest-18-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231115-APECClimateProtest-18-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231115-APECClimateProtest-18-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231115-APECClimateProtest-18-BL-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231115-APECClimateProtest-18-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Climate demonstrators block Market Street to hold a symbolic wedding to denounce the recent union between Exxon Mobil and Citibank during the APEC summit in San Francisco on Nov. 15, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re just highlighting how these mergers and the union between these corporations continue to extract from communities and [are] destroying our planet and causing the climate chaos that is affecting people everywhere,” said climate activist Renata Pumarol, an organizer with Climate Defenders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985375\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231115-APECClimateProtest-15-BL.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985375 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231115-APECClimateProtest-15-BL.jpg\" alt=\"A protester carries a sign.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231115-APECClimateProtest-15-BL.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231115-APECClimateProtest-15-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231115-APECClimateProtest-15-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231115-APECClimateProtest-15-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231115-APECClimateProtest-15-BL-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231115-APECClimateProtest-15-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kurtis Lamore holds a sign that says, ‘Exxon Mobil Darren Wood’ with red hand prints during a protest against the APEC summit in San Francisco on Nov. 15, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>C.J. Acevedo attended the rally in drag, wearing a bloody wedding dress representing the CEO of Citi Jane Fraser.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We created this little performance art piece with Jane and Darren getting married because they are doing a merger right now worth over $59 billion,” Acevedo said. “I really think that it’s important to kind of integrate art and social justice issues. I feel like that’s been done like since the beginning, especially when it comes to drag as a form of protest, and what better way to make a statement and entertain and also educate at the same time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/ezraromero/status/1724810064970834242\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Woods delivered a speech in the summit’s main hall titled “Reframing the Climate Challenge: Keep the Energy, Reduce the Emissions” and highlighted how the company is investing in technology to capture carbon and slash its emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985393\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SF701419-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985393 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SF701419-scaled.jpg\" alt='A man wearing glasses and business suit stands at a podium with the words \"APEC CEO SUMMIT USA 2023\" in the background.' width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SF701419-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SF701419-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SF701419-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SF701419-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SF701419-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SF701419-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SF701419-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SF701419-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods speaks at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit in San Francisco on Nov. 15, 2023. \u003ccite>(Photo Courtesy of APEC)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Oil and gas companies reliably provide affordable products essential to modern life,” Woods said. “Making them into villains is easy, but it does nothing, absolutely nothing, to accomplish the goal of reducing emissions. In fact, it puts the reliable supply of energy at risk, destabilizing global economies, degrading people’s standards of living. And as we saw in Europe, actually raising emissions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The better approach, constructive approach, is to harness the industry’s capabilities for change, put us to work,” he continued. “We’ve got the tools, the skills, the size, and the intellectual and financial resources to bend the curve on emissions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added that the company will work to drive down emissions and produce lower carbon-intensity oil and gas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nik Vasco, a climate organizer with the No to APEC Coalition, called the speech “greenwashing” and an attempt to mislead the public about the consequences of oil extraction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fact that Darren Woods gets to be front and center during this conference is a major red flag for climate-concerned folks,” Vasco said in an interview with KQED. “When we think about Exxon, they’re one of the biggest polluters, one of the largest climate criminals that we’ve ever had.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is significance behind Woods speaking in California. State officials \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/09/16/1199974919/california-oil-lawsuit-climate-change\">filed a lawsuit earlier this year against Exxon Mobil and other oil companies\u003c/a>, alleging that they knew they were causing climate change and lied to cover it up. California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed the \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/FINAL-9-15-COMPLAINT.pdf\">suit\u003c/a> in September with the San Francisco Superior Court, just over a mile from the conference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Oil and gas companies have privately known the truth for decades — that the burning of fossil fuels leads to climate change — but have fed us lies and mistruths to further their record-breaking profits at the expense of our environment. Enough is enough,” Bonta said in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2023/09/16/people-of-the-state-of-california-v-big-oil/\">statement\u003c/a> at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The suit demands that these oil companies pay for recovery efforts related to climate-fueled weather events like drought, wildfires or flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Woods also talked about lithium, a significant component in the batteries that power electric cars. \u003ca href=\"https://corporate.exxonmobil.com/news/news-releases/2023/1113_exxonmobil-drilling-first-lithium-well-in-arkansas\">Just this week, Exxon Mobil announced its plans to become a leading lithium producer by 2030\u003c/a>, beginning with a project in southwest Arkansas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Company executives have described the project as a “win-win-win” and an example of how Exxon Mobil can expand the supply of a critical industrial material while reducing the emissions associated with transportation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=science_1985281,news_11967349 label='Related Coverage']The company plans to use traditional oil and gas drilling methods to reach lithium-rich deposits deep underground, extract it, and separate it from saltwater.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 2:20 p.m. Wednesday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Exxon Mobil’s CEO Darren Woods spoke to leaders gathered in San Francisco for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperative summit today and said his company and the oil industry can be part of the solution to reduce emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As he spoke, hundreds protested outside, marching across San Francisco and, at times, attempting to prevent attendees from entering the summit by blocking entrances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The advocates pressed the oil company to stop its business with fossil fuels and criticized APEC summit leaders for providing the energy giant with an international platform.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few of the activists staged a “symbolic wedding,” officiated by a person dressed up as a devil, denouncing Citi’s financial assistance for \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/10/12/1205357429/exxonmobil-makes-a-60-billion-oil-deal-doubling-down-on-fossil-fuels\">Exxon Mobil’s $60 billion deal to acquire one of the country’s biggest oil fields in Texas\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985379\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231115-APECClimateProtest-18-BL.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985379 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231115-APECClimateProtest-18-BL.jpg\" alt=\"A theatrical performance of a devil as an officiant during a protest wedding.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231115-APECClimateProtest-18-BL.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231115-APECClimateProtest-18-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231115-APECClimateProtest-18-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231115-APECClimateProtest-18-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231115-APECClimateProtest-18-BL-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231115-APECClimateProtest-18-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Climate demonstrators block Market Street to hold a symbolic wedding to denounce the recent union between Exxon Mobil and Citibank during the APEC summit in San Francisco on Nov. 15, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re just highlighting how these mergers and the union between these corporations continue to extract from communities and [are] destroying our planet and causing the climate chaos that is affecting people everywhere,” said climate activist Renata Pumarol, an organizer with Climate Defenders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985375\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231115-APECClimateProtest-15-BL.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985375 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231115-APECClimateProtest-15-BL.jpg\" alt=\"A protester carries a sign.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231115-APECClimateProtest-15-BL.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231115-APECClimateProtest-15-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231115-APECClimateProtest-15-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231115-APECClimateProtest-15-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231115-APECClimateProtest-15-BL-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/231115-APECClimateProtest-15-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kurtis Lamore holds a sign that says, ‘Exxon Mobil Darren Wood’ with red hand prints during a protest against the APEC summit in San Francisco on Nov. 15, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>C.J. Acevedo attended the rally in drag, wearing a bloody wedding dress representing the CEO of Citi Jane Fraser.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We created this little performance art piece with Jane and Darren getting married because they are doing a merger right now worth over $59 billion,” Acevedo said. “I really think that it’s important to kind of integrate art and social justice issues. I feel like that’s been done like since the beginning, especially when it comes to drag as a form of protest, and what better way to make a statement and entertain and also educate at the same time.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Woods delivered a speech in the summit’s main hall titled “Reframing the Climate Challenge: Keep the Energy, Reduce the Emissions” and highlighted how the company is investing in technology to capture carbon and slash its emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985393\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SF701419-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1985393 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SF701419-scaled.jpg\" alt='A man wearing glasses and business suit stands at a podium with the words \"APEC CEO SUMMIT USA 2023\" in the background.' width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SF701419-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SF701419-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SF701419-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SF701419-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SF701419-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SF701419-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SF701419-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/SF701419-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods speaks at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit in San Francisco on Nov. 15, 2023. \u003ccite>(Photo Courtesy of APEC)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Oil and gas companies reliably provide affordable products essential to modern life,” Woods said. “Making them into villains is easy, but it does nothing, absolutely nothing, to accomplish the goal of reducing emissions. In fact, it puts the reliable supply of energy at risk, destabilizing global economies, degrading people’s standards of living. And as we saw in Europe, actually raising emissions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The better approach, constructive approach, is to harness the industry’s capabilities for change, put us to work,” he continued. “We’ve got the tools, the skills, the size, and the intellectual and financial resources to bend the curve on emissions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added that the company will work to drive down emissions and produce lower carbon-intensity oil and gas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nik Vasco, a climate organizer with the No to APEC Coalition, called the speech “greenwashing” and an attempt to mislead the public about the consequences of oil extraction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fact that Darren Woods gets to be front and center during this conference is a major red flag for climate-concerned folks,” Vasco said in an interview with KQED. “When we think about Exxon, they’re one of the biggest polluters, one of the largest climate criminals that we’ve ever had.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is significance behind Woods speaking in California. State officials \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/09/16/1199974919/california-oil-lawsuit-climate-change\">filed a lawsuit earlier this year against Exxon Mobil and other oil companies\u003c/a>, alleging that they knew they were causing climate change and lied to cover it up. California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed the \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/FINAL-9-15-COMPLAINT.pdf\">suit\u003c/a> in September with the San Francisco Superior Court, just over a mile from the conference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Oil and gas companies have privately known the truth for decades — that the burning of fossil fuels leads to climate change — but have fed us lies and mistruths to further their record-breaking profits at the expense of our environment. Enough is enough,” Bonta said in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2023/09/16/people-of-the-state-of-california-v-big-oil/\">statement\u003c/a> at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The suit demands that these oil companies pay for recovery efforts related to climate-fueled weather events like drought, wildfires or flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Woods also talked about lithium, a significant component in the batteries that power electric cars. \u003ca href=\"https://corporate.exxonmobil.com/news/news-releases/2023/1113_exxonmobil-drilling-first-lithium-well-in-arkansas\">Just this week, Exxon Mobil announced its plans to become a leading lithium producer by 2030\u003c/a>, beginning with a project in southwest Arkansas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Company executives have described the project as a “win-win-win” and an example of how Exxon Mobil can expand the supply of a critical industrial material while reducing the emissions associated with transportation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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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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"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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"hidden-brain": {
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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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"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
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"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"
},
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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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