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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The California Coastal Commission and the State Lands Commission continue their battle with Silicon Valley billionaire Vinod Khosla over public access to Martins Beach on the San Mateo County coast. For 100 years, Bay Area families have been going to this beach, seven miles south of Half Moon Bay, to fish, swim and picnic. The only way onto this scenic beach is a single road through private property. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, bought the land surrounding Martins Beach in 2008, he restricted access to that road by displaying “No Trespassing” signs, charging parking fees, and locking its access gate. This newest lawsuit continues a 10-year conflict that could affect land-access rights throughout California. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Paul Rogers\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, managing editor of KQED Science, has been covering the\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/01/06/martins-beach-california-sues-billionaire-vinod-khosla-over-public-access/\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">story\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for the Mercury News, where he writes about the environment. He and KQED’s Brian Watt spoke about the latest developments and long history surrounding Martins Beach. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What’s at the center of this newest lawsuit?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Under a legal doctrine in California called \u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=SSEZXsfcJYT-9AOpy5mIBg&q=implied+dedication&oq=implied+dedication&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0l2j0i22i30l8.2317.4585..4815...0.0..0.120.1198.16j2......0....1..gws-wiz.......0i131j0i70i249j0i22i10i30.Koki5eX5LGg&ved=0ahUKEwiHpbahr_rmAhUEP30KHallBmEQ4dUDCAg&uact=5&safe=active&ssui=on\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">implied dedication\u003c/a>, public use of a road for five years or more without restrictions establishes a permanent legal right to the road. Khosla argues that people never had that right because, for years before he bought the land surrounding the beach, its former owners charged a parking fee. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote] This case represents a big clash between two rights: private property and free access to California’s coastline. [/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Last year in a separate lawsuit, a state appeals court agreed with Khosla. But the Coastal Commission is now arguing that the court didn’t consider all the evidence. For this new lawsuit, to demonstrate that people routinely used the access road without paying, the Coastal Commission has collected a century of photographs, journal entries, letters and the like from 230 families.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>This is just one beach. Why is \u003c/b>\u003cb>this\u003c/b>\u003cb> case such a big deal?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Environmental groups and beachgoers say that what happens at Martins Beach could set a precedent that would allow very wealthy people in other parts of California — Malibu for example — to block access to public lands. Khosla has argued that he’s sticking up for his private property rights. Just as people have no right to walk through a landowner’s backyard without permission, he contends that they have no right to use the road through his property. This case represents a big clash between two rights: private property and free access to California’s coastline. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Didn’t Khosla already lose a case that went all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Two years ago, the nation’s highest court refused to hear an appeal of a case that Khosla lost in three lower courts in California. The landowner had argued that he did not need a permit to close the gate to the access road running through his property to the beach. But California’s coastal law is pretty clear. Property owners need permits from the Coastal Commission not only when they build houses near the beach, but also if they change public access to the beach. So Khosla lost that case. Since then, he has opened the gate most days and he allows people who pay a $10 parking fee to drive to the beach.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>How will the result of this latest lawsuit affect the fight over this beach?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s a really big juncture in this long-running battle because a win for Khosla would establish that there is no legal public right to use that road. Such a decision would make it easier for him to get a permit to close the gate from the Coastal Commission. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If the state wins, there’s almost no way that the Coastal Commission is going to grant that Khosla permit. Commissioners would argue that the public right to that road existed for decades. Additionally, the commission would probably prevent Khosla from charging the $10 parking fee. Potentially, it could fine him $20 million or more. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even if California loses this case, the State Lands Commission could try to seize the road or access to it by eminent domain.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The California Coastal Commission and the State Lands Commission continue their battle with Silicon Valley billionaire Vinod Khosla over public access to Martins Beach on the San Mateo County coast. For 100 years, Bay Area families have been going to this beach, seven miles south of Half Moon Bay, to fish, swim and picnic. The only way onto this scenic beach is a single road through private property. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, bought the land surrounding Martins Beach in 2008, he restricted access to that road by displaying “No Trespassing” signs, charging parking fees, and locking its access gate. This newest lawsuit continues a 10-year conflict that could affect land-access rights throughout California. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Paul Rogers\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, managing editor of KQED Science, has been covering the\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/01/06/martins-beach-california-sues-billionaire-vinod-khosla-over-public-access/\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">story\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for the Mercury News, where he writes about the environment. He and KQED’s Brian Watt spoke about the latest developments and long history surrounding Martins Beach. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What’s at the center of this newest lawsuit?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Under a legal doctrine in California called \u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=SSEZXsfcJYT-9AOpy5mIBg&q=implied+dedication&oq=implied+dedication&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0l2j0i22i30l8.2317.4585..4815...0.0..0.120.1198.16j2......0....1..gws-wiz.......0i131j0i70i249j0i22i10i30.Koki5eX5LGg&ved=0ahUKEwiHpbahr_rmAhUEP30KHallBmEQ4dUDCAg&uact=5&safe=active&ssui=on\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">implied dedication\u003c/a>, public use of a road for five years or more without restrictions establishes a permanent legal right to the road. Khosla argues that people never had that right because, for years before he bought the land surrounding the beach, its former owners charged a parking fee. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>A new \u003ca href=\"https://elifesciences.org/articles/49555\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">study\u003c/a> published in the journal \u003cem>eLife\u003c/em> reports the average body temperature of Americans has declined by 1.1 degree Fahrenheit since the Civil War. The authors say the 98.6 degrees standard set in 1851 by a German physician is no longer the average in the United States.\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We shouldn’t be stuck on 98.6 as being some magical number that if you’re above it, you’re febrile,” said Dr. Julie Parsonnet, who teaches medicine as well as health research and policy at Stanford. “And if you’re below it, you’re not.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers hypothesize that better public health and consistent indoor temperatures may be reasons for the steady decline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Thermometers Aren’t the Problem\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This isn’t the first time scientists have noted body temperatures are falling. A 2002 \u003ca href=\"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1471-6712.2002.00069.x\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">research\u003c/a> review indicated the 98.6 degrees standard was too high. And a 2017 \u003ca href=\"https://www.bmj.com/content/359/bmj.j5468\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">study\u003c/a> concluded 97.9 degrees is the current average in Britain. Scientists, however, thought the discrepancy had to do with false readings from the thermometers of the past \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span> in other words, that we weren’t really 98.6 in the first place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But now, after reviewing three additional datasets, the Stanford researchers conclude that over the past 150 years a steady cooling trend in American body temperatures has, indeed, occurred. The researchers analyzed Civil War veterans’ records, 1970s data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, and recent medical records from patients who visited Stanford\u003cspan class=\"apple-converted-space\"> Health Care. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Without changing our genetic makeup, we are changing physiologically over time,” Parsonnet said. “We’ve seen that people have grown taller, they’ve grown fatter, and their body temperature is declining … .”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers did not offer an updated average for all Americans because body temperatures change throughout our day as well as lifetime. Age and sex influence our internal thermostats; and factors like activity level, food consumption and what time it is affect how hot we run daily.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Modern Life Influences Evolution\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers surmise body temperature might be steadily declining because Americans suffer less inflammation due to improved water quality, sanitation, antibiotics, vaccines and dental hygiene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The standard of 98.6 was set back in the mid 19th century when people were suffering all of the time from infectious diseases,” said Parsonnet. “It wouldn’t surprise me if their temperature was a little bit higher because they were fighting tuberculosis, malaria and dysentery all the time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because we live and work in more consistent environments than previous generations, she says, our bodies expend less energy. Two hundred years ago, homes did not have central heating and air conditioning, for instance.\u003cb>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Why It Matters\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whether or not our temperature is dropping is not merely an interesting tidbit. Body temperature affects our basal metabolic rate, which is linked to longevity and body size. A high metabolism can shorten one’s lifespan; a low metabolism can lead to weight gain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parsonnet says researchers’ next step is to analyze temperature variability around the globe. For example, conditions in a resource-poor country may preclude a decline because chronic infections are still common. Or, perhaps people who live in harsher climates like the one in the Arctic may run hotter because their bodies must work harder to stay comfortable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A new \u003ca href=\"https://elifesciences.org/articles/49555\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">study\u003c/a> published in the journal \u003cem>eLife\u003c/em> reports the average body temperature of Americans has declined by 1.1 degree Fahrenheit since the Civil War. The authors say the 98.6 degrees standard set in 1851 by a German physician is no longer the average in the United States.\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We shouldn’t be stuck on 98.6 as being some magical number that if you’re above it, you’re febrile,” said Dr. Julie Parsonnet, who teaches medicine as well as health research and policy at Stanford. “And if you’re below it, you’re not.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers hypothesize that better public health and consistent indoor temperatures may be reasons for the steady decline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Thermometers Aren’t the Problem\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This isn’t the first time scientists have noted body temperatures are falling. A 2002 \u003ca href=\"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1471-6712.2002.00069.x\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">research\u003c/a> review indicated the 98.6 degrees standard was too high. And a 2017 \u003ca href=\"https://www.bmj.com/content/359/bmj.j5468\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">study\u003c/a> concluded 97.9 degrees is the current average in Britain. Scientists, however, thought the discrepancy had to do with false readings from the thermometers of the past \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span> in other words, that we weren’t really 98.6 in the first place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But now, after reviewing three additional datasets, the Stanford researchers conclude that over the past 150 years a steady cooling trend in American body temperatures has, indeed, occurred. The researchers analyzed Civil War veterans’ records, 1970s data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, and recent medical records from patients who visited Stanford\u003cspan class=\"apple-converted-space\"> Health Care. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Without changing our genetic makeup, we are changing physiologically over time,” Parsonnet said. “We’ve seen that people have grown taller, they’ve grown fatter, and their body temperature is declining … .”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers did not offer an updated average for all Americans because body temperatures change throughout our day as well as lifetime. Age and sex influence our internal thermostats; and factors like activity level, food consumption and what time it is affect how hot we run daily.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Modern Life Influences Evolution\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers surmise body temperature might be steadily declining because Americans suffer less inflammation due to improved water quality, sanitation, antibiotics, vaccines and dental hygiene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The standard of 98.6 was set back in the mid 19th century when people were suffering all of the time from infectious diseases,” said Parsonnet. “It wouldn’t surprise me if their temperature was a little bit higher because they were fighting tuberculosis, malaria and dysentery all the time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because we live and work in more consistent environments than previous generations, she says, our bodies expend less energy. Two hundred years ago, homes did not have central heating and air conditioning, for instance.\u003cb>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Why It Matters\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whether or not our temperature is dropping is not merely an interesting tidbit. Body temperature affects our basal metabolic rate, which is linked to longevity and body size. A high metabolism can shorten one’s lifespan; a low metabolism can lead to weight gain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parsonnet says researchers’ next step is to analyze temperature variability around the globe. For example, conditions in a resource-poor country may preclude a decline because chronic infections are still common. Or, perhaps people who live in harsher climates like the one in the Arctic may run hotter because their bodies must work harder to stay comfortable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Denise MacDonald held out a tray of spiny purple sea urchins. The roe, served in the shell and the color of egg yolk, contrasted nicely with the urchin’s dark, purple spines. MacDonald, director of global brand marketing at a company called Urchinomics, invited me to have a taste. I scooped up a blueberry-sized amount with a spoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s good: salty, fresh, creamy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Tastes like the sea,” I said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But with a buttery aftertaste,” said MacDonald.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Urchinomics and its partner, the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory, are running a trial designed to develop methods for ranching purple sea urchins for profit, while at the same time addressing the consequences of a nasty ecological chain reaction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2014-15, sea stars began dying en masse from a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1937467/historic-sea-star-die-off-tied-to-global-warming\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">mysterious wasting disease\u003c/a>, which scientists believe was exacerbated by a massive blob of warm water that spread throughout the Pacific Ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because starfish prey on sea urchins, the latter population’s exploded when the former’s dwindled. The urchin boom had a profound effect on another ocean-living organism: kelp, a type of seaweed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“During that time, the urchin populations … started to eat all of the kelp forests along our coast,” said Laura Rogers-Bennett, an environmental scientist at the Bodega Marine Laboratory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ocean hasn’t been the same since.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“More than 90% of the kelp forest has disappeared from San Francisco up into southern Oregon and has been replaced by sea urchin barrens,” Rogers-Bennett said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Normally, a kelp forest provides a wealth of benefits, harboring fish, sequestering carbon, preventing shoreline erosion and producing oxygen. Areas bare of kelp can’t do any of that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But while the regrowth of trees takes decades, these kelp forests could bounce back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re very fast-growing,” said Rogers-Bennett. “It would take them only six months to rebound, if we could remove some of this urchin-grazing pressure.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that’s where eating purple sea urchins comes in …\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1952342\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1952342\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40333_IMG_4548-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40333_IMG_4548-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40333_IMG_4548-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40333_IMG_4548-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40333_IMG_4548-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40333_IMG_4548-qut-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40333_IMG_4548-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The contrast between an urchin just brought in from the barrens (left) and an urchin plumped up on kombu seaweed in a lab trial, demonstrates the effectiveness of the urchin ranching operation at the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory. \u003ccite>(Ryan Tamborski/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Introducing Your New Favorite Delicacy \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we’re doing here is we’re looking at a financial incentive model that makes these purple urchins of value,” said Karl Menard, aquatic resources manager at the Bodega lab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The idea is that divers can collect urchins off the coast by the thousands and relocate them into a sort of urchin ranch. The urchins, having gobbled up an entire seaweed forest into nonexistence, frequently arrive at the lab in a state of starvation. They are raised in plastic crates and fed pellets of dried algae, made from the trimmings of kombu, a type of kelp that is processed in factories for human consumption. That diet can fatten them up in about eight weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1952343\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 540px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1952343\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40335_IMG_4513-sfi.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"540\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40335_IMG_4513-sfi.jpg 540w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40335_IMG_4513-sfi-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Karl Menard lifts a tray out of urchins out of the water in the Bodega Marine Lab urchin ranching operations. \u003ccite>(Ryan Tamborski/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The “roe” or uni is already a delicacy in Japan and commonly used in sushi. (Technically speaking, roe is a mass of eggs, but uni are urchin gonads.) A live urchin full of uni can be sold for good money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They would be considered a premium product and could be worth $8 or $10 or more in the market,” said Menard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The hope ultimately is to make urchins a common food anywhere they have created a barrens on the Pacific coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>MacDonald envisions one day being able to go into seafood restaurants to try urchin from different regions, the way we do now with oysters. “I think that there’s there’s room for that,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This month Urchinomics opened a commercial site in Oita, on the Japanese island of Kyushu. The company is currently negotiating a lease for a property in Bodega Bay, and it’s hoping to be fully operational in 2020.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Denise MacDonald held out a tray of spiny purple sea urchins. The roe, served in the shell and the color of egg yolk, contrasted nicely with the urchin’s dark, purple spines. MacDonald, director of global brand marketing at a company called Urchinomics, invited me to have a taste. I scooped up a blueberry-sized amount with a spoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s good: salty, fresh, creamy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Tastes like the sea,” I said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But with a buttery aftertaste,” said MacDonald.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Urchinomics and its partner, the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory, are running a trial designed to develop methods for ranching purple sea urchins for profit, while at the same time addressing the consequences of a nasty ecological chain reaction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2014-15, sea stars began dying en masse from a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1937467/historic-sea-star-die-off-tied-to-global-warming\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">mysterious wasting disease\u003c/a>, which scientists believe was exacerbated by a massive blob of warm water that spread throughout the Pacific Ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because starfish prey on sea urchins, the latter population’s exploded when the former’s dwindled. The urchin boom had a profound effect on another ocean-living organism: kelp, a type of seaweed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“During that time, the urchin populations … started to eat all of the kelp forests along our coast,” said Laura Rogers-Bennett, an environmental scientist at the Bodega Marine Laboratory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ocean hasn’t been the same since.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“More than 90% of the kelp forest has disappeared from San Francisco up into southern Oregon and has been replaced by sea urchin barrens,” Rogers-Bennett said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Normally, a kelp forest provides a wealth of benefits, harboring fish, sequestering carbon, preventing shoreline erosion and producing oxygen. Areas bare of kelp can’t do any of that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But while the regrowth of trees takes decades, these kelp forests could bounce back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re very fast-growing,” said Rogers-Bennett. “It would take them only six months to rebound, if we could remove some of this urchin-grazing pressure.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that’s where eating purple sea urchins comes in …\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1952342\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1952342\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40333_IMG_4548-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40333_IMG_4548-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40333_IMG_4548-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40333_IMG_4548-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40333_IMG_4548-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40333_IMG_4548-qut-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40333_IMG_4548-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The contrast between an urchin just brought in from the barrens (left) and an urchin plumped up on kombu seaweed in a lab trial, demonstrates the effectiveness of the urchin ranching operation at the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory. \u003ccite>(Ryan Tamborski/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Introducing Your New Favorite Delicacy \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we’re doing here is we’re looking at a financial incentive model that makes these purple urchins of value,” said Karl Menard, aquatic resources manager at the Bodega lab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The idea is that divers can collect urchins off the coast by the thousands and relocate them into a sort of urchin ranch. The urchins, having gobbled up an entire seaweed forest into nonexistence, frequently arrive at the lab in a state of starvation. They are raised in plastic crates and fed pellets of dried algae, made from the trimmings of kombu, a type of kelp that is processed in factories for human consumption. That diet can fatten them up in about eight weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1952343\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 540px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1952343\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40335_IMG_4513-sfi.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"540\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40335_IMG_4513-sfi.jpg 540w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40335_IMG_4513-sfi-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Karl Menard lifts a tray out of urchins out of the water in the Bodega Marine Lab urchin ranching operations. \u003ccite>(Ryan Tamborski/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The “roe” or uni is already a delicacy in Japan and commonly used in sushi. (Technically speaking, roe is a mass of eggs, but uni are urchin gonads.) A live urchin full of uni can be sold for good money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They would be considered a premium product and could be worth $8 or $10 or more in the market,” said Menard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The hope ultimately is to make urchins a common food anywhere they have created a barrens on the Pacific coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>MacDonald envisions one day being able to go into seafood restaurants to try urchin from different regions, the way we do now with oysters. “I think that there’s there’s room for that,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This month Urchinomics opened a commercial site in Oita, on the Japanese island of Kyushu. The company is currently negotiating a lease for a property in Bodega Bay, and it’s hoping to be fully operational in 2020.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The 2010s saw breakthroughs in medical science and spectacular discoveries in space and physics. For Californians, it was also the decade that climate change arrived in our front yards in the form of serial cataclysmic fire seasons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the decade, scientists refined the regimen of HIV/AIDS medication, made life-saving advances in the treatment of cancer, and invented an entirely new gene-editing technology, with the hope of one day curing diseases before they begin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA’s New Horizons probe captured the first close-up \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-horizons-best-close-up-of-plutos-surface\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">images\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-horizons-best-close-up-of-plutos-surface\">of\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-horizons-best-close-up-of-plutos-surface\">Pluto\u003c/a>, and the world caught its first \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101870482/first-photos-of-a-black-hole-captured-by-event-horizon-telescope-project\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">glimpse\u003c/a>, albeit a bit blurry, of a black hole. Our understanding of exoplanets exploded: the Kepler Space Telescope and the TESS satellite found thousands of new planets outside our solar system, and researchers began to comprehend what those worlds might actually look like.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the decade closes, the KQED Science team has created a sort of mixtape of the major trends, significant moments and noteworthy discoveries, with an eye toward California and the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Do you want the good news or the bad news first? Well, let’s get it out of the way …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Wildfires Create Havoc\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1952558\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1952558 size-complete_open_graph\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40592_GettyImages-1178415177-qut-1200x800.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40592_GettyImages-1178415177-qut-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40592_GettyImages-1178415177-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40592_GettyImages-1178415177-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40592_GettyImages-1178415177-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40592_GettyImages-1178415177-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40592_GettyImages-1178415177-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A crew of inmate firefighters make their way to firefighting operations to battle the Kincade Fire in Healdsburg, California on October 26, 2019.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The changing climate is leading to longer dry periods in California, which is at least three degrees warmer since the beginning of the industrial era, the Environmental Protection Agency \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-09/documents/climate-change-ca.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reported\u003c/a> in 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Climate change, combined with a century of suppressing wildfires and denser populations in areas perilously close to fire-prone wilderness, have created the worst fire seasons on record. Since 2012, four of the five \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/media/5510/top20_acres.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">biggest\u003c/a> California wildfires have \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1934533/the-new-abnormal-climate-effects-on-the-fire-season-are-just-beginning;%20https:/www.kqed.org/science/1950703/climate-change-is-driving-californias-wildfires-the-kincade-fire-not-so-much)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">burned\u003c/a> over 1.2 million acres.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Late on Oct. 8, 2017, hot, dry winds downed power lines, carrying sparks and flaming embers long distances to ignite multiple fires. The Tubbs Fire and other North Bay blazes scorched large areas of Sonoma and Napa counties, claiming 44 lives and destroying over 8,000 buildings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The following summer, during the Carr Fire, a “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1928143/reddings-firenado-was-not-your-garden-variety-fire-whirl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">fire tornado\u003c/a>” exploded into the outskirts of Redding, devastating everything in its path. The blaze killed eight people and destroyed 1,000 homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the worst was yet to come. In November, the Camp Fire nearly wiped out the town of Paradise and surrounding communities. It was the deadliest wildfire in California history, killing 86 people, destroying almost 14,000 homes, and costing more money than any natural disaster in the world that year. Across wide swaths of the state, smoke from the fire rendered the air unhealthy to breathe, inundating the Bay Area for almost two weeks so that the region registered its worst air quality on record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1952579\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1952579 size-complete_open_graph\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40593_GettyImages-1129061413-qut-1200x774.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40593_GettyImages-1129061413-qut-1200x774.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40593_GettyImages-1129061413-qut-160x103.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40593_GettyImages-1129061413-qut-800x516.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40593_GettyImages-1129061413-qut-768x495.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40593_GettyImages-1129061413-qut-1020x658.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40593_GettyImages-1129061413-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An aerial view of homes destroyed by the Camp Fire on February 11, 2019 in Paradise, California. \u003ccite>(Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As far as global warming goes, the outlook is not good, whether it relates to fires or to other natural disasters. The 2010s included the hottest year (2017) and the hottest month (July 2019) on record, and the 10 years that make up the decade will almost certainly set a new temperature mark as well, according to the U.N., based on millions of global measurements taken over the last 170 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This summer, our series \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/tag/livingwithwildfire\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Living With Wildfire: California Reimagined\u003c/a> asked some big questions about how the state can, in our warming world, learn to survive more frequent and ferocious conflagrations. Are some fire-prone areas now too dangerous to accommodate new housing? How can towns prepare for mass evacuations? And neighborhoods make themselves fire-resistant? Are Californians willing to suffer the inconvenience and financial cost to protect the state from extreme wildfires? Perhaps, but it will mean big changes in how we think and live. — \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/DanielleVenton\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Danielle Venton\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rise of Renewables\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Californians began to experience climate change in the form of hotter days and more destructive fires, state policies to mitigate global warming began to pay dividends. California’s investor-owned utilities shattered \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/rps/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">renewable energy\u003c/a> targets mandated by the state, and California \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/942b5a251fac413a84fc4eb93a67c46c/California-meets-greenhouse-gas-reduction-goal-years-early\">reduced\u003c/a> its overall emissions of greenhouse gases below the 1990 level, two years ahead of schedule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These climate policies, in a state with the world’s fifth largest economy, helped spur a rapid decline in the cost of renewable energy around the U.S. This past decade, the cost of wind energy fell by 57%, utility-scale solar power by 86%, and battery energy storage by 76%. In 2019, for the first time, power generation in the U.S. from renewable energy \u003ca href=\"https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=39992\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">surpassed\u003c/a> power produced from coal. \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1952593 alignright\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/2019Batteries_Cost_CMN-768x564-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"564\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/2019Batteries_Cost_CMN-768x564-1.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/2019Batteries_Cost_CMN-768x564-1-160x118.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those are big successes, but California has a lot of work to do over the next 10 years if the state is going to meet its 2045 goal of net-zero emissions, also called carbon neutrality. California is \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1948712/your-suv-is-really-messing-with-the-states-climate-plans\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">way behind \u003c/a>in meeting this ambitious objective, in part because emissions from the transportation sector are soaring, due to Californians driving more miles in larger, gas-guzzling trucks and of SUVs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state is trying to reverse this trend by incentivizing fuel-efficient cars and setting a \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/zev/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">target\u003c/a> of 5 million electric vehicles traversing California roads by 2030. But meeting that goal is going to be tough, with sales of EVs currently standing at only a \u003ca href=\"https://www.veloz.org/sales-dashboard/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">fraction of that total.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, frustrated by the lack of progress in the fight against climate change, young people took to the streets the last couple of years. The Sunrise Movement, Youth vs. Apocalypse and other Bay Area advocacy groups participated in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1947584/live-blog-bay-area-climate-strike\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">global climate strikes \u003c/a>protesting the failure of government, finance, industry and other institutions to address climate change.– \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/StarkKev\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kevin Stark\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Medical Advances\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decade saw major advances in the treatment of HIV and cancer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the last 10 years, scientists have perfected antiretroviral drugs, taken daily in a single pill by people who are HIV-positive. These drugs allow HIV patients to live relatively free of sickness, a far cry from the first decade of the epidemic, when the diagnosis was tantamount to a death sentence. No longer highly toxic, antiretrovirals now work so well they can lower a patient’s viral load to undetectable levels, making it untransmittable from one person to another. Another daily pill, called \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfaf.org/resource-library/prep/?utm_source=GoogleAds&utm_medium=CPC&utm_campaign=GoogleAds_UEqualsU_PrEP&gclid=CjwKCAiAluLvBRASEiwAAbX3GcnQ19OOhwWeCw4YFui4HMm-wM45wQzXB0fgh9a1hPAxzgkFYKnxRBoCsswQAvD_BwE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">PrEP,\u003c/a> can be used as a prophylactic against HIV exposure by people who are still free of the virus. Such major strides in treatment and prevention are why scientists are optimistic HIV will be eradicated altogether within the next decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For some types of cancer, a treatment called immunotherapy drastically improved survival and cure rates. For example, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/futureofyou/444527/advanced-skin-cancer-was-once-a-death-sentence-immunotherapy-is-changing-that\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">stage 4 melanoma \u003c/a>, which doesn’t respond to radiation or chemotherapy, used to mean \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/futureofyou/444527/advanced-skin-cancer-was-once-a-death-sentence-immunotherapy-is-changing-that\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">certain death\u003c/a>, with patients surviving less than a year on average. But over the last decade, instead of burning or poisoning cancer cells to stop the disease, new medicines have unleashed the body’s natural defenses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Normally the immune system recognizes disease-causing organisms. But cancer cells go undetected as harmful. New drugs, as well as \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/futureofyou/439584/new-gene-therapy-gives-teen-a-second-chance-after-cancer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">genetic engineering\u003c/a> techniques, make them visible and ripe for attack. Think of it like affixing a flag with the message “kill me” on cells that previously operated with impunity. Pancreatic, breast and prostate cancer, among other types, do not currently respond to immunotherapy, but scientists foresee a day when the treatment could be the primary weapon against an array of cancers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/DESKTOP_CRISPR_171115-1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1952602 size-complete_open_graph\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/DESKTOP_CRISPR_171115-1-1200x797.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"425\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/DESKTOP_CRISPR_171115-1-1200x797.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/DESKTOP_CRISPR_171115-1-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/DESKTOP_CRISPR_171115-1-800x531.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/DESKTOP_CRISPR_171115-1-768x510.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/DESKTOP_CRISPR_171115-1-1020x677.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/DESKTOP_CRISPR_171115-1.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There may also be a day when doctors can eliminate genetic diseases altogether. A tool called \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/futureofyou/370/a-crispr-solution-to-bubble-boy-disease\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">CRISPR \u003c/a>acts as a molecular scalpel that can make precise changes to genetic mutations giving rise to disease. Scientists hope to one day cure genetic conditions like blindness or sickle cell anemia before they even start. Though tinkering with our DNA raises all kinds of ethical questions about “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1934916/chinese-scientist-says-hes-first-to-create-genetically-modified-babies-using-crispr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">playing God\u003c/a>.”– \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/lesleywmcclurg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lesley McClurg\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Predictions Fulfilled\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decade saw some spectacular discoveries in space and physics, some of which had been predicted for decades. Theoretical foresight frequently falls short or remains unproven, but once in a while, it’s right on the money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two discoveries in particular should be remembered as a vindication of the human ability to understand and model the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2012, two teams at CERN, often referred to as the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, announced they had independently detected the Higgs boson. This is a particle associated with an energy field, called the Higgs field, that was theorized in the 1960s and ’70s as a solution to the question: How does matter obtain mass?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The answer: Through the action of an elementary particle, such as an electron or a quark, interacting with the Higgs field. The more the particle interacts, the more massive it is. And the boson? That’s the particle that the Higgs field emits. The detection of the Higgs boson proved that the Higgs field is real, and it was the final piece of the puzzle for the Standard Model, a set of equations describing how three of the four fundamental forces work. Now, only gravity remains unexplained.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decade also saw the discovery of gravitational waves, predicted by none other than Albert Einstein in 1916. Einstein thought the acceleration of objects with enough mass would create ripples in the fabric of spacetime. And he thought right. About 100 years later, dual detectors that make up the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO, registered those ripples in the form of the aftershock created by two black holes colliding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Traveling far above Earth-bound detection instruments like LIGO, spacecraft originating on Earth reached interstellar space for the first time. These are the Voyager probes, each carrying a copy of the \u003ca href=\"https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-record/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Golden Record\u003c/a>, which holds images, music and greetings from Earth. — \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/DanielleVenton\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Danielle Venton\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The 2010s saw breakthroughs in medical science and spectacular discoveries in space and physics. For Californians, it was also the decade that climate change arrived in our front yards in the form of serial cataclysmic fire seasons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the decade, scientists refined the regimen of HIV/AIDS medication, made life-saving advances in the treatment of cancer, and invented an entirely new gene-editing technology, with the hope of one day curing diseases before they begin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA’s New Horizons probe captured the first close-up \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-horizons-best-close-up-of-plutos-surface\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">images\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-horizons-best-close-up-of-plutos-surface\">of\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-horizons-best-close-up-of-plutos-surface\">Pluto\u003c/a>, and the world caught its first \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101870482/first-photos-of-a-black-hole-captured-by-event-horizon-telescope-project\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">glimpse\u003c/a>, albeit a bit blurry, of a black hole. Our understanding of exoplanets exploded: the Kepler Space Telescope and the TESS satellite found thousands of new planets outside our solar system, and researchers began to comprehend what those worlds might actually look like.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the decade closes, the KQED Science team has created a sort of mixtape of the major trends, significant moments and noteworthy discoveries, with an eye toward California and the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Do you want the good news or the bad news first? Well, let’s get it out of the way …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Wildfires Create Havoc\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1952558\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1952558 size-complete_open_graph\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40592_GettyImages-1178415177-qut-1200x800.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40592_GettyImages-1178415177-qut-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40592_GettyImages-1178415177-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40592_GettyImages-1178415177-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40592_GettyImages-1178415177-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40592_GettyImages-1178415177-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40592_GettyImages-1178415177-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A crew of inmate firefighters make their way to firefighting operations to battle the Kincade Fire in Healdsburg, California on October 26, 2019.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The changing climate is leading to longer dry periods in California, which is at least three degrees warmer since the beginning of the industrial era, the Environmental Protection Agency \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-09/documents/climate-change-ca.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reported\u003c/a> in 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Climate change, combined with a century of suppressing wildfires and denser populations in areas perilously close to fire-prone wilderness, have created the worst fire seasons on record. Since 2012, four of the five \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/media/5510/top20_acres.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">biggest\u003c/a> California wildfires have \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1934533/the-new-abnormal-climate-effects-on-the-fire-season-are-just-beginning;%20https:/www.kqed.org/science/1950703/climate-change-is-driving-californias-wildfires-the-kincade-fire-not-so-much)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">burned\u003c/a> over 1.2 million acres.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Late on Oct. 8, 2017, hot, dry winds downed power lines, carrying sparks and flaming embers long distances to ignite multiple fires. The Tubbs Fire and other North Bay blazes scorched large areas of Sonoma and Napa counties, claiming 44 lives and destroying over 8,000 buildings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The following summer, during the Carr Fire, a “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1928143/reddings-firenado-was-not-your-garden-variety-fire-whirl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">fire tornado\u003c/a>” exploded into the outskirts of Redding, devastating everything in its path. The blaze killed eight people and destroyed 1,000 homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the worst was yet to come. In November, the Camp Fire nearly wiped out the town of Paradise and surrounding communities. It was the deadliest wildfire in California history, killing 86 people, destroying almost 14,000 homes, and costing more money than any natural disaster in the world that year. Across wide swaths of the state, smoke from the fire rendered the air unhealthy to breathe, inundating the Bay Area for almost two weeks so that the region registered its worst air quality on record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1952579\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1952579 size-complete_open_graph\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40593_GettyImages-1129061413-qut-1200x774.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40593_GettyImages-1129061413-qut-1200x774.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40593_GettyImages-1129061413-qut-160x103.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40593_GettyImages-1129061413-qut-800x516.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40593_GettyImages-1129061413-qut-768x495.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40593_GettyImages-1129061413-qut-1020x658.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40593_GettyImages-1129061413-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An aerial view of homes destroyed by the Camp Fire on February 11, 2019 in Paradise, California. \u003ccite>(Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As far as global warming goes, the outlook is not good, whether it relates to fires or to other natural disasters. The 2010s included the hottest year (2017) and the hottest month (July 2019) on record, and the 10 years that make up the decade will almost certainly set a new temperature mark as well, according to the U.N., based on millions of global measurements taken over the last 170 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This summer, our series \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/tag/livingwithwildfire\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Living With Wildfire: California Reimagined\u003c/a> asked some big questions about how the state can, in our warming world, learn to survive more frequent and ferocious conflagrations. Are some fire-prone areas now too dangerous to accommodate new housing? How can towns prepare for mass evacuations? And neighborhoods make themselves fire-resistant? Are Californians willing to suffer the inconvenience and financial cost to protect the state from extreme wildfires? Perhaps, but it will mean big changes in how we think and live. — \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/DanielleVenton\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Danielle Venton\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rise of Renewables\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Californians began to experience climate change in the form of hotter days and more destructive fires, state policies to mitigate global warming began to pay dividends. California’s investor-owned utilities shattered \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/rps/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">renewable energy\u003c/a> targets mandated by the state, and California \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/942b5a251fac413a84fc4eb93a67c46c/California-meets-greenhouse-gas-reduction-goal-years-early\">reduced\u003c/a> its overall emissions of greenhouse gases below the 1990 level, two years ahead of schedule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These climate policies, in a state with the world’s fifth largest economy, helped spur a rapid decline in the cost of renewable energy around the U.S. This past decade, the cost of wind energy fell by 57%, utility-scale solar power by 86%, and battery energy storage by 76%. In 2019, for the first time, power generation in the U.S. from renewable energy \u003ca href=\"https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=39992\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">surpassed\u003c/a> power produced from coal. \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1952593 alignright\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/2019Batteries_Cost_CMN-768x564-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"564\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/2019Batteries_Cost_CMN-768x564-1.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/2019Batteries_Cost_CMN-768x564-1-160x118.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those are big successes, but California has a lot of work to do over the next 10 years if the state is going to meet its 2045 goal of net-zero emissions, also called carbon neutrality. California is \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1948712/your-suv-is-really-messing-with-the-states-climate-plans\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">way behind \u003c/a>in meeting this ambitious objective, in part because emissions from the transportation sector are soaring, due to Californians driving more miles in larger, gas-guzzling trucks and of SUVs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state is trying to reverse this trend by incentivizing fuel-efficient cars and setting a \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/zev/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">target\u003c/a> of 5 million electric vehicles traversing California roads by 2030. But meeting that goal is going to be tough, with sales of EVs currently standing at only a \u003ca href=\"https://www.veloz.org/sales-dashboard/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">fraction of that total.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, frustrated by the lack of progress in the fight against climate change, young people took to the streets the last couple of years. The Sunrise Movement, Youth vs. Apocalypse and other Bay Area advocacy groups participated in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1947584/live-blog-bay-area-climate-strike\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">global climate strikes \u003c/a>protesting the failure of government, finance, industry and other institutions to address climate change.– \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/StarkKev\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kevin Stark\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Medical Advances\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decade saw major advances in the treatment of HIV and cancer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the last 10 years, scientists have perfected antiretroviral drugs, taken daily in a single pill by people who are HIV-positive. These drugs allow HIV patients to live relatively free of sickness, a far cry from the first decade of the epidemic, when the diagnosis was tantamount to a death sentence. No longer highly toxic, antiretrovirals now work so well they can lower a patient’s viral load to undetectable levels, making it untransmittable from one person to another. Another daily pill, called \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfaf.org/resource-library/prep/?utm_source=GoogleAds&utm_medium=CPC&utm_campaign=GoogleAds_UEqualsU_PrEP&gclid=CjwKCAiAluLvBRASEiwAAbX3GcnQ19OOhwWeCw4YFui4HMm-wM45wQzXB0fgh9a1hPAxzgkFYKnxRBoCsswQAvD_BwE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">PrEP,\u003c/a> can be used as a prophylactic against HIV exposure by people who are still free of the virus. Such major strides in treatment and prevention are why scientists are optimistic HIV will be eradicated altogether within the next decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For some types of cancer, a treatment called immunotherapy drastically improved survival and cure rates. For example, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/futureofyou/444527/advanced-skin-cancer-was-once-a-death-sentence-immunotherapy-is-changing-that\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">stage 4 melanoma \u003c/a>, which doesn’t respond to radiation or chemotherapy, used to mean \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/futureofyou/444527/advanced-skin-cancer-was-once-a-death-sentence-immunotherapy-is-changing-that\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">certain death\u003c/a>, with patients surviving less than a year on average. But over the last decade, instead of burning or poisoning cancer cells to stop the disease, new medicines have unleashed the body’s natural defenses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Normally the immune system recognizes disease-causing organisms. But cancer cells go undetected as harmful. New drugs, as well as \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/futureofyou/439584/new-gene-therapy-gives-teen-a-second-chance-after-cancer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">genetic engineering\u003c/a> techniques, make them visible and ripe for attack. Think of it like affixing a flag with the message “kill me” on cells that previously operated with impunity. Pancreatic, breast and prostate cancer, among other types, do not currently respond to immunotherapy, but scientists foresee a day when the treatment could be the primary weapon against an array of cancers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/DESKTOP_CRISPR_171115-1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1952602 size-complete_open_graph\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/DESKTOP_CRISPR_171115-1-1200x797.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"425\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/DESKTOP_CRISPR_171115-1-1200x797.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/DESKTOP_CRISPR_171115-1-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/DESKTOP_CRISPR_171115-1-800x531.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/DESKTOP_CRISPR_171115-1-768x510.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/DESKTOP_CRISPR_171115-1-1020x677.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/DESKTOP_CRISPR_171115-1.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There may also be a day when doctors can eliminate genetic diseases altogether. A tool called \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/futureofyou/370/a-crispr-solution-to-bubble-boy-disease\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">CRISPR \u003c/a>acts as a molecular scalpel that can make precise changes to genetic mutations giving rise to disease. Scientists hope to one day cure genetic conditions like blindness or sickle cell anemia before they even start. Though tinkering with our DNA raises all kinds of ethical questions about “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1934916/chinese-scientist-says-hes-first-to-create-genetically-modified-babies-using-crispr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">playing God\u003c/a>.”– \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/lesleywmcclurg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lesley McClurg\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Predictions Fulfilled\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decade saw some spectacular discoveries in space and physics, some of which had been predicted for decades. Theoretical foresight frequently falls short or remains unproven, but once in a while, it’s right on the money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two discoveries in particular should be remembered as a vindication of the human ability to understand and model the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2012, two teams at CERN, often referred to as the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, announced they had independently detected the Higgs boson. This is a particle associated with an energy field, called the Higgs field, that was theorized in the 1960s and ’70s as a solution to the question: How does matter obtain mass?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The answer: Through the action of an elementary particle, such as an electron or a quark, interacting with the Higgs field. The more the particle interacts, the more massive it is. And the boson? That’s the particle that the Higgs field emits. The detection of the Higgs boson proved that the Higgs field is real, and it was the final piece of the puzzle for the Standard Model, a set of equations describing how three of the four fundamental forces work. Now, only gravity remains unexplained.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decade also saw the discovery of gravitational waves, predicted by none other than Albert Einstein in 1916. Einstein thought the acceleration of objects with enough mass would create ripples in the fabric of spacetime. And he thought right. About 100 years later, dual detectors that make up the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO, registered those ripples in the form of the aftershock created by two black holes colliding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Traveling far above Earth-bound detection instruments like LIGO, spacecraft originating on Earth reached interstellar space for the first time. These are the Voyager probes, each carrying a copy of the \u003ca href=\"https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-record/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Golden Record\u003c/a>, which holds images, music and greetings from Earth. — \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/DanielleVenton\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Danielle Venton\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "rising-seas-and-sinking-land-the-precarious-future-of-treasure-island",
"title": "The Precarious Future of Treasure Island: Rising Seas and Sinking Land",
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"headTitle": "The Precarious Future of Treasure Island: Rising Seas and Sinking Land | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Treasure Island is a man-made polygon of 400 acres \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11790693/magic-city-and-the-making-of-treasure-island\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">constructed by engineers\u003c/a> on a shallow reef in the middle of San Francisco Bay. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The low-lying island, as well as neighboring Yerba Buena island, are also the site of a multibillion-dollar neighborhood development. The project calls for 8,000 new homes and condos that could house more than 20,000 people, 500 new hotel rooms, and over 550,000 square feet of commercial space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But how will climate change affect these plans?\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1952319\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1952319\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40544_Shoal02.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"410\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40544_Shoal02.jpg 720w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40544_Shoal02-160x91.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In the 1930s, federal engineers constructed Treasure Island with bay mud and sand. \u003ccite>(Treasure Island Development Authority)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rising Water, Sinking Land\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, researchers with the U.S. Geological Survey \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-40742-z\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">published\u003c/a> a comprehensive climate change study on the impact of rising sea levels, storms and erosion on the California coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study found that the homes of hundreds of thousands of coastal residents and $150 billion worth of property in California are threatened by rising water levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Treasure Island is one of the most vulnerable locations in the entire state,” said Patrick Barnard, lead author of the study and a coastal geologist with USGS. “Not only because it sits right above sea level; [the island] is all fill. The ground itself is sinking.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says Treasure Island faces several threats:\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1952334\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1102px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1952334\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/TI_OCOF.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1102\" height=\"650\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/TI_OCOF.png 1102w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/TI_OCOF-160x94.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/TI_OCOF-800x472.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/TI_OCOF-768x453.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/TI_OCOF-1020x602.png 1020w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1102px) 100vw, 1102px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Researchers at U.S. Geologic Survey developed a flood map to help planners understand the impact of rising sea levels. The image shows Treasure Island after 3.3 feet of sea level rise and a ‘hundred year’ storm. \u003ccite>(Our Coast Our Future)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The water in San Francisco Bay is rising.\u003c/strong> Average high tides could increase by about 3 feet by 2100 under mid-range sea level rise \u003ca href=\"http://data.pointblue.org/apps/ocof/cms/index.php?page=flood-map\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">scenarios\u003c/a>, according to studies by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nap.edu/catalog/13389/sea-level-rise-for-the-coasts-of-california-oregon-and-washington\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">National Research Council\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/WG1AR5_Chapter13_FINAL.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Storm waves push water levels even higher.\u003c/strong> Severe weather with a 1% chance of occurring in any year, called a 100-year storm, can push tides an additional 3 feet higher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Treasure Island’s own construction.\u003c/strong> Engineers built the island atop a bottom layer of mud. The weight of earth and buildings on this gooey muck compresses it like a sponge and over time causes the island to sink. Treasure Island is descending at about the same rate as the sea is rising, Barnard says. So, that equates to “about twice as much sea level rise as a static shoreline.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Building High\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2011 the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved a \u003ca href=\"https://sftreasureisland.org/FinalEIR\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">plan\u003c/a> to re-engineer Treasure Island in order to stabilize the land and stop it from sinking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1952321\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 357px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1952321\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40545_Ibeam.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"357\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40545_Ibeam.jpg 357w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40545_Ibeam-160x242.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 357px) 100vw, 357px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The vibrating beam. \u003ccite>(Treasure Island Development Authority.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The first step: Using long straws, or what they call wick drains, engineers siphon off water from the mud as it compresses. When the water escapes from the straws onto the surface of the island, it evaporates. This speeds up the natural settlement of the land and prevent it from sinking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Step two: Towering cranes slam long, vibrating beams into the ground. The vibrations cause the land to settle quicker.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Step three: Workers weigh the island down with mounds of earth. The weight compresses more water out of the bay mud.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To mitigate flooding damage from rising waters, the plan calls for raising the grade of the island and setting buildings back from the shoreline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, because the rise in the water level is projected to accelerate toward the end of the century, the plan asks Treasure Island residents to pay an annual fee toward future engineering work.\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>“Build high. Monitor. Give yourself ample space and ample money to adapt as you go forward,” said Bob Beck, director of the \u003ca href=\"https://sftreasureisland.org/about-tida\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Treasure Island Development Authority\u003c/a>, summarizing the strategy.\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>The development authority has finished several years of this geotechnical work. Developers began constructing condos on Yerba Buena Island this year, with more residential construction expected on Treasure Island in 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Melting Ice Sheets\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in the years since the plan was approved, scientific studies show rising water levels have tracked at the upper bound of earlier projections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousbug]More troubling still, studies based on computer models, including one \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/nature17145\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">published\u003c/a> in \u003cem>Nature \u003c/em>in 2017, show that melting ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland could push the San Francisco Bay to a height more than double the latest calculation from the IPCC. The extreme estimates suggest that sea level could rise by as much as 10 feet, with storms roiling the water even higher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Treasure Island case really reveals how vulnerable planning is to changes in the estimated magnitude of sea level rise,” said Kristina Hill, an environmental planner at UC Berkeley. “Seeing how much ice is melting in Greenland and Antarctica — [what was the] worst case turned out to be too low.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2017, California convened a group of climate scientists to review the new research. They warned in a \u003ca href=\"http://www.opc.ca.gov/webmaster/ftp/pdf/docs/rising-seas-in-california-an-update-on-sea-level-rise-science.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">report\u003c/a> that “Waiting for scientific certainty is neither a safe nor prudent option. … Consideration of high and even extreme sea levels in decisions with implications past 2050 is needed to safeguard the people and resources of coastal California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beck acknowledges that the scientific projections are concerning, but he argues that Treasure Island has the space and the funding to adjust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The strategy to adapt to sea level rise is baked into the land use and the funding plan here,” Beck said. “We are well-positioned to adapt to even some of the worst-case scenarios.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The future of Treasure Island will be shaped by climate change. ",
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"title": "The Precarious Future of Treasure Island: Rising Seas and Sinking Land | KQED",
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"headline": "The Precarious Future of Treasure Island: Rising Seas and Sinking Land",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Treasure Island is a man-made polygon of 400 acres \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11790693/magic-city-and-the-making-of-treasure-island\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">constructed by engineers\u003c/a> on a shallow reef in the middle of San Francisco Bay. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The low-lying island, as well as neighboring Yerba Buena island, are also the site of a multibillion-dollar neighborhood development. The project calls for 8,000 new homes and condos that could house more than 20,000 people, 500 new hotel rooms, and over 550,000 square feet of commercial space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But how will climate change affect these plans?\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1952319\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1952319\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40544_Shoal02.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"410\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40544_Shoal02.jpg 720w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40544_Shoal02-160x91.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In the 1930s, federal engineers constructed Treasure Island with bay mud and sand. \u003ccite>(Treasure Island Development Authority)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rising Water, Sinking Land\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, researchers with the U.S. Geological Survey \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-40742-z\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">published\u003c/a> a comprehensive climate change study on the impact of rising sea levels, storms and erosion on the California coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study found that the homes of hundreds of thousands of coastal residents and $150 billion worth of property in California are threatened by rising water levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Treasure Island is one of the most vulnerable locations in the entire state,” said Patrick Barnard, lead author of the study and a coastal geologist with USGS. “Not only because it sits right above sea level; [the island] is all fill. The ground itself is sinking.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says Treasure Island faces several threats:\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1952334\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1102px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1952334\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/TI_OCOF.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1102\" height=\"650\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/TI_OCOF.png 1102w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/TI_OCOF-160x94.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/TI_OCOF-800x472.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/TI_OCOF-768x453.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/TI_OCOF-1020x602.png 1020w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1102px) 100vw, 1102px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Researchers at U.S. Geologic Survey developed a flood map to help planners understand the impact of rising sea levels. The image shows Treasure Island after 3.3 feet of sea level rise and a ‘hundred year’ storm. \u003ccite>(Our Coast Our Future)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The water in San Francisco Bay is rising.\u003c/strong> Average high tides could increase by about 3 feet by 2100 under mid-range sea level rise \u003ca href=\"http://data.pointblue.org/apps/ocof/cms/index.php?page=flood-map\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">scenarios\u003c/a>, according to studies by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nap.edu/catalog/13389/sea-level-rise-for-the-coasts-of-california-oregon-and-washington\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">National Research Council\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/WG1AR5_Chapter13_FINAL.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Storm waves push water levels even higher.\u003c/strong> Severe weather with a 1% chance of occurring in any year, called a 100-year storm, can push tides an additional 3 feet higher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Treasure Island’s own construction.\u003c/strong> Engineers built the island atop a bottom layer of mud. The weight of earth and buildings on this gooey muck compresses it like a sponge and over time causes the island to sink. Treasure Island is descending at about the same rate as the sea is rising, Barnard says. So, that equates to “about twice as much sea level rise as a static shoreline.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Building High\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2011 the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved a \u003ca href=\"https://sftreasureisland.org/FinalEIR\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">plan\u003c/a> to re-engineer Treasure Island in order to stabilize the land and stop it from sinking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1952321\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 357px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1952321\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40545_Ibeam.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"357\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40545_Ibeam.jpg 357w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40545_Ibeam-160x242.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 357px) 100vw, 357px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The vibrating beam. \u003ccite>(Treasure Island Development Authority.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The first step: Using long straws, or what they call wick drains, engineers siphon off water from the mud as it compresses. When the water escapes from the straws onto the surface of the island, it evaporates. This speeds up the natural settlement of the land and prevent it from sinking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Step two: Towering cranes slam long, vibrating beams into the ground. The vibrations cause the land to settle quicker.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Step three: Workers weigh the island down with mounds of earth. The weight compresses more water out of the bay mud.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To mitigate flooding damage from rising waters, the plan calls for raising the grade of the island and setting buildings back from the shoreline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, because the rise in the water level is projected to accelerate toward the end of the century, the plan asks Treasure Island residents to pay an annual fee toward future engineering work.\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>“Build high. Monitor. Give yourself ample space and ample money to adapt as you go forward,” said Bob Beck, director of the \u003ca href=\"https://sftreasureisland.org/about-tida\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Treasure Island Development Authority\u003c/a>, summarizing the strategy.\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>The development authority has finished several years of this geotechnical work. Developers began constructing condos on Yerba Buena Island this year, with more residential construction expected on Treasure Island in 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Melting Ice Sheets\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in the years since the plan was approved, scientific studies show rising water levels have tracked at the upper bound of earlier projections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003caside class=\"alignleft utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__bayCuriousPodcastShortcode__bayCurious\">\u003cimg src=https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/bayCuriousLogo.png alt=\"Bay Curious Podcast\" loading=\"lazy\" />\n What do you wonder about the Bay Area, its culture or people that you want KQED to investigate?\n \u003ca href=\"/news/series/baycurious\">Ask Bay Curious.\u003c/a>\u003c/aside>\u003c/p>\u003cp>More troubling still, studies based on computer models, including one \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/nature17145\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">published\u003c/a> in \u003cem>Nature \u003c/em>in 2017, show that melting ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland could push the San Francisco Bay to a height more than double the latest calculation from the IPCC. The extreme estimates suggest that sea level could rise by as much as 10 feet, with storms roiling the water even higher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Treasure Island case really reveals how vulnerable planning is to changes in the estimated magnitude of sea level rise,” said Kristina Hill, an environmental planner at UC Berkeley. “Seeing how much ice is melting in Greenland and Antarctica — [what was the] worst case turned out to be too low.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2017, California convened a group of climate scientists to review the new research. They warned in a \u003ca href=\"http://www.opc.ca.gov/webmaster/ftp/pdf/docs/rising-seas-in-california-an-update-on-sea-level-rise-science.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">report\u003c/a> that “Waiting for scientific certainty is neither a safe nor prudent option. … Consideration of high and even extreme sea levels in decisions with implications past 2050 is needed to safeguard the people and resources of coastal California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beck acknowledges that the scientific projections are concerning, but he argues that Treasure Island has the space and the funding to adjust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The strategy to adapt to sea level rise is baked into the land use and the funding plan here,” Beck said. “We are well-positioned to adapt to even some of the worst-case scenarios.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "restoration-of-a-san-mateo-county-creek-reopens-a-gateway-for-endangered-salmon",
"title": "Restoration of a San Mateo County Creek Reopens a Gateway for Endangered Salmon",
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"headTitle": "Restoration of a San Mateo County Creek Reopens a Gateway for Endangered Salmon | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dropcap]I[/dropcap]magine you’re a fish. A coho salmon, to be specific. Your every instinct is telling you it’s time to migrate upstream from the ocean to spawn in the rivers and streams beyond. But instead of reaching those mountain tributaries and completing your life cycle, you’re blocked at every turn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The gateway to your spawning grounds has closed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s how Kellyx Nelson describes the predicament for coho in Butano Creek, a stream just outside the tiny farming town of Pescadero on the San Mateo County coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1951603\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1951603\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Pescadero-Marsh-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Pescadero-Marsh-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Pescadero-Marsh-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Pescadero-Marsh-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Pescadero-Marsh-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Pescadero-Marsh-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Pescadero-Marsh-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pescadero Marsh Natural Preserve, an estuary on the San Mateo County coast. \u003ccite>(Peter Arcuni/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nelson is executive director of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.sanmateorcd.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">San Mateo Resource Conservation District\u003c/a>. The agency is working to restore the wetlands of \u003ca href=\"https://www.coastsidestateparks.org/pescadero-marsh-natural-preserve\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pescasdero Marsh Natural Preserve\u003c/a> for endangered coho and other native species on the brink.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A year or two ago I walked down the creek with my waders on and all of a sudden you’re walking uphill and you’re on land,” Nelson said. “The creek was gone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lower Butano Creek had been clogged by a mile-and-a-half long plug of sediment where the stream once flowed through the marsh to meet the ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over one stretch, a forest had grown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nelson says the blockage was the result of nearly two centuries of farming, logging and re-engineering the local streams, all of which triggered severe erosion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dirt from upstream bled into the creek and washed down to the area near town, where the stream flattens out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s more than 10 miles of spawning and rearing habitat in that watershed that has been lost,” Nelson said. “We basically caused a dam to be formed so that the fish could almost never get upstream.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In June, the resource conservation district, in partnership with California State Parks and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, embarked on a $7 million \u003ca href=\"http://www.sanmateorcd.org/project/butano-creek-reconnection-project/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">restoration project\u003c/a> to remove the sediment dam blocking Butano Creek.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The hope is the restoration can reconnect coho with their historic spawning range upstream in Butano State Park and ultimately aid in the species’ recovery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/3sG28/33/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border: none;\" height=\"569\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>A Species in Decline\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Coho once thrived in California’s coastal rivers and creeks from Santa Cruz County to the Oregon border. Like other salmon, coho are known for what Nelson calls “this extraordinary life story.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They begin life in freshwater streams, where they spend more than a year rearing until they make their way to the ocean. Typically, after a year and a half in salt water, they return to their home creeks and rivers to spawn, then die.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like other salmon species, they’re known for their physical transformation from silver to various shades of crimson when they re-enter to reproduce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1951609\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1951609\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Coho-in-California-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Coho once thrived in California’s coastal rivers and streams. Pictured above, a 2018 coho migration in Marin County’s Lagunitas Creek, another site of habitat restoration. \u003ccite>(Harry McGrath/Turtle Island Restoration Network)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“They’re gorgeous and charismatic and mysterious,” Nelson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But \u003ca href=\"https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Fishes/Coho-Salmon\">California’s coho\u003c/a>, once numbering in the hundreds of thousands, have disappeared from a large part of their range. South of the Golden Gate, the species is virtually extinct.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Habitat loss is a major factor driving the decline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Butano Creek restoration aims to solve another problem created by humans re-engineering the local landscape: \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/11/06/pescadero-more-steelhead-deaths-frustrate-residents/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">frequent die-offs\u003c/a> of threatened steelhead, which once thrived in the watershed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These fish — ocean-going rainbow trout — spawn in nearby Pescadero Creek and grow large as they feed in the adjoining marsh. But here they face what amounts to a death trap before they can migrate into the Pacific.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biologists believe the steelhead suffocate when they encounter stagnant, oxygen-depleted water that has formed in deep pits excavated in the marsh over the years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This anoxic water, which engulfs the fish as it rushes out of the marsh with the first storms of the rainy season, is thought to be responsible for killing thousands of steelhead over the last few decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The restoration project is addressing the problem by using the sediment removed from Butano Creek to fill the pits in the marsh. That should reduce or eliminate the volume of anoxic water there and improve conditions for fish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Major Flooding\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local support for the project was bolstered by another consequence of the dam blocking Butano Creek: flooding on Pescadero Creek Road, the main road in and out of town.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1951608\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1951608\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Pescadero-Creek-Road-Flooding-800x597.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"597\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The blockage on Butano Creek contributed to major flooding on Pescadero Creek Road, pictured in 2016, and nearby farmland. \u003ccite>(San Mateo Resource Conservation District)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“When it rains, people get anxious,” said Nic Erridge, who chairs the Pescadero Municipal Advisory Council.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Erridge says any time there’s a big rainstorm, the road and surrounding farmland are inundated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It becomes a wetland,” Erridge said, “Water just flows through, the creek just spreads out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a result, locals are stranded, sometimes unable to reach homes, jobs and school. Nearby farms, which help drive the town’s economy, are damaged.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Solving this flooding issue is huge,” Erridge said. “Hopefully this project is really gonna help us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Resetting the Baseline’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For five months this summer and fall, crews used pontoon excavators, bulldozers, and dredge pumps to dig out the dirt, muck and debris from Butano Creek. Nearly 70,000 cubic yards of sediment were removed, and the stream now flows continuously from the Santa Cruz Mountains to the ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joe Pecharich, a fisheries biologist with the NOAA Restoration Center, says he sees the restoration project as “resetting the baseline” for Butano Creek.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wildlife officials estimate the Pescadero-Butano Creek watershed has the \u003ca href=\"https://archive.fisheries.noaa.gov/wcr/protected_species/salmon_steelhead/recovery_planning_and_implementation/north_central_california_coast/central_california_coast_coho_recovery_plan.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">potential\u003c/a> to support 2,300 spawning coho and similar numbers of steelhead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So it really could provide an opportunity to really jump-start some recovery of coho south of the Golden Gate,” Pecharich said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If coho don’t naturally return to the system, he says, fish could be transplanted from other watersheds or breeding programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1951604\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1951604\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Restored-Pescadero-Marsh-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Restored-Pescadero-Marsh-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Restored-Pescadero-Marsh-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Restored-Pescadero-Marsh-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Restored-Pescadero-Marsh-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Restored-Pescadero-Marsh-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Restored-Pescadero-Marsh-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In October, the San Mateo Resource Conservation District, along with state and federal agencies, completed a five-month restoration of Butano Creek and surrounding Pescadero Marsh. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the San Mateo Resource Conservation District)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>What those fish will find is a creek that is still hospitable to their kind. For instance, the stream features the type of gravel female coho need to dig their nests. In these burrows, they can deposit up to 3,000 eggs. The stream and marsh can also provide young salmon the natural protection and food they need to fuel their journey into the ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Pecharich, reopening Butano Creek for coho could also benefit the greater coastal ecosystem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When coho and other salmon spawn, their bodies break down, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1915421/theres-something-fishy-about-these-trees-deep-look\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">feeding the surrounding environment\u003c/a>. Birds, foxes and other scavengers feed on the fish carcasses and distribute them on land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pecharich says scientists now understand that salmon streams have contributed to the growth and health of redwood forests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s definitely no coincidence that coho and the range of the species extends to pretty much the range of the redwoods,” Pecharich said. “They’ve actually found marine-derived nutrients within these trees, which is pretty amazing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1951600\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1951600\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Restored-Butano-Creek-Channel-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Restored-Butano-Creek-Channel-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Restored-Butano-Creek-Channel-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Restored-Butano-Creek-Channel-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Restored-Butano-Creek-Channel-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Restored-Butano-Creek-Channel-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Restored-Butano-Creek-Channel-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Excavation crews removed nearly 70,000 cubic yards of sediment to reopen Butano Creek for endangered coho salmon. The channel now flows from the mountains to the ocean. \u003ccite>(Peter Arcuni/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In turn, the trees shade and nourish the streams for fish. Pecharich says that type of exchange could happen upstream in Butano Creek, where it ends up in the redwood groves of Butano State Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Signs of Life\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s too early to tell if coho will return to Butano Creek in large numbers, or if removing the sediment dam will prevent the road from flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Kellyx Nelson says there are already signs of life returning to the stream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The other day, about a mile and a half from the ocean, we saw a Dungeness crab. Right there in this creek, which had previously been completely disconnected,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That means as California’s first big winter rains arrive, signaling the remaining Central Coast coho to begin their spawning migration, they’ll have one more path upstream.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "A $7 million project on Butano Creek, just outside the town of Pescadero, aims to reconnect coho salmon with spawning grounds and remove a deadly threat for steelhead. ",
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"title": "Restoration of a San Mateo County Creek Reopens a Gateway for Endangered Salmon | KQED",
"description": "A $7 million project on Butano Creek, just outside the town of Pescadero, aims to reconnect coho salmon with spawning grounds and remove a deadly threat for steelhead. ",
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"headline": "Restoration of a San Mateo County Creek Reopens a Gateway for Endangered Salmon",
"datePublished": "2019-12-16T00:01:23-08:00",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">I\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>magine you’re a fish. A coho salmon, to be specific. Your every instinct is telling you it’s time to migrate upstream from the ocean to spawn in the rivers and streams beyond. But instead of reaching those mountain tributaries and completing your life cycle, you’re blocked at every turn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The gateway to your spawning grounds has closed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s how Kellyx Nelson describes the predicament for coho in Butano Creek, a stream just outside the tiny farming town of Pescadero on the San Mateo County coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1951603\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1951603\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Pescadero-Marsh-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Pescadero-Marsh-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Pescadero-Marsh-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Pescadero-Marsh-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Pescadero-Marsh-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Pescadero-Marsh-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Pescadero-Marsh-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pescadero Marsh Natural Preserve, an estuary on the San Mateo County coast. \u003ccite>(Peter Arcuni/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nelson is executive director of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.sanmateorcd.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">San Mateo Resource Conservation District\u003c/a>. The agency is working to restore the wetlands of \u003ca href=\"https://www.coastsidestateparks.org/pescadero-marsh-natural-preserve\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pescasdero Marsh Natural Preserve\u003c/a> for endangered coho and other native species on the brink.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A year or two ago I walked down the creek with my waders on and all of a sudden you’re walking uphill and you’re on land,” Nelson said. “The creek was gone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lower Butano Creek had been clogged by a mile-and-a-half long plug of sediment where the stream once flowed through the marsh to meet the ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over one stretch, a forest had grown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nelson says the blockage was the result of nearly two centuries of farming, logging and re-engineering the local streams, all of which triggered severe erosion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dirt from upstream bled into the creek and washed down to the area near town, where the stream flattens out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s more than 10 miles of spawning and rearing habitat in that watershed that has been lost,” Nelson said. “We basically caused a dam to be formed so that the fish could almost never get upstream.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In June, the resource conservation district, in partnership with California State Parks and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, embarked on a $7 million \u003ca href=\"http://www.sanmateorcd.org/project/butano-creek-reconnection-project/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">restoration project\u003c/a> to remove the sediment dam blocking Butano Creek.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The hope is the restoration can reconnect coho with their historic spawning range upstream in Butano State Park and ultimately aid in the species’ recovery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/3sG28/33/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border: none;\" height=\"569\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>A Species in Decline\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Coho once thrived in California’s coastal rivers and creeks from Santa Cruz County to the Oregon border. Like other salmon, coho are known for what Nelson calls “this extraordinary life story.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They begin life in freshwater streams, where they spend more than a year rearing until they make their way to the ocean. Typically, after a year and a half in salt water, they return to their home creeks and rivers to spawn, then die.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like other salmon species, they’re known for their physical transformation from silver to various shades of crimson when they re-enter to reproduce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1951609\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1951609\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Coho-in-California-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Coho once thrived in California’s coastal rivers and streams. Pictured above, a 2018 coho migration in Marin County’s Lagunitas Creek, another site of habitat restoration. \u003ccite>(Harry McGrath/Turtle Island Restoration Network)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“They’re gorgeous and charismatic and mysterious,” Nelson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But \u003ca href=\"https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Fishes/Coho-Salmon\">California’s coho\u003c/a>, once numbering in the hundreds of thousands, have disappeared from a large part of their range. South of the Golden Gate, the species is virtually extinct.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Habitat loss is a major factor driving the decline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Butano Creek restoration aims to solve another problem created by humans re-engineering the local landscape: \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/11/06/pescadero-more-steelhead-deaths-frustrate-residents/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">frequent die-offs\u003c/a> of threatened steelhead, which once thrived in the watershed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These fish — ocean-going rainbow trout — spawn in nearby Pescadero Creek and grow large as they feed in the adjoining marsh. But here they face what amounts to a death trap before they can migrate into the Pacific.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biologists believe the steelhead suffocate when they encounter stagnant, oxygen-depleted water that has formed in deep pits excavated in the marsh over the years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This anoxic water, which engulfs the fish as it rushes out of the marsh with the first storms of the rainy season, is thought to be responsible for killing thousands of steelhead over the last few decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The restoration project is addressing the problem by using the sediment removed from Butano Creek to fill the pits in the marsh. That should reduce or eliminate the volume of anoxic water there and improve conditions for fish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Major Flooding\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local support for the project was bolstered by another consequence of the dam blocking Butano Creek: flooding on Pescadero Creek Road, the main road in and out of town.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1951608\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1951608\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Pescadero-Creek-Road-Flooding-800x597.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"597\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The blockage on Butano Creek contributed to major flooding on Pescadero Creek Road, pictured in 2016, and nearby farmland. \u003ccite>(San Mateo Resource Conservation District)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“When it rains, people get anxious,” said Nic Erridge, who chairs the Pescadero Municipal Advisory Council.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Erridge says any time there’s a big rainstorm, the road and surrounding farmland are inundated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It becomes a wetland,” Erridge said, “Water just flows through, the creek just spreads out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a result, locals are stranded, sometimes unable to reach homes, jobs and school. Nearby farms, which help drive the town’s economy, are damaged.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Solving this flooding issue is huge,” Erridge said. “Hopefully this project is really gonna help us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Resetting the Baseline’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For five months this summer and fall, crews used pontoon excavators, bulldozers, and dredge pumps to dig out the dirt, muck and debris from Butano Creek. Nearly 70,000 cubic yards of sediment were removed, and the stream now flows continuously from the Santa Cruz Mountains to the ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joe Pecharich, a fisheries biologist with the NOAA Restoration Center, says he sees the restoration project as “resetting the baseline” for Butano Creek.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wildlife officials estimate the Pescadero-Butano Creek watershed has the \u003ca href=\"https://archive.fisheries.noaa.gov/wcr/protected_species/salmon_steelhead/recovery_planning_and_implementation/north_central_california_coast/central_california_coast_coho_recovery_plan.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">potential\u003c/a> to support 2,300 spawning coho and similar numbers of steelhead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So it really could provide an opportunity to really jump-start some recovery of coho south of the Golden Gate,” Pecharich said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If coho don’t naturally return to the system, he says, fish could be transplanted from other watersheds or breeding programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1951604\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1951604\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Restored-Pescadero-Marsh-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Restored-Pescadero-Marsh-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Restored-Pescadero-Marsh-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Restored-Pescadero-Marsh-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Restored-Pescadero-Marsh-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Restored-Pescadero-Marsh-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Restored-Pescadero-Marsh-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In October, the San Mateo Resource Conservation District, along with state and federal agencies, completed a five-month restoration of Butano Creek and surrounding Pescadero Marsh. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the San Mateo Resource Conservation District)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>What those fish will find is a creek that is still hospitable to their kind. For instance, the stream features the type of gravel female coho need to dig their nests. In these burrows, they can deposit up to 3,000 eggs. The stream and marsh can also provide young salmon the natural protection and food they need to fuel their journey into the ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Pecharich, reopening Butano Creek for coho could also benefit the greater coastal ecosystem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When coho and other salmon spawn, their bodies break down, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1915421/theres-something-fishy-about-these-trees-deep-look\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">feeding the surrounding environment\u003c/a>. Birds, foxes and other scavengers feed on the fish carcasses and distribute them on land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pecharich says scientists now understand that salmon streams have contributed to the growth and health of redwood forests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s definitely no coincidence that coho and the range of the species extends to pretty much the range of the redwoods,” Pecharich said. “They’ve actually found marine-derived nutrients within these trees, which is pretty amazing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1951600\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1951600\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Restored-Butano-Creek-Channel-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Restored-Butano-Creek-Channel-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Restored-Butano-Creek-Channel-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Restored-Butano-Creek-Channel-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Restored-Butano-Creek-Channel-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Restored-Butano-Creek-Channel-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/Restored-Butano-Creek-Channel-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Excavation crews removed nearly 70,000 cubic yards of sediment to reopen Butano Creek for endangered coho salmon. The channel now flows from the mountains to the ocean. \u003ccite>(Peter Arcuni/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In turn, the trees shade and nourish the streams for fish. Pecharich says that type of exchange could happen upstream in Butano Creek, where it ends up in the redwood groves of Butano State Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Signs of Life\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s too early to tell if coho will return to Butano Creek in large numbers, or if removing the sediment dam will prevent the road from flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Kellyx Nelson says there are already signs of life returning to the stream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The other day, about a mile and a half from the ocean, we saw a Dungeness crab. Right there in this creek, which had previously been completely disconnected,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That means as California’s first big winter rains arrive, signaling the remaining Central Coast coho to begin their spawning migration, they’ll have one more path upstream.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The spherical shape of Earth is what we like to call around here “settled science.” But nowadays, pit even a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200606/history.cfm\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2,500-year-old\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> truism against the evangelism of Internet algorithms, and you got yourself an actual “debate,” no matter how inane.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1951196\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 546px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2029/12/Blue-Marble-Apollo-Earth-e1575419529895.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-1951196\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2029/12/Blue-Marble-Apollo-Earth-1200x1200.jpg\" alt=\"Apollo Earth photo\" width=\"546\" height=\"546\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Apollo 17 crew caught this breathtaking view of Earth as they were traveling to the moon on Dec. 7, 1972. It’s the first time astronauts were able to photograph the South polar ice cap. Nearly the entire coastline of Africa is clearly visible, along with the Arabian Peninsula. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We’re speaking of what appears to be the disturbing trend of people thinking the surface of the world is flat.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> No, really — this is a thing. For example, last month the third annual Flat Earth International Conference \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/16/us/flat-earth-conference-conspiracy-theories-scli-intl/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">convened\u003c/a> in Dallas; the rapper B.o.B once started a GoFundMe \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2017/09/25/us/b-o-b-flat-earth-gofundme-trnd/index.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">campaign\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as part of a quest to gather ungatherable evidence for the idea; and basketball star Kyrie Irving has found himself\u003c/span> having to\u003ca href=\"https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ftw/2018/10/01/kyrie-irving-apologized-for-saying-the-earth-is-flat-i-was-huge-into-conspiracies/38012367/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> apologize \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">for publicizing the \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">view on Twitter. A 2018 YouGov\u003ca style=\"font-weight: 400;\" href=\"https://today.yougov.com/topics/philosophy/articles-reports/2018/04/02/most-flat-earthers-consider-themselves-religious\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> survey\u003c/a> found that 16% of 8,215 American adults queried had various levels of doubt about the true shape of the Earth.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At this point, it’s probably fair to ask: When is American society going to hit epistemological bottom?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Perhaps the first step in answering that question is understanding \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">why \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a belief like flat Earth can flourish, at least among certain groups of willing adherents. To that end, we talked to \u003cstrong>Asheley Landrum, assistant professor of science communication at Texas Tech University\u003c/strong>, who has been \u003ca href=\"https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15213269.2019.1669461\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">studying\u003c/a> the movement, if you want to call it that. We asked her, well, just what in the round world is going on here? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here are some of the key points from Landrum’s answers, edited for length and clarity. \u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>YouTube as Flat Earth Gateway\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the things we found is that many people with this belief discovered flat Earth through YouTube. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote citation=\"Asheley Landrum, Texas Tech University\"]‘What this tells us is how bad it can be when we start to truly distrust other people.’[/pullquote]One of our research participants told us he started off by watching videos that were suggested to him on YouTube because of his interest in conspiracy theories. He started looking into conspiracy theories about the Illuminati and Sandy Hook, and the whole time he was watching he kept being suggested flat Earth videos by the algorithm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He said he was going to watch one of the videos with the intention of discrediting it, but by the end he accepted that Earth is not round.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This was very true for many of the people we talked to; they start by watching a series of conspiracy videos and then they’re introduced to this idea of a flat Earth. They choose not to watch it, but the more it’s suggested, the more compelled they are. By the time they view it, they’re ready to kind of accept that information.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Loving the Science, Not the Scientists\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1951438\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 428px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/flat-earth.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1951438\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/flat-earth-1200x900.jpg\" alt=\"Artist's conception of Earth with a flat surfac\" width=\"428\" height=\"321\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/flat-earth-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/flat-earth-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/flat-earth-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/flat-earth-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/flat-earth-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/flat-earth.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 428px) 100vw, 428px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Artist’s conception of Earth with a flat surface. (David Roberts/iStock)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Many of the people we interviewed do love science. They talk about how much they respect the process of science; they just don’t trust scientists. Scientists are seen as elite authorities who just make fun of them when they have legitimate questions to ask.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One person posed a question about motion that I think many individuals would not know the answer to: “If I can feel motion when I’m in a moving car, how come I wouldn’t be able to feel motion if I’m on a planet that’s hurtling through space?” To that person, that is evidence the planet is motionless. A physicist would be able to explain it, but if all that the scientist or media personality or opinion leader does is dismiss them for asking “stupid questions,” then of course they’re going to further distrust scientists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Religious Belief Doesn’t Predict Flat Earth Stance\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We recently wrote a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15213269.2019.1669461\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">paper\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on who is susceptible to flat Earth videos on YouTube. The number one characteristic that makes people more susceptible is their conspiracy ideation; how much they see conspiracies and accept that conspiracies are true. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many of the flat-earthers we spoke to at the conference told us that one of the reasons they believe in a flat Earth is that they think the Bible should be interpreted literally, and they would quote passages they said were explaining how Earth is actually flat. But in our research study, the intensity with which someone holds religious beliefs or the importance of religion in their daily lives was actually not predictive of being open to flat Earth views. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Scientific Knowledge Protects Against Distorted Thinking\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Among people who had stronger conspiracy beliefs, the more science knowledge they had, the less likely they were to believe that Earth was flat or to believe that these videos were presenting good arguments. So scientific knowledge was protective in the conspiracy community against accepting these flat Earth beliefs.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the things I thought was so compelling about the \u003ca href=\"https://www.netflix.com/title/81015076\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">flat Earth documentary\u003c/a> last year was that the flat earthers designed really fantastic experiments, and of course, they found that the experiments didn’t support the flat Earth worldview. They were upset because they felt like they did something wrong.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Trump and Flat Earth\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We definitely have heard from the flat-earthers that they like Donald Trump, but many of them said that they don’t even bother voting. In some cases, they’ll express very liberal views, and in others, very conservative, so it really is a phenomenon that is across the political spectrum.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They like Donald Trump because, to them, he represents somebody who is not part of the political elite coming into that political office. They see Donald Trump as a disruptor as opposed to just another establishment Republican.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>How Widespread Is This?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Well, there aren’t, at least as far as we can tell, a very large percentage of people who currently believe Earth is flat, but it is very difficult for us to know. Most of what we know about how many people in the U.S. or abroad believe in flat Earth is based on survey data, but many people who hold conspiracy beliefs and are suspicious of universities and government officials aren’t going to respond to phone surveys. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>When Trust Erodes\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What belief in flat Earth tells us is how bad it can be when we start to truly distrust other people. We do live in a society that relies on a division of cognitive labor. We talk about this concept of elite, but it’s not that there are people who are elite and people who aren’t, it’s that each of us has our own domain that we are the expert in. I have to take my car to mechanics to have them tell me what’s wrong with it because I have no idea how to do that. My area of expertise is in something completely different.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Everybody has their own area of expertise and their own part to play in society. If we don’t rely on each other, we have this large burden of knowledge that we have to carry around with us, and it’s just not possible for us to be able to do everything. So that’s really the danger that Flat Earth represents: It’s what happens when we stop trusting each other and doubt those areas of expertise.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYQCIphJhAk&feature=youtu.be\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The spherical shape of Earth is what we like to call around here “settled science.” But nowadays, pit even a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200606/history.cfm\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2,500-year-old\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> truism against the evangelism of Internet algorithms, and you got yourself an actual “debate,” no matter how inane.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1951196\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 546px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2029/12/Blue-Marble-Apollo-Earth-e1575419529895.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-1951196\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2029/12/Blue-Marble-Apollo-Earth-1200x1200.jpg\" alt=\"Apollo Earth photo\" width=\"546\" height=\"546\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Apollo 17 crew caught this breathtaking view of Earth as they were traveling to the moon on Dec. 7, 1972. It’s the first time astronauts were able to photograph the South polar ice cap. Nearly the entire coastline of Africa is clearly visible, along with the Arabian Peninsula. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We’re speaking of what appears to be the disturbing trend of people thinking the surface of the world is flat.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> No, really — this is a thing. For example, last month the third annual Flat Earth International Conference \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/16/us/flat-earth-conference-conspiracy-theories-scli-intl/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">convened\u003c/a> in Dallas; the rapper B.o.B once started a GoFundMe \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2017/09/25/us/b-o-b-flat-earth-gofundme-trnd/index.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">campaign\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as part of a quest to gather ungatherable evidence for the idea; and basketball star Kyrie Irving has found himself\u003c/span> having to\u003ca href=\"https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ftw/2018/10/01/kyrie-irving-apologized-for-saying-the-earth-is-flat-i-was-huge-into-conspiracies/38012367/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> apologize \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">for publicizing the \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">view on Twitter. A 2018 YouGov\u003ca style=\"font-weight: 400;\" href=\"https://today.yougov.com/topics/philosophy/articles-reports/2018/04/02/most-flat-earthers-consider-themselves-religious\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> survey\u003c/a> found that 16% of 8,215 American adults queried had various levels of doubt about the true shape of the Earth.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At this point, it’s probably fair to ask: When is American society going to hit epistemological bottom?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Perhaps the first step in answering that question is understanding \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">why \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a belief like flat Earth can flourish, at least among certain groups of willing adherents. To that end, we talked to \u003cstrong>Asheley Landrum, assistant professor of science communication at Texas Tech University\u003c/strong>, who has been \u003ca href=\"https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15213269.2019.1669461\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">studying\u003c/a> the movement, if you want to call it that. We asked her, well, just what in the round world is going on here? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here are some of the key points from Landrum’s answers, edited for length and clarity. \u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>YouTube as Flat Earth Gateway\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the things we found is that many people with this belief discovered flat Earth through YouTube. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>One of our research participants told us he started off by watching videos that were suggested to him on YouTube because of his interest in conspiracy theories. He started looking into conspiracy theories about the Illuminati and Sandy Hook, and the whole time he was watching he kept being suggested flat Earth videos by the algorithm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He said he was going to watch one of the videos with the intention of discrediting it, but by the end he accepted that Earth is not round.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This was very true for many of the people we talked to; they start by watching a series of conspiracy videos and then they’re introduced to this idea of a flat Earth. They choose not to watch it, but the more it’s suggested, the more compelled they are. By the time they view it, they’re ready to kind of accept that information.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Loving the Science, Not the Scientists\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1951438\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 428px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/flat-earth.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1951438\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/flat-earth-1200x900.jpg\" alt=\"Artist's conception of Earth with a flat surfac\" width=\"428\" height=\"321\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/flat-earth-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/flat-earth-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/flat-earth-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/flat-earth-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/flat-earth-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/flat-earth.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 428px) 100vw, 428px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Artist’s conception of Earth with a flat surface. (David Roberts/iStock)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Many of the people we interviewed do love science. They talk about how much they respect the process of science; they just don’t trust scientists. Scientists are seen as elite authorities who just make fun of them when they have legitimate questions to ask.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One person posed a question about motion that I think many individuals would not know the answer to: “If I can feel motion when I’m in a moving car, how come I wouldn’t be able to feel motion if I’m on a planet that’s hurtling through space?” To that person, that is evidence the planet is motionless. A physicist would be able to explain it, but if all that the scientist or media personality or opinion leader does is dismiss them for asking “stupid questions,” then of course they’re going to further distrust scientists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Religious Belief Doesn’t Predict Flat Earth Stance\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We recently wrote a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15213269.2019.1669461\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">paper\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on who is susceptible to flat Earth videos on YouTube. The number one characteristic that makes people more susceptible is their conspiracy ideation; how much they see conspiracies and accept that conspiracies are true. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many of the flat-earthers we spoke to at the conference told us that one of the reasons they believe in a flat Earth is that they think the Bible should be interpreted literally, and they would quote passages they said were explaining how Earth is actually flat. But in our research study, the intensity with which someone holds religious beliefs or the importance of religion in their daily lives was actually not predictive of being open to flat Earth views. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Scientific Knowledge Protects Against Distorted Thinking\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Among people who had stronger conspiracy beliefs, the more science knowledge they had, the less likely they were to believe that Earth was flat or to believe that these videos were presenting good arguments. So scientific knowledge was protective in the conspiracy community against accepting these flat Earth beliefs.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the things I thought was so compelling about the \u003ca href=\"https://www.netflix.com/title/81015076\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">flat Earth documentary\u003c/a> last year was that the flat earthers designed really fantastic experiments, and of course, they found that the experiments didn’t support the flat Earth worldview. They were upset because they felt like they did something wrong.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Trump and Flat Earth\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We definitely have heard from the flat-earthers that they like Donald Trump, but many of them said that they don’t even bother voting. In some cases, they’ll express very liberal views, and in others, very conservative, so it really is a phenomenon that is across the political spectrum.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They like Donald Trump because, to them, he represents somebody who is not part of the political elite coming into that political office. They see Donald Trump as a disruptor as opposed to just another establishment Republican.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>How Widespread Is This?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Well, there aren’t, at least as far as we can tell, a very large percentage of people who currently believe Earth is flat, but it is very difficult for us to know. Most of what we know about how many people in the U.S. or abroad believe in flat Earth is based on survey data, but many people who hold conspiracy beliefs and are suspicious of universities and government officials aren’t going to respond to phone surveys. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>When Trust Erodes\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What belief in flat Earth tells us is how bad it can be when we start to truly distrust other people. We do live in a society that relies on a division of cognitive labor. We talk about this concept of elite, but it’s not that there are people who are elite and people who aren’t, it’s that each of us has our own domain that we are the expert in. I have to take my car to mechanics to have them tell me what’s wrong with it because I have no idea how to do that. My area of expertise is in something completely different.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Everybody has their own area of expertise and their own part to play in society. If we don’t rely on each other, we have this large burden of knowledge that we have to carry around with us, and it’s just not possible for us to be able to do everything. So that’s really the danger that Flat Earth represents: It’s what happens when we stop trusting each other and doubt those areas of expertise.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/fYQCIphJhAk'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/fYQCIphJhAk'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At the dinner table, Madeleine Dean, surrounded by noisy, Irish relatives, used to feel very alone. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Holiday meals had become a really stressful experience and nobody knew that,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dean, now a filmmaker, kept her eating disorder a secret for years. From a very young age she struggled with anorexia nervosa. Anticipating holiday meals, she starved herself all morning before the festivities to ensure her overall caloric intake stayed low. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When everyone sat down, she compared her plate with theirs. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Am I eating more than somebody else? Am I eating something that’s unhealthy and somebody else seems to only be eating something healthy? Are they going to judge me for what I’m eating?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Instead of savoring mashed potatoes and gravy, she nervously pushed them around her plate. If someone commented, she was quick to respond. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’d say, ‘Oh, I don’t like this food. I’m not interested in having this right now. I’m not that hungry.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As soon as she could, she’d excuse herself from the table and escape to her room. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gorge Then Guilt\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The holidays also create a lot of angst for Ryan Sheldon. But instead of starving himself, he’d gorge.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would use the holidays as an excuse for me to binge and for it to be accepted,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sheldon is a big-and-tall model who’s recovering from a binge eating disorder. For him, the affliction meant consuming huge quantities of food with a giant chaser of guilt. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Family is really, really, really stressful and that would trigger me to binge,” Sheldon says. “It became like this really dark time. I began to dread the holidays.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He remembers tortured flights from the East Coast home to Los Angeles after celebrating Hanukkah with his relatives; he ruminated over and over on offhand comments from family members about his size or eating habits.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I couldn’t shake the sense of feeling worthless,” Sheldon remembers. “The sense of feeling lonely. The sense of feeling like I don’t deserve anything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Often the moment the plane touched down he’d start a new fad diet like Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers or SlimFast to shed holiday pounds.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would obsess over the diet,” Sheldon says. “I would get very meticulous. Then it would go one of two ways. I would either go off the diet immediately or I would go severe on the diet. It was sick.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Prepare Beforehand\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lauren Muhlheim, a psychologist in Los Angeles who specializes in eating disorders, says experiences like Dean’s and Sheldon’s are typical this time of year. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When people eat, in contexts that they don’t eat … on a daily basis, they face a higher level of difficulty,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Muhlheim advises her clients to prepare before a festive gathering by asking:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>How are you going to go through the buffet?\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>How are you going to make decisions about what to eat?\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Who is your support person during the meal?\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Who can help you afterward?\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If the holidays trigger a relapse, that’s okay, Muhlheim says. \u003c/span>“The goal is to not beat oneself up when there is a lapse but to learn from it and figure out how you can get stronger in your recovery skills.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She hopes friends and family can add extra helpings of compassion for anyone with eating disorders during the holidays. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>If you are struggling with an eating disorder and are in need of support, you may call the \u003ca href=\"https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/PQvgCW682XujXyxoS6yqXn?domain=nationaleatingdisorders.org\">National Eating Disorders Association Helpline\u003c/a> at \u003ca href=\"tel:1-800-931-2237\">1-800-931-2237\u003c/a>. For a 24-hour crisis line, text “NEDA” to 741741.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’d say, ‘Oh, I don’t like this food. I’m not interested in having this right now. I’m not that hungry.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As soon as she could, she’d excuse herself from the table and escape to her room. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gorge Then Guilt\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The holidays also create a lot of angst for Ryan Sheldon. But instead of starving himself, he’d gorge.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would use the holidays as an excuse for me to binge and for it to be accepted,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sheldon is a big-and-tall model who’s recovering from a binge eating disorder. For him, the affliction meant consuming huge quantities of food with a giant chaser of guilt. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Family is really, really, really stressful and that would trigger me to binge,” Sheldon says. “It became like this really dark time. I began to dread the holidays.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He remembers tortured flights from the East Coast home to Los Angeles after celebrating Hanukkah with his relatives; he ruminated over and over on offhand comments from family members about his size or eating habits.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I couldn’t shake the sense of feeling worthless,” Sheldon remembers. “The sense of feeling lonely. The sense of feeling like I don’t deserve anything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Often the moment the plane touched down he’d start a new fad diet like Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers or SlimFast to shed holiday pounds.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would obsess over the diet,” Sheldon says. “I would get very meticulous. Then it would go one of two ways. I would either go off the diet immediately or I would go severe on the diet. It was sick.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Prepare Beforehand\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lauren Muhlheim, a psychologist in Los Angeles who specializes in eating disorders, says experiences like Dean’s and Sheldon’s are typical this time of year. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When people eat, in contexts that they don’t eat … on a daily basis, they face a higher level of difficulty,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Muhlheim advises her clients to prepare before a festive gathering by asking:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>How are you going to go through the buffet?\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>How are you going to make decisions about what to eat?\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Who is your support person during the meal?\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Who can help you afterward?\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If the holidays trigger a relapse, that’s okay, Muhlheim says. \u003c/span>“The goal is to not beat oneself up when there is a lapse but to learn from it and figure out how you can get stronger in your recovery skills.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She hopes friends and family can add extra helpings of compassion for anyone with eating disorders during the holidays. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>If you are struggling with an eating disorder and are in need of support, you may call the \u003ca href=\"https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/PQvgCW682XujXyxoS6yqXn?domain=nationaleatingdisorders.org\">National Eating Disorders Association Helpline\u003c/a> at \u003ca href=\"tel:1-800-931-2237\">1-800-931-2237\u003c/a>. For a 24-hour crisis line, text “NEDA” to 741741.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Unlike most kids, Alex Bevans scrutinizes the ingredient list before he eats anything. In the candy aisle of a grocery store in Carson City, Nevada, the 14-year-old scowls as he reads the label on a bag of lollipops,\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“Get this,” Alex said. “It has Red 40, Red 3, Yellow 5, Blue 1, Blue 2, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">His mom, Rebecca, reached for the bag then gave her assessment: “Yeah, that’s completely toxic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Each pigment affects Alex differently, Rebecca said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“So red … he can’t pay attention and he’s impulsive. Green makes him manic. Blue makes him grumpy and tired. Yellow is the worst. He’s explosive and it leads to suicidal ideation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Alex is not alone in these types of reactions, says Lisa Lefferts, a senior scientist for the Center for Science in the Public Interest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“We’ve been contacted by over 2,000 families reporting their experiences with food dyes,” she said. “The parents say that when their child is off of dyes they’re just lovely children. On dyes they’re like a completely different person.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1949742\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1949742\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/Fooddyes_004-800x577.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"577\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/Fooddyes_004-800x577.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/Fooddyes_004-160x115.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/Fooddyes_004-768x554.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/Fooddyes_004-1020x736.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/Fooddyes_004-1200x866.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/Fooddyes_004.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Surprising foods containing chemical food coloring like microwave popcorn, cough medicine, peanut butter and beef jerky. \u003ccite>(Lindsey Moore/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">\u003cstrong>European Protections\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Lefferts is lobbying the Food and Drug Administration to follow Europe’s example on dyes: The E.U. requires manufacturers to add a warning label to foods with artificial coloring that says they “may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Most European companies avoid the label by switching to natural dyes like beet juice and Spirulina extract. A few American companies have followed suit. Kraft Macaroni and Cheese now uses turmeric and paprika to turn its noodles bright yellow. But substitutions like these aren’t widespread in the U.S, because natural dyes are more expensive and less stable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">The FDA has approved nine colors for use in processed food and other products like sunscreen, cough syrup and pills. The synthetic additives are made from petroleum and are contained in at least 90% of candies, fruit-flavored snacks, and drink mixes\u003cspan class=\"s2\"> marketed to kids\u003c/span>. It’s also in \u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0009922816651621\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">40% of all food products \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">designed for children. \u003c/span>The agency has determined there’s not enough evidence to support adding a warning label to these products, and in 2011, after reviewing 35 years of research, it declined to impose any new regulations on manufacturers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">The \u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/food/food-additives-petitions/color-additives-questions-and-answers-consumers\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">FDA website\u003c/span>\u003c/a> currently says, “The totality of scientific evidence indicates that most children have no adverse effects when consuming foods containing color additives, but some evidence suggests that certain children may be sensitive to them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">\u003cb>Shaky or Sound Science?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joel Nigg, psychologist and researcher\u003cspan style=\"color: red;\"> \u003c/span>at Oregon Health and Science University, followed up on the FDA probe with a comprehensive \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4321798/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">review\u003c/a>, published in 2015, of all the human clinical trials related to synthetic color additives. The article concluded that restricting the chemicals for some kids with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder does have a notable effect, but he agrees that the evidence is on the weak side because it relies on dated, often small studies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv>“One can question whether [the underlying studies] are convincing,” Nigg said. “But they do show a causal effect if taken at face value.”\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>A 2007 human clinical trial known as the Southampton \u003ca href=\"http://www.cspinet.org/new/pdf/mccann.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">study \u003c/a>is often highlighted in the debate. British researchers gave kids beverages with synthetic food coloring in opaque containers. Afterwards, observers noted an increase in child hyperactivity. This replicated a prior similar study. But skeptics have noted that not all the dyes were FDA approved. Plus the behavioral changes were not as noticeable for teachers and independent people as for parents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv>\u003cspan style=\"color: red;\">\u003cspan style=\"color: black;\">Nigg and colleagues estimate that 5-10% of kids with ADHD may be sensitive to synthetic food coloring. That’s tens of thousands of children who could be exposed to a preventable influence on their ADHD. \u003c/span>\u003c/span>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">\u003cstrong>Worst-Case Scenario\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">But for Rebecca, all the evidence she needed was right there in her son. She remembered the moment she began connecting Alex’s diet to strange behavior. He was in second grade and complained he couldn’t focus because his brain was buzzing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“It’s like if you played a decibel machine and you just kept turning the tone and the sound up,” Alex said. “It just got really ear-piercing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Then there were the meltdowns. Several times or more a day, small frustrations resulted in crying fits. “It was like I was trapped by myself and I couldn’t escape the feelings,” Alex said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Rebecca shuddered as she recounted an episode when Alex was seven. He was shredding his clothes and scratching himself on his bed. “He looked at me and said, ‘Please get me a knife. I want to kill myself. I don’t want to live like this anymore.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">The family doctor had no clear answers for her, so Rebecca turned to the internet. She began cutting things out of Alex’s diet like dairy, gluten, eggs, sugar, corn syrup and preservatives. The family tried behavioral then cognitive behavioral therapy. Nothing worked. Finally, one night Rebecca stumbled across a teenager’s blog post about an extreme reaction to red food coloring. Rebecca wondered if that was why Alex struggled with erratic mood swings. She decided to cut dyes out of Alex’s diet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">At first, Alex crashed like a detoxing addict. He could hardly get out of bed, and his body was sore to the touch. But within days, both the suicidal thoughts and the tantrums disappeared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“It completely changed who I was,” he said. “I could finally focus.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The dramatic change inspired Rebecca to share her family’s story in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQzOHAwCfXs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">TEDX talk\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bevans hoped Alex would grow out of his sensitivity, but seven years later he continues to experience negative reactions every time he accidentally eats something with chemical food coloring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">\u003cb>Back on the Table\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">The American Academy of Pediatrics said in a 2018 \u003ca href=\"https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/142/2/e20181408\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">policy statement\u003c/a> that “artificial food colors may be associated with exacerbation of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> “The AAP has concerns about the limited safety testing available on chemicals intentionally and unintentionally added to foods, including food dyes,” said Dr. Leonardo Trasande, who co-wrote the statement. “There are safe and simple steps families can take to limit children’s exposure to these chemicals.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Nigg says even though more robust research is needed, it’s clear that synthetic food coloring is not benign. The good news, he says, is that the behavioral shifts triggered by the chemicals appear to usually last less than a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“I think we’ll be surprised in the future that we were so laissez-faire about adding so many synthetic chemicals and thinking they wouldn’t do anything to children’s brains,” said Nigg.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">The issue is back on the table at the federal and state levels, too. Scientists at the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment are conducting a risk assessment to determine if artificial colors impact neurobehavioral or neurological processes. The agency\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>expects a conclusive report next summer. And, the\u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/advisory-committees/advisory-committee-calendar/october-7-2019-science-board-fda-meeting-announcement-10072019-10072019\"> \u003cspan class=\"s1\">FDA recently\u003c/span>\u003c/a> asked its science board to assess whether new studies warrant another literature review.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Unlike most kids, Alex Bevans scrutinizes the ingredient list before he eats anything. In the candy aisle of a grocery store in Carson City, Nevada, the 14-year-old scowls as he reads the label on a bag of lollipops,\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“Get this,” Alex said. “It has Red 40, Red 3, Yellow 5, Blue 1, Blue 2, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">His mom, Rebecca, reached for the bag then gave her assessment: “Yeah, that’s completely toxic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Each pigment affects Alex differently, Rebecca said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“So red … he can’t pay attention and he’s impulsive. Green makes him manic. Blue makes him grumpy and tired. Yellow is the worst. He’s explosive and it leads to suicidal ideation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Alex is not alone in these types of reactions, says Lisa Lefferts, a senior scientist for the Center for Science in the Public Interest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“We’ve been contacted by over 2,000 families reporting their experiences with food dyes,” she said. “The parents say that when their child is off of dyes they’re just lovely children. On dyes they’re like a completely different person.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1949742\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1949742\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/Fooddyes_004-800x577.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"577\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/Fooddyes_004-800x577.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/Fooddyes_004-160x115.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/Fooddyes_004-768x554.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/Fooddyes_004-1020x736.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/Fooddyes_004-1200x866.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/Fooddyes_004.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Surprising foods containing chemical food coloring like microwave popcorn, cough medicine, peanut butter and beef jerky. \u003ccite>(Lindsey Moore/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">\u003cstrong>European Protections\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Lefferts is lobbying the Food and Drug Administration to follow Europe’s example on dyes: The E.U. requires manufacturers to add a warning label to foods with artificial coloring that says they “may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Most European companies avoid the label by switching to natural dyes like beet juice and Spirulina extract. A few American companies have followed suit. Kraft Macaroni and Cheese now uses turmeric and paprika to turn its noodles bright yellow. But substitutions like these aren’t widespread in the U.S, because natural dyes are more expensive and less stable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">The FDA has approved nine colors for use in processed food and other products like sunscreen, cough syrup and pills. The synthetic additives are made from petroleum and are contained in at least 90% of candies, fruit-flavored snacks, and drink mixes\u003cspan class=\"s2\"> marketed to kids\u003c/span>. It’s also in \u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0009922816651621\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">40% of all food products \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">designed for children. \u003c/span>The agency has determined there’s not enough evidence to support adding a warning label to these products, and in 2011, after reviewing 35 years of research, it declined to impose any new regulations on manufacturers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">The \u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/food/food-additives-petitions/color-additives-questions-and-answers-consumers\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">FDA website\u003c/span>\u003c/a> currently says, “The totality of scientific evidence indicates that most children have no adverse effects when consuming foods containing color additives, but some evidence suggests that certain children may be sensitive to them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">\u003cb>Shaky or Sound Science?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joel Nigg, psychologist and researcher\u003cspan style=\"color: red;\"> \u003c/span>at Oregon Health and Science University, followed up on the FDA probe with a comprehensive \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4321798/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">review\u003c/a>, published in 2015, of all the human clinical trials related to synthetic color additives. The article concluded that restricting the chemicals for some kids with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder does have a notable effect, but he agrees that the evidence is on the weak side because it relies on dated, often small studies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv>“One can question whether [the underlying studies] are convincing,” Nigg said. “But they do show a causal effect if taken at face value.”\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>A 2007 human clinical trial known as the Southampton \u003ca href=\"http://www.cspinet.org/new/pdf/mccann.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">study \u003c/a>is often highlighted in the debate. British researchers gave kids beverages with synthetic food coloring in opaque containers. Afterwards, observers noted an increase in child hyperactivity. This replicated a prior similar study. But skeptics have noted that not all the dyes were FDA approved. Plus the behavioral changes were not as noticeable for teachers and independent people as for parents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv>\u003cspan style=\"color: red;\">\u003cspan style=\"color: black;\">Nigg and colleagues estimate that 5-10% of kids with ADHD may be sensitive to synthetic food coloring. That’s tens of thousands of children who could be exposed to a preventable influence on their ADHD. \u003c/span>\u003c/span>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">\u003cstrong>Worst-Case Scenario\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">But for Rebecca, all the evidence she needed was right there in her son. She remembered the moment she began connecting Alex’s diet to strange behavior. He was in second grade and complained he couldn’t focus because his brain was buzzing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“It’s like if you played a decibel machine and you just kept turning the tone and the sound up,” Alex said. “It just got really ear-piercing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Then there were the meltdowns. Several times or more a day, small frustrations resulted in crying fits. “It was like I was trapped by myself and I couldn’t escape the feelings,” Alex said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Rebecca shuddered as she recounted an episode when Alex was seven. He was shredding his clothes and scratching himself on his bed. “He looked at me and said, ‘Please get me a knife. I want to kill myself. I don’t want to live like this anymore.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">The family doctor had no clear answers for her, so Rebecca turned to the internet. She began cutting things out of Alex’s diet like dairy, gluten, eggs, sugar, corn syrup and preservatives. The family tried behavioral then cognitive behavioral therapy. Nothing worked. Finally, one night Rebecca stumbled across a teenager’s blog post about an extreme reaction to red food coloring. Rebecca wondered if that was why Alex struggled with erratic mood swings. She decided to cut dyes out of Alex’s diet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">At first, Alex crashed like a detoxing addict. He could hardly get out of bed, and his body was sore to the touch. But within days, both the suicidal thoughts and the tantrums disappeared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“It completely changed who I was,” he said. “I could finally focus.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The dramatic change inspired Rebecca to share her family’s story in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQzOHAwCfXs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">TEDX talk\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bevans hoped Alex would grow out of his sensitivity, but seven years later he continues to experience negative reactions every time he accidentally eats something with chemical food coloring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">\u003cb>Back on the Table\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">The American Academy of Pediatrics said in a 2018 \u003ca href=\"https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/142/2/e20181408\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">policy statement\u003c/a> that “artificial food colors may be associated with exacerbation of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> “The AAP has concerns about the limited safety testing available on chemicals intentionally and unintentionally added to foods, including food dyes,” said Dr. Leonardo Trasande, who co-wrote the statement. “There are safe and simple steps families can take to limit children’s exposure to these chemicals.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Nigg says even though more robust research is needed, it’s clear that synthetic food coloring is not benign. The good news, he says, is that the behavioral shifts triggered by the chemicals appear to usually last less than a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“I think we’ll be surprised in the future that we were so laissez-faire about adding so many synthetic chemicals and thinking they wouldn’t do anything to children’s brains,” said Nigg.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">The issue is back on the table at the federal and state levels, too. Scientists at the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment are conducting a risk assessment to determine if artificial colors impact neurobehavioral or neurological processes. The agency\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>expects a conclusive report next summer. And, the\u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/advisory-committees/advisory-committee-calendar/october-7-2019-science-board-fda-meeting-announcement-10072019-10072019\"> \u003cspan class=\"s1\">FDA recently\u003c/span>\u003c/a> asked its science board to assess whether new studies warrant another literature review.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>There are 18 wildfires now blazing across California, which means many of the state’s residents are waking up to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1926793/protecting-your-health-from-toxic-wildfire-smoke\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">smell of smoke\u003c/a> and hazy skies. The Carr fire near Redding has scorched \u003ca href=\"http://www.fire.ca.gov/current_incidents/incidentdetails/Index/2164\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">at least 141,000 acres\u003c/a>, and killed seven people. Three fires in Mendocino County are all less than an hour away from Santa Rosa — where some neighborhoods burned to the ground last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘You can just feel it. There’s a sense of tension here in Santa Rosa.’\u003ccite>Danielle Bryant, Santa Rosa \u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Confronting constant reminders of what fire can do has become a terrifying reality for people who survived last year’s flames and are still piecing their lives back together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Psychologists, therapists and other counselors are working to assure these survivors that surges of panic, grief and agitation are healthy and normal, even as they offer tips for quenching the terror.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The view from Danielle Bryant’s bedroom window, in her new temporary apartment in Santa Rosa, is pretty unsettling these days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The orange-tinged sky is just enough for me, to set off my anxiety and feelings of fear,” Bryant says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Running for Your Life\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year on Oct. 8, an explosion jolted Bryant awake in the middle of the night. Howling winds shook her Santa Rosa house. The air was hot. Bryant and her husband jumped in their car and fled with only the clothes on their backs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feared for our life,” she says. “We were running for our life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When they returned the next day the street was desolate. The air wreaked of burnt chemicals. Homes were charred rubble. The October flames eventually destroyed thousands of houses and killed 44 people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were victims to one of the most terrible events in history,” says Bryant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Still Haunted 10 Months Later\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the past year, Bryant has struggled with many symptoms of trauma: sleeplessness, nightmares, irritability, and loss of appetite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Agitation — so quick to agitation,” Bryant says. “Hence the fight that I got in the other night with my husband.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘“The trouble is, the brain keeps rising to the occasion, even when the threat isn’t current.’\u003ccite>Jennifer Freeman, LMFT\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>It was a fight about nothing. She says she blew up after watching the news about all the fires on television. She hasn’t turned on the TV since. She’s hearing similar stories from friends and neighbors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can just feel it,” Bryant says. “There’s a sense of tension here in Santa Rosa.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bryant’s current apartment is about a mile away from her old house. She’s still working through everything that happened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These last 10 months,” she says, “have been one of the hardest times of my life, because what you have to do after an event like this is, you have to go on living.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>There’s Nothing Wrong With You\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The emotions and physiological responses Bryant describes are common after a life-threatening event. \u003ca href=\"http://www.francesfuchsphd.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Francis Fuchs\u003c/a> is a psychologist and counselor in Santa Rosa who has been treating fire victims who are highly affected by all the current blazes in northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”IDGNibKXzC1suzCgQlBF4ihTNqdejZ0J”]”They are having more difficulty with sleeping,” Fuchs says. “They are having a heightened sense of anxiety and unease. They are having some flashbacks of their fire experience from last October. Also mood changes — more anxious or tearful.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many laypeople casually use the term PTSD – \u003ca href=\"https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd/index.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">post traumatic stress disorder\u003c/a> — to loosely describe a response to a terrifying experience. But psychologists say not all responses to trauma actually fit that diagnosis, which includes symptoms that must last more than a month and be severe enough to interfere with relationships or work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rather, the fear, anxiety, sleeplessness or shallow breathing many fire survivors are experiencing right now are healthy and transient, psychologists and therapists say — the body’s evolutionary responses to the belief that danger is again near.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s preverbal, it’s precognitive,” says \u003ca href=\"https://www.padmagordon.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Padma Gordon\u003c/a>, a spiritual counselor and mindfulness educator in San Rafael. “So what happens when we’re threatened: We grip; we contract; we stop breathing. And all this is registering in our brains and in our bodies, instantaneously. Because we’re hardwired for survival.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When a survivor of trauma again senses signs of the previous threat – the smell of smoke, the color of the orange sky, the sound of a phone “ding” for an emergency alert — the protective survival system kicks in, even when the danger isn’t immediate this time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The brain is designed to alert you to threats,” says \u003ca href=\"http://www.narrativeapproaches.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jennifer Freeman\u003c/a>, a licensed marriage and family therapist in Berkeley. “The trouble is, the brain keeps rising to the occasion, even when the threat isn’t current.” Freeman has worked with survivors of trauma and in the aftermath of natural disasters — including earthquakes and tsunamis — for three decades, both in the U.S. and internationally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What You Can Do \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are a variety of cognitive and physical techniques that can help us through periods of trauma, counselors say, and people vary in which ones they find most helpful, often depending on their own cultural traditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”DoMftZ0opUaLlZB6oulpFZ9Z6AAuj1In”]Freeman says one of the first steps to calm the mind and body is to be kind to yourself and respect that your system is trying to help you survive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can say, ‘Thank you body, thank you brain for trying to take care of me,'” Freeman says. “Which is very different than, ‘Oh, what’s wrong with me?’ and ‘I need to get rid of it.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gordon recommends reminding yourself out loud that the fearful event is not happening again. It may sound silly to talk to yourself, but the body, she says, recognizes and calms with the sound of your voice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“’I’m sitting here in a space that doesn’t smell like smoke,’” Gordon says, as an example. “’And I’m not hearing sirens, and people aren’t running, trying to escape. I’m not hearing the sound of flames.’ It’s basically ‘getting present.’ Bring yourself back into the present.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even setting yourself a task — counting all the green objects you can see from where you sitting, for example — shows your brain there is no threat nearby, says Wowlvenn Seward-Katzmiller, a somatic psychotherapist in Sebastopol.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other tools for ‘coming back to the present’ can be as simple as tapping your feet, Gordon says. Or smelling something you enjoy — such as tangerine or balsam fir or cinnamon — or playing calming music. To consciously \u003ca href=\"https://www.drweil.com/health-wellness/body-mind-spirit/stress-anxiety/breathing-three-exercises/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">slow rapid breathing\u003c/a>, try putting one hand on your belly and one hand on your heart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105931606\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Slowing your breath\u003c/a> activates the parasympathetic nervous system, Freeman points out, which is the body’s calming system. Seward-Katzmiller suggests long, slow exhalations as if you are blowing out a candle through a long straw. And here’s a fun one: have a long (20 seconds) belly-to-belly hug with a pet or loved one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People also can heal by helping others. Asking questions that elicit the story of how someone survived the traumatic event is an approach Freeman worked with in Samoa, after the 2009 tsunami.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We asked, ‘What did you do during the wave, and after the wave. What did you turn to for strength?’ So we don’t elicit narratives of helplessness. They are stories of pain and hope, struggle and resilience.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you are helping someone, it’s important to ask what kinds of help they want — not to assume that each approach works with everyone, she adds. When Freeman was working in Samoa, for example, she learned from local therapists and others there that many people preferred to work via community and family groups, rather than in individual therapy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Plus, basic situations such as an inability to pay for a temporary home or the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13815450/for-undocumented-workers-an-uphill-journey-after-the-fires\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">threat of deportation\u003c/a> can change what a person most needs in order to heal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Grieving and Finding Hope\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv id=\"storytext\" class=\"storytext storylocation linkLocation\">\n\u003cp>During especially hard times recently, Bryant has found herself driving to the empty lot in Santa Rosa where she used to live.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was like visiting like a gravesite,” Bryant says. “So it was a place to just come and be and to cry.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After spending a few moments gazing at the ruins, she backs out of her parking spot, pauses, then takes a deep breath.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Just seeing the smoke off to the east,” Bryant says, looking at the sky, “I get this sense of dread.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As we drive down her old street in the Coffey Park neighborhood we pass the skeleton of a burnt-out car, still parked in a pile of ash.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bryant pulls up to an empty lot overgrown with weeds, and gets out of the car. We carefully tread through some weeds and knee high bushes. “See this outline, this box? That was it. That was our home.” Bryant crouches and puts her head in her hands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Triggered memories can still feel overwhelming, but her neighborhood is also coming back to life. Next door, a crane drops a pile of plywood beams, and construction crews are framing new homes. All over the ground, green sprouts are pushing through the blackened decay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11684689\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11684689 size-large\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/danieles-lot-1020x574.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The foundation that was once Danielle Bryant’s home in the Coffee\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This green is hopeful to me,” Bryant says. “This is just a sign that nature comes back — and is forgiving. And that we can, we \u003cem>can\u003c/em>. We can come back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To help process her grief, Bryant is taking a writing class. She finds it therapeutic to put her painful memories into words and phrases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Grief breathing into my bones of lead,” Bryant reads. “It stuck there in the deep. Was it all a dream? After we were refugees.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even as wildfires rage within an hour of Santa Rosa, Bryant is excited at the prospect of rebuilding the house in the old neighborhood, and moving back — she hopes within about a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is going back to the place of trauma,” Bryant admits. “But it’s also going back to our home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Resources for Fire Survivors\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Disaster Distress Helpline 1(800)985-5990\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://healthcarefoundation.net/category/wildfire-mental-health-collaborative/\">Wildfire Mental Health Collaborative \u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Free \u003ca href=\"http://www.recamft.org/freecounseling\">therapy sessions\u003c/a> to fire survivors\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists \u003ca href=\"http://www.recamft.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">fire survivors’ page\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.mysonomastrong.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">My Sonoma Strong\u003c/a>, a self-help service\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Editor’s Note: Marisol Medina-Cadena contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>There are 18 wildfires now blazing across California, which means many of the state’s residents are waking up to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1926793/protecting-your-health-from-toxic-wildfire-smoke\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">smell of smoke\u003c/a> and hazy skies. The Carr fire near Redding has scorched \u003ca href=\"http://www.fire.ca.gov/current_incidents/incidentdetails/Index/2164\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">at least 141,000 acres\u003c/a>, and killed seven people. Three fires in Mendocino County are all less than an hour away from Santa Rosa — where some neighborhoods burned to the ground last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘You can just feel it. There’s a sense of tension here in Santa Rosa.’\u003ccite>Danielle Bryant, Santa Rosa \u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Confronting constant reminders of what fire can do has become a terrifying reality for people who survived last year’s flames and are still piecing their lives back together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Psychologists, therapists and other counselors are working to assure these survivors that surges of panic, grief and agitation are healthy and normal, even as they offer tips for quenching the terror.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The view from Danielle Bryant’s bedroom window, in her new temporary apartment in Santa Rosa, is pretty unsettling these days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The orange-tinged sky is just enough for me, to set off my anxiety and feelings of fear,” Bryant says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Running for Your Life\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year on Oct. 8, an explosion jolted Bryant awake in the middle of the night. Howling winds shook her Santa Rosa house. The air was hot. Bryant and her husband jumped in their car and fled with only the clothes on their backs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feared for our life,” she says. “We were running for our life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When they returned the next day the street was desolate. The air wreaked of burnt chemicals. Homes were charred rubble. The October flames eventually destroyed thousands of houses and killed 44 people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were victims to one of the most terrible events in history,” says Bryant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Still Haunted 10 Months Later\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the past year, Bryant has struggled with many symptoms of trauma: sleeplessness, nightmares, irritability, and loss of appetite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Agitation — so quick to agitation,” Bryant says. “Hence the fight that I got in the other night with my husband.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘“The trouble is, the brain keeps rising to the occasion, even when the threat isn’t current.’\u003ccite>Jennifer Freeman, LMFT\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>It was a fight about nothing. She says she blew up after watching the news about all the fires on television. She hasn’t turned on the TV since. She’s hearing similar stories from friends and neighbors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can just feel it,” Bryant says. “There’s a sense of tension here in Santa Rosa.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bryant’s current apartment is about a mile away from her old house. She’s still working through everything that happened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These last 10 months,” she says, “have been one of the hardest times of my life, because what you have to do after an event like this is, you have to go on living.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>There’s Nothing Wrong With You\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The emotions and physiological responses Bryant describes are common after a life-threatening event. \u003ca href=\"http://www.francesfuchsphd.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Francis Fuchs\u003c/a> is a psychologist and counselor in Santa Rosa who has been treating fire victims who are highly affected by all the current blazes in northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>”They are having more difficulty with sleeping,” Fuchs says. “They are having a heightened sense of anxiety and unease. They are having some flashbacks of their fire experience from last October. Also mood changes — more anxious or tearful.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many laypeople casually use the term PTSD – \u003ca href=\"https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd/index.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">post traumatic stress disorder\u003c/a> — to loosely describe a response to a terrifying experience. But psychologists say not all responses to trauma actually fit that diagnosis, which includes symptoms that must last more than a month and be severe enough to interfere with relationships or work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rather, the fear, anxiety, sleeplessness or shallow breathing many fire survivors are experiencing right now are healthy and transient, psychologists and therapists say — the body’s evolutionary responses to the belief that danger is again near.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s preverbal, it’s precognitive,” says \u003ca href=\"https://www.padmagordon.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Padma Gordon\u003c/a>, a spiritual counselor and mindfulness educator in San Rafael. “So what happens when we’re threatened: We grip; we contract; we stop breathing. And all this is registering in our brains and in our bodies, instantaneously. Because we’re hardwired for survival.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When a survivor of trauma again senses signs of the previous threat – the smell of smoke, the color of the orange sky, the sound of a phone “ding” for an emergency alert — the protective survival system kicks in, even when the danger isn’t immediate this time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The brain is designed to alert you to threats,” says \u003ca href=\"http://www.narrativeapproaches.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jennifer Freeman\u003c/a>, a licensed marriage and family therapist in Berkeley. “The trouble is, the brain keeps rising to the occasion, even when the threat isn’t current.” Freeman has worked with survivors of trauma and in the aftermath of natural disasters — including earthquakes and tsunamis — for three decades, both in the U.S. and internationally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What You Can Do \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are a variety of cognitive and physical techniques that can help us through periods of trauma, counselors say, and people vary in which ones they find most helpful, often depending on their own cultural traditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>Freeman says one of the first steps to calm the mind and body is to be kind to yourself and respect that your system is trying to help you survive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can say, ‘Thank you body, thank you brain for trying to take care of me,'” Freeman says. “Which is very different than, ‘Oh, what’s wrong with me?’ and ‘I need to get rid of it.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gordon recommends reminding yourself out loud that the fearful event is not happening again. It may sound silly to talk to yourself, but the body, she says, recognizes and calms with the sound of your voice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“’I’m sitting here in a space that doesn’t smell like smoke,’” Gordon says, as an example. “’And I’m not hearing sirens, and people aren’t running, trying to escape. I’m not hearing the sound of flames.’ It’s basically ‘getting present.’ Bring yourself back into the present.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even setting yourself a task — counting all the green objects you can see from where you sitting, for example — shows your brain there is no threat nearby, says Wowlvenn Seward-Katzmiller, a somatic psychotherapist in Sebastopol.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other tools for ‘coming back to the present’ can be as simple as tapping your feet, Gordon says. Or smelling something you enjoy — such as tangerine or balsam fir or cinnamon — or playing calming music. To consciously \u003ca href=\"https://www.drweil.com/health-wellness/body-mind-spirit/stress-anxiety/breathing-three-exercises/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">slow rapid breathing\u003c/a>, try putting one hand on your belly and one hand on your heart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105931606\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Slowing your breath\u003c/a> activates the parasympathetic nervous system, Freeman points out, which is the body’s calming system. Seward-Katzmiller suggests long, slow exhalations as if you are blowing out a candle through a long straw. And here’s a fun one: have a long (20 seconds) belly-to-belly hug with a pet or loved one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People also can heal by helping others. Asking questions that elicit the story of how someone survived the traumatic event is an approach Freeman worked with in Samoa, after the 2009 tsunami.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We asked, ‘What did you do during the wave, and after the wave. What did you turn to for strength?’ So we don’t elicit narratives of helplessness. They are stories of pain and hope, struggle and resilience.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you are helping someone, it’s important to ask what kinds of help they want — not to assume that each approach works with everyone, she adds. When Freeman was working in Samoa, for example, she learned from local therapists and others there that many people preferred to work via community and family groups, rather than in individual therapy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Plus, basic situations such as an inability to pay for a temporary home or the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13815450/for-undocumented-workers-an-uphill-journey-after-the-fires\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">threat of deportation\u003c/a> can change what a person most needs in order to heal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Grieving and Finding Hope\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv id=\"storytext\" class=\"storytext storylocation linkLocation\">\n\u003cp>During especially hard times recently, Bryant has found herself driving to the empty lot in Santa Rosa where she used to live.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was like visiting like a gravesite,” Bryant says. “So it was a place to just come and be and to cry.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After spending a few moments gazing at the ruins, she backs out of her parking spot, pauses, then takes a deep breath.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Just seeing the smoke off to the east,” Bryant says, looking at the sky, “I get this sense of dread.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As we drive down her old street in the Coffey Park neighborhood we pass the skeleton of a burnt-out car, still parked in a pile of ash.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bryant pulls up to an empty lot overgrown with weeds, and gets out of the car. We carefully tread through some weeds and knee high bushes. “See this outline, this box? That was it. That was our home.” Bryant crouches and puts her head in her hands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Triggered memories can still feel overwhelming, but her neighborhood is also coming back to life. Next door, a crane drops a pile of plywood beams, and construction crews are framing new homes. All over the ground, green sprouts are pushing through the blackened decay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11684689\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11684689 size-large\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/danieles-lot-1020x574.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The foundation that was once Danielle Bryant’s home in the Coffee\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This green is hopeful to me,” Bryant says. “This is just a sign that nature comes back — and is forgiving. And that we can, we \u003cem>can\u003c/em>. We can come back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To help process her grief, Bryant is taking a writing class. She finds it therapeutic to put her painful memories into words and phrases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Grief breathing into my bones of lead,” Bryant reads. “It stuck there in the deep. Was it all a dream? After we were refugees.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even as wildfires rage within an hour of Santa Rosa, Bryant is excited at the prospect of rebuilding the house in the old neighborhood, and moving back — she hopes within about a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is going back to the place of trauma,” Bryant admits. “But it’s also going back to our home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Resources for Fire Survivors\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Disaster Distress Helpline 1(800)985-5990\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://healthcarefoundation.net/category/wildfire-mental-health-collaborative/\">Wildfire Mental Health Collaborative \u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Free \u003ca href=\"http://www.recamft.org/freecounseling\">therapy sessions\u003c/a> to fire survivors\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists \u003ca href=\"http://www.recamft.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">fire survivors’ page\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.mysonomastrong.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">My Sonoma Strong\u003c/a>, a self-help service\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Editor’s Note: Marisol Medina-Cadena contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The hardest thing to predict when looking at fire behavior is where a fire might “spot” next. Fires spot when winds hurl burning branches, sparks or embers, called “firebrands,” out beyond the leading edge of the fire, igniting new fires. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pullquote size='medium' citation='Craig Clements, SJSU Fire Weather Research Laboratory']‘Fire prediction models don’t have anything for spotting. That’s why a lot of them get these big, wind-driven fires wrong.’[/pullquote] Yet it was one of the most important questions facing Sonoma County officials over the weekend, given the extraordinary winds meteorologists predicted would bear down on the Kincade Fire. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“This is extreme wind,” said Craig Clements, director of San José State University’s Fire Weather Research Laboratory. “Very strong, and the fire behavior was very extreme.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Clements and his team were up near Healdsburg Sunday morning, after a night when winds hit the fire at speeds above 75 miles per hour.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We were observing flame heights of hundreds and hundreds of feet,” he said. “Whole conifer trees torching. Rapid rates of spread. Spotting. It was just phenomenal.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s one reason county officials said they issued evacuation warnings and orders well ahead of the advancing fire; Cal Fire’s models of the fire behavior predicted the Kincade Fire could spot more than a mile from the existing front. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1950394\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/IMG_2730.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1950394\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/IMG_2730-1020x765.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/IMG_2730-1020x765.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/IMG_2730-160x120.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/IMG_2730-800x600.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/IMG_2730-768x576.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/IMG_2730-1200x900.jpeg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/IMG_2730-1920x1440.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This new mobile radar allows scientists with SJSU’s Fire Weather Research lab to collect information they’ve never had before, to help learn how fires spot. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Craig Clements/SJSU Fire Weather Research Laboratory)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And any new spot fire would have the same rapid rate of spreading as the main fire does, said Steve Volmer, Cal Fire’s chief fire behavior analyst, and the same potential for spotting a mile or more further on.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“If anything does start on the other side of 101, the west side,” he said Sunday morning, “that area hasn’t seen any fire history since the 1940s. So the fuels in that area are extremely dense. They’re extremely old and decadent. They’re extremely dry.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The ‘Black Box’ of Fire Behavior\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Over such long distances, it’s well nigh impossible to predict with any precision where a firebrand might land, and even less possible to predict the behavior of every item spinning in a plume of smoke that can cause a spot fire — from a branch to a pine needle to a tiny spark.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Fire prediction models don’t have anything for spotting,” Clements said. “That’s why a lot of them get these big, wind-driven fires wrong, because they can’t handle the spotting.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1950399\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/IMG_2709.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1950399\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/IMG_2709-1020x765.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/IMG_2709-1020x765.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/IMG_2709-160x120.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/IMG_2709-800x600.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/IMG_2709-768x576.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/IMG_2709-1200x900.jpeg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/IMG_2709-1920x1440.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scientists with SJSU’s Fire Weather Research Lab are collecting information on all the items spinning inside that huge smoke plume that could cause fire spots. They set up Saturday night in Knights Valley, near state Route 128. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Craig Clements/SJSU Fire Weather Research Laboratory)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Clements and his research team now have a brand new tool they’re using to examine this problem, a tool that allows them to gather information fire meteorologists didn’t have before.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“This is the only mobile radar in the Western U.S.,” he said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That is, the only mobile radar with the precision to do research. It’s a huge white dome mounted on the back of a pickup truck, and Clements is using it peer inside fire plumes. He shoots radio waves into the plume, and the information that bounces back can tell him the size and speed of what’s blowing around. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We don’t know what’s inside them,” Clements said. “We don’t know how big the particles [are]. We know on the ground what these firebrands look like; they look like needles, leaves — but there’s also ash. It looks like big snowflakes of ash falling.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fire meteorologists call this kinematics — all the winds inside the smoke plume, and the size and speed and direction of the particles blowing about. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Clements hopes this kind of information will eventually help him and other fire analysts learn more about where fires might spot. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meteorologists expect a lull in the winds from midday Monday until late Tuesday. After that they predict another strong surge in offshore winds.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "As extreme winds bore down on the Kincade Fire over the weekend, fire meteorologists worked to understand as much as they could about where burning branches or sparks would land and ignite new fires. It's the hardest thing to predict about fire behavior.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> Yet it was one of the most important questions facing Sonoma County officials over the weekend, given the extraordinary winds meteorologists predicted would bear down on the Kincade Fire. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“This is extreme wind,” said Craig Clements, director of San José State University’s Fire Weather Research Laboratory. “Very strong, and the fire behavior was very extreme.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Clements and his team were up near Healdsburg Sunday morning, after a night when winds hit the fire at speeds above 75 miles per hour.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We were observing flame heights of hundreds and hundreds of feet,” he said. “Whole conifer trees torching. Rapid rates of spread. Spotting. It was just phenomenal.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s one reason county officials said they issued evacuation warnings and orders well ahead of the advancing fire; Cal Fire’s models of the fire behavior predicted the Kincade Fire could spot more than a mile from the existing front. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1950394\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/IMG_2730.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1950394\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/IMG_2730-1020x765.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/IMG_2730-1020x765.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/IMG_2730-160x120.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/IMG_2730-800x600.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/IMG_2730-768x576.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/IMG_2730-1200x900.jpeg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/IMG_2730-1920x1440.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This new mobile radar allows scientists with SJSU’s Fire Weather Research lab to collect information they’ve never had before, to help learn how fires spot. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Craig Clements/SJSU Fire Weather Research Laboratory)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And any new spot fire would have the same rapid rate of spreading as the main fire does, said Steve Volmer, Cal Fire’s chief fire behavior analyst, and the same potential for spotting a mile or more further on.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“If anything does start on the other side of 101, the west side,” he said Sunday morning, “that area hasn’t seen any fire history since the 1940s. So the fuels in that area are extremely dense. They’re extremely old and decadent. They’re extremely dry.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The ‘Black Box’ of Fire Behavior\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Over such long distances, it’s well nigh impossible to predict with any precision where a firebrand might land, and even less possible to predict the behavior of every item spinning in a plume of smoke that can cause a spot fire — from a branch to a pine needle to a tiny spark.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Fire prediction models don’t have anything for spotting,” Clements said. “That’s why a lot of them get these big, wind-driven fires wrong, because they can’t handle the spotting.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1950399\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/IMG_2709.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1950399\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/IMG_2709-1020x765.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/IMG_2709-1020x765.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/IMG_2709-160x120.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/IMG_2709-800x600.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/IMG_2709-768x576.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/IMG_2709-1200x900.jpeg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/IMG_2709-1920x1440.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scientists with SJSU’s Fire Weather Research Lab are collecting information on all the items spinning inside that huge smoke plume that could cause fire spots. They set up Saturday night in Knights Valley, near state Route 128. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Craig Clements/SJSU Fire Weather Research Laboratory)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Clements and his research team now have a brand new tool they’re using to examine this problem, a tool that allows them to gather information fire meteorologists didn’t have before.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“This is the only mobile radar in the Western U.S.,” he said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That is, the only mobile radar with the precision to do research. It’s a huge white dome mounted on the back of a pickup truck, and Clements is using it peer inside fire plumes. He shoots radio waves into the plume, and the information that bounces back can tell him the size and speed of what’s blowing around. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We don’t know what’s inside them,” Clements said. “We don’t know how big the particles [are]. We know on the ground what these firebrands look like; they look like needles, leaves — but there’s also ash. It looks like big snowflakes of ash falling.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fire meteorologists call this kinematics — all the winds inside the smoke plume, and the size and speed and direction of the particles blowing about. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Clements hopes this kind of information will eventually help him and other fire analysts learn more about where fires might spot. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meteorologists expect a lull in the winds from midday Monday until late Tuesday. After that they predict another strong surge in offshore winds.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>David Bevacqua never had trouble insuring a home in California, but he was in for a rude surprise after recently buying a house in Bass Lake, in the Sierra Nevada foothills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"small\" citation=\"California homeowner David Bevacqua\"]‘I’m paying twice as much as I expected, and now I have to deal with three separate policies on this one house.’[/pullquote] “None of the insurance companies would quote me,” he said. “I didn’t know what was going on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bevacqua is not alone. As more and more destructive wildfires have whipped through the state in recent years, Californians living in areas considered a high wildfire risk are seeing their insurance rates creep up \u003cem>—\u003c/em> or in cases like Bevacqua’s, having insurers simply pull out of some communities altogether.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Between 2015 and 2016 alone, according to the state insurance commissioner’s office, there was a 15 percent increase in “insurer initiated non-renewals” in fire-prone areas. That means homeowners wanted to keep their insurance but the companies refused to renew their policies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since Bevacqua couldn’t get a policy on the “admitted” market, where rates are regulated by the state, he ended up going with an alternative known as the FAIR Plan. Created in the 1960s, it’s a very limited, expensive option-of-last resort for consumers who cannot find insurance elsewhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m paying twice as much as I expected, and now I have to deal with three separate policies on this one house,” he said, referring to yet another policy he bought covering earthquakes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ah, California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stories like Bevacqua’s have caught the attention of policymakers in Sacramento, who have made a number of tweaks to laws governing personal property insurance in recent years, including legislation prohibiting insurers from canceling policies after a home burns down, and laws aimed at making sure people understand their policies and are not underinsured.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"small\" citation=\"Mark Sektnan, American Property Casualty Insurance Association\"]‘Wildfire is the one catastrophe where you may take all the correct actions, but if none of your neighbors do, the effectiveness of your own mitigations are not as good.’[/pullquote]But more sweeping insurance reforms have died under pressure from the insurance industry, and as of yet, no one seems to be ready to completely overhaul the state’s insurance market. According to the industry, 98 percent of Californians with home insurance are still covered by the traditional, regulated market, with the other 2% using the FAIR Plan and other policies not regulated by the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reason I hesitate about rethinking the entire insurance industry is that in California — despite these fires, despite the challenges — we have a robust market,” said California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara. “We still feel comfortable that our insurance market is strong and healthy enough to be able to pay out claims.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mark Sektnan, of the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, agrees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Overall we still see the market as very competitive, very viable,” he said. “But we do understand that homeowners in certain areas may be facing challenges.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>‘Increasingly Unavailable and Unaffordable’\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California actually has some of the most consumer-friendly insurance laws in the nation, thanks to a 30-year-old ballot measure that set the rules still in effect today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='science_1943266,science_1943058'] [/aside]Those rules require insurance companies participating in the regulated market to base insurance rates on a customer’s individual level of risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And while the state insurance commissioner must approve the amount insurers can charge, he can’t force them to offer insurance if they think the risk is too high.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those restrictions make sense, Lara said, to ensure that the insurance market stays financially healthy. So while he is concerned about the cost and availability of insurance in wildfire-prone areas, he said that basing prices on the level of risk that a home poses makes sense, even if it is driving up costs for those who are the most vulnerable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Commission on Catastrophic Wildfire Cost and Recovery, set up by the state Legislature and governor to study wildfire costs, agreed with Lara, warning that if California “artificially masks” expensive insurance in high-risk regions by subsidizing rates, it will incentivize risky behavior and make insurance more expensive for people in other parts of the state where wildfires are not a threat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the commission’s recent report said that while “the home insurance market is not in crisis yet,” the state is “marching toward a future where home insurance will be increasingly unavailable and/or unaffordable” for Californians in high-risk fire areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The commission focused on areas known as the wildland urban interface, or WUI, which refers to regions where homes are built near forests or other wildlands threatened by wildfire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In evaluating whether to subsidize homeowners insurance in the WUI, policymakers need to consider whether the state wants to encourage more people to move into the WUI,” the report states. “We believe doing so will lead to more deaths and injuries of both residents and first responders, destruction of property, loss of homes, more damages to be paid by utilities … consequent costs to shareholders and utility ratepayers, and more costs for local, state and federal governments and taxpayers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Discounts for Clearing Brush?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Consumer advocate Amy Bach, executive director of the insurance consumer group United Policyholders, agrees that the current risk-based system should not be changed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because at its core, she says, insurance is “basically just a very kind of informed gambling.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you buy insurance, you’re basically transferring your risk onto the insurance company,” she said. “The insurance company looks at you and says, ‘OK what is this person’s risk profile? How old are they? How responsible are they? What’s their history? … ‘ They’re just deciding, what is this risk worth that I’m taking on, and what am I going to charge this person?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lara, the insurance commissioner, said he is trying to figure out how to “incentivize more of the admitted market insurers to stay in” high-risk areas to ensure lower prices and consumer protections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I know that’s a lot to ask in some of these communities,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he noted that California is the largest market in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is a massive market for the insurance companies. I don’t think it behooves them to leave the market. But also we have to figure out how we learn to coexist and how do we ensure that the market is robust so that they can pay out the claims and we can continue with our daily lives.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One way to do that could be requiring insurance companies to offer lower prices to individuals and communities that invest in materials and initiatives that make them less vulnerable to fire. That could include \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1943058/whos-checking-homes-for-flammable-brush-in-some-high-risk-areas-maybe-no-one\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">clearing the area\u003c/a> around a home of dangerous brush that can ignite during a wildfire, or building homes with more fire-resistant materials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lara said his office is pushing insurance companies to consider those sorts of discounts, similar to the discounts they give good drivers, for example. He said the industry is open to the concept.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The industry is indeed exploring the idea, says Mark Sektnan, of the American Property Casualty Insurance Association. But to make it work, companies would need entire communities to participate in reducing a wildfire threat, because fires come with a uniquely unfortunate risk compared to other natural disasters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you mitigate your house for a hurricane or earthquake — whatever you do for your house directly benefits you, whatever your neighbors don’t do, doesn’t negatively impact you,” Sektnan said. “Wildfire is the one catastrophe where you may take all the correct actions, but if none of your neighbors do, the effectiveness of your own mitigations are not as good.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sektnan said this kind of communitywide approach is already being taken in at least one market, where the county of Boulder in Colorado is partnering with insurers to bring down everyone’s rates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lara agreed that collective action is key, saying the state now needs to think about how to ensure communities work together to harden themselves against wildfire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also wants to simplify insurance contracts so that consumers have a better idea of their coverage ahead of a disaster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How do we create smarter contracts so that people can clearly understand what they’re covered [for], what they’re paying?” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Climate Questions Loom\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, personal property insurance isn’t the only insurance question looming over California, as climate change is not only making wildfires more destructive, but it’s raising broader questions about the state’s resilience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For one, state firefighting costs have exploded in recent years, so Lara is pushing legislation that would let the state take out insurance to cover those cost overruns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State leaders are also debating the possibility of a multibillion dollar wildfire insurance fund that would help protect the state’s utilities against financial ruin when they’re found liable for fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And Lara is also exploring more out-of-the-box ideas, such as taking out insurance policies on natural resource like wetlands or forests that are threatened by climate change but whose existence actually helps mitigate its effects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lara, a former state lawmaker, authored legislation in 2018 to create a working group to address the broader question of climate change and insurance; that group will start meeting soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Where are we most vulnerable as a state? Where are we most at risk? ” he said. “We know, for example in the Bay Area, the wetlands around the bay are critical, and we have to make sure that they’re strong and they’re thriving so that we could defend against potential flooding or sea level rise.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other parts of the world, this is already happening. For example, a coral reef off the coast of Cancun, Mexico, was recently insured in a collaboration between the government and nongovernmental organizations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The world’s already starting to figure out how do we bring in the insurance industry in our united front against climate change,” Lara said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, California must do the same.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Jon Brooks contributed to this post.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> “None of the insurance companies would quote me,” he said. “I didn’t know what was going on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bevacqua is not alone. As more and more destructive wildfires have whipped through the state in recent years, Californians living in areas considered a high wildfire risk are seeing their insurance rates creep up \u003cem>—\u003c/em> or in cases like Bevacqua’s, having insurers simply pull out of some communities altogether.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Between 2015 and 2016 alone, according to the state insurance commissioner’s office, there was a 15 percent increase in “insurer initiated non-renewals” in fire-prone areas. That means homeowners wanted to keep their insurance but the companies refused to renew their policies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since Bevacqua couldn’t get a policy on the “admitted” market, where rates are regulated by the state, he ended up going with an alternative known as the FAIR Plan. Created in the 1960s, it’s a very limited, expensive option-of-last resort for consumers who cannot find insurance elsewhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But more sweeping insurance reforms have died under pressure from the insurance industry, and as of yet, no one seems to be ready to completely overhaul the state’s insurance market. According to the industry, 98 percent of Californians with home insurance are still covered by the traditional, regulated market, with the other 2% using the FAIR Plan and other policies not regulated by the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reason I hesitate about rethinking the entire insurance industry is that in California — despite these fires, despite the challenges — we have a robust market,” said California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara. “We still feel comfortable that our insurance market is strong and healthy enough to be able to pay out claims.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mark Sektnan, of the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, agrees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Overall we still see the market as very competitive, very viable,” he said. “But we do understand that homeowners in certain areas may be facing challenges.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>‘Increasingly Unavailable and Unaffordable’\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California actually has some of the most consumer-friendly insurance laws in the nation, thanks to a 30-year-old ballot measure that set the rules still in effect today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Those rules require insurance companies participating in the regulated market to base insurance rates on a customer’s individual level of risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And while the state insurance commissioner must approve the amount insurers can charge, he can’t force them to offer insurance if they think the risk is too high.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those restrictions make sense, Lara said, to ensure that the insurance market stays financially healthy. So while he is concerned about the cost and availability of insurance in wildfire-prone areas, he said that basing prices on the level of risk that a home poses makes sense, even if it is driving up costs for those who are the most vulnerable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Commission on Catastrophic Wildfire Cost and Recovery, set up by the state Legislature and governor to study wildfire costs, agreed with Lara, warning that if California “artificially masks” expensive insurance in high-risk regions by subsidizing rates, it will incentivize risky behavior and make insurance more expensive for people in other parts of the state where wildfires are not a threat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the commission’s recent report said that while “the home insurance market is not in crisis yet,” the state is “marching toward a future where home insurance will be increasingly unavailable and/or unaffordable” for Californians in high-risk fire areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The commission focused on areas known as the wildland urban interface, or WUI, which refers to regions where homes are built near forests or other wildlands threatened by wildfire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In evaluating whether to subsidize homeowners insurance in the WUI, policymakers need to consider whether the state wants to encourage more people to move into the WUI,” the report states. “We believe doing so will lead to more deaths and injuries of both residents and first responders, destruction of property, loss of homes, more damages to be paid by utilities … consequent costs to shareholders and utility ratepayers, and more costs for local, state and federal governments and taxpayers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Discounts for Clearing Brush?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Consumer advocate Amy Bach, executive director of the insurance consumer group United Policyholders, agrees that the current risk-based system should not be changed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because at its core, she says, insurance is “basically just a very kind of informed gambling.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you buy insurance, you’re basically transferring your risk onto the insurance company,” she said. “The insurance company looks at you and says, ‘OK what is this person’s risk profile? How old are they? How responsible are they? What’s their history? … ‘ They’re just deciding, what is this risk worth that I’m taking on, and what am I going to charge this person?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lara, the insurance commissioner, said he is trying to figure out how to “incentivize more of the admitted market insurers to stay in” high-risk areas to ensure lower prices and consumer protections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I know that’s a lot to ask in some of these communities,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he noted that California is the largest market in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is a massive market for the insurance companies. I don’t think it behooves them to leave the market. But also we have to figure out how we learn to coexist and how do we ensure that the market is robust so that they can pay out the claims and we can continue with our daily lives.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One way to do that could be requiring insurance companies to offer lower prices to individuals and communities that invest in materials and initiatives that make them less vulnerable to fire. That could include \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1943058/whos-checking-homes-for-flammable-brush-in-some-high-risk-areas-maybe-no-one\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">clearing the area\u003c/a> around a home of dangerous brush that can ignite during a wildfire, or building homes with more fire-resistant materials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lara said his office is pushing insurance companies to consider those sorts of discounts, similar to the discounts they give good drivers, for example. He said the industry is open to the concept.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The industry is indeed exploring the idea, says Mark Sektnan, of the American Property Casualty Insurance Association. But to make it work, companies would need entire communities to participate in reducing a wildfire threat, because fires come with a uniquely unfortunate risk compared to other natural disasters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you mitigate your house for a hurricane or earthquake — whatever you do for your house directly benefits you, whatever your neighbors don’t do, doesn’t negatively impact you,” Sektnan said. “Wildfire is the one catastrophe where you may take all the correct actions, but if none of your neighbors do, the effectiveness of your own mitigations are not as good.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sektnan said this kind of communitywide approach is already being taken in at least one market, where the county of Boulder in Colorado is partnering with insurers to bring down everyone’s rates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lara agreed that collective action is key, saying the state now needs to think about how to ensure communities work together to harden themselves against wildfire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also wants to simplify insurance contracts so that consumers have a better idea of their coverage ahead of a disaster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How do we create smarter contracts so that people can clearly understand what they’re covered [for], what they’re paying?” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Climate Questions Loom\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, personal property insurance isn’t the only insurance question looming over California, as climate change is not only making wildfires more destructive, but it’s raising broader questions about the state’s resilience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For one, state firefighting costs have exploded in recent years, so Lara is pushing legislation that would let the state take out insurance to cover those cost overruns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State leaders are also debating the possibility of a multibillion dollar wildfire insurance fund that would help protect the state’s utilities against financial ruin when they’re found liable for fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And Lara is also exploring more out-of-the-box ideas, such as taking out insurance policies on natural resource like wetlands or forests that are threatened by climate change but whose existence actually helps mitigate its effects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lara, a former state lawmaker, authored legislation in 2018 to create a working group to address the broader question of climate change and insurance; that group will start meeting soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Where are we most vulnerable as a state? Where are we most at risk? ” he said. “We know, for example in the Bay Area, the wetlands around the bay are critical, and we have to make sure that they’re strong and they’re thriving so that we could defend against potential flooding or sea level rise.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other parts of the world, this is already happening. For example, a coral reef off the coast of Cancun, Mexico, was recently insured in a collaboration between the government and nongovernmental organizations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The world’s already starting to figure out how do we bring in the insurance industry in our united front against climate change,” Lara said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, California must do the same.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
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"possible": {
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"radiolab": {
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"reveal": {
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},
"rightnowish": {
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"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
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"info": "Science Friday is a weekly science talk show, broadcast live over public radio stations nationwide. Each week, the show focuses on science topics that are in the news and tries to bring an educated, balanced discussion to bear on the scientific issues at hand. Panels of expert guests join host Ira Flatow, a veteran science journalist, to discuss science and to take questions from listeners during the call-in portion of the program.",
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"snap-judgment": {
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"title": "Snap Judgment",
"tagline": "Real stories with killer beats",
"info": "The Snap Judgment radio show and podcast mixes real stories with killer beats to produce cinematic, dramatic radio. Snap's musical brand of storytelling dares listeners to see the world through the eyes of another. This is storytelling... with a BEAT!! Snap first aired on public radio stations nationwide in July 2010. Today, Snap Judgment airs on over 450 public radio stations and is brought to the airwaves by KQED & PRX.",
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