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"content": "\u003cp>Kent Porter’s specialty as a photographer for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat is capturing images of wildfires, but he broke format to write an \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/kent-porter-capturing-climate-change-on-the-front-lines-of-the-dixie-fire/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">essay\u003c/a> about how he sees reporting on fire as documenting climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve just passed my 34th year as a photojournalist with The Press Democrat,” he writes. “Every year I think fire season can’t get worse, and it does.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Porter writes about a “wake-up moment” in 2015, when the Valley Fire and two other wildfires torched Lake County, where he grew up. He describes it as “a preview of the new era of catastrophic wildfire in California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976495\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1023px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1976495 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-1.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1023\" height=\"584\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-1.jpeg 1023w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-1-800x457.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-1-1020x582.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-1-160x91.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-1-768x438.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1023px) 100vw, 1023px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Smoke from the Dixie Fire hangs in the air as television lights eerily illuminate a burned hotel and restaurant in downtown Greenville. \u003ccite>(Kent Porter/Press Democrat)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Porter recalls fire racing through “bug-killed and parched forest atop Cobb Mountain before storming into Middletown, destroying more than 1,300 homes in all and killing four people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ever since then, Porter writes, he has felt a sense of responsibility to show how that “threat is escalating amid the onslaught of climate change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The daily record is important, but I also feel compelled to help chronicle this for history, to show just how dominant a force wildfire has become in our lives.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this week, Porter spoke with KQED’s Raquel Maria Dillon about what it has been like covering this summer’s Dixie Fire, the largest single fire in California history, and the first recorded blaze to burn clear across the Sierra Nevada.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The following interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976498\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1976498\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-3-800x606.jpeg\" alt=\"A fire crew uses teamwork to refresh, rest and maintain equipment after cutting miles of fire break in the Rush Creek area of the Feather River Canyon.\" width=\"800\" height=\"606\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-3-800x606.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-3-1020x773.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-3-160x121.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-3-768x582.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-3.jpeg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Tehachapi Valley 11 fire crew uses teamwork to refresh, rest and maintain equipment after cutting miles of fire break in the Rush Creek area of the Feather River Canyon, July 25, 2021. \u003ccite>(Kent Porter/Press Democrat)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What has it been like on the lines of the Dixie Fire?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I went up to the Dixie Fire twice, once on my own and once for the newspaper. I realized that it was going to be one of the biggest fires that we’ve covered.[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Kent Porter, photojournalist\"]‘The daily record is important, but I also feel compelled to help chronicle this for history, to show just how dominant a force wildfire has become in our lives.’[/pullquote]It was amazing to see the amount of damage that was there. You never really get used to it, even after covering all these fires. One part of the fire blew up and burned 13,000 acres in an afternoon. There was a fire tornado. It’s amazing how dry everything is. The part of the fire that I was on had burned in 2009 and it went through there like it had not burned before, like a virgin forest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Describe how you do this, because I don’t think people realize what an individual photographer has to do.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the advent of these climate change-induced fires, I prepare very carefully. I have all the things firefighters need to get on the line except for the firefighting tools. We carry fire shelters. We wear helmets, goggles, and gloves. When you’re in the fire, you’re pretty much there with the firefighters, documenting what they do. And that’s the reason I do it. I want to show people that fighting a fire is not all dropping fire retardant from airplanes and water from helicopters. It’s about the man hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And with a fire like the Dixie Fire, you can only manage it. It’s hard to put it out, there’s just no way. The fire does what it wants to do on any given day. All the fires that we’ve experienced within the last six years since the Valley Fire, they just run until they want to stop running.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976500\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1976500\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-6-800x504.jpeg\" alt=\"United States Forest Service firefighters from the Los Padres National Forest turn away from wind driven embers and smoke as they protect a structure from the Dixie fire.\" width=\"800\" height=\"504\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-6-800x504.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-6-1020x643.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-6-160x101.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-6-768x484.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-6.jpeg 1023w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">United States Forest Service firefighters from the Los Padres National Forest turn away from wind driven embers and smoke as they protect a structure from the Dixie fire as it enters Indian Valley, Monday night, Aug. 9, 2021. \u003ccite>(Kent Porter/Press Democrat)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You mentioned the 2015 Valley Fire in Lake County. What changed then when it comes to wildfire?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I noticed changes around 2012. Almost every wildland fire that I went to was involving structures, which was odd because the first several years that I did this job, I covered grass fires, but they were in unincorporated areas and there were no structures around. I just did it as part of my job, even though it was becoming a little bit more intense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"related coverage\" tag=\"wildfires\"]In September of 2015, the Valley Fire went off. That was my wake up call, seeing the rates of spread and the flame lengths and how fast the fire moved in one afternoon, it just blew me away. I realized, we’re in a different era now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>We keep hearing this from veteran firefighters. Fire behavior is off the charts, extreme this year and in recent years. But they often attribute it to forest management practices as opposed to climate change. What do you think?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s both. The forest management could be stronger. Climate change definitely has something to do with it. But with forest management, we’re so far behind right now, it’s going to take a long time to catch up. Climate change has exacerbated the problem. After you burn, you’ve got to go back every couple of years and retreat to that area. It’s a constant cycle to go on forever, really. If we want these fires to become under control, it’s something that we’re going to have to do. We have to face it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>When do you really get scared? How do you decide that it’s too dangerous, that the photos aren’t worth it?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A good rule of thumb — if I drive down a road and I see the fire laying over the road and the wind has caught it, I don’t go in there. I will go in after the fire burns all the brush. I’m really careful about where I drive my vehicle. I always make sure I have two exit points. These big fires, they create pyrocumulous columns that go up 40,000 feet, dropping embers behind you, everywhere. Spot fires start in front of you, behind you, on the side. I’m very cautious about that. If the firefighters leave, it’s a good idea for me to leave, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976502\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1976502\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-4-800x855.jpeg\" alt=\"Garth Foster, of Grass Valley, rests after cutting hazard trees in the Highway 89 corridor.\" width=\"800\" height=\"855\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-4-800x855.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-4-1020x1090.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-4-160x171.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-4-768x821.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-4.jpeg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Garth Foster, who fells trees for the Barry Mickleburgh Tree Company, of Grass Valley, rests after cutting hazard trees in the Highway 89 corridor, Sunday, Aug. 8, 2021. \u003ccite>(Kent Porter/Press Democrat)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You have quite a following on Twitter, and Santa Rosa newspaper readers, locals, they know you and your work. Why did you write that essay now?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our communities in California suffer a great deal of PTSD when the wind blows, when it gets hot. We’re very fire aware in Santa Rosa and Sonoma County. I felt like I owed it to the readers of the Press Democrat, to go out there and to kind of show them what it’s like.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We photograph and report on things that go on in Sonoma County about our fires, but this is a statewide problem. Whether you agree if there’s climate change or not, fire behavior has changed within the last six years, in our region. It’s worse, much worse, off the charts, worse. We’re showing climate change as it happens, witnessing history. We’re witnessing climate change on a daily basis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976499\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1976499 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-5-800x500.jpeg\" alt=\"Woman in shorts, tank top and pink hair sits in front seat of truck cuddling a dog while another dog sits in passenger seat\" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-5-800x500.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-5-1020x638.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-5-160x100.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-5-768x480.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-5.jpeg 1023w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">With most of her personal possessions packed in the truck bed, Chester resident Regina Rutledge takes comfort in Allie and Sally Sue, Monday, Aug. 9, 2021. \u003ccite>(Kent Porter/Press Democrat)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You talk about a sense of camaraderie and an obligation to the firefighters that you see out in the field that you take pictures of?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They really work hard on the front lines. Imagine being on a fire for 24 hours and breathing the smoke for 24 hours. Think about last year when we had our orange sunrise in the Bay Area. That’s what firefighters live with every single day on a campaign fire. If you’re on a strike team, you’re up there for 15 or 21 days, and you’re breathing that smoke all day long. All night long. When you sleep, when you eat. I want to show people the kind of conditions that firefighters must work in to save communities. I just want to tell these human stories.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Kent Porter’s specialty as a photographer for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat is capturing images of wildfires, but he broke format to write an \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/kent-porter-capturing-climate-change-on-the-front-lines-of-the-dixie-fire/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">essay\u003c/a> about how he sees reporting on fire as documenting climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve just passed my 34th year as a photojournalist with The Press Democrat,” he writes. “Every year I think fire season can’t get worse, and it does.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Porter writes about a “wake-up moment” in 2015, when the Valley Fire and two other wildfires torched Lake County, where he grew up. He describes it as “a preview of the new era of catastrophic wildfire in California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976495\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1023px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1976495 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-1.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1023\" height=\"584\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-1.jpeg 1023w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-1-800x457.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-1-1020x582.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-1-160x91.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-1-768x438.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1023px) 100vw, 1023px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Smoke from the Dixie Fire hangs in the air as television lights eerily illuminate a burned hotel and restaurant in downtown Greenville. \u003ccite>(Kent Porter/Press Democrat)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Porter recalls fire racing through “bug-killed and parched forest atop Cobb Mountain before storming into Middletown, destroying more than 1,300 homes in all and killing four people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ever since then, Porter writes, he has felt a sense of responsibility to show how that “threat is escalating amid the onslaught of climate change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The daily record is important, but I also feel compelled to help chronicle this for history, to show just how dominant a force wildfire has become in our lives.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this week, Porter spoke with KQED’s Raquel Maria Dillon about what it has been like covering this summer’s Dixie Fire, the largest single fire in California history, and the first recorded blaze to burn clear across the Sierra Nevada.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The following interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976498\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1976498\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-3-800x606.jpeg\" alt=\"A fire crew uses teamwork to refresh, rest and maintain equipment after cutting miles of fire break in the Rush Creek area of the Feather River Canyon.\" width=\"800\" height=\"606\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-3-800x606.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-3-1020x773.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-3-160x121.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-3-768x582.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-3.jpeg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Tehachapi Valley 11 fire crew uses teamwork to refresh, rest and maintain equipment after cutting miles of fire break in the Rush Creek area of the Feather River Canyon, July 25, 2021. \u003ccite>(Kent Porter/Press Democrat)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What has it been like on the lines of the Dixie Fire?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I went up to the Dixie Fire twice, once on my own and once for the newspaper. I realized that it was going to be one of the biggest fires that we’ve covered.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘The daily record is important, but I also feel compelled to help chronicle this for history, to show just how dominant a force wildfire has become in our lives.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>It was amazing to see the amount of damage that was there. You never really get used to it, even after covering all these fires. One part of the fire blew up and burned 13,000 acres in an afternoon. There was a fire tornado. It’s amazing how dry everything is. The part of the fire that I was on had burned in 2009 and it went through there like it had not burned before, like a virgin forest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Describe how you do this, because I don’t think people realize what an individual photographer has to do.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the advent of these climate change-induced fires, I prepare very carefully. I have all the things firefighters need to get on the line except for the firefighting tools. We carry fire shelters. We wear helmets, goggles, and gloves. When you’re in the fire, you’re pretty much there with the firefighters, documenting what they do. And that’s the reason I do it. I want to show people that fighting a fire is not all dropping fire retardant from airplanes and water from helicopters. It’s about the man hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And with a fire like the Dixie Fire, you can only manage it. It’s hard to put it out, there’s just no way. The fire does what it wants to do on any given day. All the fires that we’ve experienced within the last six years since the Valley Fire, they just run until they want to stop running.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976500\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1976500\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-6-800x504.jpeg\" alt=\"United States Forest Service firefighters from the Los Padres National Forest turn away from wind driven embers and smoke as they protect a structure from the Dixie fire.\" width=\"800\" height=\"504\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-6-800x504.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-6-1020x643.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-6-160x101.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-6-768x484.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-6.jpeg 1023w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">United States Forest Service firefighters from the Los Padres National Forest turn away from wind driven embers and smoke as they protect a structure from the Dixie fire as it enters Indian Valley, Monday night, Aug. 9, 2021. \u003ccite>(Kent Porter/Press Democrat)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You mentioned the 2015 Valley Fire in Lake County. What changed then when it comes to wildfire?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I noticed changes around 2012. Almost every wildland fire that I went to was involving structures, which was odd because the first several years that I did this job, I covered grass fires, but they were in unincorporated areas and there were no structures around. I just did it as part of my job, even though it was becoming a little bit more intense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In September of 2015, the Valley Fire went off. That was my wake up call, seeing the rates of spread and the flame lengths and how fast the fire moved in one afternoon, it just blew me away. I realized, we’re in a different era now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>We keep hearing this from veteran firefighters. Fire behavior is off the charts, extreme this year and in recent years. But they often attribute it to forest management practices as opposed to climate change. What do you think?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s both. The forest management could be stronger. Climate change definitely has something to do with it. But with forest management, we’re so far behind right now, it’s going to take a long time to catch up. Climate change has exacerbated the problem. After you burn, you’ve got to go back every couple of years and retreat to that area. It’s a constant cycle to go on forever, really. If we want these fires to become under control, it’s something that we’re going to have to do. We have to face it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>When do you really get scared? How do you decide that it’s too dangerous, that the photos aren’t worth it?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A good rule of thumb — if I drive down a road and I see the fire laying over the road and the wind has caught it, I don’t go in there. I will go in after the fire burns all the brush. I’m really careful about where I drive my vehicle. I always make sure I have two exit points. These big fires, they create pyrocumulous columns that go up 40,000 feet, dropping embers behind you, everywhere. Spot fires start in front of you, behind you, on the side. I’m very cautious about that. If the firefighters leave, it’s a good idea for me to leave, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976502\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1976502\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-4-800x855.jpeg\" alt=\"Garth Foster, of Grass Valley, rests after cutting hazard trees in the Highway 89 corridor.\" width=\"800\" height=\"855\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-4-800x855.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-4-1020x1090.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-4-160x171.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-4-768x821.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-4.jpeg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Garth Foster, who fells trees for the Barry Mickleburgh Tree Company, of Grass Valley, rests after cutting hazard trees in the Highway 89 corridor, Sunday, Aug. 8, 2021. \u003ccite>(Kent Porter/Press Democrat)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You have quite a following on Twitter, and Santa Rosa newspaper readers, locals, they know you and your work. Why did you write that essay now?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our communities in California suffer a great deal of PTSD when the wind blows, when it gets hot. We’re very fire aware in Santa Rosa and Sonoma County. I felt like I owed it to the readers of the Press Democrat, to go out there and to kind of show them what it’s like.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We photograph and report on things that go on in Sonoma County about our fires, but this is a statewide problem. Whether you agree if there’s climate change or not, fire behavior has changed within the last six years, in our region. It’s worse, much worse, off the charts, worse. We’re showing climate change as it happens, witnessing history. We’re witnessing climate change on a daily basis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976499\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1976499 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-5-800x500.jpeg\" alt=\"Woman in shorts, tank top and pink hair sits in front seat of truck cuddling a dog while another dog sits in passenger seat\" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-5-800x500.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-5-1020x638.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-5-160x100.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-5-768x480.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/download-5.jpeg 1023w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">With most of her personal possessions packed in the truck bed, Chester resident Regina Rutledge takes comfort in Allie and Sally Sue, Monday, Aug. 9, 2021. \u003ccite>(Kent Porter/Press Democrat)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You talk about a sense of camaraderie and an obligation to the firefighters that you see out in the field that you take pictures of?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They really work hard on the front lines. Imagine being on a fire for 24 hours and breathing the smoke for 24 hours. Think about last year when we had our orange sunrise in the Bay Area. That’s what firefighters live with every single day on a campaign fire. If you’re on a strike team, you’re up there for 15 or 21 days, and you’re breathing that smoke all day long. All night long. When you sleep, when you eat. I want to show people the kind of conditions that firefighters must work in to save communities. I just want to tell these human stories.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "In Berkeley Visit, U.S. Energy Secretary Granholm Says U.S. Must ‘Act With Urgency’ to Reduce Planet-Warming Emissions",
"headTitle": "In Berkeley Visit, U.S. Energy Secretary Granholm Says U.S. Must ‘Act With Urgency’ to Reduce Planet-Warming Emissions | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>In her first official visit as the nation’s top energy official, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm returned to Berkeley last week to promote the Biden administration’s clean energy agenda.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Granholm, a UC Berkeley graduate and former scholar at the Goldman School of Public Policy, on Friday reviewed desalination and battery storage technology innovations at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), where she once worked as a project scientist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This lab is doing amazing research on some of the biggest problems facing California,” she said. “There’s research that they’re doing here that is directly applicable to people’s lives. We want to take these solutions to scale.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a subsequent interview with KQED, Granholm said the U.S. needs to “act with urgency” to reduce its massive consumption of fossil fuels that produce planet-warming gas emissions, sparking more frequent extreme weather events, like the devastating wildfires now burning across California and throughout the West.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her visit, which included a tour of several solar-powered homes in Berkeley, also comes on the heels of the latest climate assessment from the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1976184/a-major-report-warns-climate-change-is-accelerating-and-humans-must-cut-emissions-now\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a major report \u003c/a>that details the dangerously accelerating pace of climate change and underscores the urgent need for humans to dramatically reduce emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The West is on fire, our hair should be on fire,” Granholm said. “If this [report] isn’t an exclamation point, if this isn’t a flashing code red on the fact that we have to act with urgency, I don’t know what is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A banner takeaway from the report, she noted: We still have time to stave off catastrophic warming this century. And doing so, she said, requires major infrastructure upgrades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have got to get clean energy technology on our transmission grid,” Granholm said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976455\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1976455 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50926_030_Berkeley_LawrenceLaboratory_08202021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50926_030_Berkeley_LawrenceLaboratory_08202021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50926_030_Berkeley_LawrenceLaboratory_08202021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50926_030_Berkeley_LawrenceLaboratory_08202021-qut-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50926_030_Berkeley_LawrenceLaboratory_08202021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50926_030_Berkeley_LawrenceLaboratory_08202021-qut-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50926_030_Berkeley_LawrenceLaboratory_08202021-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm (third from right) and Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland (third from left), speak with scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory on Aug. 20, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Residential solar, she added, is crucial to meeting the Biden administration’s goal of 100% clean electricity by 2035.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Solar is part of the lowest hanging fruit of how we’re going to deploy the number of gigawatts that the United States needs,” said Granholm, who visited California less than two weeks after the U.S. Senate passed a \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/08/10/1026081880/senate-passes-bipartisan-infrastructure-bill\">$1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package\u003c/a> that would send billions of dollars to the state for highway, bridges, and public transportation projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The following interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976456\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1976456 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50898_001_Berkeley_LawrenceLaboratory_08202021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50898_001_Berkeley_LawrenceLaboratory_08202021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50898_001_Berkeley_LawrenceLaboratory_08202021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50898_001_Berkeley_LawrenceLaboratory_08202021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50898_001_Berkeley_LawrenceLaboratory_08202021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50898_001_Berkeley_LawrenceLaboratory_08202021-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50898_001_Berkeley_LawrenceLaboratory_08202021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Advanced Light Source (ALS), a scientific user facility at the Berkeley Lab. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Berkeley Lab estimates that 40% of U.S. electricity generation could come from solar by 2035. It’s roughly 3% today. How do we get from here to there?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We need to make sure that we have the level of resiliency and capacity on the electric grid, that it is able to take on that clean energy generation. We need to be able to empower people to be able to put solar on their homes, seamlessly and affordably, so that we have distributed electricity [on-site generation] through solar on people’s homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>One of the most successful California climate policies is the \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/programs-and-topics/programs/renewables-portfolio-standard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Renewables Portfolio Standard\u003c/a>, which requires all utilities in the state to source half of their electricity sales from clean, renewable sources\u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/programs-and-topics/programs/renewables-portfolio-standard\">.\u003c/a> The U.S. Senate’s infrastructure bill left out a similar type of policy. Will the Biden administration support an infrastructure bill without a mandate for utilities to buy clean energy?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The president 100% supports a clean electricity standard that is similar to what you have in California. He could not get bipartisan agreement for it in the bipartisan bill. But there is a second step, which is the Build Back Better agenda, which is also known as reconciliation. Ridiculous word, but nonetheless, it is in that [Senate bill that can pass by a simple majority], and the president is very much pushing for a robust electricity standard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s pushing for it because it’s great for the planet, but he also sees the economic opportunity for the country in that. All of the nation’s solar panels now that are on people’s roofs are made elsewhere. And we simply allowed that to happen. And the president is saying no more. We are not going to watch our manufacturing capability just walk away. Incentivizing through tax credits, solar, wind, clean energy technologies, so that we can be competitive globally and we can deploy those technologies in the United States, is all part of that agenda.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976457\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1976457 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50982_051_Berkeley_SolarHomeGranholmLee_08202021-qut-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50982_051_Berkeley_SolarHomeGranholmLee_08202021-qut-1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50982_051_Berkeley_SolarHomeGranholmLee_08202021-qut-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50982_051_Berkeley_SolarHomeGranholmLee_08202021-qut-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50982_051_Berkeley_SolarHomeGranholmLee_08202021-qut-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50982_051_Berkeley_SolarHomeGranholmLee_08202021-qut-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50982_051_Berkeley_SolarHomeGranholmLee_08202021-qut-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">During a tour of a solar-powered Berkeley home on Aug. 20, 2021, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm discusses the Biden administration’s efforts to streamline the ability of local governments to approve residential solar installation permits. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Another item not in the Senate’s infrastructure bill is the Civilian Climate Corps. In June, California teenagers \u003c/b>\u003ca style=\"font-weight: bold\" href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1975362/young-activists-march-from-paradise-to-sf-in-100-degree-heat-to-protest-climate-crisis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">marched for weeks from Paradise to San Francisco\u003c/a>\u003cb>, demanding that Congress pass legislation by the end of summer 2021 to fund this initiative. What do you say to them?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They are right and the president agrees with them. And that’s why that policy, too, is in this second step [reconciliation bill]. If a Civilian Climate Corps is funded, [Biden’s] goal is to put a whole new diverse generation of Americans to work conserving our public lands, our waters, to bolster community resilience, to advance environmental justice, all the while paving the way for good-paying union jobs. President Biden sees that as a fundamental element to the climate portions of his agenda. And he’s pushing for that in Congress as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The president signed an order pushing for 50% of vehicles sold in the U.S. to be electric by 2030. How do you sell folks on electric vehicles who see them as a lifestyle choice for wealthy city dwellers?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"related coverage\" tag=\"clean-energy\"]We need to make sure that these vehicles are affordable for people. And one of the strategies in doing that is at the point of purchase. When you go to a dealer, you don’t want this electric vehicle to be more expensive than a regular gas-powered vehicle. [People should] get a refundable tax credit right there, to bring down the cost so that there is parity between electric vehicle cost and regular gasoline vehicles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You also have to make sure that people in all areas, in lower-income areas, in rural areas, have access to be able to fuel those vehicles. And that means charging stations. In that bipartisan bill that was passed by the Senate, there was $7.5 billion for electric vehicle charging stations. California, by the way, is going to get $384 million for electric vehicle charging out of that bill. The president is all in on making it easy for people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Are you pushing for a sped up timeline on reducing U.S. carbon emissions based on the release of the IPCC’s latest climate report?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yes, 1,000%. We have to act with urgency on eliminating methane emissions and carbon emissions. We have to act with urgency on deploying these technologies that are coming out of our labs and our private sector. We have got to get this clean energy technology on our transmission grid. The administration feels this sense of urgency, which is why the president has put out these big, hairy, audacious goals of getting to 100% clean electricity by 2035, getting to a net zero-carbon economy by 2050. And he wants to lead the world and demonstrate that we can do what we are calling others to do, which is, of course, to meet their global commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Calling the U.N.’s latest climate assessment a \"flashing code red,\" Granholm said the U.S. needs to immediately reduce carbon and methane emissions. ",
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"description": "Calling the U.N.’s latest climate assessment a "flashing code red," Granholm said the U.S. needs to immediately reduce carbon and methane emissions. ",
"title": "In Berkeley Visit, U.S. Energy Secretary Granholm Says U.S. Must ‘Act With Urgency’ to Reduce Planet-Warming Emissions | KQED",
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"headline": "In Berkeley Visit, U.S. Energy Secretary Granholm Says U.S. Must ‘Act With Urgency’ to Reduce Planet-Warming Emissions",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In her first official visit as the nation’s top energy official, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm returned to Berkeley last week to promote the Biden administration’s clean energy agenda.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Granholm, a UC Berkeley graduate and former scholar at the Goldman School of Public Policy, on Friday reviewed desalination and battery storage technology innovations at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), where she once worked as a project scientist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This lab is doing amazing research on some of the biggest problems facing California,” she said. “There’s research that they’re doing here that is directly applicable to people’s lives. We want to take these solutions to scale.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a subsequent interview with KQED, Granholm said the U.S. needs to “act with urgency” to reduce its massive consumption of fossil fuels that produce planet-warming gas emissions, sparking more frequent extreme weather events, like the devastating wildfires now burning across California and throughout the West.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her visit, which included a tour of several solar-powered homes in Berkeley, also comes on the heels of the latest climate assessment from the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1976184/a-major-report-warns-climate-change-is-accelerating-and-humans-must-cut-emissions-now\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a major report \u003c/a>that details the dangerously accelerating pace of climate change and underscores the urgent need for humans to dramatically reduce emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The West is on fire, our hair should be on fire,” Granholm said. “If this [report] isn’t an exclamation point, if this isn’t a flashing code red on the fact that we have to act with urgency, I don’t know what is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A banner takeaway from the report, she noted: We still have time to stave off catastrophic warming this century. And doing so, she said, requires major infrastructure upgrades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have got to get clean energy technology on our transmission grid,” Granholm said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976455\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1976455 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50926_030_Berkeley_LawrenceLaboratory_08202021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50926_030_Berkeley_LawrenceLaboratory_08202021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50926_030_Berkeley_LawrenceLaboratory_08202021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50926_030_Berkeley_LawrenceLaboratory_08202021-qut-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50926_030_Berkeley_LawrenceLaboratory_08202021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50926_030_Berkeley_LawrenceLaboratory_08202021-qut-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50926_030_Berkeley_LawrenceLaboratory_08202021-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm (third from right) and Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland (third from left), speak with scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory on Aug. 20, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Residential solar, she added, is crucial to meeting the Biden administration’s goal of 100% clean electricity by 2035.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Solar is part of the lowest hanging fruit of how we’re going to deploy the number of gigawatts that the United States needs,” said Granholm, who visited California less than two weeks after the U.S. Senate passed a \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/08/10/1026081880/senate-passes-bipartisan-infrastructure-bill\">$1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package\u003c/a> that would send billions of dollars to the state for highway, bridges, and public transportation projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The following interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976456\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1976456 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50898_001_Berkeley_LawrenceLaboratory_08202021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50898_001_Berkeley_LawrenceLaboratory_08202021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50898_001_Berkeley_LawrenceLaboratory_08202021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50898_001_Berkeley_LawrenceLaboratory_08202021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50898_001_Berkeley_LawrenceLaboratory_08202021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50898_001_Berkeley_LawrenceLaboratory_08202021-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50898_001_Berkeley_LawrenceLaboratory_08202021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Advanced Light Source (ALS), a scientific user facility at the Berkeley Lab. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Berkeley Lab estimates that 40% of U.S. electricity generation could come from solar by 2035. It’s roughly 3% today. How do we get from here to there?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We need to make sure that we have the level of resiliency and capacity on the electric grid, that it is able to take on that clean energy generation. We need to be able to empower people to be able to put solar on their homes, seamlessly and affordably, so that we have distributed electricity [on-site generation] through solar on people’s homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>One of the most successful California climate policies is the \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/programs-and-topics/programs/renewables-portfolio-standard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Renewables Portfolio Standard\u003c/a>, which requires all utilities in the state to source half of their electricity sales from clean, renewable sources\u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/programs-and-topics/programs/renewables-portfolio-standard\">.\u003c/a> The U.S. Senate’s infrastructure bill left out a similar type of policy. Will the Biden administration support an infrastructure bill without a mandate for utilities to buy clean energy?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The president 100% supports a clean electricity standard that is similar to what you have in California. He could not get bipartisan agreement for it in the bipartisan bill. But there is a second step, which is the Build Back Better agenda, which is also known as reconciliation. Ridiculous word, but nonetheless, it is in that [Senate bill that can pass by a simple majority], and the president is very much pushing for a robust electricity standard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s pushing for it because it’s great for the planet, but he also sees the economic opportunity for the country in that. All of the nation’s solar panels now that are on people’s roofs are made elsewhere. And we simply allowed that to happen. And the president is saying no more. We are not going to watch our manufacturing capability just walk away. Incentivizing through tax credits, solar, wind, clean energy technologies, so that we can be competitive globally and we can deploy those technologies in the United States, is all part of that agenda.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976457\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1976457 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50982_051_Berkeley_SolarHomeGranholmLee_08202021-qut-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50982_051_Berkeley_SolarHomeGranholmLee_08202021-qut-1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50982_051_Berkeley_SolarHomeGranholmLee_08202021-qut-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50982_051_Berkeley_SolarHomeGranholmLee_08202021-qut-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50982_051_Berkeley_SolarHomeGranholmLee_08202021-qut-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50982_051_Berkeley_SolarHomeGranholmLee_08202021-qut-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/RS50982_051_Berkeley_SolarHomeGranholmLee_08202021-qut-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">During a tour of a solar-powered Berkeley home on Aug. 20, 2021, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm discusses the Biden administration’s efforts to streamline the ability of local governments to approve residential solar installation permits. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Another item not in the Senate’s infrastructure bill is the Civilian Climate Corps. In June, California teenagers \u003c/b>\u003ca style=\"font-weight: bold\" href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1975362/young-activists-march-from-paradise-to-sf-in-100-degree-heat-to-protest-climate-crisis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">marched for weeks from Paradise to San Francisco\u003c/a>\u003cb>, demanding that Congress pass legislation by the end of summer 2021 to fund this initiative. What do you say to them?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They are right and the president agrees with them. And that’s why that policy, too, is in this second step [reconciliation bill]. If a Civilian Climate Corps is funded, [Biden’s] goal is to put a whole new diverse generation of Americans to work conserving our public lands, our waters, to bolster community resilience, to advance environmental justice, all the while paving the way for good-paying union jobs. President Biden sees that as a fundamental element to the climate portions of his agenda. And he’s pushing for that in Congress as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The president signed an order pushing for 50% of vehicles sold in the U.S. to be electric by 2030. How do you sell folks on electric vehicles who see them as a lifestyle choice for wealthy city dwellers?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>We need to make sure that these vehicles are affordable for people. And one of the strategies in doing that is at the point of purchase. When you go to a dealer, you don’t want this electric vehicle to be more expensive than a regular gas-powered vehicle. [People should] get a refundable tax credit right there, to bring down the cost so that there is parity between electric vehicle cost and regular gasoline vehicles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You also have to make sure that people in all areas, in lower-income areas, in rural areas, have access to be able to fuel those vehicles. And that means charging stations. In that bipartisan bill that was passed by the Senate, there was $7.5 billion for electric vehicle charging stations. California, by the way, is going to get $384 million for electric vehicle charging out of that bill. The president is all in on making it easy for people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Are you pushing for a sped up timeline on reducing U.S. carbon emissions based on the release of the IPCC’s latest climate report?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yes, 1,000%. We have to act with urgency on eliminating methane emissions and carbon emissions. We have to act with urgency on deploying these technologies that are coming out of our labs and our private sector. We have got to get this clean energy technology on our transmission grid. The administration feels this sense of urgency, which is why the president has put out these big, hairy, audacious goals of getting to 100% clean electricity by 2035, getting to a net zero-carbon economy by 2050. And he wants to lead the world and demonstrate that we can do what we are calling others to do, which is, of course, to meet their global commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "with-a-deepening-drought-california-has-few-protections-for-depleted-groundwater",
"title": "With a Deepening Drought, California Has Few Protections for Depleted Groundwater",
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"headTitle": "With a Deepening Drought, California Has Few Protections for Depleted Groundwater | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Kelly O’Brien’s drinking water well had been in its death throes for days before its pump finally gave out over Memorial Day weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It wasn’t a quiet death at O’Brien’s home in Glenn County, about 100 miles north of Sacramento.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spigots rattled. Faucets sputtered. The drinking water turned rusty with sediment. In the end, two houses, three adults, three children, two horses, four dogs and a couple of cats on her 5 acres of land were all left with no water for their sinks, showers, laundry, troughs and water bowls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As \u003ca href=\"https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?CA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">extreme drought spread\u003c/a> across the state, O’Brien feared that the water underneath her property had sunk so low that it was out of the reach of her well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The whole time you’re going, ‘Oh please, let it be something else. Let it be a switch. Let it be the pump — let it be anything but being out of water,’” O’Brien said. She worried that she might have to take out a second mortgage to afford the thousands of dollars if her well had to be drilled deeper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soon O’Brien learned that other wells were failing around her. She heard about one neighbor to the north, another to the east. The list kept growing: She started a Facebook group for owners of dry wells to share their woes and resources, and it grew to more than 665 members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In a way, you’re kind of relieved it’s not just you,” O’Brien said. “However, it’s really terrifying at the same time to think that it’s not just us — it is everybody around us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the height of the state’s last drought, thousands of Californians in the Central Valley \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/-/media/DWR-Website/Web-Pages/Water-Basics/Drought/Files/Publications-And-Reports/CNRA-Drought-Report-final-March-2021.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ran out of water\u003c/a> as their wells went dry. So much water was pumped from underground, mostly by growers, that the earth collapsed, sinking up to 2 feet per year \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-data-show-californias-san-joaquin-valley-still-sinking\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">in parts of the San Joaquin Valley\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alarmed, the California Legislature in 2014 enacted \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/programs/groundwater-management/sgma-groundwater-management\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a package of new laws\u003c/a> that aimed to stop the over-pumping.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But seven years later, little has changed for Californians relying on drinking water wells: Depletion of their groundwater continues. Pumping is \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/wp-content/uploads/ppic-review-of-groundwater-sustainability-plans-in-the-san-joaquin-valley.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">largely unrestricted\u003c/a>, and there are few, if any, protections in place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, after two dry years, \u003ca href=\"https://mydrywatersupply.water.ca.gov/report/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reports of dry wells\u003c/a> are worsening and spreading in many new areas, leaving more families like O’Brien’s with no drinking water. Despite the law, about \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/blog/commentary-how-better-data-can-help-california-avoid-a-drinking-water-crisis/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2,700 wells across the state\u003c/a> are projected to go dry this year, and if the drought continues, 1,000 more next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Called the Sustainable Management Groundwater Act or SGMA, the laws gave local groundwater agencies in critically overdrafted basins 26 years — until 2040 — to achieve sustainability and stop impacts of overdraft \u003ca href=\"https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/sgma/docs/sgma/sgma_20190101.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">from worsening\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those managing less-depleted water supplies, like the ones underlying Glenn County, have until 2042.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, somewhat predictably, this drought arrived much sooner than the laws’ safeguards: As a result, echoes of the last drought are now sputtering from people’s faucets and knocking through their empty pipes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It feels like we’re in a very similar place to where we were in the last drought,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/darcy-bostic/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Darcy Bostic\u003c/a>, who \u003ca href=\"https://pacinst.org/publication/at_risk_wells_sgma/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">analyzed groundwater sustainability plans\u003c/a> at the Pacific Institute, a global water think tank. “Everyone talks about how it’s different, and how it will take time, but people are still going to lose access to drinking water. And we don’t really have a new plan for addressing that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the last drought, dry wells were \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/-/media/DWR-Website/Web-Pages/Water-Basics/Drought/Files/Publications-And-Reports/CNRA-Drought-Report-final-March-2021.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">largely in the San Joaquin Valley\u003c/a>, but Northern California is being hit hard this time. Well outages are creeping north through \u003ca href=\"https://ca.water.usgs.gov/projects/central-valley/sacramento-valley.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the Sacramento Valley\u003c/a>, where Glenn, Tehama and Colusa residents reported more than 250 well outages to county officials by mid-August, more than were reported during the last drought. \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/-/media/DWR-Website/Web-Pages/Programs/Groundwater-Management/Data-and-Tools/Files/Maps/Groundwater-Level-Change/DOTMAP_Reports/Spring-2020-Groundwater-DOTMAP-Report.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Almost half of measurements\u003c/a> showed groundwater levels dropped last year compared to the previous three years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The scope is much larger than I think anything we heard about before,” said \u003ca href=\"https://agency.calepa.ca.gov/StaffDirectory/detail.asp?UID=6250&BDO=7&VW=DET\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joe Karkoski\u003c/a>, the State Water Resources Control Board’s deputy director of the division of financial assistance. “We’re hearing from counties that we didn’t hear from during the last drought.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now former state Sen. Fran Pavley, a Democrat and an author of the bills that became the act, says it may be time for the California Legislature and state agencies to accelerate its implementation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t know when the next drought will come. So when this passed in 2014, I think most of us thought it would probably be plenty of time,” Pavley said. And was it? “Apparently not.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A changing landscape, fast forward\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Interstate 5 through the Sacramento Valley offers a fast-forward view of a changing landscape. Jade green \u003ca href=\"https://gis.water.ca.gov/app/CADWRLandUseViewer/\">rice fields give way\u003c/a> to the stop-motion blur of orchards. “Let the good times grow!” declares a peeling sign along the highway to Glenn County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sprinklers hiss in the hot summer sun in orchards near O’Brien’s home, but she still has no water. It’s been longer than a month since her pump gave out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s had only two real showers, one that cost $15 at a health club, and bucket-washes with water from a neighbor’s well heated on the stove most days. She tries to avoid outdoor work that would soil her clothes and make her sweat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every day was consumed with the next step on how to live your life without water,” O’Brien says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her dishes simmer in a slow cooker all day before O’Brien washes them at night with boiled bottled water. With no water to rinse rags, the dust that kicks up from dirt roads and is dragged inside by her two dogs builds up on her furniture. “It just keeps getting thicker, and thicker — and pretty soon you can write your name in it,” O’Brien says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The price tag of waterless life is adding up. She’s had to purchase drinking water and a hastily acquired storage tank, and her weekly laundromat visits cost $30 each.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All the little extras that you really can’t afford to be without,” O’Brien says. “Honestly, this is the last set of clothes I have before I have to do laundry.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>California’s groundwater is a precious resource\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>For all of \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2021/06/california-water-shortage/\">California’s grand engineering feats to shunt the flow \u003c/a>of rivers from one part of the state to another, most of its \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/programs/groundwater-management/bulletin-118\">more than 7,400 public water systems\u003c/a> rely on water sucked from the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For 6 million people, it’s their only source. In a good year, groundwater makes up about 40% of California’s water supply. In a bad one, like this year, it’s close to 60%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976431\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1976431 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/070221_GlennCounty_RB_08-800x542.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"542\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/070221_GlennCounty_RB_08-800x542.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/070221_GlennCounty_RB_08-1020x691.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/070221_GlennCounty_RB_08-160x108.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/070221_GlennCounty_RB_08-768x520.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/070221_GlennCounty_RB_08-1536x1040.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/070221_GlennCounty_RB_08.jpeg 1568w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Volunteers at the Orland Fire Department in Glenn County distribute bottled water to people with dry wells on July 28, 2021. \u003ccite>(Rachel Becker/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Fed by rain, snow and streams, groundwater is one of California’s most precious resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In dry years, when the flows from surface waterways dwindle, growers — who account for about 80% of all groundwater used in the state — tap into more of the underground supply to irrigate their parched crops. In 2015, growers pumped more than twice what they did in 2005.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a limited store that’s slow to refill — a hydrological savings account overdrawn by up to 2.5 million acre-feet statewide every year, according to a state groundwater report. That’s enough water to supply about 7.5 million Southern California households for a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Californians reported 2,600 household water shortages through January 2019, largely in low-income Latino communities in the San Joaquin Valley — a number that state officials acknowledge is certainly an underestimate because most people don’t report their dry wells.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farmers were among those who struggled, fallowing an estimated half-a-million acres of land. Matt Angell, a Madera County almond and grape grower who also drills and repairs wells, still remembers the trauma of the last drought. He couldn’t sleep, and developed diabetes that he blames in part on the stress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For three years, desperate farmers and well owners kept calling Angell for help. “The stress of knowing people were going to lose their farm was overwhelming. The stress of people calling me and going, ‘I don’t have any water in my house’ was overwhelming.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In O’Brien’s Glenn County, the Board of Supervisors enacted a drilling moratorium for new agricultural wells through the end of next June.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The region’s farmers are feeling the pain of the overdrafted groundwater. But they urged a more targeted approach to a ban, only in the areas suffering severe depletion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This county would not really exist if it wasn’t for ag,” said Matt Lohse, who told the Board of Supervisors he’s proud to be a Glenn County farmer. “My dad is actually going to have to drill a new house well, currently he’s fighting to be able to irrigate. … I get it. I understand the impact in Glenn County.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mike Vereschagin, who grows almonds and prunes around Orland and Artois, told CalMatters that he doesn’t have enough surface water and his wells are producing less during the drought, so he had to start buying water from other growers and irrigation districts. Without it, “I wouldn’t have enough to irrigate all my orchards after harvest, do some of the post-harvest irrigation, which is critical for setting next year’s crop,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ritta Martin, a sixth-generation rancher and president of the Glenn County Farm Bureau, worries about California’s endless cycles of drought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It just seems like there’s been more dry years than not, in recent memory,” she said. In dry years, “the groundwater can’t sustain all of the orchards and other irrigated crops that we have in the area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s scary to think about.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Driving down county roads in her Ford F-150, O’Brien can tell which of her neighbors are out of water by the plastic storage tanks erupting from their yards. She points out rows of trees where there had once been a dairy or a hayfield.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>O’Brien lives on the same lot on the outskirts of Orland that her parents bought in the late 1960s, when she was a child. She’s worked as a hairstylist and bartender and raised four children, and she now lives in a mobile home on her land while her son, daughter-in-law and three grandchildren occupy the main house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her parents moved to the Sacramento Valley from Chicago, drawn by the slower pace of a community created by irrigated agriculture. In the early 1900s, enticed by advertisements promising “Water available and in abundance at all seasons of the year,” farmers transformed Glenn County, contributing more than $1 billion a year to the economy and providing one in three jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The promise of abundant water, though, has now become more precarious\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Increasingly unreliable surface water supplies have led to more reliance on groundwater and less water seeping into the subterranean stores. Many dry wells, like O’Brien’s, cluster near Stony Creek. The creek, which soaks into the soil and replenishes groundwater in wet years, has slowed to a trickle, edged by green scum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>O’Brien had to lower her well’s pump once already to reach water during the last drought. But she is relieved to learn that the diagnosis this time isn’t as bad as she originally feared. The groundwater has again sunk below the reach of her pump, but not below the depth of her well. So she needs to lower a new pump, not a new well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>O’Brien noticed that her well’s problems began when nut orchards began replacing hayfields. She’s reluctant to point fingers in her small community, but the facts illustrate the problem. Orchards in the area create a double whammy: They are often irrigated by groundwater but don’t feed underground stores like other crops do when flooded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Agriculture is Glenn County’s biggest water user, according to the county, and orchards bearing fruit and nuts have almost doubled in acreage from 2009 to 2019. More than 650 permits for agricultural wells were issued over the last 10 years, compared to 380 for households. (Not all of them may have been drilled.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we had the rains and the snowfall and everything else that we needed in order to fill our reservoirs … we wouldn’t be talking today,” O’Brien says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, she asks, “How many acres of almonds are we going to actually put in this county before people say uncle?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As O’Brien drives past an orchard, the mechanical whine of an agricultural well hums through the truck’s window.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can hear them screaming,” she says, “and it goes on, and on and on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California was the last in the nation to regulate groundwater statewide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There had been limited attempts to tackle it before 2014: Grant funding for local governments dangled in exchange for developing groundwater management plans. A monitoring program tracked groundwater levels. Some regions, like Orange County, managed their groundwater themselves for decades, charging pumpers to pay for water to replenish aquifers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the late 1970s, on the heels of a historic drought, then-Gov. Jerry Brown’s Water Rights Commission called for a strong state policy to protect groundwater, and recommended that local agencies take the lead in adopting management plans. If they failed, the state water board could bring in the attorney general.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The effort led to further study but little meaningful change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as the last drought gained steam, so did the legislation — and to Brown, it must have sounded familiar. The act tasked local groundwater agencies with developing plans to avoid worsening the major aftershocks of groundwater depletion, including “significant and unreasonable“ seawater intrusion, land subsidence, and degradation of water quality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s mandate, though, is still two decades away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law is “not geared for today’s drought. It’s geared for future droughts, which are going to be much worse,” said Felicia Marcus, who chaired the State Water Resources Control Board under Brown during the last drought. “They were meant as a climate change hedge and a way to assure that folks can farm off into the future. They weren’t an instant Band-Aid.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marcus and lawmakers involved at the time said the 20-year deadline was set because of the time needed to create new local agencies and let streams and other sources gradually recharge groundwater depleted over decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was something of a marriage between what could be done both practically and politically, along with what had to be done from an environmental standpoint,” said former Assemblyman Roger Dickinson, a Democrat from Sacramento and lead author of one of the act’s bills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, given the pace of climate change, the timeline gives “them maybe longer than — now looking back — (it) should have been,” Pavley said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For a state like California that prides itself on being environmentally oriented and sensitive, we have a long way to go when it comes to managing our groundwater and protecting access to clean drinking water for all Californians,” Pavley said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Farm Bureau opposed the legislation, saying it \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/science/la-me-groundwater-20140908-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">was too far-reaching\u003c/a>. By some estimates, between \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/wp-content/uploads/water-and-the-future-of-the-san-joaquin-valley-february-2019.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">500,000\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e56f3cdb4c0de1f3af59166/t/5ebd753c879bb66cc1b0c74e/1589474628077/Blueprint.EIA.PhaseOne.2.28-v4+%281%29.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a million acres\u003c/a> of farmland would have to be fallowed to end the San Joaquin Valley’s overdraft.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now the focus is on helping growers participate in the local planning process, said Chris Scheuring, the California Farm Bureau’s water lawyer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sooner or later, we were going to have to reckon with declining groundwater levels in some of the places,” he said. “Farmers didn’t necessarily embrace (the law) at the outset but they are surely trying to figure out how to deal with it now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the local agencies — \u003ca href=\"https://s.giannini.ucop.edu/uploads/pub/2021/02/18/v24n3_1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">largely run by agricultural interests\u003c/a> — have two decades to reduce overpumping to sustainable levels, their efforts to figure out how to do it are ongoing. January 2020 was the deadline for agencies \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/programs/groundwater-management/basin-prioritization\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">responsible for the most critically overdrafted basins\u003c/a> to submit plans to manage their groundwater; the rest have until 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stephanie Anagnoson, director of water and natural resources for Madera County, where \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/programs/groundwater-management/bulletin-118/critically-overdrafted-basins\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">groundwater is critically overdrafted\u003c/a>, said she feels deeply conflicted about the timeline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are working so hard, and I often feel like half of the world is like ‘Why aren’t you doing this at twice the speed?’ And the other half is like ‘Why are you going so fast? You have 20 years!’” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far the Department of Water Resources has approved plans \u003ca href=\"https://sgma.water.ca.gov/portal/gsp/assessments/29\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">for a Salinas Valley basin\u003c/a> and another \u003ca href=\"https://sgma.water.ca.gov/portal/gsp/assessments/11\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">in Santa Cruz County\u003c/a>, and sent plans in \u003ca href=\"https://sgma.water.ca.gov/portal/gsp/assessments/35\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paso Robles\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"https://sgma.water.ca.gov/portal/gsp/assessments/32\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cuyama Valley\u003c/a> back for more work. \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/News/Blog/2021/July/Facts-from-Groundwater-Plan-Assessments\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">A common theme\u003c/a> was that the water agencies needed to consider impacts to drinking water wells.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s a problem, if we now have only reviewed four plans,” said groundwater act architect Pavley, who said there might be a need for more funding or staff to accelerate the review. “That’s a red flag right there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Paul Gosselin, California’s deputy director of statewide groundwater management, said the agency is tasked with reviewing plans that are thousands of pages apiece and coming up with “specific and actionable” input on each one. But he said the local agencies can start implementing them now, even while they’re still being assessed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But some residents with dry wells blame local and state officials for not controlling pumping. “Who’s supposedly watching our groundwater?” said Mario Bringetto, a Madera County homeowner whose pump now sucks dirt into his pipes as the water table falls. “The people who are in charge are doing a terrible job, in my opinion.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If local agencies fail to develop or implement satisfactory plans, \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/-/media/DWR-Website/Web-Pages/Programs/Groundwater-Management/Sustainable-Groundwater-Management/Groundwater-Sustainability-Plans/Files/GSP/Overview-of-COD-GSPs.pdf?la=en&hash=79DB286C10345CFAE9AEA25EF3084351EDCA6C78\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the state water board can step in\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The former water board chair, Marcus, said “people can’t wait the 20 years,” so \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/-/media/DWR-Website/Web-Pages/Programs/Groundwater-Management/Sustainable-Groundwater-Management/Groundwater-Sustainability-Plans/Files/GSP/Overview-of-COD-GSPs.pdf?la=en&hash=79DB286C10345CFAE9AEA25EF3084351EDCA6C78\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the Department of Water Resources\u003c/a> must take strong steps to ensure that the plans “are based on real stuff, not wishful thinking.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In O’Brien’s Glenn County, the local agencies responsible for monitoring the groundwater underneath her home haven’t submitted their plans yet. The water there is not considered “critically overdrafted” so the plans aren’t due until January 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve heard recently from quite a few folks that (the act) is about 10 years too late,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.countyofglenn.net/water-resources-contact-information\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lisa Hunter\u003c/a>, who is leading the county’s effort to draft the plan. “The ones that are having issues right now, there’s nothing in place currently to help ease their fears.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some researchers predict that the new plans will fail to protect shallow drinking water wells that serve households, many of them \u003ca href=\"https://environmentalpolicy.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk6866/files/files/person/Research%20Brief%20June%202018%20-%20English.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">in disadvantaged communities\u003c/a>. Thousands of domestic and hundreds of community drinking water wells could fail under the current sustainability goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San Joaquin Valley’s plans, for instance, \u003ca href=\"https://waterfdn.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Groundwater-Management-and-Safe-Drinking-Water-in-the-San-Joaquin-Valley-Brief-6-2020.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">could allow up to 12,000 drinking water\u003c/a> wells to go partially or completely dry by 2040, according to the Water Foundation. From 46,000 to 127,000 people could lose access to at least some drinking water supplies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back in 2015, Jay Famiglietti, then a senior water scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and CalTech, \u003ca href=\"http://www.livingrivers.org/pdfs/Press/CaliforniaHasAboutOneYearOfWaterLeftWillYouRationNow.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">warned that the new law\u003c/a> would allow “nearly 30 years before we even know what is working.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“By then, there may be no groundwater left to sustain,” he wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since then, the rate of depletion has accelerated: It’s about 1.5 times higher now than measured during previous droughts, according to preliminary satellite data, Famiglietti said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Things have only gotten worse,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘You don’t know how good that feels’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>On a hot July day, O’Brien is leaving the dry lakebed of \u003ca href=\"https://www.recreation.gov/camping/gateways/46\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Stony Gorge Reservoir\u003c/a> when her daughter-in-law texts her: The water is finally back, after five long weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first thing O’Brien does when she gets home is turn on the hose. “I’ll be damned,” O’Brien says, running her fingers through the stream. Her two pit bulls, delighted by the spray, snap at water belching from the spigot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976432\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1976432 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/070221_GlennCounty_RB_04-800x600.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/070221_GlennCounty_RB_04-800x600.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/070221_GlennCounty_RB_04-1020x765.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/070221_GlennCounty_RB_04-160x120.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/070221_GlennCounty_RB_04-768x576.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/070221_GlennCounty_RB_04-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/070221_GlennCounty_RB_04.jpeg 1568w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kelly O’Brien and her dog, Louie, enjoy water flowing through a hose for the first time in more than a month after a new pump was installed in her well to reach the sinking groundwater on July 2, 2021. \u003ccite>(Rachel Becker/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Inside, O’Brien holds her hands under the tap and wipes the water across her face. “You don’t know how good that feels,” she says. “To be able to put it on your face, I mean —” she grabs a packet of baby wipes off the counter, “they just don’t cut it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of her neighbors, though, are still waiting without water. Some report wait times to drill their new wells or lower their pumps are stretching out for months, leaving entire households, their pets and their livestock living on tanker truck deliveries, bottled water supplies and hoses connected to neighbors’ spigots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But O’Brien still doesn’t feel safe even now that her water is flowing again. As endless cycles of drought grip California, the groundwater underneath her home is dropping lower and lower.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t know how long this is going to last,” she says, standing in her parched yard across the street from lush, green, irrigated orchards. “We just hope it lasts for a while. And we get some rain.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "A state law gave local agencies at least 26 years — until 2040 — to stop the impacts of over-pumping.",
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"title": "With a Deepening Drought, California Has Few Protections for Depleted Groundwater | KQED",
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"headline": "With a Deepening Drought, California Has Few Protections for Depleted Groundwater",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Kelly O’Brien’s drinking water well had been in its death throes for days before its pump finally gave out over Memorial Day weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It wasn’t a quiet death at O’Brien’s home in Glenn County, about 100 miles north of Sacramento.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spigots rattled. Faucets sputtered. The drinking water turned rusty with sediment. In the end, two houses, three adults, three children, two horses, four dogs and a couple of cats on her 5 acres of land were all left with no water for their sinks, showers, laundry, troughs and water bowls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As \u003ca href=\"https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?CA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">extreme drought spread\u003c/a> across the state, O’Brien feared that the water underneath her property had sunk so low that it was out of the reach of her well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The whole time you’re going, ‘Oh please, let it be something else. Let it be a switch. Let it be the pump — let it be anything but being out of water,’” O’Brien said. She worried that she might have to take out a second mortgage to afford the thousands of dollars if her well had to be drilled deeper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soon O’Brien learned that other wells were failing around her. She heard about one neighbor to the north, another to the east. The list kept growing: She started a Facebook group for owners of dry wells to share their woes and resources, and it grew to more than 665 members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In a way, you’re kind of relieved it’s not just you,” O’Brien said. “However, it’s really terrifying at the same time to think that it’s not just us — it is everybody around us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the height of the state’s last drought, thousands of Californians in the Central Valley \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/-/media/DWR-Website/Web-Pages/Water-Basics/Drought/Files/Publications-And-Reports/CNRA-Drought-Report-final-March-2021.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ran out of water\u003c/a> as their wells went dry. So much water was pumped from underground, mostly by growers, that the earth collapsed, sinking up to 2 feet per year \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-data-show-californias-san-joaquin-valley-still-sinking\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">in parts of the San Joaquin Valley\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alarmed, the California Legislature in 2014 enacted \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/programs/groundwater-management/sgma-groundwater-management\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a package of new laws\u003c/a> that aimed to stop the over-pumping.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But seven years later, little has changed for Californians relying on drinking water wells: Depletion of their groundwater continues. Pumping is \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/wp-content/uploads/ppic-review-of-groundwater-sustainability-plans-in-the-san-joaquin-valley.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">largely unrestricted\u003c/a>, and there are few, if any, protections in place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, after two dry years, \u003ca href=\"https://mydrywatersupply.water.ca.gov/report/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reports of dry wells\u003c/a> are worsening and spreading in many new areas, leaving more families like O’Brien’s with no drinking water. Despite the law, about \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/blog/commentary-how-better-data-can-help-california-avoid-a-drinking-water-crisis/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2,700 wells across the state\u003c/a> are projected to go dry this year, and if the drought continues, 1,000 more next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Called the Sustainable Management Groundwater Act or SGMA, the laws gave local groundwater agencies in critically overdrafted basins 26 years — until 2040 — to achieve sustainability and stop impacts of overdraft \u003ca href=\"https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/sgma/docs/sgma/sgma_20190101.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">from worsening\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those managing less-depleted water supplies, like the ones underlying Glenn County, have until 2042.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, somewhat predictably, this drought arrived much sooner than the laws’ safeguards: As a result, echoes of the last drought are now sputtering from people’s faucets and knocking through their empty pipes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It feels like we’re in a very similar place to where we were in the last drought,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/darcy-bostic/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Darcy Bostic\u003c/a>, who \u003ca href=\"https://pacinst.org/publication/at_risk_wells_sgma/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">analyzed groundwater sustainability plans\u003c/a> at the Pacific Institute, a global water think tank. “Everyone talks about how it’s different, and how it will take time, but people are still going to lose access to drinking water. And we don’t really have a new plan for addressing that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the last drought, dry wells were \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/-/media/DWR-Website/Web-Pages/Water-Basics/Drought/Files/Publications-And-Reports/CNRA-Drought-Report-final-March-2021.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">largely in the San Joaquin Valley\u003c/a>, but Northern California is being hit hard this time. Well outages are creeping north through \u003ca href=\"https://ca.water.usgs.gov/projects/central-valley/sacramento-valley.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the Sacramento Valley\u003c/a>, where Glenn, Tehama and Colusa residents reported more than 250 well outages to county officials by mid-August, more than were reported during the last drought. \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/-/media/DWR-Website/Web-Pages/Programs/Groundwater-Management/Data-and-Tools/Files/Maps/Groundwater-Level-Change/DOTMAP_Reports/Spring-2020-Groundwater-DOTMAP-Report.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Almost half of measurements\u003c/a> showed groundwater levels dropped last year compared to the previous three years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The scope is much larger than I think anything we heard about before,” said \u003ca href=\"https://agency.calepa.ca.gov/StaffDirectory/detail.asp?UID=6250&BDO=7&VW=DET\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joe Karkoski\u003c/a>, the State Water Resources Control Board’s deputy director of the division of financial assistance. “We’re hearing from counties that we didn’t hear from during the last drought.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now former state Sen. Fran Pavley, a Democrat and an author of the bills that became the act, says it may be time for the California Legislature and state agencies to accelerate its implementation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t know when the next drought will come. So when this passed in 2014, I think most of us thought it would probably be plenty of time,” Pavley said. And was it? “Apparently not.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A changing landscape, fast forward\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Interstate 5 through the Sacramento Valley offers a fast-forward view of a changing landscape. Jade green \u003ca href=\"https://gis.water.ca.gov/app/CADWRLandUseViewer/\">rice fields give way\u003c/a> to the stop-motion blur of orchards. “Let the good times grow!” declares a peeling sign along the highway to Glenn County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sprinklers hiss in the hot summer sun in orchards near O’Brien’s home, but she still has no water. It’s been longer than a month since her pump gave out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s had only two real showers, one that cost $15 at a health club, and bucket-washes with water from a neighbor’s well heated on the stove most days. She tries to avoid outdoor work that would soil her clothes and make her sweat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every day was consumed with the next step on how to live your life without water,” O’Brien says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her dishes simmer in a slow cooker all day before O’Brien washes them at night with boiled bottled water. With no water to rinse rags, the dust that kicks up from dirt roads and is dragged inside by her two dogs builds up on her furniture. “It just keeps getting thicker, and thicker — and pretty soon you can write your name in it,” O’Brien says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The price tag of waterless life is adding up. She’s had to purchase drinking water and a hastily acquired storage tank, and her weekly laundromat visits cost $30 each.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All the little extras that you really can’t afford to be without,” O’Brien says. “Honestly, this is the last set of clothes I have before I have to do laundry.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>California’s groundwater is a precious resource\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>For all of \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2021/06/california-water-shortage/\">California’s grand engineering feats to shunt the flow \u003c/a>of rivers from one part of the state to another, most of its \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/programs/groundwater-management/bulletin-118\">more than 7,400 public water systems\u003c/a> rely on water sucked from the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For 6 million people, it’s their only source. In a good year, groundwater makes up about 40% of California’s water supply. In a bad one, like this year, it’s close to 60%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976431\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1976431 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/070221_GlennCounty_RB_08-800x542.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"542\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/070221_GlennCounty_RB_08-800x542.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/070221_GlennCounty_RB_08-1020x691.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/070221_GlennCounty_RB_08-160x108.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/070221_GlennCounty_RB_08-768x520.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/070221_GlennCounty_RB_08-1536x1040.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/070221_GlennCounty_RB_08.jpeg 1568w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Volunteers at the Orland Fire Department in Glenn County distribute bottled water to people with dry wells on July 28, 2021. \u003ccite>(Rachel Becker/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Fed by rain, snow and streams, groundwater is one of California’s most precious resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In dry years, when the flows from surface waterways dwindle, growers — who account for about 80% of all groundwater used in the state — tap into more of the underground supply to irrigate their parched crops. In 2015, growers pumped more than twice what they did in 2005.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a limited store that’s slow to refill — a hydrological savings account overdrawn by up to 2.5 million acre-feet statewide every year, according to a state groundwater report. That’s enough water to supply about 7.5 million Southern California households for a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Californians reported 2,600 household water shortages through January 2019, largely in low-income Latino communities in the San Joaquin Valley — a number that state officials acknowledge is certainly an underestimate because most people don’t report their dry wells.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farmers were among those who struggled, fallowing an estimated half-a-million acres of land. Matt Angell, a Madera County almond and grape grower who also drills and repairs wells, still remembers the trauma of the last drought. He couldn’t sleep, and developed diabetes that he blames in part on the stress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For three years, desperate farmers and well owners kept calling Angell for help. “The stress of knowing people were going to lose their farm was overwhelming. The stress of people calling me and going, ‘I don’t have any water in my house’ was overwhelming.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In O’Brien’s Glenn County, the Board of Supervisors enacted a drilling moratorium for new agricultural wells through the end of next June.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The region’s farmers are feeling the pain of the overdrafted groundwater. But they urged a more targeted approach to a ban, only in the areas suffering severe depletion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This county would not really exist if it wasn’t for ag,” said Matt Lohse, who told the Board of Supervisors he’s proud to be a Glenn County farmer. “My dad is actually going to have to drill a new house well, currently he’s fighting to be able to irrigate. … I get it. I understand the impact in Glenn County.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mike Vereschagin, who grows almonds and prunes around Orland and Artois, told CalMatters that he doesn’t have enough surface water and his wells are producing less during the drought, so he had to start buying water from other growers and irrigation districts. Without it, “I wouldn’t have enough to irrigate all my orchards after harvest, do some of the post-harvest irrigation, which is critical for setting next year’s crop,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ritta Martin, a sixth-generation rancher and president of the Glenn County Farm Bureau, worries about California’s endless cycles of drought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It just seems like there’s been more dry years than not, in recent memory,” she said. In dry years, “the groundwater can’t sustain all of the orchards and other irrigated crops that we have in the area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s scary to think about.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Driving down county roads in her Ford F-150, O’Brien can tell which of her neighbors are out of water by the plastic storage tanks erupting from their yards. She points out rows of trees where there had once been a dairy or a hayfield.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>O’Brien lives on the same lot on the outskirts of Orland that her parents bought in the late 1960s, when she was a child. She’s worked as a hairstylist and bartender and raised four children, and she now lives in a mobile home on her land while her son, daughter-in-law and three grandchildren occupy the main house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her parents moved to the Sacramento Valley from Chicago, drawn by the slower pace of a community created by irrigated agriculture. In the early 1900s, enticed by advertisements promising “Water available and in abundance at all seasons of the year,” farmers transformed Glenn County, contributing more than $1 billion a year to the economy and providing one in three jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The promise of abundant water, though, has now become more precarious\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Increasingly unreliable surface water supplies have led to more reliance on groundwater and less water seeping into the subterranean stores. Many dry wells, like O’Brien’s, cluster near Stony Creek. The creek, which soaks into the soil and replenishes groundwater in wet years, has slowed to a trickle, edged by green scum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>O’Brien had to lower her well’s pump once already to reach water during the last drought. But she is relieved to learn that the diagnosis this time isn’t as bad as she originally feared. The groundwater has again sunk below the reach of her pump, but not below the depth of her well. So she needs to lower a new pump, not a new well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>O’Brien noticed that her well’s problems began when nut orchards began replacing hayfields. She’s reluctant to point fingers in her small community, but the facts illustrate the problem. Orchards in the area create a double whammy: They are often irrigated by groundwater but don’t feed underground stores like other crops do when flooded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Agriculture is Glenn County’s biggest water user, according to the county, and orchards bearing fruit and nuts have almost doubled in acreage from 2009 to 2019. More than 650 permits for agricultural wells were issued over the last 10 years, compared to 380 for households. (Not all of them may have been drilled.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we had the rains and the snowfall and everything else that we needed in order to fill our reservoirs … we wouldn’t be talking today,” O’Brien says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, she asks, “How many acres of almonds are we going to actually put in this county before people say uncle?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As O’Brien drives past an orchard, the mechanical whine of an agricultural well hums through the truck’s window.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can hear them screaming,” she says, “and it goes on, and on and on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California was the last in the nation to regulate groundwater statewide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There had been limited attempts to tackle it before 2014: Grant funding for local governments dangled in exchange for developing groundwater management plans. A monitoring program tracked groundwater levels. Some regions, like Orange County, managed their groundwater themselves for decades, charging pumpers to pay for water to replenish aquifers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the late 1970s, on the heels of a historic drought, then-Gov. Jerry Brown’s Water Rights Commission called for a strong state policy to protect groundwater, and recommended that local agencies take the lead in adopting management plans. If they failed, the state water board could bring in the attorney general.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The effort led to further study but little meaningful change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as the last drought gained steam, so did the legislation — and to Brown, it must have sounded familiar. The act tasked local groundwater agencies with developing plans to avoid worsening the major aftershocks of groundwater depletion, including “significant and unreasonable“ seawater intrusion, land subsidence, and degradation of water quality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s mandate, though, is still two decades away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law is “not geared for today’s drought. It’s geared for future droughts, which are going to be much worse,” said Felicia Marcus, who chaired the State Water Resources Control Board under Brown during the last drought. “They were meant as a climate change hedge and a way to assure that folks can farm off into the future. They weren’t an instant Band-Aid.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marcus and lawmakers involved at the time said the 20-year deadline was set because of the time needed to create new local agencies and let streams and other sources gradually recharge groundwater depleted over decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was something of a marriage between what could be done both practically and politically, along with what had to be done from an environmental standpoint,” said former Assemblyman Roger Dickinson, a Democrat from Sacramento and lead author of one of the act’s bills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, given the pace of climate change, the timeline gives “them maybe longer than — now looking back — (it) should have been,” Pavley said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For a state like California that prides itself on being environmentally oriented and sensitive, we have a long way to go when it comes to managing our groundwater and protecting access to clean drinking water for all Californians,” Pavley said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Farm Bureau opposed the legislation, saying it \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/science/la-me-groundwater-20140908-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">was too far-reaching\u003c/a>. By some estimates, between \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/wp-content/uploads/water-and-the-future-of-the-san-joaquin-valley-february-2019.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">500,000\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e56f3cdb4c0de1f3af59166/t/5ebd753c879bb66cc1b0c74e/1589474628077/Blueprint.EIA.PhaseOne.2.28-v4+%281%29.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a million acres\u003c/a> of farmland would have to be fallowed to end the San Joaquin Valley’s overdraft.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now the focus is on helping growers participate in the local planning process, said Chris Scheuring, the California Farm Bureau’s water lawyer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sooner or later, we were going to have to reckon with declining groundwater levels in some of the places,” he said. “Farmers didn’t necessarily embrace (the law) at the outset but they are surely trying to figure out how to deal with it now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the local agencies — \u003ca href=\"https://s.giannini.ucop.edu/uploads/pub/2021/02/18/v24n3_1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">largely run by agricultural interests\u003c/a> — have two decades to reduce overpumping to sustainable levels, their efforts to figure out how to do it are ongoing. January 2020 was the deadline for agencies \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/programs/groundwater-management/basin-prioritization\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">responsible for the most critically overdrafted basins\u003c/a> to submit plans to manage their groundwater; the rest have until 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stephanie Anagnoson, director of water and natural resources for Madera County, where \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/programs/groundwater-management/bulletin-118/critically-overdrafted-basins\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">groundwater is critically overdrafted\u003c/a>, said she feels deeply conflicted about the timeline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are working so hard, and I often feel like half of the world is like ‘Why aren’t you doing this at twice the speed?’ And the other half is like ‘Why are you going so fast? You have 20 years!’” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far the Department of Water Resources has approved plans \u003ca href=\"https://sgma.water.ca.gov/portal/gsp/assessments/29\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">for a Salinas Valley basin\u003c/a> and another \u003ca href=\"https://sgma.water.ca.gov/portal/gsp/assessments/11\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">in Santa Cruz County\u003c/a>, and sent plans in \u003ca href=\"https://sgma.water.ca.gov/portal/gsp/assessments/35\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paso Robles\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"https://sgma.water.ca.gov/portal/gsp/assessments/32\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cuyama Valley\u003c/a> back for more work. \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/News/Blog/2021/July/Facts-from-Groundwater-Plan-Assessments\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">A common theme\u003c/a> was that the water agencies needed to consider impacts to drinking water wells.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s a problem, if we now have only reviewed four plans,” said groundwater act architect Pavley, who said there might be a need for more funding or staff to accelerate the review. “That’s a red flag right there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Paul Gosselin, California’s deputy director of statewide groundwater management, said the agency is tasked with reviewing plans that are thousands of pages apiece and coming up with “specific and actionable” input on each one. But he said the local agencies can start implementing them now, even while they’re still being assessed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But some residents with dry wells blame local and state officials for not controlling pumping. “Who’s supposedly watching our groundwater?” said Mario Bringetto, a Madera County homeowner whose pump now sucks dirt into his pipes as the water table falls. “The people who are in charge are doing a terrible job, in my opinion.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If local agencies fail to develop or implement satisfactory plans, \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/-/media/DWR-Website/Web-Pages/Programs/Groundwater-Management/Sustainable-Groundwater-Management/Groundwater-Sustainability-Plans/Files/GSP/Overview-of-COD-GSPs.pdf?la=en&hash=79DB286C10345CFAE9AEA25EF3084351EDCA6C78\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the state water board can step in\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The former water board chair, Marcus, said “people can’t wait the 20 years,” so \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/-/media/DWR-Website/Web-Pages/Programs/Groundwater-Management/Sustainable-Groundwater-Management/Groundwater-Sustainability-Plans/Files/GSP/Overview-of-COD-GSPs.pdf?la=en&hash=79DB286C10345CFAE9AEA25EF3084351EDCA6C78\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the Department of Water Resources\u003c/a> must take strong steps to ensure that the plans “are based on real stuff, not wishful thinking.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In O’Brien’s Glenn County, the local agencies responsible for monitoring the groundwater underneath her home haven’t submitted their plans yet. The water there is not considered “critically overdrafted” so the plans aren’t due until January 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve heard recently from quite a few folks that (the act) is about 10 years too late,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.countyofglenn.net/water-resources-contact-information\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lisa Hunter\u003c/a>, who is leading the county’s effort to draft the plan. “The ones that are having issues right now, there’s nothing in place currently to help ease their fears.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some researchers predict that the new plans will fail to protect shallow drinking water wells that serve households, many of them \u003ca href=\"https://environmentalpolicy.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk6866/files/files/person/Research%20Brief%20June%202018%20-%20English.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">in disadvantaged communities\u003c/a>. Thousands of domestic and hundreds of community drinking water wells could fail under the current sustainability goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San Joaquin Valley’s plans, for instance, \u003ca href=\"https://waterfdn.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Groundwater-Management-and-Safe-Drinking-Water-in-the-San-Joaquin-Valley-Brief-6-2020.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">could allow up to 12,000 drinking water\u003c/a> wells to go partially or completely dry by 2040, according to the Water Foundation. From 46,000 to 127,000 people could lose access to at least some drinking water supplies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back in 2015, Jay Famiglietti, then a senior water scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and CalTech, \u003ca href=\"http://www.livingrivers.org/pdfs/Press/CaliforniaHasAboutOneYearOfWaterLeftWillYouRationNow.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">warned that the new law\u003c/a> would allow “nearly 30 years before we even know what is working.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“By then, there may be no groundwater left to sustain,” he wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since then, the rate of depletion has accelerated: It’s about 1.5 times higher now than measured during previous droughts, according to preliminary satellite data, Famiglietti said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Things have only gotten worse,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘You don’t know how good that feels’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>On a hot July day, O’Brien is leaving the dry lakebed of \u003ca href=\"https://www.recreation.gov/camping/gateways/46\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Stony Gorge Reservoir\u003c/a> when her daughter-in-law texts her: The water is finally back, after five long weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first thing O’Brien does when she gets home is turn on the hose. “I’ll be damned,” O’Brien says, running her fingers through the stream. Her two pit bulls, delighted by the spray, snap at water belching from the spigot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976432\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1976432 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/070221_GlennCounty_RB_04-800x600.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/070221_GlennCounty_RB_04-800x600.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/070221_GlennCounty_RB_04-1020x765.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/070221_GlennCounty_RB_04-160x120.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/070221_GlennCounty_RB_04-768x576.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/070221_GlennCounty_RB_04-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/070221_GlennCounty_RB_04.jpeg 1568w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kelly O’Brien and her dog, Louie, enjoy water flowing through a hose for the first time in more than a month after a new pump was installed in her well to reach the sinking groundwater on July 2, 2021. \u003ccite>(Rachel Becker/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Inside, O’Brien holds her hands under the tap and wipes the water across her face. “You don’t know how good that feels,” she says. “To be able to put it on your face, I mean —” she grabs a packet of baby wipes off the counter, “they just don’t cut it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of her neighbors, though, are still waiting without water. Some report wait times to drill their new wells or lower their pumps are stretching out for months, leaving entire households, their pets and their livestock living on tanker truck deliveries, bottled water supplies and hoses connected to neighbors’ spigots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But O’Brien still doesn’t feel safe even now that her water is flowing again. As endless cycles of drought grip California, the groundwater underneath her home is dropping lower and lower.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t know how long this is going to last,” she says, standing in her parched yard across the street from lush, green, irrigated orchards. “We just hope it lasts for a while. And we get some rain.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Calls Intensify For Stronger Worker Protections As Heat Deaths Rise In Calif. and U.S.",
"headTitle": "Calls Intensify For Stronger Worker Protections As Heat Deaths Rise In Calif. and U.S. | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>As the temperature in Grand Island, Nebraska, soared to 91 degrees that July day in 2018, two dozen farmworkers tunneled for nine hours into a thicket of cornstalks, snapping off tassels while they crossed a sunbaked field that spanned 206 acres — the equivalent of 156 football fields.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When they emerged at the end of the day to board a bus that would transport them to a nearby motel to sleep, one of the workers, Cruz Urias Beltran, didn’t make it back. Searchers found the 52-year-old farmworker’s body 20 hours later amid the cornhusks, “as if he’d simply collapsed,” recalled a funeral home employee. An empty water bottle was stuffed in his jeans pocket. An autopsy report confirmed that Beltran died from heatstroke. It was his third day on the job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beltran is one of at least 384 workers who died from environmental heat exposure in the U.S. in the last decade, according to an investigation by NPR and Columbia Journalism Investigations, the investigative reporting unit of the Columbia Journalism School. The count includes people toiling in essential, yet often, invisible jobs in 37 states across the country: farm laborers in California, construction and trash-collection workers in Texas and tree trimmers in North Carolina and Virginia. An analysis of federal data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the three-year average of worker heat deaths has doubled since the early 1990s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976348\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1976348\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/cruz_in_the_1990s-edit-d66a1ab99079af2d799ed3c53e9aa916dbe96937-3-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/cruz_in_the_1990s-edit-d66a1ab99079af2d799ed3c53e9aa916dbe96937-3-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/cruz_in_the_1990s-edit-d66a1ab99079af2d799ed3c53e9aa916dbe96937-3-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/cruz_in_the_1990s-edit-d66a1ab99079af2d799ed3c53e9aa916dbe96937-3-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/cruz_in_the_1990s-edit-d66a1ab99079af2d799ed3c53e9aa916dbe96937-3.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A family photo of Cruz Urias Beltran taken during the 1990s. \u003ccite>(Paty Espinoza)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>CJI and NPR reviewed hundreds of pages of documents, including workplace inspection reports, death investigation files, depositions, court records and police reports, and interviewed victims’ families, former and current officials from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, workers, employers, workers’ advocates, lawyers and experts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CJI and NPR also analyzed two federal data sets on worker heat deaths: one from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the other from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Both are divisions within the U.S. Labor Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the findings:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), whose primary responsibility is to protect workers from hazards, has failed to adopt a national heat standard to safeguard workers against rapidly rising temperatures, resulting in an enforcement system rife with problems.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>For at least a dozen companies, it wasn’t the first time their workers succumbed to heat. One worker collapsed and died after repeatedly complaining about the heat; another died after hauling 20 tons of trash for nearly 10 hours. In some instances, employees died after not having ample water and scheduled shade breaks. Many died within their first week on the job.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>OSHA officials often decide not to penalize companies for worker deaths. When they do, they routinely negotiate with business owners and reduce violations and fines.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>In some cases, OSHA doesn’t follow up after a worker’s death from heat exposure to ensure that the company is complying with the measures the agency imposed to prevent future fatalities.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Workers of color have borne the brunt: Since 2010, Hispanics have accounted for a third of all heat fatalities, yet they represent a fraction — 17% — of the U.S. workforce. Health and safety experts attribute this unequal toll to Hispanics’ overrepresentation in industries vulnerable to dangerous heat, such as construction and agriculture.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>OSHA’s record-keeping on heat fatalities is so poor that there’s no way to know exactly how many workers have died from heat.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Current and former OSHA officials acknowledge that the known death tally is a vast undercount. The agency mostly relies on companies to report worker fatalities after they occur, but not all do so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CJI and NPR reporters analyzed worker heat deaths recorded by OSHA between 2010 and 2020 and compared each incident day’s high temperature with historical averages over 40 years. Most of the deaths happened on days that were unusually hot for that date. More than two-thirds occurred on days when the temperature reached at least 90 degrees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet no worker should die from heat, said Ronda McCarthy, an occupational health specialist who directs medical services at the health care provider Concentra, in Waco, Texas. McCarthy spent seven years educating her home state’s municipal workers about heat, which reduced cases of worker heat exhaustion and similar conditions there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Heat illness should be considered a preventable illness,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>No federal heat standard\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>OSHA has known about the dangers of heat — and how to prevent deaths — for decades. In 1972, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, studied the effects of heat stress on workers in the U.S. and recommended criteria for an OSHA heat standard. Under the proposal, employers would have had to give employees one break every hour and offer ready access to water. New workers would have received extra breaks so they could acclimate to strenuous activity in the heat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NIOSH has refined these safety measures — first in 1986 and, again, in 2016 — but OSHA has not acted on them because of other regulatory priorities. This year, for the first time, OSHA is officially considering a heat standard by putting it on its regulatory agenda. James Frederick, OSHA’s acting director, said it’s a “priority” for the Biden administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Occupational exposure to heat remains a very important topic,” Frederick said in an interview with CJI and NPR. “We’re focused on improving our efforts to protect workers moving forward.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976349\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1976349 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/morton_jfrederick_osha_210716_06-edit_custom-4b483ec03879252f9584a0f9d955dc119e38b782-2-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/morton_jfrederick_osha_210716_06-edit_custom-4b483ec03879252f9584a0f9d955dc119e38b782-2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/morton_jfrederick_osha_210716_06-edit_custom-4b483ec03879252f9584a0f9d955dc119e38b782-2-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/morton_jfrederick_osha_210716_06-edit_custom-4b483ec03879252f9584a0f9d955dc119e38b782-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/morton_jfrederick_osha_210716_06-edit_custom-4b483ec03879252f9584a0f9d955dc119e38b782-2-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/morton_jfrederick_osha_210716_06-edit_custom-4b483ec03879252f9584a0f9d955dc119e38b782-2-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/morton_jfrederick_osha_210716_06-edit_custom-4b483ec03879252f9584a0f9d955dc119e38b782-2-1920x1279.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/morton_jfrederick_osha_210716_06-edit_custom-4b483ec03879252f9584a0f9d955dc119e38b782-2.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jim Frederick, acting assistant secretary of labor for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, stands in the national office of OSHA in Washington, D.C., on July 26, 2021. \u003ccite>(Ian Morton/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Absent a heat standard, OSHA must rely on a 50-year-old regulation guaranteeing workers a “hazard-free workplace.” OSHA does require companies to provide adequate water, but not other heat-safety measures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OSHA’s own research shows relying on this general rule hasn’t worked. A 2016 study by agency scientists found that some employers whose workers got sick or died from heat hadn’t met basic water provisions. Most companies never offered rest breaks. Only one out of 84 total employers had a plan for building up its workers’ tolerance for laboring in heat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2011, four labor and public interest organizations, including Public Citizen, a consumer rights advocacy group, petitioned OSHA to issue a heat standard. They asked the agency for an emergency temporary standard because a new rule, the petition stated, “could potentially take many years before it’s finalized and implemented.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>David Michaels, then the assistant secretary of labor for Occupational Safety and Health, who oversaw OSHA, denied the petition, arguing in a January 2012 letter to petitioners that workers weren’t dying from heat at a rate that would justify a legal standard. Recognizing extreme heat’s threat, he said most workers can “recover fairly quickly when the appropriate measures are taken.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, Michaels launched a voluntary awareness campaign distributing posters and flyers that instructed employees on how to protect themselves. OSHA incorporated these precautions into a free bilingual phone app featuring government-issued heat alerts and advisories. The agency continued this campaign through 2013. Its principle message remains on \u003ca href=\"https://www.osha.gov/heat\">OSHA’s website today\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976351\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1976351 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/gettyimages-102342163_custom-6b6018a90245a086253584a9f5b3992a88d2faa1-1-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/gettyimages-102342163_custom-6b6018a90245a086253584a9f5b3992a88d2faa1-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/gettyimages-102342163_custom-6b6018a90245a086253584a9f5b3992a88d2faa1-1-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/gettyimages-102342163_custom-6b6018a90245a086253584a9f5b3992a88d2faa1-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/gettyimages-102342163_custom-6b6018a90245a086253584a9f5b3992a88d2faa1-1-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/gettyimages-102342163_custom-6b6018a90245a086253584a9f5b3992a88d2faa1-1-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/gettyimages-102342163_custom-6b6018a90245a086253584a9f5b3992a88d2faa1-1-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/gettyimages-102342163_custom-6b6018a90245a086253584a9f5b3992a88d2faa1-1-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">David Michaels, the assistant secretary of labor for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, attends a full committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on June 23, 2010. The hearing was on “Worker Health and Safety from the Oil Rig to the Shoreline,” focusing on how worker health and safety is regulated and enforced by various parties, from oil rig workers to post-accident cleanup operations. \u003ccite>(Astrid Riecken/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Michaels touted the campaign as a success at the time. The numbers are less clear. The number of workers who succumbed to heat topped 61 cases during the campaign’s inaugural year, in 2011 — an all-time high. An additional 65 workers would die from heat exposure in the ensuing two years, closer to the annual average for the decade, while the campaign remained an agency priority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Six years after his petition denial letter, and after leaving OSHA’s top post, Michaels changed his approach. In 2018, he joined Public Citizen and 131 additional groups in a second petition asking the agency to enact a heat standard. This time, petitioners cited NIOSH’s updated guidelines and warned that “this warming trend will not only continue but accelerate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a recent interview, Michaels, now a public health professor at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., said the agencywide consensus was that climate change would worsen the problem. But the rule-making process at OSHA is “so difficult” and the industry opposition so formidable that adopting a heat standard “became a bridge too far,” he said. He has come to believe a standard is essential.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We know that heat kills,” Michaels said. “And if we don’t have requirements, heat will kill more workers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Search and rescue\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>A standard that included water, rest, shade and acclimatization could have saved Beltran, an experienced farmworker who traveled more than 1,300 miles from San Luis, Arizona, to the heart of America’s Corn Belt to pull tassels off corn plants for Rivera Agri Inc.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The day he went missing in the fields on the outskirts of Grand Island, the temperature — with humidity — felt like 100 degrees. Joseph Rivera, the company’s owner, placed an emergency call to authorities shortly after 5 p.m. Beltran was in the field but didn’t come out with the other workers, he told the 911 operator.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976374\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1976374 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/nw-2021-07-28-wpick-4376_custom-7e2b8be8b7126e888b7cf0cca98ee3cad4e4cb2c-1-800x640.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/nw-2021-07-28-wpick-4376_custom-7e2b8be8b7126e888b7cf0cca98ee3cad4e4cb2c-1-800x640.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/nw-2021-07-28-wpick-4376_custom-7e2b8be8b7126e888b7cf0cca98ee3cad4e4cb2c-1-1020x816.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/nw-2021-07-28-wpick-4376_custom-7e2b8be8b7126e888b7cf0cca98ee3cad4e4cb2c-1-160x128.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/nw-2021-07-28-wpick-4376_custom-7e2b8be8b7126e888b7cf0cca98ee3cad4e4cb2c-1-768x614.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/nw-2021-07-28-wpick-4376_custom-7e2b8be8b7126e888b7cf0cca98ee3cad4e4cb2c-1-1536x1229.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/nw-2021-07-28-wpick-4376_custom-7e2b8be8b7126e888b7cf0cca98ee3cad4e4cb2c-1-2048x1638.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/nw-2021-07-28-wpick-4376_custom-7e2b8be8b7126e888b7cf0cca98ee3cad4e4cb2c-1-1920x1536.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The cornfield where Cruz Urias Beltran’s body was found near Cairo, Neb., on July 28, 2021. \u003ccite>(Walker Pickering/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The call set off an elaborate search-and-rescue mission in the central Nebraska city of 51,000. One volunteer flew a Piper Cub airplane low and slow, on the lookout for the orange safety hat atop Beltran’s salt-and-pepper hair. Another manned a helicopter circling the sea of stalks until the chopper ran low on fuel. At sunset, a Nebraska State Patrol plane with thermal-imaging equipment scanned for a sign of Beltran’s body temperature, but since the plants and soil also were emanating heat, he went undetected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The following morning, as the temperature hovered in the 90s, the Red Cross opened a temporary cooling station with air conditioning for the 100 volunteers who joined the search. Shortly after noon, someone spotted Beltran’s body, facedown in the husks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two months after Beltran’s body was shipped to his family’s home in Mexico’s Sonora state, an OSHA inspector visited Rivera Agri as part of the agency’s investigation into the death. OSHA inspection records show the company didn’t deploy the kind of preventive measures that a heat standard would have required. Rivera Agri did not ensure that employees took enough rest breaks in the shade, drank sufficient amounts of water and adapted to their grueling work, the records show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976357\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1976357\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/cruz_urias_beltran_hugging_his_son_jesus_adrian_urias_machado-edit-40cf5ef60a1dc6e3723a63d2c216ceb3af5f9477-1-800x600.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/cruz_urias_beltran_hugging_his_son_jesus_adrian_urias_machado-edit-40cf5ef60a1dc6e3723a63d2c216ceb3af5f9477-1-800x600.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/cruz_urias_beltran_hugging_his_son_jesus_adrian_urias_machado-edit-40cf5ef60a1dc6e3723a63d2c216ceb3af5f9477-1-160x120.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/cruz_urias_beltran_hugging_his_son_jesus_adrian_urias_machado-edit-40cf5ef60a1dc6e3723a63d2c216ceb3af5f9477-1-768x576.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/cruz_urias_beltran_hugging_his_son_jesus_adrian_urias_machado-edit-40cf5ef60a1dc6e3723a63d2c216ceb3af5f9477-1.png 952w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Beltran hugs his son, Jesus Adrian Urias Machado. Beltran was an experienced farmworker and traveled from Arizona to work in Nebraska. \u003ccite>(Paty Espinoza)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“These actions were left to the employees to manage themselves,” the inspector wrote in a nine-page citation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OSHA found that the “moderate lifting and bending” and “pushing and pulling” that Beltran had performed in the heat had contributed to his death. It cited Rivera Agri for a violation and proposed fines totaling $11,641. The agency also ordered the company to train employees on the symptoms of heat illness, among other safety measures. Rivera Agri agreed to OSHA’s conditions, and the fines were reduced to $9,500, records show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Angela Rivera, who runs the farm labor contracting business with her father, Joseph, said the company has worked to fulfill the agreement. Today, it contracts with a farmworker-rights group to educate employees on how to respond to heat emergencies. Near the cornfield, it sets up extra water stations and has canopies for emergency shade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve been in this business for a long time,” said Angela Rivera, who calls Beltran’s death “an unfortunate thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every year we try to step it up,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joseph Rivera said supervisors now monitor the heat on their cellphones and pull detasselers from the cornfields whenever it gets too hot — part of a heat-stress plan the Riveras created after Beltran’s death. They hand out brochures explaining the new policy to every farmworker on their bus.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Not the first death\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Beltran was not Rivera Agri’s first heat-related fatality. In July 1997, a 39-year-old detasseler died of heatstroke under similar circumstances. Like Beltran, it was his third day on the job, and the temperature had spiked to 95 degrees. When he collapsed, the crew found him within two hours. But his core body temperature was 108 degrees — hot enough for the brain, liver and kidneys to shut down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OSHA investigated his death but didn’t impose penalties because then-OSHA Area Director Ben Bare determined there was no applicable standard. The lack of a standard leaves individual OSHA officials to decide whether a general violation applies to each death, creating a pattern of uneven enforcement in worker heat-death cases, records show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CJI and NPR’s analysis of worker heat deaths shows that, like Rivera Agri, 11 other companies have lost more than one employee. In five of the cases, OSHA investigated the first fatality and issued citations, only for another employee to die from heat. One of those cited was Texas-based Hellas Construction, which builds publicly and privately funded stadiums and other sports infrastructure projects across the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In July 2018, the week before Beltran died in a Nebraska cornfield, Karl Simmons signed on as a laborer for Hellas. At 30, with long braided hair and a shoulder tattoo bearing his mother’s name, Simmons arrived at the sprawling Gateway Park in Fort Worth, Texas, ready to install turf.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On his second day on the job, Simmons, who had served in the U.S. Navy, took a lunch break and fielded a call from his wife, Precious. “It’s just hot,” he complained, according to a deposition she gave in a lawsuit filed by the family against Hellas. The five-person crew had already drunk all the water. Simmons returned to preparing the mixture to attach to the turf, shoveling gravel and adhesive chemicals into a mixer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That afternoon — as the temperature topped 96 degrees — Simmons told his supervisor he felt hot, according to OSHA records. He complained about the heat two more times that day. Each time, he said he felt sick. At one point, he sought shade under a tree while his supervisor drove to a store to get water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A passerby eventually spotted Simmons sprawled on the ground, facedown, and alerted the crew. His brother-in-law, Michael Spriggins, who worked alongside Simmons as a Hellas laborer, sprinted to his aid. He found Simmons gasping for breath, bleeding from his nose and mouth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976359\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1976359 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/npr-jul-31-2021-1_custom-884b15aa0b305a577c37107e8a1a8d8cbe1f2a62-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/npr-jul-31-2021-1_custom-884b15aa0b305a577c37107e8a1a8d8cbe1f2a62-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/npr-jul-31-2021-1_custom-884b15aa0b305a577c37107e8a1a8d8cbe1f2a62-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/npr-jul-31-2021-1_custom-884b15aa0b305a577c37107e8a1a8d8cbe1f2a62-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/npr-jul-31-2021-1_custom-884b15aa0b305a577c37107e8a1a8d8cbe1f2a62-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/npr-jul-31-2021-1_custom-884b15aa0b305a577c37107e8a1a8d8cbe1f2a62-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/npr-jul-31-2021-1_custom-884b15aa0b305a577c37107e8a1a8d8cbe1f2a62-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/npr-jul-31-2021-1_custom-884b15aa0b305a577c37107e8a1a8d8cbe1f2a62-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Karl Simmons was installing turf at Gateway Park in Fort Worth, Texas, when he felt ill. Later, he was pronounced dead at a local hospital. The official cause of death was heatstroke. \u003ccite>(JerSean Golatt/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It was a sight I ain’t going to never forget,” Spriggins said in an interview with CJI and NPR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He called 911 and then placed a cool towel under Simmons’ neck at the dispatcher’s instructions. Simmons opened his eyes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It looked like he’s gonna pull through this,” Spriggins recalled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two hours later, Simmons was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Heatstroke, the autopsy report confirmed. He was one of at least 53 workers who have been fatally stricken by heat in Texas since 2010, CJI and NPR’s analysis shows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The next day, Jason Davidson, Hellas’ chief safety officer, emailed more than 340 company employees, addressing the perils of laboring in extreme heat. It was at least the fourth written warning he sent in the summer of 2018, when 11 additional Hellas employees were diagnosed with heat-related illnesses requiring medical attention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dean Wingo, who oversaw the OSHA regional office that includes Texas from 2007 to 2012, said Hellas’ hospitalization numbers suggest a worrying pattern. Serious heat-related illness involves everything from a heat rash to uncontrolled bleeding, according to medical experts. In its most severe form, heatstroke can cause multisystem organ failure that has lasting adverse effects. Wingo said he believes Hellas’ record on workplace heat safety shows “poor” company management.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976360\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1976360\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/a13i9995-edit_custom-17545930d6db6e5937a8834fbcc78ea9b70c6442-1-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/a13i9995-edit_custom-17545930d6db6e5937a8834fbcc78ea9b70c6442-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/a13i9995-edit_custom-17545930d6db6e5937a8834fbcc78ea9b70c6442-1-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/a13i9995-edit_custom-17545930d6db6e5937a8834fbcc78ea9b70c6442-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/a13i9995-edit_custom-17545930d6db6e5937a8834fbcc78ea9b70c6442-1-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/a13i9995-edit_custom-17545930d6db6e5937a8834fbcc78ea9b70c6442-1-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/a13i9995-edit_custom-17545930d6db6e5937a8834fbcc78ea9b70c6442-1-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/a13i9995-edit_custom-17545930d6db6e5937a8834fbcc78ea9b70c6442-1-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dean Wingo, who formerly oversaw the OSHA regional office that includes Texas, says he believes Hellas Construction’s record on workplace heat safety shows “poor” company management. \u003ccite>(Michael Cirlos III/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Hellas officials declined a dozen interview requests for this story and didn’t respond to a list of 20 written questions from CJI and NPR. In its response to a wrongful-death lawsuit filed in July 2019 by Simmons’ wife, the company denied that its conduct “rose to a level of gross neglect” or that it failed to provide a safe workplace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in December 2018, OSHA found that Hellas hadn’t provided Simmons a workplace “free from recognized hazards” and cited the company for two violations, including failing to record Simmons’ death in OSHA logs, records show. OSHA proposed a fine of $14,782 against Hellas for Simmons’ death. The company earned more than $150 million in revenue that year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of a settlement, Hellas agreed to implement “a more robust/detailed training program … to prevent heat exhaustion and heat stress injuries.” OSHA lowered the fine by nearly $2,000, to $12,934. That’s higher than the national average fine of $7,314 for employers in such cases, according to a CJI and NPR analysis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hellas executives did not carry out the safety measures, records show. And OSHA never showed up at a work site to see whether the company was following the terms of the settlement agreement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OSHA’s regional office in Dallas, which investigated Simmons’ death, declined to discuss the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OSHA data shows the agency reduced heat-related sanctions nationally by 31%, on average, after settlements. It cut the penalties in more than half of the 246 heat-death cases in which OSHA had proposed them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wingo said the only way OSHA can ensure that companies like Hellas keep their promises is to conduct follow-up inspections in person.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t think it’s excusable,” he said. “When you’ve had a fatality, you go back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On July 19, 2019, a year after Simmons’ death, a second Hellas worker succumbed to heat — this time in Hondo, Texas, 42 miles west of San Antonio. At 6 a.m. that day, forecasters were promising a scorcher. The temperature would soar to 99 degrees, 3 degrees hotter than the 40-year average, the CJI and NPR data analysis shows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pedro Martinez Sr., 49, had been employed by Hellas for more than a year when he arrived for work at McDowell Middle School with his 22-year-old namesake. The father had gotten the son a summer job. At the time, Pedro Jr., also known as “Bruno,” was between semesters at a college in his home state of Zacatecas, Mexico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the third day, the pair did cement work on the school’s athletic field. They pulled out vertical rebar stakes using a device called a JackJaw, pumping a handle to wrench the stakes from the ground. As in the Simmons case, an OSHA inspection would later confirm that the area had little shade. Records show that the younger Martinez toiled for 10 hours before taking a lunch break at 4 p.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly two hours later, he was working beside his father when he became overheated and ran off, hit a fence and collapsed. The father rushed his son to a local hospital’s emergency room, where nurses placed ice packs around his body. But his core temperature was already 108 degrees, according to a police report. The official cause of death was heatstroke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976365\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1976365 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/dji_0790-edit_custom-a75e19bdefb32b549549a243ec99508e6fadab64-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/dji_0790-edit_custom-a75e19bdefb32b549549a243ec99508e6fadab64-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/dji_0790-edit_custom-a75e19bdefb32b549549a243ec99508e6fadab64-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/dji_0790-edit_custom-a75e19bdefb32b549549a243ec99508e6fadab64-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/dji_0790-edit_custom-a75e19bdefb32b549549a243ec99508e6fadab64-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/dji_0790-edit_custom-a75e19bdefb32b549549a243ec99508e6fadab64-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/dji_0790-edit_custom-a75e19bdefb32b549549a243ec99508e6fadab64-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/dji_0790-edit_custom-a75e19bdefb32b549549a243ec99508e6fadab64-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The former construction site where Pedro Martinez Jr., died of heatstroke. The athletic field and track is adjacent to McDowell Middle School in Hondo, Texas. \u003ccite>(Michael Cirlos III/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In December 2019, OSHA cited Hellas for a willful violation, the most serious category. The citation would have placed Hellas on a public list of “severe violators,” reserved for repeat offenders. The agency proposed a penalty of $132,598 — the maximum amount OSHA could levy at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One month later, Hellas challenged the citation, arguing it should be dismissed because OSHA didn’t prove “the necessary elements of its claims.” The Labor Department settled with Hellas in April 2020, cutting the fine in half and reclassifying the willful violation as five “serious” ones. This kept Hellas off the severe violators list. A revised settlement agreement required the company to create a heat-illness prevention plan, among other things. It’s unclear whether Hellas followed through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By May of last year, Hellas had paid the fine, and OSHA resolved the case. The agency’s regional office in San Antonio, which investigated Martinez’s death, declined two requests to discuss the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A state standard falls short\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Besides Texas, the states of California, Florida and Arkansas have each recorded at least 14 worker heat deaths since 2010, according to CJI and NPR’s analysis. Unlike most states, however, California has its own heat standard. Passed in 2005, the standard was later named after a 17-year-old pregnant farmworker, Maria Jimenez, who died from heat exposure while pruning grapes. The standard was the first to uphold the pillars of heat safety: water, rest, shade and acclimatization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2015, after the United Farm Workers sued California’s state version of OSHA, the agency tightened its standard. Cal/OSHA lowered the heat safety limit from 85 to 80 degrees and required companies to prepare for extreme heat threats on days hotter than 95 degrees. It also allocated more money and staff to enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, California’s rule is widely viewed as the gold standard. The Labor Department should emulate it, said John Newquist, who served as assistant administrator in OSHA Region 5 in the Upper Midwest from 2005 to 2012.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s easy with California already adopting this thing for years,” he said. “If you follow these guidelines, that works.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But OSHA data on worker heat deaths suggests the state’s standard can fall short. The rule has led to a rise in heat-related enforcement actions by the state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, known as Cal/OSHA, every year but 2010, 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic affected such activities across the board. In 2019, for instance, the agency conducted more than 4,000 heat inspections and cited workplaces in nearly half of them. Still, the CJI and NPR analysis shows that California’s yearly tally of worker heat deaths has remained steady over the past decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some critics say the agency has yet to curb worker heat illnesses and deaths because of lax and uneven enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Garrett Brown, a Cal/OSHA inspector from 1994 to 2014, has investigated dozens of heat deaths and worked as a special adviser for a former Cal/OSHA secretary and as a part-time inspector until this year. He believes the agency can’t “do what it needs to do” to protect the state’s workers because of its chronic understaffing. Brown has documented staffing levels for years, charting the data on his blog, \u003ca href=\"https://insidecalosha.org/\">\u003cem>Inside Cal/OSHA\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. The figures reveal a tiny workforce — about 190 inspectors for 1 million employers responsible for 18 million workers. That’s one inspector for roughly every 5,200 companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown said mismanagement and the state’s inability to fill inspector positions have exacerbated the problem. As of July 31, at least 25% of nearly 250 Cal/OSHA inspector positions remained vacant. And that can make for dire consequences on the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A firefighter’s death\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In California, where fires have been raging, the victims of heat-related deaths are sometimes firefighters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In April 2015, just two months before California’s standard was tightened, Raymond Araujo, one of 4,000 inmates who then served as firefighters for the state’s Department of Forestry and Fire Protection — known as Cal Fire — was on a 2-mile hike in Banning, California, about 30 miles from Palm Springs. Winding through steep, often shadeless hills, the trail was part of the department’s required cardiovascular training. On that day, the temperature climbed to 81 degrees, 10 degrees hotter than the 40-year average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976372\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1976372 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/0005-edit1_custom-38f23e78cad4ff96eef14fea9e92015d4c26beaa-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/0005-edit1_custom-38f23e78cad4ff96eef14fea9e92015d4c26beaa-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/0005-edit1_custom-38f23e78cad4ff96eef14fea9e92015d4c26beaa-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/0005-edit1_custom-38f23e78cad4ff96eef14fea9e92015d4c26beaa-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/0005-edit1_custom-38f23e78cad4ff96eef14fea9e92015d4c26beaa-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/0005-edit1_custom-38f23e78cad4ff96eef14fea9e92015d4c26beaa-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/0005-edit1_custom-38f23e78cad4ff96eef14fea9e92015d4c26beaa-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/0005-edit1_custom-38f23e78cad4ff96eef14fea9e92015d4c26beaa-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A fire station warning sign is shown down the road from Cal Fire’s De Luz Fire Station 16 in Fallbrook, Calif., where firefighter Yaroslav “Yaro” Katkovwas was assigned. \u003ccite>(Ariana Drehsler/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As the 12-member group neared the end of the exercise, Araujo stumbled and fell to his knees. His supervisor told his colleagues to help Araujo stand up and remove his fire gear so he could finish the hike. He walked 30 feet more and eventually collapsed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire captain called for medical assistance, and a helicopter transported Araujo back to a nearby base camp, where he was pronounced dead, the records show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the Cal/OSHA inspection report named heat as a contributing factor in Araujo’s death, the cause was “hypertensive cardiovascular disease,” according to the autopsy report. As a result, Cal/OSHA deemed his death an accident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown, the former Cal/OSHA inspector, reviewed the agency’s report and said it was impossible for him to know why officials declined to investigate. He said the incident resembled many cases he had investigated — where workers suffered heart attacks because of the heat. Were he leading the charge, Brown said, he would have wanted to talk to eyewitnesses because the incident had all the hallmarks of a heat illness violation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One way to invalidate a fatality report is to decide that it’s natural causes,” he said, explaining that Cal/OSHA managers can look for ways to lessen understaffed inspectors’ workloads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA declined CJI and NPR’s requests to interview key officials for this story. But an agency spokesman defended Cal/OSHA’s handling of Araujo’s death, noting that the agency followed the Cal/OSHA medical unit’s assessment in determining a cause of death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Asked about the effectiveness of the heat standard, the agency said it regularly looks to enhance enforcement activities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We continue to evaluate the effectiveness of our programs and consult with various subject matter experts to determine what changes, if any, are necessary to improve health and safety,” spokesman Frank Polizzi said in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘It pays not to comply’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Just before 8 a.m. on July 28, 2019, Cal Fire firefighter Yaroslav “Yaro” Katkov set out with a fellow employee and a fire captain on a hike similar to the one that Araujo had made. The 28-year-old Ukrainian immigrant, who lived in Murrieta, California, a bedroom community near San Diego, had served as a reserve firefighter before being hired by Cal Fire in a seasonal role a year earlier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976371\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 395px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1976371\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/yaro3-c6336f214f435a3aeeca34908eac8a5749d38604-2.jpe\" alt=\"\" width=\"395\" height=\"296\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/yaro3-c6336f214f435a3aeeca34908eac8a5749d38604-2.jpe 395w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/yaro3-c6336f214f435a3aeeca34908eac8a5749d38604-2-160x120.jpe 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 395px) 100vw, 395px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cal Fire firefighter Yaroslav “Yaro” Katkov was on a routine training exercise when he stumbled and felt exhausted shortly before he collapsed. \u003ccite>(Ashley Vallario)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On a standard training exercise, Katkov was asked to complete a 1.45-mile loop at Cal Fire’s rural Station 16 in Fallbrook, a remote mountainous area halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego. As they traversed the loop, the captain and the co-worker noticed Katkov lagging behind the required 30-minute deadline to finish the hike. The two stopped on several occasions to allow Katkov to catch up, delaying their end time by 10 minutes. The temperature would climb to 88 degrees that day — 5 degrees hotter than the 40-year average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The captain, Joe Ekblad, recognized that Katkov hadn’t given his body enough of a rest yet, but ordered the firefighters to repeat the exercise, according to the Cal/OSHA records. On the way up the steepest incline of the loop, Katkov stumbled and told his supervisor he felt exhausted — two telltale signs of heat stress. He collapsed on the hilltop, was airlifted to a hospital nearly two hours later and died of heat illness the next day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He loved the idea of being like a wildland firefighter,” said Ashley Vallario, Katkov’s fiancée. “It made him happy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This time, Cal/OSHA investigated Katkov’s death, interviewing eyewitnesses. The inspector detailed extensive failures by the captain, which led to his demotion. The agency found that Cal Fire had failed to stop the hike and seek emergency medical treatment even after Katkov had exhibited heat-related symptoms. Regulators levied a fine of $80,000 — almost five times the average Cal/OSHA fine of $17,000 in these cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neither Cal Fire nor Ekblad responded to requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976401\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1976401 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/0017-edit1_custom-f7526141e0da5514521d7a2ee20044bccb4c63d7-2-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/0017-edit1_custom-f7526141e0da5514521d7a2ee20044bccb4c63d7-2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/0017-edit1_custom-f7526141e0da5514521d7a2ee20044bccb4c63d7-2-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/0017-edit1_custom-f7526141e0da5514521d7a2ee20044bccb4c63d7-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/0017-edit1_custom-f7526141e0da5514521d7a2ee20044bccb4c63d7-2-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/0017-edit1_custom-f7526141e0da5514521d7a2ee20044bccb4c63d7-2-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/0017-edit1_custom-f7526141e0da5514521d7a2ee20044bccb4c63d7-2-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/0017-edit1_custom-f7526141e0da5514521d7a2ee20044bccb4c63d7-2-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Yaroslav “Yaro” Katkov was asked to complete a 1.45-mile loop at Cal Fire’s rural Station 16 in Fallbrook, a remote mountainous area halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego. \u003ccite>(Ariana Drehsler for NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Such a large penalty shows what a fully enforceable heat standard can do, some experts say. But Cal/OSHA records suggest the regulators’ stick has not come soon enough. Since 2012, at least four other firefighters have died during Cal Fire training hikes. All the firefighters but Katkov were inmates. No other case yielded sanctions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire’s training processes, meanwhile, continue to put firefighters at risk. In 2020, almost a year after Katkov’s death, another department firefighter was sickened by heat during a hike. That firefighter was rushed to the hospital and survived.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ellen Widess, head of Cal/OSHA from 2011 to 2013, said she sees an unsettling pattern: Employers can brush off the cost of an agency fine. In many cases, she said, penalties have no effect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve seen that the costs of [non]compliance are so cheap,” Widess said. “It pays not to comply.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘It’s going to be like this every year’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In the three years since Public Citizen renewed its petition for an OSHA heat standard, political pressure for such action has grown. In March, Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., authored legislation that would require OSHA to create a national heat standard based on NIOSH criteria and mandate employer training “to prevent and respond” to heat illnesses. The bill, co-sponsored by at least 57 House Democrats, is pending in committee. It marks the second attempt by federal lawmakers to establish a rule since 2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OSHA, meanwhile, said it will take the first step toward issuing a rule this fall. In October, the agency plans to publish a request for information from employers, occupational health specialists, climate scientists and workers on the viability of a standard. Frederick, OSHA’s acting director, said the input could help the agency develop a regulation that applies to any industry in the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Heat hazards exist in many, many industries,” he said. “We know that we have work to do with almost every industry to understand … what the effect of heat hazards in their workplace is and how best they are putting in practices and controls to mitigate those hazards.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Already, former OSHA officials are anticipating industry pushback, particularly from construction groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976404\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1976404 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/se-2021-07-28-wpick-4427-edit_custom-c315a8531fef94c182a9d3c09fb7398ee7c3f664-2-800x640.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/se-2021-07-28-wpick-4427-edit_custom-c315a8531fef94c182a9d3c09fb7398ee7c3f664-2-800x640.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/se-2021-07-28-wpick-4427-edit_custom-c315a8531fef94c182a9d3c09fb7398ee7c3f664-2-1020x816.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/se-2021-07-28-wpick-4427-edit_custom-c315a8531fef94c182a9d3c09fb7398ee7c3f664-2-160x128.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/se-2021-07-28-wpick-4427-edit_custom-c315a8531fef94c182a9d3c09fb7398ee7c3f664-2-768x614.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/se-2021-07-28-wpick-4427-edit_custom-c315a8531fef94c182a9d3c09fb7398ee7c3f664-2-1536x1229.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/se-2021-07-28-wpick-4427-edit_custom-c315a8531fef94c182a9d3c09fb7398ee7c3f664-2-2048x1638.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/se-2021-07-28-wpick-4427-edit_custom-c315a8531fef94c182a9d3c09fb7398ee7c3f664-2-1920x1536.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The body of farmworker Cruz Urias Beltran was found in this cornfield near Cairo, Neb. \u003ccite>(Walker Pickering/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Every time OSHA proposes a standard, [the] industry accuses OSHA of killing jobs and destroying whatever industry is going to be regulated,” said Jordan Barab, a former deputy assistant labor secretary who helped shepherd two chemical-exposure standards through protracted rule-making processes. “That would probably follow with a heat standard.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some states have decided not to wait. In June, as an unprecedented heat wave blanketed the Pacific Northwest, Sebastian Francisco Perez moved irrigation pipes at a nursery in Willamette Valley, Oregon. Perez was found dead at the end of his shift. Preliminary information suggests the incident was heat related, but Oregon Occupational Safety and Health (Oregon OSHA) has yet to make a determination, according to Aaron Corvin, a spokesman for Oregon OSHA. Ten days later, the state enacted an emergency heat standard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back in Grand Island, Nebraska, where the average high temperature has increased 2 degrees since the 1990s, the intensifying heat is not lost on Joseph Rivera. As a younger man in the fields, he remembers there were hot and humid days. But now the heat is so extreme, he said, “you get these hot days that just come up over you.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With climate change, you hit 112 in Nebraska the other day,” Rivera said, explaining why he’s amenable to a federal heat standard. “It’s going to be like this every year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Christina Stella, a reporter with Nebraska Public Media; Jacob Margolis, a reporter with KPCC in Los Angeles; Allison Mollenkamp, an intern on NPR’s investigative team; and The Texas Newsroom contributed to this story. Julia Shipley, Brian Edwards and David Nickerson reported this story as fellows for Columbia Journalism Investigations, an investigative reporting unit at the Columbia Journalism School in New York. Cascade Tuholske, a climate impact scientist at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, contributed to the data analysis. Public Health Watch, an independent investigative nonprofit, helped edit this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Heat+Is+Killing+Workers+In+The+U.S.+%E2%80%94+And+There+Are+No+Federal+Rules+To+Protect+Them&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>As the temperature in Grand Island, Nebraska, soared to 91 degrees that July day in 2018, two dozen farmworkers tunneled for nine hours into a thicket of cornstalks, snapping off tassels while they crossed a sunbaked field that spanned 206 acres — the equivalent of 156 football fields.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When they emerged at the end of the day to board a bus that would transport them to a nearby motel to sleep, one of the workers, Cruz Urias Beltran, didn’t make it back. Searchers found the 52-year-old farmworker’s body 20 hours later amid the cornhusks, “as if he’d simply collapsed,” recalled a funeral home employee. An empty water bottle was stuffed in his jeans pocket. An autopsy report confirmed that Beltran died from heatstroke. It was his third day on the job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beltran is one of at least 384 workers who died from environmental heat exposure in the U.S. in the last decade, according to an investigation by NPR and Columbia Journalism Investigations, the investigative reporting unit of the Columbia Journalism School. The count includes people toiling in essential, yet often, invisible jobs in 37 states across the country: farm laborers in California, construction and trash-collection workers in Texas and tree trimmers in North Carolina and Virginia. An analysis of federal data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the three-year average of worker heat deaths has doubled since the early 1990s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976348\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1976348\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/cruz_in_the_1990s-edit-d66a1ab99079af2d799ed3c53e9aa916dbe96937-3-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/cruz_in_the_1990s-edit-d66a1ab99079af2d799ed3c53e9aa916dbe96937-3-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/cruz_in_the_1990s-edit-d66a1ab99079af2d799ed3c53e9aa916dbe96937-3-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/cruz_in_the_1990s-edit-d66a1ab99079af2d799ed3c53e9aa916dbe96937-3-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/cruz_in_the_1990s-edit-d66a1ab99079af2d799ed3c53e9aa916dbe96937-3.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A family photo of Cruz Urias Beltran taken during the 1990s. \u003ccite>(Paty Espinoza)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>CJI and NPR reviewed hundreds of pages of documents, including workplace inspection reports, death investigation files, depositions, court records and police reports, and interviewed victims’ families, former and current officials from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, workers, employers, workers’ advocates, lawyers and experts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CJI and NPR also analyzed two federal data sets on worker heat deaths: one from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the other from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Both are divisions within the U.S. Labor Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the findings:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), whose primary responsibility is to protect workers from hazards, has failed to adopt a national heat standard to safeguard workers against rapidly rising temperatures, resulting in an enforcement system rife with problems.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>For at least a dozen companies, it wasn’t the first time their workers succumbed to heat. One worker collapsed and died after repeatedly complaining about the heat; another died after hauling 20 tons of trash for nearly 10 hours. In some instances, employees died after not having ample water and scheduled shade breaks. Many died within their first week on the job.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>OSHA officials often decide not to penalize companies for worker deaths. When they do, they routinely negotiate with business owners and reduce violations and fines.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>In some cases, OSHA doesn’t follow up after a worker’s death from heat exposure to ensure that the company is complying with the measures the agency imposed to prevent future fatalities.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Workers of color have borne the brunt: Since 2010, Hispanics have accounted for a third of all heat fatalities, yet they represent a fraction — 17% — of the U.S. workforce. Health and safety experts attribute this unequal toll to Hispanics’ overrepresentation in industries vulnerable to dangerous heat, such as construction and agriculture.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>OSHA’s record-keeping on heat fatalities is so poor that there’s no way to know exactly how many workers have died from heat.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Current and former OSHA officials acknowledge that the known death tally is a vast undercount. The agency mostly relies on companies to report worker fatalities after they occur, but not all do so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CJI and NPR reporters analyzed worker heat deaths recorded by OSHA between 2010 and 2020 and compared each incident day’s high temperature with historical averages over 40 years. Most of the deaths happened on days that were unusually hot for that date. More than two-thirds occurred on days when the temperature reached at least 90 degrees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet no worker should die from heat, said Ronda McCarthy, an occupational health specialist who directs medical services at the health care provider Concentra, in Waco, Texas. McCarthy spent seven years educating her home state’s municipal workers about heat, which reduced cases of worker heat exhaustion and similar conditions there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Heat illness should be considered a preventable illness,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>No federal heat standard\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>OSHA has known about the dangers of heat — and how to prevent deaths — for decades. In 1972, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, studied the effects of heat stress on workers in the U.S. and recommended criteria for an OSHA heat standard. Under the proposal, employers would have had to give employees one break every hour and offer ready access to water. New workers would have received extra breaks so they could acclimate to strenuous activity in the heat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NIOSH has refined these safety measures — first in 1986 and, again, in 2016 — but OSHA has not acted on them because of other regulatory priorities. This year, for the first time, OSHA is officially considering a heat standard by putting it on its regulatory agenda. James Frederick, OSHA’s acting director, said it’s a “priority” for the Biden administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Occupational exposure to heat remains a very important topic,” Frederick said in an interview with CJI and NPR. “We’re focused on improving our efforts to protect workers moving forward.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976349\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1976349 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/morton_jfrederick_osha_210716_06-edit_custom-4b483ec03879252f9584a0f9d955dc119e38b782-2-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/morton_jfrederick_osha_210716_06-edit_custom-4b483ec03879252f9584a0f9d955dc119e38b782-2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/morton_jfrederick_osha_210716_06-edit_custom-4b483ec03879252f9584a0f9d955dc119e38b782-2-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/morton_jfrederick_osha_210716_06-edit_custom-4b483ec03879252f9584a0f9d955dc119e38b782-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/morton_jfrederick_osha_210716_06-edit_custom-4b483ec03879252f9584a0f9d955dc119e38b782-2-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/morton_jfrederick_osha_210716_06-edit_custom-4b483ec03879252f9584a0f9d955dc119e38b782-2-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/morton_jfrederick_osha_210716_06-edit_custom-4b483ec03879252f9584a0f9d955dc119e38b782-2-1920x1279.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/morton_jfrederick_osha_210716_06-edit_custom-4b483ec03879252f9584a0f9d955dc119e38b782-2.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jim Frederick, acting assistant secretary of labor for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, stands in the national office of OSHA in Washington, D.C., on July 26, 2021. \u003ccite>(Ian Morton/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Absent a heat standard, OSHA must rely on a 50-year-old regulation guaranteeing workers a “hazard-free workplace.” OSHA does require companies to provide adequate water, but not other heat-safety measures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OSHA’s own research shows relying on this general rule hasn’t worked. A 2016 study by agency scientists found that some employers whose workers got sick or died from heat hadn’t met basic water provisions. Most companies never offered rest breaks. Only one out of 84 total employers had a plan for building up its workers’ tolerance for laboring in heat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2011, four labor and public interest organizations, including Public Citizen, a consumer rights advocacy group, petitioned OSHA to issue a heat standard. They asked the agency for an emergency temporary standard because a new rule, the petition stated, “could potentially take many years before it’s finalized and implemented.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>David Michaels, then the assistant secretary of labor for Occupational Safety and Health, who oversaw OSHA, denied the petition, arguing in a January 2012 letter to petitioners that workers weren’t dying from heat at a rate that would justify a legal standard. Recognizing extreme heat’s threat, he said most workers can “recover fairly quickly when the appropriate measures are taken.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, Michaels launched a voluntary awareness campaign distributing posters and flyers that instructed employees on how to protect themselves. OSHA incorporated these precautions into a free bilingual phone app featuring government-issued heat alerts and advisories. The agency continued this campaign through 2013. Its principle message remains on \u003ca href=\"https://www.osha.gov/heat\">OSHA’s website today\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976351\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1976351 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/gettyimages-102342163_custom-6b6018a90245a086253584a9f5b3992a88d2faa1-1-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/gettyimages-102342163_custom-6b6018a90245a086253584a9f5b3992a88d2faa1-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/gettyimages-102342163_custom-6b6018a90245a086253584a9f5b3992a88d2faa1-1-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/gettyimages-102342163_custom-6b6018a90245a086253584a9f5b3992a88d2faa1-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/gettyimages-102342163_custom-6b6018a90245a086253584a9f5b3992a88d2faa1-1-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/gettyimages-102342163_custom-6b6018a90245a086253584a9f5b3992a88d2faa1-1-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/gettyimages-102342163_custom-6b6018a90245a086253584a9f5b3992a88d2faa1-1-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/gettyimages-102342163_custom-6b6018a90245a086253584a9f5b3992a88d2faa1-1-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">David Michaels, the assistant secretary of labor for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, attends a full committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on June 23, 2010. The hearing was on “Worker Health and Safety from the Oil Rig to the Shoreline,” focusing on how worker health and safety is regulated and enforced by various parties, from oil rig workers to post-accident cleanup operations. \u003ccite>(Astrid Riecken/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Michaels touted the campaign as a success at the time. The numbers are less clear. The number of workers who succumbed to heat topped 61 cases during the campaign’s inaugural year, in 2011 — an all-time high. An additional 65 workers would die from heat exposure in the ensuing two years, closer to the annual average for the decade, while the campaign remained an agency priority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Six years after his petition denial letter, and after leaving OSHA’s top post, Michaels changed his approach. In 2018, he joined Public Citizen and 131 additional groups in a second petition asking the agency to enact a heat standard. This time, petitioners cited NIOSH’s updated guidelines and warned that “this warming trend will not only continue but accelerate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a recent interview, Michaels, now a public health professor at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., said the agencywide consensus was that climate change would worsen the problem. But the rule-making process at OSHA is “so difficult” and the industry opposition so formidable that adopting a heat standard “became a bridge too far,” he said. He has come to believe a standard is essential.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We know that heat kills,” Michaels said. “And if we don’t have requirements, heat will kill more workers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Search and rescue\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>A standard that included water, rest, shade and acclimatization could have saved Beltran, an experienced farmworker who traveled more than 1,300 miles from San Luis, Arizona, to the heart of America’s Corn Belt to pull tassels off corn plants for Rivera Agri Inc.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The day he went missing in the fields on the outskirts of Grand Island, the temperature — with humidity — felt like 100 degrees. Joseph Rivera, the company’s owner, placed an emergency call to authorities shortly after 5 p.m. Beltran was in the field but didn’t come out with the other workers, he told the 911 operator.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976374\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1976374 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/nw-2021-07-28-wpick-4376_custom-7e2b8be8b7126e888b7cf0cca98ee3cad4e4cb2c-1-800x640.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/nw-2021-07-28-wpick-4376_custom-7e2b8be8b7126e888b7cf0cca98ee3cad4e4cb2c-1-800x640.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/nw-2021-07-28-wpick-4376_custom-7e2b8be8b7126e888b7cf0cca98ee3cad4e4cb2c-1-1020x816.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/nw-2021-07-28-wpick-4376_custom-7e2b8be8b7126e888b7cf0cca98ee3cad4e4cb2c-1-160x128.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/nw-2021-07-28-wpick-4376_custom-7e2b8be8b7126e888b7cf0cca98ee3cad4e4cb2c-1-768x614.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/nw-2021-07-28-wpick-4376_custom-7e2b8be8b7126e888b7cf0cca98ee3cad4e4cb2c-1-1536x1229.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/nw-2021-07-28-wpick-4376_custom-7e2b8be8b7126e888b7cf0cca98ee3cad4e4cb2c-1-2048x1638.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/nw-2021-07-28-wpick-4376_custom-7e2b8be8b7126e888b7cf0cca98ee3cad4e4cb2c-1-1920x1536.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The cornfield where Cruz Urias Beltran’s body was found near Cairo, Neb., on July 28, 2021. \u003ccite>(Walker Pickering/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The call set off an elaborate search-and-rescue mission in the central Nebraska city of 51,000. One volunteer flew a Piper Cub airplane low and slow, on the lookout for the orange safety hat atop Beltran’s salt-and-pepper hair. Another manned a helicopter circling the sea of stalks until the chopper ran low on fuel. At sunset, a Nebraska State Patrol plane with thermal-imaging equipment scanned for a sign of Beltran’s body temperature, but since the plants and soil also were emanating heat, he went undetected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The following morning, as the temperature hovered in the 90s, the Red Cross opened a temporary cooling station with air conditioning for the 100 volunteers who joined the search. Shortly after noon, someone spotted Beltran’s body, facedown in the husks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two months after Beltran’s body was shipped to his family’s home in Mexico’s Sonora state, an OSHA inspector visited Rivera Agri as part of the agency’s investigation into the death. OSHA inspection records show the company didn’t deploy the kind of preventive measures that a heat standard would have required. Rivera Agri did not ensure that employees took enough rest breaks in the shade, drank sufficient amounts of water and adapted to their grueling work, the records show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976357\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1976357\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/cruz_urias_beltran_hugging_his_son_jesus_adrian_urias_machado-edit-40cf5ef60a1dc6e3723a63d2c216ceb3af5f9477-1-800x600.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/cruz_urias_beltran_hugging_his_son_jesus_adrian_urias_machado-edit-40cf5ef60a1dc6e3723a63d2c216ceb3af5f9477-1-800x600.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/cruz_urias_beltran_hugging_his_son_jesus_adrian_urias_machado-edit-40cf5ef60a1dc6e3723a63d2c216ceb3af5f9477-1-160x120.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/cruz_urias_beltran_hugging_his_son_jesus_adrian_urias_machado-edit-40cf5ef60a1dc6e3723a63d2c216ceb3af5f9477-1-768x576.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/cruz_urias_beltran_hugging_his_son_jesus_adrian_urias_machado-edit-40cf5ef60a1dc6e3723a63d2c216ceb3af5f9477-1.png 952w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Beltran hugs his son, Jesus Adrian Urias Machado. Beltran was an experienced farmworker and traveled from Arizona to work in Nebraska. \u003ccite>(Paty Espinoza)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“These actions were left to the employees to manage themselves,” the inspector wrote in a nine-page citation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OSHA found that the “moderate lifting and bending” and “pushing and pulling” that Beltran had performed in the heat had contributed to his death. It cited Rivera Agri for a violation and proposed fines totaling $11,641. The agency also ordered the company to train employees on the symptoms of heat illness, among other safety measures. Rivera Agri agreed to OSHA’s conditions, and the fines were reduced to $9,500, records show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Angela Rivera, who runs the farm labor contracting business with her father, Joseph, said the company has worked to fulfill the agreement. Today, it contracts with a farmworker-rights group to educate employees on how to respond to heat emergencies. Near the cornfield, it sets up extra water stations and has canopies for emergency shade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve been in this business for a long time,” said Angela Rivera, who calls Beltran’s death “an unfortunate thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every year we try to step it up,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joseph Rivera said supervisors now monitor the heat on their cellphones and pull detasselers from the cornfields whenever it gets too hot — part of a heat-stress plan the Riveras created after Beltran’s death. They hand out brochures explaining the new policy to every farmworker on their bus.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Not the first death\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Beltran was not Rivera Agri’s first heat-related fatality. In July 1997, a 39-year-old detasseler died of heatstroke under similar circumstances. Like Beltran, it was his third day on the job, and the temperature had spiked to 95 degrees. When he collapsed, the crew found him within two hours. But his core body temperature was 108 degrees — hot enough for the brain, liver and kidneys to shut down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OSHA investigated his death but didn’t impose penalties because then-OSHA Area Director Ben Bare determined there was no applicable standard. The lack of a standard leaves individual OSHA officials to decide whether a general violation applies to each death, creating a pattern of uneven enforcement in worker heat-death cases, records show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CJI and NPR’s analysis of worker heat deaths shows that, like Rivera Agri, 11 other companies have lost more than one employee. In five of the cases, OSHA investigated the first fatality and issued citations, only for another employee to die from heat. One of those cited was Texas-based Hellas Construction, which builds publicly and privately funded stadiums and other sports infrastructure projects across the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In July 2018, the week before Beltran died in a Nebraska cornfield, Karl Simmons signed on as a laborer for Hellas. At 30, with long braided hair and a shoulder tattoo bearing his mother’s name, Simmons arrived at the sprawling Gateway Park in Fort Worth, Texas, ready to install turf.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On his second day on the job, Simmons, who had served in the U.S. Navy, took a lunch break and fielded a call from his wife, Precious. “It’s just hot,” he complained, according to a deposition she gave in a lawsuit filed by the family against Hellas. The five-person crew had already drunk all the water. Simmons returned to preparing the mixture to attach to the turf, shoveling gravel and adhesive chemicals into a mixer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That afternoon — as the temperature topped 96 degrees — Simmons told his supervisor he felt hot, according to OSHA records. He complained about the heat two more times that day. Each time, he said he felt sick. At one point, he sought shade under a tree while his supervisor drove to a store to get water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A passerby eventually spotted Simmons sprawled on the ground, facedown, and alerted the crew. His brother-in-law, Michael Spriggins, who worked alongside Simmons as a Hellas laborer, sprinted to his aid. He found Simmons gasping for breath, bleeding from his nose and mouth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976359\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1976359 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/npr-jul-31-2021-1_custom-884b15aa0b305a577c37107e8a1a8d8cbe1f2a62-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/npr-jul-31-2021-1_custom-884b15aa0b305a577c37107e8a1a8d8cbe1f2a62-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/npr-jul-31-2021-1_custom-884b15aa0b305a577c37107e8a1a8d8cbe1f2a62-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/npr-jul-31-2021-1_custom-884b15aa0b305a577c37107e8a1a8d8cbe1f2a62-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/npr-jul-31-2021-1_custom-884b15aa0b305a577c37107e8a1a8d8cbe1f2a62-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/npr-jul-31-2021-1_custom-884b15aa0b305a577c37107e8a1a8d8cbe1f2a62-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/npr-jul-31-2021-1_custom-884b15aa0b305a577c37107e8a1a8d8cbe1f2a62-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/npr-jul-31-2021-1_custom-884b15aa0b305a577c37107e8a1a8d8cbe1f2a62-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Karl Simmons was installing turf at Gateway Park in Fort Worth, Texas, when he felt ill. Later, he was pronounced dead at a local hospital. The official cause of death was heatstroke. \u003ccite>(JerSean Golatt/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It was a sight I ain’t going to never forget,” Spriggins said in an interview with CJI and NPR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He called 911 and then placed a cool towel under Simmons’ neck at the dispatcher’s instructions. Simmons opened his eyes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It looked like he’s gonna pull through this,” Spriggins recalled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two hours later, Simmons was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Heatstroke, the autopsy report confirmed. He was one of at least 53 workers who have been fatally stricken by heat in Texas since 2010, CJI and NPR’s analysis shows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The next day, Jason Davidson, Hellas’ chief safety officer, emailed more than 340 company employees, addressing the perils of laboring in extreme heat. It was at least the fourth written warning he sent in the summer of 2018, when 11 additional Hellas employees were diagnosed with heat-related illnesses requiring medical attention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dean Wingo, who oversaw the OSHA regional office that includes Texas from 2007 to 2012, said Hellas’ hospitalization numbers suggest a worrying pattern. Serious heat-related illness involves everything from a heat rash to uncontrolled bleeding, according to medical experts. In its most severe form, heatstroke can cause multisystem organ failure that has lasting adverse effects. Wingo said he believes Hellas’ record on workplace heat safety shows “poor” company management.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976360\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1976360\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/a13i9995-edit_custom-17545930d6db6e5937a8834fbcc78ea9b70c6442-1-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/a13i9995-edit_custom-17545930d6db6e5937a8834fbcc78ea9b70c6442-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/a13i9995-edit_custom-17545930d6db6e5937a8834fbcc78ea9b70c6442-1-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/a13i9995-edit_custom-17545930d6db6e5937a8834fbcc78ea9b70c6442-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/a13i9995-edit_custom-17545930d6db6e5937a8834fbcc78ea9b70c6442-1-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/a13i9995-edit_custom-17545930d6db6e5937a8834fbcc78ea9b70c6442-1-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/a13i9995-edit_custom-17545930d6db6e5937a8834fbcc78ea9b70c6442-1-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/a13i9995-edit_custom-17545930d6db6e5937a8834fbcc78ea9b70c6442-1-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dean Wingo, who formerly oversaw the OSHA regional office that includes Texas, says he believes Hellas Construction’s record on workplace heat safety shows “poor” company management. \u003ccite>(Michael Cirlos III/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Hellas officials declined a dozen interview requests for this story and didn’t respond to a list of 20 written questions from CJI and NPR. In its response to a wrongful-death lawsuit filed in July 2019 by Simmons’ wife, the company denied that its conduct “rose to a level of gross neglect” or that it failed to provide a safe workplace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in December 2018, OSHA found that Hellas hadn’t provided Simmons a workplace “free from recognized hazards” and cited the company for two violations, including failing to record Simmons’ death in OSHA logs, records show. OSHA proposed a fine of $14,782 against Hellas for Simmons’ death. The company earned more than $150 million in revenue that year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of a settlement, Hellas agreed to implement “a more robust/detailed training program … to prevent heat exhaustion and heat stress injuries.” OSHA lowered the fine by nearly $2,000, to $12,934. That’s higher than the national average fine of $7,314 for employers in such cases, according to a CJI and NPR analysis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hellas executives did not carry out the safety measures, records show. And OSHA never showed up at a work site to see whether the company was following the terms of the settlement agreement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OSHA’s regional office in Dallas, which investigated Simmons’ death, declined to discuss the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OSHA data shows the agency reduced heat-related sanctions nationally by 31%, on average, after settlements. It cut the penalties in more than half of the 246 heat-death cases in which OSHA had proposed them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wingo said the only way OSHA can ensure that companies like Hellas keep their promises is to conduct follow-up inspections in person.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t think it’s excusable,” he said. “When you’ve had a fatality, you go back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On July 19, 2019, a year after Simmons’ death, a second Hellas worker succumbed to heat — this time in Hondo, Texas, 42 miles west of San Antonio. At 6 a.m. that day, forecasters were promising a scorcher. The temperature would soar to 99 degrees, 3 degrees hotter than the 40-year average, the CJI and NPR data analysis shows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pedro Martinez Sr., 49, had been employed by Hellas for more than a year when he arrived for work at McDowell Middle School with his 22-year-old namesake. The father had gotten the son a summer job. At the time, Pedro Jr., also known as “Bruno,” was between semesters at a college in his home state of Zacatecas, Mexico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the third day, the pair did cement work on the school’s athletic field. They pulled out vertical rebar stakes using a device called a JackJaw, pumping a handle to wrench the stakes from the ground. As in the Simmons case, an OSHA inspection would later confirm that the area had little shade. Records show that the younger Martinez toiled for 10 hours before taking a lunch break at 4 p.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly two hours later, he was working beside his father when he became overheated and ran off, hit a fence and collapsed. The father rushed his son to a local hospital’s emergency room, where nurses placed ice packs around his body. But his core temperature was already 108 degrees, according to a police report. The official cause of death was heatstroke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976365\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1976365 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/dji_0790-edit_custom-a75e19bdefb32b549549a243ec99508e6fadab64-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/dji_0790-edit_custom-a75e19bdefb32b549549a243ec99508e6fadab64-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/dji_0790-edit_custom-a75e19bdefb32b549549a243ec99508e6fadab64-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/dji_0790-edit_custom-a75e19bdefb32b549549a243ec99508e6fadab64-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/dji_0790-edit_custom-a75e19bdefb32b549549a243ec99508e6fadab64-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/dji_0790-edit_custom-a75e19bdefb32b549549a243ec99508e6fadab64-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/dji_0790-edit_custom-a75e19bdefb32b549549a243ec99508e6fadab64-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/dji_0790-edit_custom-a75e19bdefb32b549549a243ec99508e6fadab64-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The former construction site where Pedro Martinez Jr., died of heatstroke. The athletic field and track is adjacent to McDowell Middle School in Hondo, Texas. \u003ccite>(Michael Cirlos III/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In December 2019, OSHA cited Hellas for a willful violation, the most serious category. The citation would have placed Hellas on a public list of “severe violators,” reserved for repeat offenders. The agency proposed a penalty of $132,598 — the maximum amount OSHA could levy at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One month later, Hellas challenged the citation, arguing it should be dismissed because OSHA didn’t prove “the necessary elements of its claims.” The Labor Department settled with Hellas in April 2020, cutting the fine in half and reclassifying the willful violation as five “serious” ones. This kept Hellas off the severe violators list. A revised settlement agreement required the company to create a heat-illness prevention plan, among other things. It’s unclear whether Hellas followed through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By May of last year, Hellas had paid the fine, and OSHA resolved the case. The agency’s regional office in San Antonio, which investigated Martinez’s death, declined two requests to discuss the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A state standard falls short\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Besides Texas, the states of California, Florida and Arkansas have each recorded at least 14 worker heat deaths since 2010, according to CJI and NPR’s analysis. Unlike most states, however, California has its own heat standard. Passed in 2005, the standard was later named after a 17-year-old pregnant farmworker, Maria Jimenez, who died from heat exposure while pruning grapes. The standard was the first to uphold the pillars of heat safety: water, rest, shade and acclimatization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2015, after the United Farm Workers sued California’s state version of OSHA, the agency tightened its standard. Cal/OSHA lowered the heat safety limit from 85 to 80 degrees and required companies to prepare for extreme heat threats on days hotter than 95 degrees. It also allocated more money and staff to enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, California’s rule is widely viewed as the gold standard. The Labor Department should emulate it, said John Newquist, who served as assistant administrator in OSHA Region 5 in the Upper Midwest from 2005 to 2012.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s easy with California already adopting this thing for years,” he said. “If you follow these guidelines, that works.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But OSHA data on worker heat deaths suggests the state’s standard can fall short. The rule has led to a rise in heat-related enforcement actions by the state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, known as Cal/OSHA, every year but 2010, 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic affected such activities across the board. In 2019, for instance, the agency conducted more than 4,000 heat inspections and cited workplaces in nearly half of them. Still, the CJI and NPR analysis shows that California’s yearly tally of worker heat deaths has remained steady over the past decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some critics say the agency has yet to curb worker heat illnesses and deaths because of lax and uneven enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Garrett Brown, a Cal/OSHA inspector from 1994 to 2014, has investigated dozens of heat deaths and worked as a special adviser for a former Cal/OSHA secretary and as a part-time inspector until this year. He believes the agency can’t “do what it needs to do” to protect the state’s workers because of its chronic understaffing. Brown has documented staffing levels for years, charting the data on his blog, \u003ca href=\"https://insidecalosha.org/\">\u003cem>Inside Cal/OSHA\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. The figures reveal a tiny workforce — about 190 inspectors for 1 million employers responsible for 18 million workers. That’s one inspector for roughly every 5,200 companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown said mismanagement and the state’s inability to fill inspector positions have exacerbated the problem. As of July 31, at least 25% of nearly 250 Cal/OSHA inspector positions remained vacant. And that can make for dire consequences on the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A firefighter’s death\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In California, where fires have been raging, the victims of heat-related deaths are sometimes firefighters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In April 2015, just two months before California’s standard was tightened, Raymond Araujo, one of 4,000 inmates who then served as firefighters for the state’s Department of Forestry and Fire Protection — known as Cal Fire — was on a 2-mile hike in Banning, California, about 30 miles from Palm Springs. Winding through steep, often shadeless hills, the trail was part of the department’s required cardiovascular training. On that day, the temperature climbed to 81 degrees, 10 degrees hotter than the 40-year average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976372\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1976372 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/0005-edit1_custom-38f23e78cad4ff96eef14fea9e92015d4c26beaa-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/0005-edit1_custom-38f23e78cad4ff96eef14fea9e92015d4c26beaa-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/0005-edit1_custom-38f23e78cad4ff96eef14fea9e92015d4c26beaa-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/0005-edit1_custom-38f23e78cad4ff96eef14fea9e92015d4c26beaa-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/0005-edit1_custom-38f23e78cad4ff96eef14fea9e92015d4c26beaa-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/0005-edit1_custom-38f23e78cad4ff96eef14fea9e92015d4c26beaa-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/0005-edit1_custom-38f23e78cad4ff96eef14fea9e92015d4c26beaa-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/0005-edit1_custom-38f23e78cad4ff96eef14fea9e92015d4c26beaa-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A fire station warning sign is shown down the road from Cal Fire’s De Luz Fire Station 16 in Fallbrook, Calif., where firefighter Yaroslav “Yaro” Katkovwas was assigned. \u003ccite>(Ariana Drehsler/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As the 12-member group neared the end of the exercise, Araujo stumbled and fell to his knees. His supervisor told his colleagues to help Araujo stand up and remove his fire gear so he could finish the hike. He walked 30 feet more and eventually collapsed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire captain called for medical assistance, and a helicopter transported Araujo back to a nearby base camp, where he was pronounced dead, the records show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the Cal/OSHA inspection report named heat as a contributing factor in Araujo’s death, the cause was “hypertensive cardiovascular disease,” according to the autopsy report. As a result, Cal/OSHA deemed his death an accident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown, the former Cal/OSHA inspector, reviewed the agency’s report and said it was impossible for him to know why officials declined to investigate. He said the incident resembled many cases he had investigated — where workers suffered heart attacks because of the heat. Were he leading the charge, Brown said, he would have wanted to talk to eyewitnesses because the incident had all the hallmarks of a heat illness violation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One way to invalidate a fatality report is to decide that it’s natural causes,” he said, explaining that Cal/OSHA managers can look for ways to lessen understaffed inspectors’ workloads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA declined CJI and NPR’s requests to interview key officials for this story. But an agency spokesman defended Cal/OSHA’s handling of Araujo’s death, noting that the agency followed the Cal/OSHA medical unit’s assessment in determining a cause of death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Asked about the effectiveness of the heat standard, the agency said it regularly looks to enhance enforcement activities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We continue to evaluate the effectiveness of our programs and consult with various subject matter experts to determine what changes, if any, are necessary to improve health and safety,” spokesman Frank Polizzi said in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘It pays not to comply’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Just before 8 a.m. on July 28, 2019, Cal Fire firefighter Yaroslav “Yaro” Katkov set out with a fellow employee and a fire captain on a hike similar to the one that Araujo had made. The 28-year-old Ukrainian immigrant, who lived in Murrieta, California, a bedroom community near San Diego, had served as a reserve firefighter before being hired by Cal Fire in a seasonal role a year earlier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976371\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 395px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1976371\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/yaro3-c6336f214f435a3aeeca34908eac8a5749d38604-2.jpe\" alt=\"\" width=\"395\" height=\"296\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/yaro3-c6336f214f435a3aeeca34908eac8a5749d38604-2.jpe 395w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/yaro3-c6336f214f435a3aeeca34908eac8a5749d38604-2-160x120.jpe 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 395px) 100vw, 395px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cal Fire firefighter Yaroslav “Yaro” Katkov was on a routine training exercise when he stumbled and felt exhausted shortly before he collapsed. \u003ccite>(Ashley Vallario)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On a standard training exercise, Katkov was asked to complete a 1.45-mile loop at Cal Fire’s rural Station 16 in Fallbrook, a remote mountainous area halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego. As they traversed the loop, the captain and the co-worker noticed Katkov lagging behind the required 30-minute deadline to finish the hike. The two stopped on several occasions to allow Katkov to catch up, delaying their end time by 10 minutes. The temperature would climb to 88 degrees that day — 5 degrees hotter than the 40-year average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The captain, Joe Ekblad, recognized that Katkov hadn’t given his body enough of a rest yet, but ordered the firefighters to repeat the exercise, according to the Cal/OSHA records. On the way up the steepest incline of the loop, Katkov stumbled and told his supervisor he felt exhausted — two telltale signs of heat stress. He collapsed on the hilltop, was airlifted to a hospital nearly two hours later and died of heat illness the next day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He loved the idea of being like a wildland firefighter,” said Ashley Vallario, Katkov’s fiancée. “It made him happy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This time, Cal/OSHA investigated Katkov’s death, interviewing eyewitnesses. The inspector detailed extensive failures by the captain, which led to his demotion. The agency found that Cal Fire had failed to stop the hike and seek emergency medical treatment even after Katkov had exhibited heat-related symptoms. Regulators levied a fine of $80,000 — almost five times the average Cal/OSHA fine of $17,000 in these cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neither Cal Fire nor Ekblad responded to requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976401\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1976401 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/0017-edit1_custom-f7526141e0da5514521d7a2ee20044bccb4c63d7-2-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/0017-edit1_custom-f7526141e0da5514521d7a2ee20044bccb4c63d7-2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/0017-edit1_custom-f7526141e0da5514521d7a2ee20044bccb4c63d7-2-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/0017-edit1_custom-f7526141e0da5514521d7a2ee20044bccb4c63d7-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/0017-edit1_custom-f7526141e0da5514521d7a2ee20044bccb4c63d7-2-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/0017-edit1_custom-f7526141e0da5514521d7a2ee20044bccb4c63d7-2-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/0017-edit1_custom-f7526141e0da5514521d7a2ee20044bccb4c63d7-2-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/0017-edit1_custom-f7526141e0da5514521d7a2ee20044bccb4c63d7-2-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Yaroslav “Yaro” Katkov was asked to complete a 1.45-mile loop at Cal Fire’s rural Station 16 in Fallbrook, a remote mountainous area halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego. \u003ccite>(Ariana Drehsler for NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Such a large penalty shows what a fully enforceable heat standard can do, some experts say. But Cal/OSHA records suggest the regulators’ stick has not come soon enough. Since 2012, at least four other firefighters have died during Cal Fire training hikes. All the firefighters but Katkov were inmates. No other case yielded sanctions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire’s training processes, meanwhile, continue to put firefighters at risk. In 2020, almost a year after Katkov’s death, another department firefighter was sickened by heat during a hike. That firefighter was rushed to the hospital and survived.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ellen Widess, head of Cal/OSHA from 2011 to 2013, said she sees an unsettling pattern: Employers can brush off the cost of an agency fine. In many cases, she said, penalties have no effect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve seen that the costs of [non]compliance are so cheap,” Widess said. “It pays not to comply.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘It’s going to be like this every year’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In the three years since Public Citizen renewed its petition for an OSHA heat standard, political pressure for such action has grown. In March, Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., authored legislation that would require OSHA to create a national heat standard based on NIOSH criteria and mandate employer training “to prevent and respond” to heat illnesses. The bill, co-sponsored by at least 57 House Democrats, is pending in committee. It marks the second attempt by federal lawmakers to establish a rule since 2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OSHA, meanwhile, said it will take the first step toward issuing a rule this fall. In October, the agency plans to publish a request for information from employers, occupational health specialists, climate scientists and workers on the viability of a standard. Frederick, OSHA’s acting director, said the input could help the agency develop a regulation that applies to any industry in the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Heat hazards exist in many, many industries,” he said. “We know that we have work to do with almost every industry to understand … what the effect of heat hazards in their workplace is and how best they are putting in practices and controls to mitigate those hazards.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Already, former OSHA officials are anticipating industry pushback, particularly from construction groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976404\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1976404 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/se-2021-07-28-wpick-4427-edit_custom-c315a8531fef94c182a9d3c09fb7398ee7c3f664-2-800x640.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/se-2021-07-28-wpick-4427-edit_custom-c315a8531fef94c182a9d3c09fb7398ee7c3f664-2-800x640.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/se-2021-07-28-wpick-4427-edit_custom-c315a8531fef94c182a9d3c09fb7398ee7c3f664-2-1020x816.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/se-2021-07-28-wpick-4427-edit_custom-c315a8531fef94c182a9d3c09fb7398ee7c3f664-2-160x128.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/se-2021-07-28-wpick-4427-edit_custom-c315a8531fef94c182a9d3c09fb7398ee7c3f664-2-768x614.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/se-2021-07-28-wpick-4427-edit_custom-c315a8531fef94c182a9d3c09fb7398ee7c3f664-2-1536x1229.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/se-2021-07-28-wpick-4427-edit_custom-c315a8531fef94c182a9d3c09fb7398ee7c3f664-2-2048x1638.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/se-2021-07-28-wpick-4427-edit_custom-c315a8531fef94c182a9d3c09fb7398ee7c3f664-2-1920x1536.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The body of farmworker Cruz Urias Beltran was found in this cornfield near Cairo, Neb. \u003ccite>(Walker Pickering/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Every time OSHA proposes a standard, [the] industry accuses OSHA of killing jobs and destroying whatever industry is going to be regulated,” said Jordan Barab, a former deputy assistant labor secretary who helped shepherd two chemical-exposure standards through protracted rule-making processes. “That would probably follow with a heat standard.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some states have decided not to wait. In June, as an unprecedented heat wave blanketed the Pacific Northwest, Sebastian Francisco Perez moved irrigation pipes at a nursery in Willamette Valley, Oregon. Perez was found dead at the end of his shift. Preliminary information suggests the incident was heat related, but Oregon Occupational Safety and Health (Oregon OSHA) has yet to make a determination, according to Aaron Corvin, a spokesman for Oregon OSHA. Ten days later, the state enacted an emergency heat standard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back in Grand Island, Nebraska, where the average high temperature has increased 2 degrees since the 1990s, the intensifying heat is not lost on Joseph Rivera. As a younger man in the fields, he remembers there were hot and humid days. But now the heat is so extreme, he said, “you get these hot days that just come up over you.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With climate change, you hit 112 in Nebraska the other day,” Rivera said, explaining why he’s amenable to a federal heat standard. “It’s going to be like this every year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Christina Stella, a reporter with Nebraska Public Media; Jacob Margolis, a reporter with KPCC in Los Angeles; Allison Mollenkamp, an intern on NPR’s investigative team; and The Texas Newsroom contributed to this story. Julia Shipley, Brian Edwards and David Nickerson reported this story as fellows for Columbia Journalism Investigations, an investigative reporting unit at the Columbia Journalism School in New York. Cascade Tuholske, a climate impact scientist at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, contributed to the data analysis. Public Health Watch, an independent investigative nonprofit, helped edit this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Heat+Is+Killing+Workers+In+The+U.S.+%E2%80%94+And+There+Are+No+Federal+Rules+To+Protect+Them&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "The Oakland Latina Who's Leading Newsom's Climate Agenda at 31",
"headTitle": "The Oakland Latina Who’s Leading Newsom’s Climate Agenda at 31 | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/lsanchez020\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lauren Sanchez\u003c/a> has worked on climate change issues for about a decade. But the stakes of the crisis became a little more real for her when she received a call from her parents a few months ago during the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/08/11/climate/deaths-pacific-northwest-heat-wave.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">deadly Pacific Northwest heat wave\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The temperature in their Seattle home rose so high that, in order to find respite from the baking heat, they slept outside on their deck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was over 105 degrees,” she said. “When I was growing up it was barely ever over 80 . It really pulled me back to what I consider the front lines of climate change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sanchez, 31, has been an Oakland resident since 2017. At the time of the phone call, she was serving as an adviser to John Kerry, who President Biden tapped to be the top U.S. climate diplomat and serve in a newly created Cabinet position.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/katenrg?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kate Gordon\u003c/a>, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s senior adviser on climate, had recently \u003ca href=\"https://www.opr.ca.gov/news/2021/06-17.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">stepped down in June\u003c/a> to work in the U.S. Department of Energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sanchez says she saw an opportunity to make change at the state level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[I] told the president, thank you. But I needed to come back and work for the governor,” she said. “We are experiencing climate impacts at an accelerating rate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gordon, her predecessor, spent two decades working on climate, energy and economic policy, championing the idea that bold climate action is good for the economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She worked with Michael Bloomberg, former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, and California philanthropist Tom Steyer, to found the \u003ca href=\"https://riskybusiness.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Risky Business Project.\u003c/a> An initiative that quantifies the economic impacts of climate change on things like crop yields, energy demands and human health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Newsom’s advisor, Gordon helped establish a \u003ca href=\"https://opr.ca.gov/wildfire/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">commission\u003c/a> on the catastrophic cost of wildfires. She also helped create the $12.5 billion “climate budget” Newsom proposed in 2020, which later was scaled back because of the COVID-19 crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sanchez is bringing something different, her global experience to California — which is often touted for its climate targets, rules and influential nature — and a focus on heavily impacted communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[We are] already seeing how the most vulnerable are disproportionately impacted here in California,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976309\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1976309 size-large\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/lauren-sanchez-at-capital-1020x1360.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"853\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/lauren-sanchez-at-capital-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/lauren-sanchez-at-capital-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/lauren-sanchez-at-capital-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/lauren-sanchez-at-capital-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/lauren-sanchez-at-capital-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/lauren-sanchez-at-capital-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/lauren-sanchez-at-capital-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lauren Sanchez. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Lauren Sanchez)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She has worked in climate policy roles with the California Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board. She also served on the Paris Agreement negotiation team with former President Barack Obama’s State Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The state very much is the tip of the spear,” Sanchez said. “My heart is more energized, by sharpening the tip of that spear and continuing to push forward toward a climate safe future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED climate reporter Ezra David Romero spoke with Sanchez about how she plans to advise the governor. This interview has been slightly edited for length and clarity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>California has a spectrum of climate policies and big goals, but the state is a major producer of oil. What are you saying to the governor? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s clear that the world is not doing enough on this issue. We’ve also reached this inflection point. Californians are looking outside their window, and they know climate change is already happening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state has formed targets and ambitious goals, informed by the latest science. We are getting new science almost daily about the state of the climate and just how much more we all need to do collectively. It’s why the governor sent letters last month asking our agencies to turn over every rock [and] to look at what it would mean to accelerate our \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/carbon-neutrality\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">big carbon neutrality target\u003c/a> and our \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/news/2021-03/california-releases-report-charting-path-100-percent-clean-electricity\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">clean energy targets\u003c/a> forward. Targets are incredibly important, but what really matters for Californians is what we’re doing today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The climate crisis is brought on by carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. How are you advising on the phaseout of fossil fuels?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First off, it’s critical to actually saving the planet. We’ve known for a long time sources of carbon pollution and how we need to tackle them. The governor put out a bold end date for oil production here in the state by 2045. We’ve heard from a number of communities that that’s too late. And so we’re very much looking at a path towards ending extraction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A really key and critical part of that, which we take very seriously here in California, is the jobs of our clean energy future. For people in Kern County and in L.A. who are currently working at refineries, we know that there is a clean job for them in our carbon neutral future here in the state. We’re working very closely with industry and with communities to make sure that this just transition is something we can very much embrace here in California and model for the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>As a Latina with one of the highest profile climate positions in California, how do you plan to represent the state’s communities of color?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I come at this from a personal angle. My \u003cem>abuelos\u003c/em> came here from Mexico and lived in L.A., where my father was stuck inside during recess because of smog issues. They lived in a redlined community, a front-line community next to sources of pollution. The fight for environmental justice, and climate justice is not something that I think about how I will check a box, but rather how I want to embody every single decision that I’m making, and every phone call and every interview and every budget line item.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’re working with the California Legislature on climate investments. We have a statutory minimum that a certain amount of [that spending] be in disadvantaged communities. And I’m very proud that the state has exceeded that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We know we need to not only right historical wrongs across the state and across the nation. But empowering communities of color to craft solutions and lead at the local level, may be our best chance for solving this issue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What are your top goals as senior climate adviser to the governor? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ninety percent of Californians connect wildfire and drought to climate change. They know climate change is happening, and it’s impacting them today. It’s not a 2045 or 2050 issue. One of my primary goals for this job is to help Californians feel like they are a part of our agenda.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We have a number of very concrete programs that we need to move forward towards on implementation so that we hit those ambitious targets. Simultaneously looking at if those targets are even enough, knowing what 2021 is, and what 2022 will bring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We have a planning exercise, called the \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/ab-32-climate-change-scoping-plan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">scoping plan\u003c/a>, which will very much chart out how the state will become carbon neutral by 2045. And one of my primary goals is to make sure that we don’t drive up electricity rates or gas prices, or ask Californians to make economic and social trade-offs. But we’re centering equity, and moving to carbon neutrality, or net zero as quickly as possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California emits 1% of global climate emissions. [Even if we were] carbon negative tomorrow, we would still have to be preparing for drought and we would still be burning every year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How do we build our climate agenda in a way that is a model for other states, countries and other big global emitters, so that they’re continuing to follow California’s lead?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What is your advice to the governor about equitably dealing with the impacts of climate change upon the state — heat waves, drought, and wildfire?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When we look at the data from across the country, Americans and Californians want the government to take care of climate change. We too often put the communities of color in an impossible trade-off between their health, their work and where their housing is. The role of government is to ensure environmental health; safe and affordable access to drinking water; and protections that create climate resilient communities in a way that isn’t asking them to sacrifice anything economically or socially.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is a lot of long-term planning that we need to do to make sure we’re protecting the most vulnerable. In the context of the infrastructure plan and the influx of money; the feds set the target at 40% in disadvantaged communities, but here in California [it should be] as high as we possibly can set it. So that those communities that can’t afford an air filter when the air is [polluted with wildfire smoke] are still protected.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Lauren Sanchez left the Biden administration to advise Gov. Newsom on climate change. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/lsanchez020\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lauren Sanchez\u003c/a> has worked on climate change issues for about a decade. But the stakes of the crisis became a little more real for her when she received a call from her parents a few months ago during the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/08/11/climate/deaths-pacific-northwest-heat-wave.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">deadly Pacific Northwest heat wave\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The temperature in their Seattle home rose so high that, in order to find respite from the baking heat, they slept outside on their deck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was over 105 degrees,” she said. “When I was growing up it was barely ever over 80 . It really pulled me back to what I consider the front lines of climate change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sanchez, 31, has been an Oakland resident since 2017. At the time of the phone call, she was serving as an adviser to John Kerry, who President Biden tapped to be the top U.S. climate diplomat and serve in a newly created Cabinet position.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/katenrg?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kate Gordon\u003c/a>, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s senior adviser on climate, had recently \u003ca href=\"https://www.opr.ca.gov/news/2021/06-17.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">stepped down in June\u003c/a> to work in the U.S. Department of Energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sanchez says she saw an opportunity to make change at the state level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[I] told the president, thank you. But I needed to come back and work for the governor,” she said. “We are experiencing climate impacts at an accelerating rate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gordon, her predecessor, spent two decades working on climate, energy and economic policy, championing the idea that bold climate action is good for the economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She worked with Michael Bloomberg, former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, and California philanthropist Tom Steyer, to found the \u003ca href=\"https://riskybusiness.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Risky Business Project.\u003c/a> An initiative that quantifies the economic impacts of climate change on things like crop yields, energy demands and human health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Newsom’s advisor, Gordon helped establish a \u003ca href=\"https://opr.ca.gov/wildfire/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">commission\u003c/a> on the catastrophic cost of wildfires. She also helped create the $12.5 billion “climate budget” Newsom proposed in 2020, which later was scaled back because of the COVID-19 crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sanchez is bringing something different, her global experience to California — which is often touted for its climate targets, rules and influential nature — and a focus on heavily impacted communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[We are] already seeing how the most vulnerable are disproportionately impacted here in California,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976309\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1976309 size-large\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/lauren-sanchez-at-capital-1020x1360.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"853\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/lauren-sanchez-at-capital-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/lauren-sanchez-at-capital-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/lauren-sanchez-at-capital-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/lauren-sanchez-at-capital-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/lauren-sanchez-at-capital-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/lauren-sanchez-at-capital-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/lauren-sanchez-at-capital-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lauren Sanchez. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Lauren Sanchez)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She has worked in climate policy roles with the California Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board. She also served on the Paris Agreement negotiation team with former President Barack Obama’s State Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The state very much is the tip of the spear,” Sanchez said. “My heart is more energized, by sharpening the tip of that spear and continuing to push forward toward a climate safe future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED climate reporter Ezra David Romero spoke with Sanchez about how she plans to advise the governor. This interview has been slightly edited for length and clarity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>California has a spectrum of climate policies and big goals, but the state is a major producer of oil. What are you saying to the governor? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s clear that the world is not doing enough on this issue. We’ve also reached this inflection point. Californians are looking outside their window, and they know climate change is already happening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state has formed targets and ambitious goals, informed by the latest science. We are getting new science almost daily about the state of the climate and just how much more we all need to do collectively. It’s why the governor sent letters last month asking our agencies to turn over every rock [and] to look at what it would mean to accelerate our \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/carbon-neutrality\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">big carbon neutrality target\u003c/a> and our \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/news/2021-03/california-releases-report-charting-path-100-percent-clean-electricity\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">clean energy targets\u003c/a> forward. Targets are incredibly important, but what really matters for Californians is what we’re doing today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The climate crisis is brought on by carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. How are you advising on the phaseout of fossil fuels?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First off, it’s critical to actually saving the planet. We’ve known for a long time sources of carbon pollution and how we need to tackle them. The governor put out a bold end date for oil production here in the state by 2045. We’ve heard from a number of communities that that’s too late. And so we’re very much looking at a path towards ending extraction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A really key and critical part of that, which we take very seriously here in California, is the jobs of our clean energy future. For people in Kern County and in L.A. who are currently working at refineries, we know that there is a clean job for them in our carbon neutral future here in the state. We’re working very closely with industry and with communities to make sure that this just transition is something we can very much embrace here in California and model for the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>As a Latina with one of the highest profile climate positions in California, how do you plan to represent the state’s communities of color?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I come at this from a personal angle. My \u003cem>abuelos\u003c/em> came here from Mexico and lived in L.A., where my father was stuck inside during recess because of smog issues. They lived in a redlined community, a front-line community next to sources of pollution. The fight for environmental justice, and climate justice is not something that I think about how I will check a box, but rather how I want to embody every single decision that I’m making, and every phone call and every interview and every budget line item.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’re working with the California Legislature on climate investments. We have a statutory minimum that a certain amount of [that spending] be in disadvantaged communities. And I’m very proud that the state has exceeded that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We know we need to not only right historical wrongs across the state and across the nation. But empowering communities of color to craft solutions and lead at the local level, may be our best chance for solving this issue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What are your top goals as senior climate adviser to the governor? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ninety percent of Californians connect wildfire and drought to climate change. They know climate change is happening, and it’s impacting them today. It’s not a 2045 or 2050 issue. One of my primary goals for this job is to help Californians feel like they are a part of our agenda.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We have a number of very concrete programs that we need to move forward towards on implementation so that we hit those ambitious targets. Simultaneously looking at if those targets are even enough, knowing what 2021 is, and what 2022 will bring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We have a planning exercise, called the \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/ab-32-climate-change-scoping-plan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">scoping plan\u003c/a>, which will very much chart out how the state will become carbon neutral by 2045. And one of my primary goals is to make sure that we don’t drive up electricity rates or gas prices, or ask Californians to make economic and social trade-offs. But we’re centering equity, and moving to carbon neutrality, or net zero as quickly as possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California emits 1% of global climate emissions. [Even if we were] carbon negative tomorrow, we would still have to be preparing for drought and we would still be burning every year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How do we build our climate agenda in a way that is a model for other states, countries and other big global emitters, so that they’re continuing to follow California’s lead?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What is your advice to the governor about equitably dealing with the impacts of climate change upon the state — heat waves, drought, and wildfire?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When we look at the data from across the country, Americans and Californians want the government to take care of climate change. We too often put the communities of color in an impossible trade-off between their health, their work and where their housing is. The role of government is to ensure environmental health; safe and affordable access to drinking water; and protections that create climate resilient communities in a way that isn’t asking them to sacrifice anything economically or socially.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is a lot of long-term planning that we need to do to make sure we’re protecting the most vulnerable. In the context of the infrastructure plan and the influx of money; the feds set the target at 40% in disadvantaged communities, but here in California [it should be] as high as we possibly can set it. So that those communities that can’t afford an air filter when the air is [polluted with wildfire smoke] are still protected.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Trapping Millions of 'Zombie' Urchins Could Restore California's Once Mighty Kelp Forests",
"headTitle": "Trapping Millions of ‘Zombie’ Urchins Could Restore California’s Once Mighty Kelp Forests | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Grant Downie is cruising through Caspar Bay, a small cove 150 miles north of San Francisco on the rugged Mendocino County coast. From the helm of his 18-foot fishing boat, The Rose, Downie steers along the jagged cliffs that surround a pristine beach at the shore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sea in this protected inlet appears peaceful and calm. But below the surface, all is not well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align='right' citation='Mark Carr, a UC Santa Cruz']‘Let there be no question. These forests will not recover until urchin numbers have been reduced low enough and their behavior shifts back to remaining in cracks and crevices.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Down in the dark green water, hundreds of thousands of spiny purple sea urchins are scavenging the few remaining scraps of bull kelp, a leafy seaweed that once canopied California’s coastal waters from San Francisco to Oregon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kelp provides habitat for countless marine species and captures carbon from the water and the atmosphere. But scientists say climate change is threatening kelp forests around the globe. In the last five years around 95% of Northern California’s bull kelp canopy was devoured by an influx of hungry sea urchins, aided by a temporary spike in ocean temperatures.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This was one of the first areas we saw the \u003ci>purps\u003c/i> really taking over,” says Downie, a 33-year-old second-generation commercial urchin fisherman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By “purps,” he means purple sea urchins. Of course, it could also be “perps,” as in \u003ci>perpetrators\u003c/i>. These ping pong-ball sized critters sprout sharp, violet purple spines, in all directions, and have voracious appetites for kelp and other algae. (They’ve also been known to devour jelly fish and even bird carcasses.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976054\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1976054\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-3-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-3-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-3-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-3-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-3-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-3-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-3-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Nature Conservancy, a science-based nonprofit, is studying different ways to remove purple sea urchins so kelp forests can rebound. \u003ccite>(Peter Arcuni/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Downie kills the engine and we drift up to a buoy that’s connected by 20 feet of rope to a flat, hula hoop-shaped mesh trap. For two days, it’s been lying on the craggy ocean bottom, baited with strips of bull kelp, quietly attracting the purple urchins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelp once thrived in places like Caspar Bay. Now, Downie says the ocean floor is lined with bare rock and purple urchins. “There are reefs where it’s like a carpet of purple urchin.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He hoists up the line, yelping with pleasure as a mound of urchins spill onto the deck. Urchins on top of urchins, some weren’t even able to reach the kelp, but “were just on the trap because the kelp was there,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What’s left of the bull kelp is a ragged green mass, covered in bite marks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They hammered it,” Downie says, describing the amount of kelp eaten by the urchin as “insane.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A quick count reveals the trap brought up more than 300 of the spiny invertebrates — a new personal record for Downie with a single trap.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The Collapse of a Forest\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Downie’s trapping work is part of a research project spearheaded by The Nature Conservancy, a science-based nonprofit in search of solutions to pave the way for kelp’s recovery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1949757/massive-california-kelp-decline-linked-to-ocean-heat-wave-voracious-sea-urchins\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> collapse of California’s kelp forests\u003c/a> is complicated, but goes something like this:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around 2014, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/looking-back-blob-record-warming-drives-unprecedented-ocean-change\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">warm water blob \u003c/a> from the Pacific Northwest combined with an El Niño pulse from the south to create a large, prolonged \u003ca href=\"https://news.ucsc.edu/2021/03/kelp-forests-norcal.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> ocean heat wave\u003c/a>. Water temperatures spiked nearly 7 degrees Fahrenheit above average in spots along the West Coast. Kelp thrives in colder waters, which have more of the nutrients it needs to survive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The hardy kelp may have recovered naturally after the heat wave passed. But a second ecological disaster, potentially related to the warm waters, struck. A \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1937467/historic-sea-star-die-off-tied-to-global-warming\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> disease\u003c/a> killed most of the sea stars on the West Coast, including the 24-limbed, bicycle-wheel-sized sunflower star that feasts on purple sea urchins. Without these predators around, the urchin population swelled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The urchins, typically concealed in protective, rocky crevasses where they patiently wait for fallen kelp leaves, came out of hiding and mowed down the forest, stalks and all. The state’s North Coast got hit the hardest. The kelp in Central and Southern California waters fared somewhat better because other predators there, like sea otters and lobsters, also eat urchins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For kelp to rebound, scientists first need to figure out how to remove millions of urchins from California waters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N7APOWQkWs\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A pile of purple sea urchins collects on a underwater trap in Caspar Bay. (Colin McHugh)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Let there be no question,” says Mark Carr, a UC Santa Cruz marine ecology professor not affiliated with the Nature Conservancy project, “these forests will not recover until urchin numbers have been reduced low enough and their behavior shifts back to remaining in cracks and crevices.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>A New Solution\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the past few years, scientists and wildlife managers have begun testing different solutions for solving the purple urchin problem. One \u003ca href=\"https://www.kalw.org/show/crosscurrents/2019-10-31/california-divers-fight-to-turn-the-tide-on-a-collapsing-ecosystem\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> well-documented approach\u003c/a> has been to deploy scuba divers to harvest urchins by hand-plucking them off reefs. But diving is expensive and potentially dangerous in strong currents or bad weather.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Urchin trapping has been proposed as a comparatively safe and cost-effective way to cull a ton of urchin and safeguard kelp’s recovery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve got these cleared areas in the harbor where we want the kelp to grow back,” Downie says, “Let’s just set traps all around it so that when the urchins come, they’re going to be in the traps.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since no one’s ever tried using traps to catch urchins along the West Coast, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife granted the Nature Conservancy project a special permit to test out the method. Downie designed the traps himself: the flat-as-a-pancake version and another with collapsible walls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976053\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1976053\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-2-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-2-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-2-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-2-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grant Downie rigs an urchin trap with bull kelp and a GoPro camera. A single trap can capture more than 300 purple sea urchins. \u003ccite>(Peter Arcuni/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>You might think so many urchins would be good news for an urchin fisherman. But Downie makes a living scuba diving for the larger and meatier red sea urchins, the kind you pay $8 a piece for at sushi bars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Only a fraction of purple urchins grow big enough to eat. When they moved in, he says the red ones died or moved on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Since this whole disaster, I’m hardly making a quarter of what I used to,” Downie says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The disappearance of kelp has crippled other marine ecosystems, like the rockfish and red abalone fisheries that were once staples of the Northern California coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not just hurting the urchin divers,” Downie says. “That was a huge income for so many people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the wake of the ecological and economic collapse, Downie decided to use his knowledge of urchins to help scientists find a solution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had heard about the trapping project and I said, ‘Hey, I think it should stay urchin-based,’’’ he says. “We’re not trappers per se, and this [contract] could have gone to a crabber or somebody like that. But our industry is in decline, we’re looking for help.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Nature Conservancy pays Downie for his work, and he now represents the North Coast region on a state commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Zombie Urchins Survive for Decades Without Eating\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without much kelp left to eat, most of the urchins Downie pulls from the water are starving.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“On the outside they look fine, on the inside they’re everything but fine,” says Tristin McHugh, an ecologist who directs the kelp recovery project for the Nature Conservancy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that doesn’t mean they’ll die-off naturally. These zombie urchins, as scientists call them, can survive for decades, biding their time until more kelp grows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are some places in the world known to have them for 70-plus years in that state,” McHugh says. Which means it may be up to humans to tip the scales back in favor of kelp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976058\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1976058\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-5-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-5-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-5-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-5-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-5-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-5-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-5-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-5-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The inside of what scientists call a “zombie urchin.” Urchins can survive decades in this state. \u003ccite>(Peter Arcuni/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Other methods scientists are exploring for urchin removal include reintroducing natural predators, like sea stars or sea otters. Researchers at the University of Washington have begun the first-ever \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgcCjpXt7Ac\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">captive breeding program\u003c/span>\u003c/a> for sunflower stars, which still haven’t bounced back in California since the disease wiped them out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each method has potential benefits and challenges, which include cost, safety, feasibility and regulatory hurdles, to name just a few.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1973217/in-central-california-sea-otters-feast-on-purple-urchins-and-thats-good-for-kelp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> research shows \u003c/a> that sea otters eat urchins along the Central Coast, helping maintain patches of healthy kelp forest, Mark Carr from UC Santa Cruz, says it’s unlikely they would go after the zombies that blanket large areas of ocean floor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The otters are not going to go out and waste their time and energy feeding on urchins that have very low nutritional value,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If it pans out, urchin trapping has the potential to do some heavy lifting for conservation, especially when diving isn’t practical.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“By using traps, you may be able to extend your season for getting into the water,” says James Ray, a kelp specialist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. “And you can target specific areas on a more constant basis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By creating strongholds for kelp along the coast, he says, the forest may be better equipped to withstand future threats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But trapping has its limitations, too. Divers can swim right up to urchins, but dropping traps requires some guesswork. Trappers must hope that the urchins will be in expected locations. While trapping is less expensive than diving, it’s still costly and requires continual effort, whereas introducing predators may eventually sustain itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976056\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1976056\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-4-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-4-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-4-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-4-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-4-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-4-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-4-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-4-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Nature Conservancy’s kelp project director Tristin McHugh points out the spore packet on a healthy bull kelp frond in Caspar Bay. \u003ccite>(Peter Arcuni/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Ray, who’s been collaborating with the Nature Conservancy’s kelp recovery research, says no one method will be the “silver bullet answer.” He says trapping and diving could potentially work together, in tandem with other methods, as wildlife managers try to scale up solutions from small patches to the entire coastline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Any solution,” he says, “is likely going to be a sort of a mosaic of smaller solutions that all work, ultimately, towards trying to increase resiliency in our kelp forest ecosystems.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McHugh agrees with the kitchen sink approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We almost want these very simple, singular solutions,” she says, “But the really key piece right now is figuring out how many different methods we can utilize and facilitate this shift back into a kelp forest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Nature Conservancy currently donates the urchin carcasses to a company for composting. But McHugh says the long-term goal is to find a commercial market for the calcium-rich shells, like fertilizer or even road building materials, to help fund urchin removals on a larger scale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Someone needs to buy the urchin because we can’t necessarily rely on grant funds or philanthropic funds,” she says. “We need to figure out how we can utilize purple urchin, whether it’s for soil additives or for pavement or whatever it is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>‘Golden Tendrils’ of Hope\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While there hasn’t been significant recovery of bull kelp in Northern California since the marine heat wave, there is some reason for hope. Ocean temperatures have normalized, restoring nutrients to a level “that can sustain kelp growth and productivity,” Ray says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While climate change increases the likelihood of warming events, kelp is known for its resiliency, replenishing itself every year from new spores and growing up to 2 feet a day. Along the North Coast, there have recently beens some \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/climate/article/Northern-California-kelp-forest-shows-signs-of-16375965.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">preliminary reports\u003c/a> of kelp beginning to reemerge in some areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Case in point: Back in Caspar Bay, McHugh kayaks close to the beach, where the sandy bottom prevents urchins from moving in. Surrounding her on all sides is a healthy canopy of bull kelp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Just these glorious golden tendrils of kelp just floating, creating this wonderful canopy that houses tons of marine life, turns over carbon for us, just does everything that you would possibly want a canopy forming species to do,” McHugh says, “It’s currently doing for us right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She hasn’t seen kelp in this cove in years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can actually see the spore packets on the blades of the kelp getting ready to drop,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A single packet holds millions of spores.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once they reach the seafloor, McHugh says, “male and female will find each other and they’ll wait for the next opportune ocean conditions to start growing and begin their life cycle again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a sign, she says, that if scientists can get rid of the urchins, California’s underwater forests will have a chance to return.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "In the last five years around 95% of Northern California’s bull kelp canopy was devoured by an influx of hungry sea urchins.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Grant Downie is cruising through Caspar Bay, a small cove 150 miles north of San Francisco on the rugged Mendocino County coast. From the helm of his 18-foot fishing boat, The Rose, Downie steers along the jagged cliffs that surround a pristine beach at the shore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sea in this protected inlet appears peaceful and calm. But below the surface, all is not well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Down in the dark green water, hundreds of thousands of spiny purple sea urchins are scavenging the few remaining scraps of bull kelp, a leafy seaweed that once canopied California’s coastal waters from San Francisco to Oregon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kelp provides habitat for countless marine species and captures carbon from the water and the atmosphere. But scientists say climate change is threatening kelp forests around the globe. In the last five years around 95% of Northern California’s bull kelp canopy was devoured by an influx of hungry sea urchins, aided by a temporary spike in ocean temperatures.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This was one of the first areas we saw the \u003ci>purps\u003c/i> really taking over,” says Downie, a 33-year-old second-generation commercial urchin fisherman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By “purps,” he means purple sea urchins. Of course, it could also be “perps,” as in \u003ci>perpetrators\u003c/i>. These ping pong-ball sized critters sprout sharp, violet purple spines, in all directions, and have voracious appetites for kelp and other algae. (They’ve also been known to devour jelly fish and even bird carcasses.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976054\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1976054\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-3-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-3-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-3-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-3-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-3-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-3-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-3-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Nature Conservancy, a science-based nonprofit, is studying different ways to remove purple sea urchins so kelp forests can rebound. \u003ccite>(Peter Arcuni/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Downie kills the engine and we drift up to a buoy that’s connected by 20 feet of rope to a flat, hula hoop-shaped mesh trap. For two days, it’s been lying on the craggy ocean bottom, baited with strips of bull kelp, quietly attracting the purple urchins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelp once thrived in places like Caspar Bay. Now, Downie says the ocean floor is lined with bare rock and purple urchins. “There are reefs where it’s like a carpet of purple urchin.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He hoists up the line, yelping with pleasure as a mound of urchins spill onto the deck. Urchins on top of urchins, some weren’t even able to reach the kelp, but “were just on the trap because the kelp was there,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What’s left of the bull kelp is a ragged green mass, covered in bite marks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They hammered it,” Downie says, describing the amount of kelp eaten by the urchin as “insane.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A quick count reveals the trap brought up more than 300 of the spiny invertebrates — a new personal record for Downie with a single trap.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The Collapse of a Forest\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Downie’s trapping work is part of a research project spearheaded by The Nature Conservancy, a science-based nonprofit in search of solutions to pave the way for kelp’s recovery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1949757/massive-california-kelp-decline-linked-to-ocean-heat-wave-voracious-sea-urchins\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> collapse of California’s kelp forests\u003c/a> is complicated, but goes something like this:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around 2014, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/looking-back-blob-record-warming-drives-unprecedented-ocean-change\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">warm water blob \u003c/a> from the Pacific Northwest combined with an El Niño pulse from the south to create a large, prolonged \u003ca href=\"https://news.ucsc.edu/2021/03/kelp-forests-norcal.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> ocean heat wave\u003c/a>. Water temperatures spiked nearly 7 degrees Fahrenheit above average in spots along the West Coast. Kelp thrives in colder waters, which have more of the nutrients it needs to survive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The hardy kelp may have recovered naturally after the heat wave passed. But a second ecological disaster, potentially related to the warm waters, struck. A \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1937467/historic-sea-star-die-off-tied-to-global-warming\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> disease\u003c/a> killed most of the sea stars on the West Coast, including the 24-limbed, bicycle-wheel-sized sunflower star that feasts on purple sea urchins. Without these predators around, the urchin population swelled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The urchins, typically concealed in protective, rocky crevasses where they patiently wait for fallen kelp leaves, came out of hiding and mowed down the forest, stalks and all. The state’s North Coast got hit the hardest. The kelp in Central and Southern California waters fared somewhat better because other predators there, like sea otters and lobsters, also eat urchins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For kelp to rebound, scientists first need to figure out how to remove millions of urchins from California waters.\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/2N7APOWQkWs'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/2N7APOWQkWs'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>A pile of purple sea urchins collects on a underwater trap in Caspar Bay. (Colin McHugh)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Let there be no question,” says Mark Carr, a UC Santa Cruz marine ecology professor not affiliated with the Nature Conservancy project, “these forests will not recover until urchin numbers have been reduced low enough and their behavior shifts back to remaining in cracks and crevices.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>A New Solution\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the past few years, scientists and wildlife managers have begun testing different solutions for solving the purple urchin problem. One \u003ca href=\"https://www.kalw.org/show/crosscurrents/2019-10-31/california-divers-fight-to-turn-the-tide-on-a-collapsing-ecosystem\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> well-documented approach\u003c/a> has been to deploy scuba divers to harvest urchins by hand-plucking them off reefs. But diving is expensive and potentially dangerous in strong currents or bad weather.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Urchin trapping has been proposed as a comparatively safe and cost-effective way to cull a ton of urchin and safeguard kelp’s recovery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve got these cleared areas in the harbor where we want the kelp to grow back,” Downie says, “Let’s just set traps all around it so that when the urchins come, they’re going to be in the traps.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since no one’s ever tried using traps to catch urchins along the West Coast, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife granted the Nature Conservancy project a special permit to test out the method. Downie designed the traps himself: the flat-as-a-pancake version and another with collapsible walls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976053\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1976053\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-2-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-2-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-2-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-2-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grant Downie rigs an urchin trap with bull kelp and a GoPro camera. A single trap can capture more than 300 purple sea urchins. \u003ccite>(Peter Arcuni/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>You might think so many urchins would be good news for an urchin fisherman. But Downie makes a living scuba diving for the larger and meatier red sea urchins, the kind you pay $8 a piece for at sushi bars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Only a fraction of purple urchins grow big enough to eat. When they moved in, he says the red ones died or moved on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Since this whole disaster, I’m hardly making a quarter of what I used to,” Downie says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The disappearance of kelp has crippled other marine ecosystems, like the rockfish and red abalone fisheries that were once staples of the Northern California coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not just hurting the urchin divers,” Downie says. “That was a huge income for so many people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the wake of the ecological and economic collapse, Downie decided to use his knowledge of urchins to help scientists find a solution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had heard about the trapping project and I said, ‘Hey, I think it should stay urchin-based,’’’ he says. “We’re not trappers per se, and this [contract] could have gone to a crabber or somebody like that. But our industry is in decline, we’re looking for help.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Nature Conservancy pays Downie for his work, and he now represents the North Coast region on a state commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Zombie Urchins Survive for Decades Without Eating\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without much kelp left to eat, most of the urchins Downie pulls from the water are starving.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“On the outside they look fine, on the inside they’re everything but fine,” says Tristin McHugh, an ecologist who directs the kelp recovery project for the Nature Conservancy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that doesn’t mean they’ll die-off naturally. These zombie urchins, as scientists call them, can survive for decades, biding their time until more kelp grows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are some places in the world known to have them for 70-plus years in that state,” McHugh says. Which means it may be up to humans to tip the scales back in favor of kelp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976058\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1976058\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-5-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-5-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-5-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-5-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-5-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-5-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-5-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-5-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The inside of what scientists call a “zombie urchin.” Urchins can survive decades in this state. \u003ccite>(Peter Arcuni/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Other methods scientists are exploring for urchin removal include reintroducing natural predators, like sea stars or sea otters. Researchers at the University of Washington have begun the first-ever \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgcCjpXt7Ac\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">captive breeding program\u003c/span>\u003c/a> for sunflower stars, which still haven’t bounced back in California since the disease wiped them out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each method has potential benefits and challenges, which include cost, safety, feasibility and regulatory hurdles, to name just a few.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1973217/in-central-california-sea-otters-feast-on-purple-urchins-and-thats-good-for-kelp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> research shows \u003c/a> that sea otters eat urchins along the Central Coast, helping maintain patches of healthy kelp forest, Mark Carr from UC Santa Cruz, says it’s unlikely they would go after the zombies that blanket large areas of ocean floor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The otters are not going to go out and waste their time and energy feeding on urchins that have very low nutritional value,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If it pans out, urchin trapping has the potential to do some heavy lifting for conservation, especially when diving isn’t practical.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“By using traps, you may be able to extend your season for getting into the water,” says James Ray, a kelp specialist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. “And you can target specific areas on a more constant basis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By creating strongholds for kelp along the coast, he says, the forest may be better equipped to withstand future threats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But trapping has its limitations, too. Divers can swim right up to urchins, but dropping traps requires some guesswork. Trappers must hope that the urchins will be in expected locations. While trapping is less expensive than diving, it’s still costly and requires continual effort, whereas introducing predators may eventually sustain itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976056\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1976056\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-4-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-4-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-4-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-4-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-4-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-4-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-4-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/Kelp-4-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Nature Conservancy’s kelp project director Tristin McHugh points out the spore packet on a healthy bull kelp frond in Caspar Bay. \u003ccite>(Peter Arcuni/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Ray, who’s been collaborating with the Nature Conservancy’s kelp recovery research, says no one method will be the “silver bullet answer.” He says trapping and diving could potentially work together, in tandem with other methods, as wildlife managers try to scale up solutions from small patches to the entire coastline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Any solution,” he says, “is likely going to be a sort of a mosaic of smaller solutions that all work, ultimately, towards trying to increase resiliency in our kelp forest ecosystems.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McHugh agrees with the kitchen sink approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We almost want these very simple, singular solutions,” she says, “But the really key piece right now is figuring out how many different methods we can utilize and facilitate this shift back into a kelp forest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Nature Conservancy currently donates the urchin carcasses to a company for composting. But McHugh says the long-term goal is to find a commercial market for the calcium-rich shells, like fertilizer or even road building materials, to help fund urchin removals on a larger scale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Someone needs to buy the urchin because we can’t necessarily rely on grant funds or philanthropic funds,” she says. “We need to figure out how we can utilize purple urchin, whether it’s for soil additives or for pavement or whatever it is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>‘Golden Tendrils’ of Hope\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While there hasn’t been significant recovery of bull kelp in Northern California since the marine heat wave, there is some reason for hope. Ocean temperatures have normalized, restoring nutrients to a level “that can sustain kelp growth and productivity,” Ray says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While climate change increases the likelihood of warming events, kelp is known for its resiliency, replenishing itself every year from new spores and growing up to 2 feet a day. Along the North Coast, there have recently beens some \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/climate/article/Northern-California-kelp-forest-shows-signs-of-16375965.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">preliminary reports\u003c/a> of kelp beginning to reemerge in some areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Case in point: Back in Caspar Bay, McHugh kayaks close to the beach, where the sandy bottom prevents urchins from moving in. Surrounding her on all sides is a healthy canopy of bull kelp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Just these glorious golden tendrils of kelp just floating, creating this wonderful canopy that houses tons of marine life, turns over carbon for us, just does everything that you would possibly want a canopy forming species to do,” McHugh says, “It’s currently doing for us right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She hasn’t seen kelp in this cove in years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can actually see the spore packets on the blades of the kelp getting ready to drop,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A single packet holds millions of spores.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once they reach the seafloor, McHugh says, “male and female will find each other and they’ll wait for the next opportune ocean conditions to start growing and begin their life cycle again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a sign, she says, that if scientists can get rid of the urchins, California’s underwater forests will have a chance to return.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"headTitle": "As California Megafires Burn, Forest Service Ditches ‘Good Fire’ Under Political Pressure | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Facing record-breaking dry conditions across the West, the U.S. Forest Service announced it will aggressively put out wildfires this summer. As a result, the agency’s use of “good fire,” the lower-intensity blazes that clear out overgrown forests, will also stop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With thousands of firefighting personnel battling extreme blazes, federal officials say no one can be spared for fire prevention work. But some fire scientists worry that the blanket rule takes away the most important tools foresters have to reduce future wildfire risk, even in parts of the country where it may be safe to use them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a tough decision, I think, because politically, there’s a lot of pressure to put every single fire out,” says Crystal Kolden, a fire scientist at the UC Merced. “The problem is that political pressure is not based on good science.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many extreme fires across the West are being fueled by overgrown forests, where dense vegetation has accumulated over a century of fire suppression. In recent years, the Forest Service has worked to reduce that risk by using fire proactively.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency is now suspending the use of prescribed burns, where foresters set carefully controlled fires that remove brush and vegetation, but don’t kill the mature trees. It’s also suspending what’s known as “managed wildfires for resource benefit,” where naturally caused fires are cautiously allowed to burn if they’re in remote areas and don’t pose a risk to people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are in a ‘triage mode’ where our primary focus must be on fires that threaten communities and infrastructure,” Forest Service Chief Randy Moore wrote in a letter announcing the change. “When western fire activity abates, we will resume using all the tools in our toolbox.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Political Pressure Grows to Attack Wildfires\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency has faced growing pressure since the Tamarack Fire exploded south of Lake Tahoe, Calif., in July, destroying at least 14 homes. Sparked by lightning in high mountain wilderness, the Forest Service \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/HumboldtToiyabeNF/videos/the-tamarackfire-burning-in-the-mokelumne-wilderness-was-ignited-july-4-from-lig/2955306648085725/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">didn’t send fire crews due to safety concerns\u003c/a> over the remoteness of the location. After burning for more than a week, winds drove the fire into the town of Markleeville.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the Tamarack Fire was not considered a managed burn to benefit the ecosystem, California Gov. Gavin Newsom called for a policy shift.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need your help to change the culture in terms of the suppression strategies, in this climate, literally and figuratively, to be more aggressive on these federal fires,” Newsom told President Biden.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Biden administration responded quickly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have to have more boots on the ground,” U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2021/08/04/governor-newsom-u-s-agriculture-secretary-vilsack-and-forest-service-chief-moore-discuss-state-federal-efforts-to-build-wildfire-resilience/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">told Newsom last week\u003c/a>. “And I pledge to you and commit to you that will happen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kicking the Can Down the Road\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the suspension is raising flags for some forest ecologists who say, with millions of acres of forest overloaded with vegetation, the agency can’t afford to fall farther behind on reducing fire risk in the West.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we’re going to stop managed wildfire now, then we’re kicking the can down the road for those fuels to burn and they may burn in even hotter and drier conditions,” Kolden said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While summertime burns aren’t used in all Western forests, banning beneficial fires could limit the number of acres the Forest Service treats by reducing vegetation this year, leaving overgrowth that may be the fuel for dangerous fires down the road.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Summer in California can be a useful time for the Forest Service to do prescribed burns and other vegetation treatments. In June through September 2019, the \u003ca href=\"https://gis.data.cnra.ca.gov/datasets/CALFIRE-Forestry::prescribed-burns-1/explore?location=37.570937%2C-119.381350%2C8.93\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">agency completed burns on almost 13,000 acres\u003c/a>, according to public data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Summer is also when many naturally caused wildfires begin, sparked by lightning in wilderness areas. In 2009, the Forest Service adopted a policy to allow more of these fires to spread, especially where the terrain is too remote for prescribed burns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Southwest, the Forest Service managed fires like this on more than 270,000 acres in 2020 to benefit the ecosystem. In that part of the country, managed wildfires have become a significant strategy, because summer monsoon rains reduce the risk those fires could get out of hand. But the policy is controversial, because in rare cases, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1134217/let-it-burn-the-forest-service-wants-to-stop-putting-out-some-fires\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">managed wildfires have escaped\u003c/a>, threatening homes and people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Western U.S. Still Has a Fire Deficit\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Where federal agencies have completed their work, this approach of controlling and managing has helped prevent wildfires from reaching extremes. With less vegetation on the ground in those areas, the fires don’t reach high intensity, \u003ca href=\"https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/629915\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">as was seen in parts of the 2013 Rim Fire\u003c/a> around Yosemite National Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every time I’ve been out on a large wildfire, the only thing that has moderated fire spread has been past fire footprints on the landscape,” says Mike Beasley, a retired fire manager who worked for the National Park Service and Forest Service for decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the record-breaking wildfires of recent years, the Western U.S. still has a fire deficit. Millions of acres once burned every year, either in fires caused by lightning or set by \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/08/24/899422710/to-manage-wildfire-california-looks-to-what-tribes-have-known-all-along\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Native American tribes who used fire\u003c/a> to shape the landscape. Over millennia, forest ecosystems were accustomed to these low-grade fires, but that changed when the era of fire suppression began. For much of the last century, the Forest Service actively stopped all fires, adopting the “10 a.m. rule,” where fires had to be extinguished by 10 a.m. the next day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That policy helped set the stage for the extreme wildfires today, which have burned hotter and more intensely than many forests are adapted to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The amount of fuel that’s built up over that time period is bigger than anything these forests have experienced in recent millennia,” says Keala Hagmann, research ecologist at the University of Washington. “We do have tools at our disposal to change the ways these fires are burning and the window of opportunity is closing rapidly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An estimated 20 million acres of forested land in California, nearly 20% of the state, needs some form of fuel reduction. California \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2020/08/13/california-u-s-forest-service-establish-shared-long-term-strategy-to-manage-forests-and-rangelands/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">signed an agreement\u003c/a> with the Forest Service last year to reduce vegetation on 1 million acres a year collectively, but the goal is still far off. In 2019, projects only took place on 100,000 acres statewide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hotter Climate Boosts Fire Risk and Chances to Reduce It\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With thousands of firefighters occupied on wildfires in extremely dry conditions, some say the shift in policy is a necessary trade-off this summer to protect communities and prevent more homes from burning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Governor Newsom supports the science of ‘good fires,'” a spokesperson for Newsom responded by email. “But there are no ‘good fires’ in atrocious conditions, and that’s what the western states are experiencing right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the climate warms, hotter droughts are becoming increasingly common in the Western U.S.. Just as is happening this year, dry conditions could continue to limit the use of beneficial fire when burning is deemed too risky. Firefighters, exhausted from months of battling extreme blazes, are less available to assist with prescribed burns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The challenge here is that it’s easy to say: with climate change, we shouldn’t do this anymore,” Kolden says. “But that is a fire suppression mentality and that’s what got us in this situation in the first place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire experts say Western states will need to embrace “good fire” at a much more dramatic scale to stave off the record-breaking fires seen in recent years. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1941685/this-california-neighborhood-was-built-to-survive-a-wildfire-and-it-worked\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Communities need to create defensible space\u003c/a>, reducing the flammable vegetation around them, as well as \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/11/25/936685629/rebuilding-after-a-wildfire-most-states-dont-require-fire-resistant-materials\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">embracing wildfire building codes\u003c/a> and retrofitting existing homes with fire-resistant materials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m afraid for the future,” says Beasley. “It’s going to be such a political hot button topic. They’re going to take the path of least risk and that’s just going to be to suppress. And that’s not going to be successful in all cases and we better be prepared for that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=With+Extreme+Fires+Burning%2C+Forest+Service+Stops+%27Good+Fires%27+Too&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Facing record-breaking dry conditions across the West, the U.S. Forest Service announced it will aggressively put out wildfires this summer. As a result, the agency’s use of “good fire,” the lower-intensity blazes that clear out overgrown forests, will also stop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With thousands of firefighting personnel battling extreme blazes, federal officials say no one can be spared for fire prevention work. But some fire scientists worry that the blanket rule takes away the most important tools foresters have to reduce future wildfire risk, even in parts of the country where it may be safe to use them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a tough decision, I think, because politically, there’s a lot of pressure to put every single fire out,” says Crystal Kolden, a fire scientist at the UC Merced. “The problem is that political pressure is not based on good science.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many extreme fires across the West are being fueled by overgrown forests, where dense vegetation has accumulated over a century of fire suppression. In recent years, the Forest Service has worked to reduce that risk by using fire proactively.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency is now suspending the use of prescribed burns, where foresters set carefully controlled fires that remove brush and vegetation, but don’t kill the mature trees. It’s also suspending what’s known as “managed wildfires for resource benefit,” where naturally caused fires are cautiously allowed to burn if they’re in remote areas and don’t pose a risk to people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are in a ‘triage mode’ where our primary focus must be on fires that threaten communities and infrastructure,” Forest Service Chief Randy Moore wrote in a letter announcing the change. “When western fire activity abates, we will resume using all the tools in our toolbox.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Political Pressure Grows to Attack Wildfires\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency has faced growing pressure since the Tamarack Fire exploded south of Lake Tahoe, Calif., in July, destroying at least 14 homes. Sparked by lightning in high mountain wilderness, the Forest Service \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/HumboldtToiyabeNF/videos/the-tamarackfire-burning-in-the-mokelumne-wilderness-was-ignited-july-4-from-lig/2955306648085725/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">didn’t send fire crews due to safety concerns\u003c/a> over the remoteness of the location. After burning for more than a week, winds drove the fire into the town of Markleeville.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the Tamarack Fire was not considered a managed burn to benefit the ecosystem, California Gov. Gavin Newsom called for a policy shift.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need your help to change the culture in terms of the suppression strategies, in this climate, literally and figuratively, to be more aggressive on these federal fires,” Newsom told President Biden.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Biden administration responded quickly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have to have more boots on the ground,” U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2021/08/04/governor-newsom-u-s-agriculture-secretary-vilsack-and-forest-service-chief-moore-discuss-state-federal-efforts-to-build-wildfire-resilience/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">told Newsom last week\u003c/a>. “And I pledge to you and commit to you that will happen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kicking the Can Down the Road\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the suspension is raising flags for some forest ecologists who say, with millions of acres of forest overloaded with vegetation, the agency can’t afford to fall farther behind on reducing fire risk in the West.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we’re going to stop managed wildfire now, then we’re kicking the can down the road for those fuels to burn and they may burn in even hotter and drier conditions,” Kolden said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While summertime burns aren’t used in all Western forests, banning beneficial fires could limit the number of acres the Forest Service treats by reducing vegetation this year, leaving overgrowth that may be the fuel for dangerous fires down the road.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Summer in California can be a useful time for the Forest Service to do prescribed burns and other vegetation treatments. In June through September 2019, the \u003ca href=\"https://gis.data.cnra.ca.gov/datasets/CALFIRE-Forestry::prescribed-burns-1/explore?location=37.570937%2C-119.381350%2C8.93\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">agency completed burns on almost 13,000 acres\u003c/a>, according to public data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Summer is also when many naturally caused wildfires begin, sparked by lightning in wilderness areas. In 2009, the Forest Service adopted a policy to allow more of these fires to spread, especially where the terrain is too remote for prescribed burns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Southwest, the Forest Service managed fires like this on more than 270,000 acres in 2020 to benefit the ecosystem. In that part of the country, managed wildfires have become a significant strategy, because summer monsoon rains reduce the risk those fires could get out of hand. But the policy is controversial, because in rare cases, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1134217/let-it-burn-the-forest-service-wants-to-stop-putting-out-some-fires\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">managed wildfires have escaped\u003c/a>, threatening homes and people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Western U.S. Still Has a Fire Deficit\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Where federal agencies have completed their work, this approach of controlling and managing has helped prevent wildfires from reaching extremes. With less vegetation on the ground in those areas, the fires don’t reach high intensity, \u003ca href=\"https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/629915\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">as was seen in parts of the 2013 Rim Fire\u003c/a> around Yosemite National Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every time I’ve been out on a large wildfire, the only thing that has moderated fire spread has been past fire footprints on the landscape,” says Mike Beasley, a retired fire manager who worked for the National Park Service and Forest Service for decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the record-breaking wildfires of recent years, the Western U.S. still has a fire deficit. Millions of acres once burned every year, either in fires caused by lightning or set by \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/08/24/899422710/to-manage-wildfire-california-looks-to-what-tribes-have-known-all-along\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Native American tribes who used fire\u003c/a> to shape the landscape. Over millennia, forest ecosystems were accustomed to these low-grade fires, but that changed when the era of fire suppression began. For much of the last century, the Forest Service actively stopped all fires, adopting the “10 a.m. rule,” where fires had to be extinguished by 10 a.m. the next day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That policy helped set the stage for the extreme wildfires today, which have burned hotter and more intensely than many forests are adapted to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The amount of fuel that’s built up over that time period is bigger than anything these forests have experienced in recent millennia,” says Keala Hagmann, research ecologist at the University of Washington. “We do have tools at our disposal to change the ways these fires are burning and the window of opportunity is closing rapidly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An estimated 20 million acres of forested land in California, nearly 20% of the state, needs some form of fuel reduction. California \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2020/08/13/california-u-s-forest-service-establish-shared-long-term-strategy-to-manage-forests-and-rangelands/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">signed an agreement\u003c/a> with the Forest Service last year to reduce vegetation on 1 million acres a year collectively, but the goal is still far off. In 2019, projects only took place on 100,000 acres statewide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hotter Climate Boosts Fire Risk and Chances to Reduce It\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With thousands of firefighters occupied on wildfires in extremely dry conditions, some say the shift in policy is a necessary trade-off this summer to protect communities and prevent more homes from burning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Governor Newsom supports the science of ‘good fires,'” a spokesperson for Newsom responded by email. “But there are no ‘good fires’ in atrocious conditions, and that’s what the western states are experiencing right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the climate warms, hotter droughts are becoming increasingly common in the Western U.S.. Just as is happening this year, dry conditions could continue to limit the use of beneficial fire when burning is deemed too risky. Firefighters, exhausted from months of battling extreme blazes, are less available to assist with prescribed burns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The challenge here is that it’s easy to say: with climate change, we shouldn’t do this anymore,” Kolden says. “But that is a fire suppression mentality and that’s what got us in this situation in the first place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire experts say Western states will need to embrace “good fire” at a much more dramatic scale to stave off the record-breaking fires seen in recent years. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1941685/this-california-neighborhood-was-built-to-survive-a-wildfire-and-it-worked\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Communities need to create defensible space\u003c/a>, reducing the flammable vegetation around them, as well as \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/11/25/936685629/rebuilding-after-a-wildfire-most-states-dont-require-fire-resistant-materials\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">embracing wildfire building codes\u003c/a> and retrofitting existing homes with fire-resistant materials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m afraid for the future,” says Beasley. “It’s going to be such a political hot button topic. They’re going to take the path of least risk and that’s just going to be to suppress. And that’s not going to be successful in all cases and we better be prepared for that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=With+Extreme+Fires+Burning%2C+Forest+Service+Stops+%27Good+Fires%27+Too&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "A Major Report Warns Climate Change Is Accelerating And Humans Must Cut Emissions Now",
"headTitle": "A Major Report Warns Climate Change Is Accelerating And Humans Must Cut Emissions Now | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Global climate change is accelerating and human-caused emissions of greenhouse gases are the overwhelming cause, according to a landmark report released Monday by the United Nations. There is still time to avoid catastrophic warming this century, but only if countries around the world stop burning fossil fuels as quickly as possible, the authors warn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The message to world leaders is more dire, and more unequivocal, than ever before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is indisputable that human activities are causing climate change,” says Ko Barrett, the vice chair of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the senior adviser for climate at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “Each of the last four decades has been the warmest on record since preindustrial times.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The authors — nearly 200 leading climate scientists — hope the report’s findings will be front and center when world leaders meet for a major climate conference in November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The effects of that warming are obvious and deadly around the world. \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/07/29/1022241936/climate-change-is-driving-deadly-weather-disasters-from-arizona-to-mumbai\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Heat waves, droughts and floods\u003c/a> are killing people and disrupting lives around the world this summer. Wildfires are burning with unprecedented frequency and intensity, including in places that used to rarely burn. Smoke and smog are choking people in cities and towns from Asia to the Arctic. Ocean heat waves are threatening entire ecosystems and supercharging hurricanes and typhoons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The science is clear: Human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are the primary driver of such changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Human-caused Greenhouse Gas Emissions Are Causing Extreme Weather\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>One of the biggest recent advances in climate research is in the field of so-called attribution science, which ties global warming to individual weather events such as hurricanes or heat waves. Scientists can now say with certainty that humans are causing more extreme weather, including heavy downpours and extended heat waves and droughts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This whiplash — this increase in both extreme wet and dry events — is projected to increase through the 21st century,” says Kim Cobb, one of the report authors and a paleoclimate scientist at Georgia Institute of Technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is the first time that paleoclimate researchers, who study the climate of the past to understand how Earth will change in the future, have helped write every chapter of the report. Their work helps put today’s climate in perspective. “We can now say global surface temps are reaching levels not seen in 100,000 years,” says Cobb. “The rate of warming since 1970 is higher than any 50-year period in the last 2,000 years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report also confirms that global sea level rise is accelerating. Globally, sea levels rose about 8 inches on average between 1901 and 2018, although the water rose much more in some places, including in some cities on the East Coast and Gulf Coast of the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sea level rise is primarily driven by melting glaciers, and Arctic ice. There’s a lag between emissions and ice melting, which means even if humans were to stop all greenhouse gas emissions today, sea levels would \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/04/14/981333730/carbon-emissions-could-plummet-the-atmosphere-will-lag-behind\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">continue to rise for a few decades\u003c/a>, the report notes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sea level change through the middle of this century has largely been locked in,” says Bob Kopp, one of the report’s authors and the director of the Institute of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at Rutgers University. That means no matter what, people living in coastal areas will need to adapt to higher seas.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Scientists Say It’s Not too Late\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Despite the disastrous descriptions of our hotter Earth, the new report also makes clear that it is not too late to curb global warming. The more humans reduce emissions this decade, the more livable Earth will be for the rest of this century and for many centuries to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the big questions posed by world leaders is whether it’s still possible to meet the targets set by the 2015 Paris climate agreement. That agreement seeks to limit global warming to well under 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), and ideally keep it below 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees F). Earth is already about 1 degree Celsius hotter than it was in the late 1800s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the biggest economies in the world are not on track to meet those temperature targets because they continue to rely too heavily on fossil fuels for electricity, transportation and industry — including most polluting fuels such as coal. That \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/11/05/931837310/the-us-and-the-paris-climate-agreement-5-things-to-know\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">includes the U.S.\u003c/a>, which has cut emissions very slowly in recent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new report finds that it is still possible to meet the targets set under the Paris agreement, but it gets more difficult with every passing day. The authors used five theoretical scenarios to predict future global warming. The scenarios include different levels of greenhouse gas emissions, as well as economic and population growth and political collaboration. Under all five scenarios, Earth hits 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) in the next two decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Is it still possible to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees [Celsius]? The answer is yes,” says Maisa Rojas Corradi, a report author and climate scientist at the University of Chile. “But unless there are immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions of all greenhouse gases, limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees will be beyond reach.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The authors found that if countries around the world dramatically and permanently cut emissions immediately, Earth will start getting cooler around the middle of this century. On the other hand, if countries move more slowly to curb emissions or fail to transition to cleaner sources of energy, Earth could warm by 4 degrees Celsius (7.2 degrees F) or more by the end of the century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think a key message here is that it is still possible to forestall most of the most dire impacts, but it really requires unprecedented, transformational change,” says Barrett, the IPCC vice chair. “But the idea that there still is a pathway forward I think is a point that should give us some hope.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQlQL5obqDs\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Climate Change is Global, But Solutions Are Local\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>This is the sixth edition of the IPCC’s climate science report, and it is the first time scientists have broken down their findings and predictions by region. That’s a big deal because many countries rely on such reports to understand what the future will look like for their citizens and which policies make the most sense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, the pace of sea level rise varies dramatically depending on where you live. Governments need regional information to decide where to build new infrastructure and how to protect existing coastal cities. The same is true for drought and flooding from rainstorms, which disrupt agriculture and drinking water supplies. Major cities including \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/09/14/648016169/did-cape-town-learn-from-day-zero\">Cape Town, South Africa\u003c/a>, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/07/18/742688141/the-water-crisis-in-chennai-whos-to-blame-how-do-you-fix-it\">Chennai, India\u003c/a>, have struggled to maintain reservoirs in recent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s very important that this report gives regional information that is going to help us make decisions at the regional level,” says Paola Arias, one of the report authors and a climate scientist at the University of Antioquia in Colombia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it comes to adaptation, the U.S. relies less on the specific information in this report because the federal government regularly releases \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/11/23/668555773/climate-change-is-already-hurting-u-s-communities-federal-report-says\">national climate assessments\u003c/a>. However, the U.N. report does provide important global context for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/04/16/987667828/how-the-u-s-could-halve-climate-emissions-by-2030\">Biden administration’s promise\u003c/a> to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in half this decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The target that the Biden-Harris administration articulated earlier this year is the most ambitious ever in U.S. history,” says Jane Lubchenco, the deputy director for climate and environment at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. “This report is telling us we need to be ambitious. We probably need to be even more so.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s unclear how the U.S. will achieve the goal it has already set, let alone an accelerated goal. The infrastructure package Congress is currently considering includes some investments in cleaner electricity, public transit and electric appliances and vehicles. Meanwhile, other major economies including China and India are not on track to reduce their emissions this decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\">NPR.org\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=A+Major+Report+Warns+Climate+Change+Is+Accelerating+And+Humans+Must+Cut+Emissions+Now&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "The U.N. has released the most comprehensive global climate science report ever. It is unequivocal: Humans must stop burning fossil fuels or suffer catastrophic impacts.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Global climate change is accelerating and human-caused emissions of greenhouse gases are the overwhelming cause, according to a landmark report released Monday by the United Nations. There is still time to avoid catastrophic warming this century, but only if countries around the world stop burning fossil fuels as quickly as possible, the authors warn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The message to world leaders is more dire, and more unequivocal, than ever before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is indisputable that human activities are causing climate change,” says Ko Barrett, the vice chair of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the senior adviser for climate at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “Each of the last four decades has been the warmest on record since preindustrial times.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The authors — nearly 200 leading climate scientists — hope the report’s findings will be front and center when world leaders meet for a major climate conference in November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The effects of that warming are obvious and deadly around the world. \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/07/29/1022241936/climate-change-is-driving-deadly-weather-disasters-from-arizona-to-mumbai\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Heat waves, droughts and floods\u003c/a> are killing people and disrupting lives around the world this summer. Wildfires are burning with unprecedented frequency and intensity, including in places that used to rarely burn. Smoke and smog are choking people in cities and towns from Asia to the Arctic. Ocean heat waves are threatening entire ecosystems and supercharging hurricanes and typhoons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The science is clear: Human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are the primary driver of such changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Human-caused Greenhouse Gas Emissions Are Causing Extreme Weather\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>One of the biggest recent advances in climate research is in the field of so-called attribution science, which ties global warming to individual weather events such as hurricanes or heat waves. Scientists can now say with certainty that humans are causing more extreme weather, including heavy downpours and extended heat waves and droughts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This whiplash — this increase in both extreme wet and dry events — is projected to increase through the 21st century,” says Kim Cobb, one of the report authors and a paleoclimate scientist at Georgia Institute of Technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is the first time that paleoclimate researchers, who study the climate of the past to understand how Earth will change in the future, have helped write every chapter of the report. Their work helps put today’s climate in perspective. “We can now say global surface temps are reaching levels not seen in 100,000 years,” says Cobb. “The rate of warming since 1970 is higher than any 50-year period in the last 2,000 years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report also confirms that global sea level rise is accelerating. Globally, sea levels rose about 8 inches on average between 1901 and 2018, although the water rose much more in some places, including in some cities on the East Coast and Gulf Coast of the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sea level rise is primarily driven by melting glaciers, and Arctic ice. There’s a lag between emissions and ice melting, which means even if humans were to stop all greenhouse gas emissions today, sea levels would \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/04/14/981333730/carbon-emissions-could-plummet-the-atmosphere-will-lag-behind\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">continue to rise for a few decades\u003c/a>, the report notes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sea level change through the middle of this century has largely been locked in,” says Bob Kopp, one of the report’s authors and the director of the Institute of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at Rutgers University. That means no matter what, people living in coastal areas will need to adapt to higher seas.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Scientists Say It’s Not too Late\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Despite the disastrous descriptions of our hotter Earth, the new report also makes clear that it is not too late to curb global warming. The more humans reduce emissions this decade, the more livable Earth will be for the rest of this century and for many centuries to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the big questions posed by world leaders is whether it’s still possible to meet the targets set by the 2015 Paris climate agreement. That agreement seeks to limit global warming to well under 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), and ideally keep it below 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees F). Earth is already about 1 degree Celsius hotter than it was in the late 1800s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the biggest economies in the world are not on track to meet those temperature targets because they continue to rely too heavily on fossil fuels for electricity, transportation and industry — including most polluting fuels such as coal. That \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/11/05/931837310/the-us-and-the-paris-climate-agreement-5-things-to-know\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">includes the U.S.\u003c/a>, which has cut emissions very slowly in recent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new report finds that it is still possible to meet the targets set under the Paris agreement, but it gets more difficult with every passing day. The authors used five theoretical scenarios to predict future global warming. The scenarios include different levels of greenhouse gas emissions, as well as economic and population growth and political collaboration. Under all five scenarios, Earth hits 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) in the next two decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Is it still possible to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees [Celsius]? The answer is yes,” says Maisa Rojas Corradi, a report author and climate scientist at the University of Chile. “But unless there are immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions of all greenhouse gases, limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees will be beyond reach.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The authors found that if countries around the world dramatically and permanently cut emissions immediately, Earth will start getting cooler around the middle of this century. On the other hand, if countries move more slowly to curb emissions or fail to transition to cleaner sources of energy, Earth could warm by 4 degrees Celsius (7.2 degrees F) or more by the end of the century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think a key message here is that it is still possible to forestall most of the most dire impacts, but it really requires unprecedented, transformational change,” says Barrett, the IPCC vice chair. “But the idea that there still is a pathway forward I think is a point that should give us some hope.”\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/cQlQL5obqDs'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/cQlQL5obqDs'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003ch3>Climate Change is Global, But Solutions Are Local\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>This is the sixth edition of the IPCC’s climate science report, and it is the first time scientists have broken down their findings and predictions by region. That’s a big deal because many countries rely on such reports to understand what the future will look like for their citizens and which policies make the most sense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, the pace of sea level rise varies dramatically depending on where you live. Governments need regional information to decide where to build new infrastructure and how to protect existing coastal cities. The same is true for drought and flooding from rainstorms, which disrupt agriculture and drinking water supplies. Major cities including \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/09/14/648016169/did-cape-town-learn-from-day-zero\">Cape Town, South Africa\u003c/a>, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/07/18/742688141/the-water-crisis-in-chennai-whos-to-blame-how-do-you-fix-it\">Chennai, India\u003c/a>, have struggled to maintain reservoirs in recent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s very important that this report gives regional information that is going to help us make decisions at the regional level,” says Paola Arias, one of the report authors and a climate scientist at the University of Antioquia in Colombia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it comes to adaptation, the U.S. relies less on the specific information in this report because the federal government regularly releases \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/11/23/668555773/climate-change-is-already-hurting-u-s-communities-federal-report-says\">national climate assessments\u003c/a>. However, the U.N. report does provide important global context for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/04/16/987667828/how-the-u-s-could-halve-climate-emissions-by-2030\">Biden administration’s promise\u003c/a> to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in half this decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The target that the Biden-Harris administration articulated earlier this year is the most ambitious ever in U.S. history,” says Jane Lubchenco, the deputy director for climate and environment at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. “This report is telling us we need to be ambitious. We probably need to be even more so.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s unclear how the U.S. will achieve the goal it has already set, let alone an accelerated goal. The infrastructure package Congress is currently considering includes some investments in cleaner electricity, public transit and electric appliances and vehicles. Meanwhile, other major economies including China and India are not on track to reduce their emissions this decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\">NPR.org\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=A+Major+Report+Warns+Climate+Change+Is+Accelerating+And+Humans+Must+Cut+Emissions+Now&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "The Latest Global Climate Report Is Set to Publish. Here's What to Expect",
"headTitle": "The Latest Global Climate Report Is Set to Publish. Here’s What to Expect | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>It’s been nearly a decade since the United Nations released its last climate change assessment. That dire \u003ca href=\"https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg1/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">report\u003c/a>, which was published in 2014, described in detail how the burning of fossil fuels is altering the climate, leading to increasingly severe drought, worsening wildfires, and mass die-offs of coral reefs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, hundreds of the world’s top scientists hashed out final details of the next U.N. report, as much of the world is tested, again, by scorching heat waves, destructive floods, and megafires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Lara Kueppers, climate scientist at Berkeley Lab\"]‘This is our best and most comprehensive update on the state of international climate science, and it provides a foundation for international policy development as we move forward.’[/pullquote]The next iteration of the assessment could be published on Aug. 9, pending approval by the researchers convened by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It will be the sixth edition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This latest report aims to guide government decisions on addressing global warming and adapting to its impacts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NPR\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1975970/climate-scientists-meet-as-dangerous-fires-floods-and-droughts-test-the-world\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> reported\u003c/a> that the new IPCC study will include a set of five hypothetical policy scenarios, “a collection of imaginary worlds in which countries pursue different sets of climate policies.” These scenarios will take into account carbon emissions reductions, population growth, economic development, and technological change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is our best and most comprehensive update on the state of international climate science, and it provides a foundation for international policy development as we move forward,” Lara Kueppers, a UC Berkeley professor and climate scientist at Berkeley Lab, told KQED’s Brian Watt last week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But given the breakneck pace at which climate science is evolving, and the escalating destruction from warming-driven environmental disasters, Kueppers thinks it’s time for faster, locally focused assessments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve really left it up to the IPCC, but it’s clear that scientific support for local planning and decision-making is necessary — and the need for this is only growing,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kueppers interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How do the IPCC assessments get used?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At best, this document will spur more concerted policy action on climate. At worst it will be a virtual doorstop. The printed and bound versions of these past assessments are quite weighty. Unfortunately, current climate commitments, including the pledges by the Biden administration and other nations, are still insufficient to meet the Paris Agreement’s goal to limit warming to one-and-a-half degrees globally, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://climateactiontracker.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Climate Action Tracker,\u003c/a> which follows all of these commitments closely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]My hope is really that all that we’ve learned [since the last assessment published], from the warming that we’ve seen in the ocean, to the rapid changes that we’ve seen in the cryosphere, to even the more finely resolved images of future impacts on human health and livelihoods, spurs the needed policy progress that nations around the world hope to see.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Can you describe the pace at which climate science is evolving?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Climate research and the effects of human economic activity on the climate really have a long history. And the scope and the depth of the science has really advanced quite rapidly in recent decades. But at the same time, the fundamentals have really remained the same for a century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back at the end of the 1800s, a Swedish scientist named \u003ca href=\"https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1903/arrhenius/biographical/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Svante Arrhenius\u003c/a> provided the first \u003ca href=\"https://www.rsc.org/images/Arrhenius1896_tcm18-173546.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">estimate \u003c/a> of how increasing global CO2 from burning coal would push up temperatures around the globe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This was a grainy black and white photograph of future climate. But the subsequent research has really added important color and resolution to that photograph. And I would say now the state of climate science has provided a high-definition image of what we can expect as the climate continues to evolve. And these recent events, even just the last year, are a trailer of our climate future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Our governor says California is experiencing climate change fast forward. The impacts are here now and happening fast. Sounds like you agree with him? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"related coverage\" tag=\"climate-change\"]I absolutely agree. California, like everywhere else on the planet, is experiencing the changing climate right now. We know that episodic droughts are natural occurrences in the state, but coupled with higher temperatures, this really puts incredible stress on agriculture and on our natural ecosystems. The warmer temperatures are drying vegetation faster and leading to longer fire seasons. And our firefighters really recognize this as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, the warmer winters are allowing populations of tree-damaging insects to multiply faster, and they’re putting drought-stressed forests at greater risk. We are well on the path to a new climate normal. And that path is going to be pretty rocky in nearly every part of the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Given all of that, do we need these big U.N. reports to come faster?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think so. In the past decades, we’ve really been content to leave the climate change policy to international diplomats, our federal, and even state representatives. The science input that they get, we’ve left up to the IPCC. But it’s clear that scientific support for local planning and decision-making is necessary — and the need for this is only growing. An influx of information every seven years is not quite adequate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even the U.N. has asked the IPCC for more specific, policy-directed interim reports. We need to address these needs. And to do that, we require new kinds of partnerships between scientists and communities and new organizational infrastructure as well. This is a pretty tall order, but I know it’s one that many climate researchers are willing to support. And I expect that there are communities around the state who would be very grateful to have more regular input and a clearer vision for what their communities can expect as they make decisions about issues like land-use planning or public safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>It’s been nearly a decade since the United Nations released its last climate change assessment. That dire \u003ca href=\"https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg1/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">report\u003c/a>, which was published in 2014, described in detail how the burning of fossil fuels is altering the climate, leading to increasingly severe drought, worsening wildfires, and mass die-offs of coral reefs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, hundreds of the world’s top scientists hashed out final details of the next U.N. report, as much of the world is tested, again, by scorching heat waves, destructive floods, and megafires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The next iteration of the assessment could be published on Aug. 9, pending approval by the researchers convened by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It will be the sixth edition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This latest report aims to guide government decisions on addressing global warming and adapting to its impacts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NPR\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1975970/climate-scientists-meet-as-dangerous-fires-floods-and-droughts-test-the-world\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> reported\u003c/a> that the new IPCC study will include a set of five hypothetical policy scenarios, “a collection of imaginary worlds in which countries pursue different sets of climate policies.” These scenarios will take into account carbon emissions reductions, population growth, economic development, and technological change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is our best and most comprehensive update on the state of international climate science, and it provides a foundation for international policy development as we move forward,” Lara Kueppers, a UC Berkeley professor and climate scientist at Berkeley Lab, told KQED’s Brian Watt last week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But given the breakneck pace at which climate science is evolving, and the escalating destruction from warming-driven environmental disasters, Kueppers thinks it’s time for faster, locally focused assessments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve really left it up to the IPCC, but it’s clear that scientific support for local planning and decision-making is necessary — and the need for this is only growing,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kueppers interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How do the IPCC assessments get used?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At best, this document will spur more concerted policy action on climate. At worst it will be a virtual doorstop. The printed and bound versions of these past assessments are quite weighty. Unfortunately, current climate commitments, including the pledges by the Biden administration and other nations, are still insufficient to meet the Paris Agreement’s goal to limit warming to one-and-a-half degrees globally, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://climateactiontracker.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Climate Action Tracker,\u003c/a> which follows all of these commitments closely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>My hope is really that all that we’ve learned [since the last assessment published], from the warming that we’ve seen in the ocean, to the rapid changes that we’ve seen in the cryosphere, to even the more finely resolved images of future impacts on human health and livelihoods, spurs the needed policy progress that nations around the world hope to see.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Can you describe the pace at which climate science is evolving?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Climate research and the effects of human economic activity on the climate really have a long history. And the scope and the depth of the science has really advanced quite rapidly in recent decades. But at the same time, the fundamentals have really remained the same for a century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back at the end of the 1800s, a Swedish scientist named \u003ca href=\"https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1903/arrhenius/biographical/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Svante Arrhenius\u003c/a> provided the first \u003ca href=\"https://www.rsc.org/images/Arrhenius1896_tcm18-173546.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">estimate \u003c/a> of how increasing global CO2 from burning coal would push up temperatures around the globe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This was a grainy black and white photograph of future climate. But the subsequent research has really added important color and resolution to that photograph. And I would say now the state of climate science has provided a high-definition image of what we can expect as the climate continues to evolve. And these recent events, even just the last year, are a trailer of our climate future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Our governor says California is experiencing climate change fast forward. The impacts are here now and happening fast. Sounds like you agree with him? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>I absolutely agree. California, like everywhere else on the planet, is experiencing the changing climate right now. We know that episodic droughts are natural occurrences in the state, but coupled with higher temperatures, this really puts incredible stress on agriculture and on our natural ecosystems. The warmer temperatures are drying vegetation faster and leading to longer fire seasons. And our firefighters really recognize this as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, the warmer winters are allowing populations of tree-damaging insects to multiply faster, and they’re putting drought-stressed forests at greater risk. We are well on the path to a new climate normal. And that path is going to be pretty rocky in nearly every part of the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Given all of that, do we need these big U.N. reports to come faster?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think so. In the past decades, we’ve really been content to leave the climate change policy to international diplomats, our federal, and even state representatives. The science input that they get, we’ve left up to the IPCC. But it’s clear that scientific support for local planning and decision-making is necessary — and the need for this is only growing. An influx of information every seven years is not quite adequate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even the U.N. has asked the IPCC for more specific, policy-directed interim reports. We need to address these needs. And to do that, we require new kinds of partnerships between scientists and communities and new organizational infrastructure as well. This is a pretty tall order, but I know it’s one that many climate researchers are willing to support. And I expect that there are communities around the state who would be very grateful to have more regular input and a clearer vision for what their communities can expect as they make decisions about issues like land-use planning or public safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Gripped by Drought, Marin Considers Desalination, Water Pipeline Over the Richmond Bridge",
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"content": "\u003cp>As the drought deepens across the West, coastal cities are considering whether or not to filter ocean water as a solution to their water woes. In the Bay Area, \u003ca href=\"https://www.marinwater.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Marin Water\u003c/a> is mulling plans to draw its drinking water from the San Francisco Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reservoir levels in Marin County are at historic lows this year, and water leaders are calling for a 40% reduction. So far the county has reached a 23% reduction, says \u003ca href=\"https://www.marinwater.org/board-contact\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cynthia Koehler\u003c/a>, president of the agency’s board of directors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to do more,” she said. “We’re expecting another relatively low rainfall year. So, we’re preparing not just for right now, but really for 2022.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The harrowing prospect of another dry winter has the district toying, once again, with the idea of desalination, a process — removing salt and minerals from the sea for clean drinking water — that is simple in principle, maddeningly complicated in practice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s how it works: Salty water is pumped in from the ocean, filtered, chemically treated and then forced with high pressure through hole-lined pipes, which are tightly bound by a special polymer membrane — basically a microscopic strainer. Salt, bacteria and viruses can’t get through the membrane. Fresh water escapes, brine remains in the tubes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marin Water looked at desalination twice in three decades. It shelved a desalination project in 2010 after water use declined, following a couple of dry years. One reason the agency ditched the idea? Cost concerns, which — at the time — could have been as much as $173 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The cost was disproportionately high,” Koehler said, who joined the district 15 years ago “It’s not a light switch, you can’t turn it on or off, you’ve got to run it all the time. And so it would have been our most expensive source of supply.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A shoreline project the district is now considering would cost in the ballpark of $37 million, and could clean enough water to fulfill about a third of the county’s drinking water needs. The agency could lease some facilities, keeping the costs down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Agency staff are considering a floating facility on a barge, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They say the boat is likely more expensive and does “not appear feasible for a number of reasons” Koehler said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The terrestrial plant, while cheaper than the floating barge and “technically feasible” still has “fairly high costs associated with it,” she noted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A third option — not desalination, a pipeline over the bridge from Richmond to San Rafael to pump water from the East Bay — is likely to win out, Koehler said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency could buy water from farmers in the Central Valley and elsewhere. Koehler said it is still somewhat up in the air about where the water would come from, but staff is meeting with neighbor agencies like the East Bay Municipal Utility District and others much further away in Amador, Placer and Yuba counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if the drought worsens other areas of the state could be more in need and the water may go to them instead. If the 6-mile pipeline is successful it could provide for all essential homes, businesses, and other indoor water use, and it would cost between $66 million and $88 million — which is more expensive than the desalination option, but would cover a large percentage of the county’s water needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The preliminary information is that there would be water on the market in California, if we were able to get that infrastructure in place,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But these options are not quick fixes to the current water shortage and wouldn’t be ready until at least June 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A decision could come by the end of the year, but Koehler says the best current option is water conservation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want a community that is beautiful and that has landscaping, but native landscaping, low-water landscaping, Earthscape, all of these are options that don’t require that level of investment,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marin isn’t the only Bay Area community considering desalination. The city of Antioch is \u003ca href=\"http://www.antiochbrackishdesal.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">building a plant to clean brackish water from the San Joaquin River\u003c/a>. It’s supposed to be completed in 2023. When the $100 million project is finished it will allow water to be used from the river year-round instead of purchasing costly water from other agencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmental factors essentially forced the city’s hand, says\u003ca href=\"https://eesa.lbl.gov/profiles/peter-sewell-fiske/\"> Peter Fiske\u003c/a>, director for the National Alliance for Water Innovation at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Because of climate change and the drought the salinity of that river is getting worse and worse,” he said “They got to the point where they were like, ‘Oh, my God, I guess we’re going to have to desalinate.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Desalination doesn’t make sense for every city, because of the high cost and harm it can cause to marine ecosystems. Fiske says other options should be adopted first, like cleaning wastewater.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Across the Bay Area, we generate a lot of wastewater,” he said. “We are essentially throwing it back into the bay and much of that wastewater could be reprocessed and reused.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/AdrianCovert?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Adrian Covert\u003c/a>, senior vice president of public policy at the Bay Area Council, a business and industry group, \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">recently \u003ca href=\"https://adriancovert.substack.com/p/how-much-would-it-cost-to-drought\">evaluated desalination regionally\u003c/a> and found that recycling water could have a large impact. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every year, the Bay Area pumps about 500,000 acre feet of highly treated wastewater into the bay,” he said. “It’s more than enough to meet the Bay Area’s water demand through 2040. And because wastewater is cleaner than ocean water, treating it to potable standards is also about 20% cheaper than desalinating water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Agencies like Santa Clara Valley Water, which provides water to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1975989/san-jose-relies-on-water-from-the-sierra-nevada-climate-change-is-challenging-that-system\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2 million people in the San Jose area\u003c/a>, are planning on doubling recycling water efforts. But that still only equals about 10% of their water supply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://innovation.luskin.ucla.edu/team/gregory-pierce/\">Gregory Pierce \u003c/a>agrees that recycling water or fixing infrastructure is a faster solution than constructing a desalination plant. In a \u003ca href=\"https://innovation.luskin.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Analyzing_Southern_CA_Supply_Investments_from_a_Human_Right_to_Water_Perspective.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2019 study,\u003c/a> he examined the impact desalination could have on low-income or marginalized communities as the co-director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pierce says people need “an even higher ethic of water conservation” because saving water is about preserving life for all Californians, not just the wealthy, with sprawling green lawns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In California, I think desalination can be part of the answer. But it’s not the best answer right now or in the near term,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pierce says desalination can hurt the environment and water agencies often push the high cost onto ratepayers. Desalination doesn’t encourage people to use less water and could lead to agencies delaying upgrades to aging, leaky water systems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a concept, desalination sounds good, he says, but it’s not usually delivered equitably. If water is truly a human right, it should be affordable to everyone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/AndreaLeon?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Andrea León-Grossmann\u003c/a>, director of climate action for the ocean conservation group Azul, advocates against desalination because the high costs are shouldered by ratepayers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Proponents claim it will be a few dollars a month,” she said. “For them, it might be a few dollars a month, but for someone who’s struggling to put food on the table that is a struggle.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She says there are better options for dealing with water shortages, like recycling water and fixing leaky pipes that waste water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we were to plug all those pipes and invest in maintaining our infrastructure that could provide a lot more water than building desalination plants,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Desalination isn’t just expensive, it’s hard on ocean life, says \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/DanielOceanPhys\">Daniel Ellis\u003c/a>, a senior scientist with the state water board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’re not just killing the phytoplankton, you’re also killing the food source for the broader food web,” he said. “The second part of the environmental impact is you take in ocean water, you take out the freshwater and you’re left with a lot of salt.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ellis says the brine byproduct can be twice as salty, and when it’s pumped back into the ocean, can be toxic for some aquatic life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though desalination is theoretically becoming more popular — there are, at least, \u003ca href=\"https://adriancovert.substack.com/p/how-much-would-it-cost-to-drought\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">11 active seawater desalination plants statewide\u003c/a> — he says there are only a few new pending projects in the state, like those in \u003ca href=\"https://www.poseidonwater.com/huntington-beach-desalination-plant.html#:~:text=The%20Huntington%20Beach%20Desalination%20Plant,to%20be%20operational%20by%202023.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Huntington Beach\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://scwd.org/depts/engineering/projects/water_supply_projects/oceandesal3/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Laguna Beach\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Correction: A previous version of the story mislabeled the San Joaquin River. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"title": "Gripped by Drought, Marin Considers Desalination, Water Pipeline Over the Richmond Bridge | KQED",
"description": "The harrowing prospect of another dry winter has Marin County toying, once again, with the idea of desalination.",
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"headline": "Gripped by Drought, Marin Considers Desalination, Water Pipeline Over the Richmond Bridge",
"datePublished": "2021-08-02T06:00:18-07:00",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>As the drought deepens across the West, coastal cities are considering whether or not to filter ocean water as a solution to their water woes. In the Bay Area, \u003ca href=\"https://www.marinwater.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Marin Water\u003c/a> is mulling plans to draw its drinking water from the San Francisco Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reservoir levels in Marin County are at historic lows this year, and water leaders are calling for a 40% reduction. So far the county has reached a 23% reduction, says \u003ca href=\"https://www.marinwater.org/board-contact\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cynthia Koehler\u003c/a>, president of the agency’s board of directors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to do more,” she said. “We’re expecting another relatively low rainfall year. So, we’re preparing not just for right now, but really for 2022.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The harrowing prospect of another dry winter has the district toying, once again, with the idea of desalination, a process — removing salt and minerals from the sea for clean drinking water — that is simple in principle, maddeningly complicated in practice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s how it works: Salty water is pumped in from the ocean, filtered, chemically treated and then forced with high pressure through hole-lined pipes, which are tightly bound by a special polymer membrane — basically a microscopic strainer. Salt, bacteria and viruses can’t get through the membrane. Fresh water escapes, brine remains in the tubes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marin Water looked at desalination twice in three decades. It shelved a desalination project in 2010 after water use declined, following a couple of dry years. One reason the agency ditched the idea? Cost concerns, which — at the time — could have been as much as $173 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The cost was disproportionately high,” Koehler said, who joined the district 15 years ago “It’s not a light switch, you can’t turn it on or off, you’ve got to run it all the time. And so it would have been our most expensive source of supply.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A shoreline project the district is now considering would cost in the ballpark of $37 million, and could clean enough water to fulfill about a third of the county’s drinking water needs. The agency could lease some facilities, keeping the costs down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Agency staff are considering a floating facility on a barge, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They say the boat is likely more expensive and does “not appear feasible for a number of reasons” Koehler said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The terrestrial plant, while cheaper than the floating barge and “technically feasible” still has “fairly high costs associated with it,” she noted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A third option — not desalination, a pipeline over the bridge from Richmond to San Rafael to pump water from the East Bay — is likely to win out, Koehler said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency could buy water from farmers in the Central Valley and elsewhere. Koehler said it is still somewhat up in the air about where the water would come from, but staff is meeting with neighbor agencies like the East Bay Municipal Utility District and others much further away in Amador, Placer and Yuba counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if the drought worsens other areas of the state could be more in need and the water may go to them instead. If the 6-mile pipeline is successful it could provide for all essential homes, businesses, and other indoor water use, and it would cost between $66 million and $88 million — which is more expensive than the desalination option, but would cover a large percentage of the county’s water needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The preliminary information is that there would be water on the market in California, if we were able to get that infrastructure in place,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But these options are not quick fixes to the current water shortage and wouldn’t be ready until at least June 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A decision could come by the end of the year, but Koehler says the best current option is water conservation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want a community that is beautiful and that has landscaping, but native landscaping, low-water landscaping, Earthscape, all of these are options that don’t require that level of investment,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marin isn’t the only Bay Area community considering desalination. The city of Antioch is \u003ca href=\"http://www.antiochbrackishdesal.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">building a plant to clean brackish water from the San Joaquin River\u003c/a>. It’s supposed to be completed in 2023. When the $100 million project is finished it will allow water to be used from the river year-round instead of purchasing costly water from other agencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmental factors essentially forced the city’s hand, says\u003ca href=\"https://eesa.lbl.gov/profiles/peter-sewell-fiske/\"> Peter Fiske\u003c/a>, director for the National Alliance for Water Innovation at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Because of climate change and the drought the salinity of that river is getting worse and worse,” he said “They got to the point where they were like, ‘Oh, my God, I guess we’re going to have to desalinate.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Desalination doesn’t make sense for every city, because of the high cost and harm it can cause to marine ecosystems. Fiske says other options should be adopted first, like cleaning wastewater.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Across the Bay Area, we generate a lot of wastewater,” he said. “We are essentially throwing it back into the bay and much of that wastewater could be reprocessed and reused.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/AdrianCovert?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Adrian Covert\u003c/a>, senior vice president of public policy at the Bay Area Council, a business and industry group, \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">recently \u003ca href=\"https://adriancovert.substack.com/p/how-much-would-it-cost-to-drought\">evaluated desalination regionally\u003c/a> and found that recycling water could have a large impact. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every year, the Bay Area pumps about 500,000 acre feet of highly treated wastewater into the bay,” he said. “It’s more than enough to meet the Bay Area’s water demand through 2040. And because wastewater is cleaner than ocean water, treating it to potable standards is also about 20% cheaper than desalinating water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Agencies like Santa Clara Valley Water, which provides water to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1975989/san-jose-relies-on-water-from-the-sierra-nevada-climate-change-is-challenging-that-system\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2 million people in the San Jose area\u003c/a>, are planning on doubling recycling water efforts. But that still only equals about 10% of their water supply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://innovation.luskin.ucla.edu/team/gregory-pierce/\">Gregory Pierce \u003c/a>agrees that recycling water or fixing infrastructure is a faster solution than constructing a desalination plant. In a \u003ca href=\"https://innovation.luskin.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Analyzing_Southern_CA_Supply_Investments_from_a_Human_Right_to_Water_Perspective.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2019 study,\u003c/a> he examined the impact desalination could have on low-income or marginalized communities as the co-director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pierce says people need “an even higher ethic of water conservation” because saving water is about preserving life for all Californians, not just the wealthy, with sprawling green lawns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In California, I think desalination can be part of the answer. But it’s not the best answer right now or in the near term,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pierce says desalination can hurt the environment and water agencies often push the high cost onto ratepayers. Desalination doesn’t encourage people to use less water and could lead to agencies delaying upgrades to aging, leaky water systems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a concept, desalination sounds good, he says, but it’s not usually delivered equitably. If water is truly a human right, it should be affordable to everyone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/AndreaLeon?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Andrea León-Grossmann\u003c/a>, director of climate action for the ocean conservation group Azul, advocates against desalination because the high costs are shouldered by ratepayers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Proponents claim it will be a few dollars a month,” she said. “For them, it might be a few dollars a month, but for someone who’s struggling to put food on the table that is a struggle.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She says there are better options for dealing with water shortages, like recycling water and fixing leaky pipes that waste water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we were to plug all those pipes and invest in maintaining our infrastructure that could provide a lot more water than building desalination plants,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Desalination isn’t just expensive, it’s hard on ocean life, says \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/DanielOceanPhys\">Daniel Ellis\u003c/a>, a senior scientist with the state water board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’re not just killing the phytoplankton, you’re also killing the food source for the broader food web,” he said. “The second part of the environmental impact is you take in ocean water, you take out the freshwater and you’re left with a lot of salt.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ellis says the brine byproduct can be twice as salty, and when it’s pumped back into the ocean, can be toxic for some aquatic life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though desalination is theoretically becoming more popular — there are, at least, \u003ca href=\"https://adriancovert.substack.com/p/how-much-would-it-cost-to-drought\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">11 active seawater desalination plants statewide\u003c/a> — he says there are only a few new pending projects in the state, like those in \u003ca href=\"https://www.poseidonwater.com/huntington-beach-desalination-plant.html#:~:text=The%20Huntington%20Beach%20Desalination%20Plant,to%20be%20operational%20by%202023.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Huntington Beach\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://scwd.org/depts/engineering/projects/water_supply_projects/oceandesal3/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Laguna Beach\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Correction: A previous version of the story mislabeled the San Joaquin River. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "San Jose Relies On Water From the Sierra Nevada. Climate Change Is Challenging That System",
"headTitle": "San Jose Relies On Water From the Sierra Nevada. Climate Change Is Challenging That System | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>In Santa Clara County, lawns are dry, a reservoir is nearly empty, and water restrictions are mandated. After two winters with very little rain — and San Jose’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/07/11/how-bad-is-this-fire-season-in-california-really-going-to-be/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">driest year in 128 years of record keeping\u003c/a> — the county is marked by one of the worst droughts in modern history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Clara County’s experience of drought is set apart from the rest of the state by a myriad of issues — less water from the Sierra Nevada, the effect of human-caused climate change on water supplies, and a case of incredibly bad luck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a dire emergency caused by the confluence of several horrible things happening all at the same time,” said Gary Kremen, director of \u003ca href=\"https://www.valleywater.org/director-gary-kremen-biography\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Santa Clara Valley Water\u003c/a>. “This isn’t like someone crying wolf.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Valley Water relies heavily on water from the Sierra Nevada snowpack more than 100 miles away. But the agency only received 5% of the water it contracts from the state this year, a quarter of what it sources from the feds, and very little local rainfall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have 2 million people in the county, compared to San Francisco’s 800,000 or Oakland’s 500,000,” he noted. “This is where the people live. We use a lot of water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kremen likens the drought situation in his water district to someone losing their job without savings to fall back on and no outside help to get them through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You got no money coming in and none of your relatives want to send you any money because they have their own difficulties,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Clara County is so dry and the water levels so low, that Kremen’s agency now requires a 15% reduction in water use from all people and businesses. That amount may not not sound like a lot, but if it doesn’t rain this winter, places like San Jose could be in deep trouble next spring or summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I do not believe there’s enough water for a third year [of drought],” Kremen said. “It’s gotten horrible very quick.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975990\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1975990\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50396_IMG_5850_Science_EzraRomero_SanJose-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50396_IMG_5850_Science_EzraRomero_SanJose-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50396_IMG_5850_Science_EzraRomero_SanJose-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50396_IMG_5850_Science_EzraRomero_SanJose-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50396_IMG_5850_Science_EzraRomero_SanJose-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50396_IMG_5850_Science_EzraRomero_SanJose-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50396_IMG_5850_Science_EzraRomero_SanJose-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Anderson Lake is 3% full after it was drained so the dam could undergo a seismic retrofit. \u003ccite>(Ezra David Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Kicker\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The kicker on top of two very dry years in a row? The largest reservoir in Valley Water’s system is virtually empty at 3% full, after it was emptied so that the Anderson Dam near Morgan Hill could undergo seismic retrofitting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When it’s full this is our primary water supply in addition to our aquifer,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.valleywater.org/director-john-varela-biography\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">John Varela\u003c/a> , a director on the Santa Clara Valley Water District Board of Directors. “But it’s empty, and we’re in a drought, so it’s not a good time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency drained the reservoir because the dam is vulnerable to shaking from a severe earthquake. The state wanted to make sure it could withstand at least a magnitude 7.0 quake, and the federal government mandated the retrofit. The work won’t be finished for about a decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>A Fundamentally Different Climate\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, Varela says the water district is exploring one possible solution for future water shortages: recycling wastewater. That clean water would then go back into the earth, restoring aquifers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We feel that recycled water is the sustainable water supply of the future,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency currently recycles 5% of its water at a facility in San Jose. Varela says the district is partnering with Palo Alto and Mountain View to build a second facility, and with Morgan Hill and Gilroy for a third. He said preliminary conversations are taking place around creating pipelines throughout the county to share water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district would like to double the amount of recycled water in the coming years. But warming temperatures are threatening the very system that supplies water to San Jose, and recycling efforts and other measures might not be enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We now live in a fundamentally different climate,” said climate scientist \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/katerina_gonz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Katerina Gonzales,\u003c/a> who studies the causes and impacts of extreme precipitation at the University of Minnesota. She recently finished her dissertation at Stanford, where she focused on the West.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975993\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1975993\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50378_013_SanJose_Drought_07212021-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50378_013_SanJose_Drought_07212021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50378_013_SanJose_Drought_07212021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50378_013_SanJose_Drought_07212021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50378_013_SanJose_Drought_07212021-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50378_013_SanJose_Drought_07212021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50378_013_SanJose_Drought_07212021-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tall, dry grass grows across from a green yard in the Cambrian neighborhood located in West San Jose on July 21, 2021. (Beth LaBerge/KQED).\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She says warming has condensed the rainy season and is decreasing the annual snowpack. Both are challenging California’s aging water system, which was designed to gradually collect runoff from snowmelt. Not to capture a winter’s worth of rainfall during a couple big, wet storms, known as atmospheric rivers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Changes in atmospheric rivers affect almost every part of our infrastructure that deals with our relationship to water,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If storms come too early in the rain season, reservoirs fill up, creating a flooding risk. If water managers release water too soon in a drought year, it could mean dry reservoirs down the line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can’t rely on this assurance of drought busting atmospheric rivers because of the way that the ingredients in the atmosphere have changed,” Gonzales said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If California’s water system doesn’t evolve to mitigate impacts from climate change, Gonzales says places like San Jose will continue to have water issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State water officials seem to agree that the system has to change. \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/Executive-Bios-Director\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Karla Nemeth\u003c/a>, director of the California Department of Water Resources, says the state’s water system needs a major overhaul and Californians will need to save more water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re still working off past hydrology that was feeding a state that had fewer people,” she said. “All that needs to change, and it can change, if we get focused on how we adapt all of our modeling and operations to accommodate more climate extremes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975995\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1975995\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50394_IMG_5815_Science_EzraRomero_SanJose-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50394_IMG_5815_Science_EzraRomero_SanJose-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50394_IMG_5815_Science_EzraRomero_SanJose-qut-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50394_IMG_5815_Science_EzraRomero_SanJose-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50394_IMG_5815_Science_EzraRomero_SanJose-qut-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50394_IMG_5815_Science_EzraRomero_SanJose-qut-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50394_IMG_5815_Science_EzraRomero_SanJose-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adam Whyte, 18, spreads mulch around his front yard. The family lawn died in the last drought. \u003ccite>(Ezra David Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What Drought Means For Residents\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For residents in the San Jose region, these water woes translate to mandatory 15% water restrictions. People are cutting back mostly on irrigation, like watering lawns, gardens and parks. Even though people are letting their lawns go, water leaders say that can be avoided.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Your lawn is still going to be nice, it just takes a little bit more time to be judicious about it, reprogramming your irrigation control to the right duration,” said John Tang, vice president of regulatory affairs for \u003ca href=\"https://www.sjwater.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">San Jose Water. \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tang says people have learned to save water since the last drought in San Jose. Statewide, Californians use 16% less water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s certain homes around here that have really heeded the call for conservation,” he said. “People are ripping out lawns and putting in drought tolerant landscaping.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says the 15% water reduction is mandatory, but the city is focusing on education and not enforcement. During the last drought, reduction grew to 30%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t have any water cops driving around giving people tickets,” he said. “We see it as more of a cooperative partnership.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In San Jose, brown lawns and drought-tolerant yards are becoming commonplace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eighteen-year-old Adam Whyte’s family allowed their lawn to die during the last drought. “It was an eyesore compared to everybody else in the neighborhood who had all this perfectly nice grass,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, his family is mulching the yard with bark from a neighbor. The high school senior is spending part of his summer break with a shovel in hand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re just gonna spread it out, put up some bricks, maybe a little border,” he said. “Clearly, if we want grass that’s just gonna up the water bill. We’re not doing that.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In Santa Clara County, lawns are dry, a reservoir is nearly empty, and water restrictions are mandated. After two winters with very little rain — and San Jose’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/07/11/how-bad-is-this-fire-season-in-california-really-going-to-be/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">driest year in 128 years of record keeping\u003c/a> — the county is marked by one of the worst droughts in modern history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Clara County’s experience of drought is set apart from the rest of the state by a myriad of issues — less water from the Sierra Nevada, the effect of human-caused climate change on water supplies, and a case of incredibly bad luck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a dire emergency caused by the confluence of several horrible things happening all at the same time,” said Gary Kremen, director of \u003ca href=\"https://www.valleywater.org/director-gary-kremen-biography\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Santa Clara Valley Water\u003c/a>. “This isn’t like someone crying wolf.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Valley Water relies heavily on water from the Sierra Nevada snowpack more than 100 miles away. But the agency only received 5% of the water it contracts from the state this year, a quarter of what it sources from the feds, and very little local rainfall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have 2 million people in the county, compared to San Francisco’s 800,000 or Oakland’s 500,000,” he noted. “This is where the people live. We use a lot of water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kremen likens the drought situation in his water district to someone losing their job without savings to fall back on and no outside help to get them through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You got no money coming in and none of your relatives want to send you any money because they have their own difficulties,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Clara County is so dry and the water levels so low, that Kremen’s agency now requires a 15% reduction in water use from all people and businesses. That amount may not not sound like a lot, but if it doesn’t rain this winter, places like San Jose could be in deep trouble next spring or summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I do not believe there’s enough water for a third year [of drought],” Kremen said. “It’s gotten horrible very quick.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975990\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1975990\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50396_IMG_5850_Science_EzraRomero_SanJose-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50396_IMG_5850_Science_EzraRomero_SanJose-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50396_IMG_5850_Science_EzraRomero_SanJose-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50396_IMG_5850_Science_EzraRomero_SanJose-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50396_IMG_5850_Science_EzraRomero_SanJose-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50396_IMG_5850_Science_EzraRomero_SanJose-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50396_IMG_5850_Science_EzraRomero_SanJose-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Anderson Lake is 3% full after it was drained so the dam could undergo a seismic retrofit. \u003ccite>(Ezra David Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Kicker\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The kicker on top of two very dry years in a row? The largest reservoir in Valley Water’s system is virtually empty at 3% full, after it was emptied so that the Anderson Dam near Morgan Hill could undergo seismic retrofitting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When it’s full this is our primary water supply in addition to our aquifer,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.valleywater.org/director-john-varela-biography\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">John Varela\u003c/a> , a director on the Santa Clara Valley Water District Board of Directors. “But it’s empty, and we’re in a drought, so it’s not a good time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency drained the reservoir because the dam is vulnerable to shaking from a severe earthquake. The state wanted to make sure it could withstand at least a magnitude 7.0 quake, and the federal government mandated the retrofit. The work won’t be finished for about a decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>A Fundamentally Different Climate\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, Varela says the water district is exploring one possible solution for future water shortages: recycling wastewater. That clean water would then go back into the earth, restoring aquifers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We feel that recycled water is the sustainable water supply of the future,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency currently recycles 5% of its water at a facility in San Jose. Varela says the district is partnering with Palo Alto and Mountain View to build a second facility, and with Morgan Hill and Gilroy for a third. He said preliminary conversations are taking place around creating pipelines throughout the county to share water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district would like to double the amount of recycled water in the coming years. But warming temperatures are threatening the very system that supplies water to San Jose, and recycling efforts and other measures might not be enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We now live in a fundamentally different climate,” said climate scientist \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/katerina_gonz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Katerina Gonzales,\u003c/a> who studies the causes and impacts of extreme precipitation at the University of Minnesota. She recently finished her dissertation at Stanford, where she focused on the West.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975993\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1975993\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50378_013_SanJose_Drought_07212021-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50378_013_SanJose_Drought_07212021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50378_013_SanJose_Drought_07212021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50378_013_SanJose_Drought_07212021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50378_013_SanJose_Drought_07212021-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50378_013_SanJose_Drought_07212021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50378_013_SanJose_Drought_07212021-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tall, dry grass grows across from a green yard in the Cambrian neighborhood located in West San Jose on July 21, 2021. (Beth LaBerge/KQED).\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She says warming has condensed the rainy season and is decreasing the annual snowpack. Both are challenging California’s aging water system, which was designed to gradually collect runoff from snowmelt. Not to capture a winter’s worth of rainfall during a couple big, wet storms, known as atmospheric rivers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Changes in atmospheric rivers affect almost every part of our infrastructure that deals with our relationship to water,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If storms come too early in the rain season, reservoirs fill up, creating a flooding risk. If water managers release water too soon in a drought year, it could mean dry reservoirs down the line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can’t rely on this assurance of drought busting atmospheric rivers because of the way that the ingredients in the atmosphere have changed,” Gonzales said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If California’s water system doesn’t evolve to mitigate impacts from climate change, Gonzales says places like San Jose will continue to have water issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State water officials seem to agree that the system has to change. \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/Executive-Bios-Director\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Karla Nemeth\u003c/a>, director of the California Department of Water Resources, says the state’s water system needs a major overhaul and Californians will need to save more water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re still working off past hydrology that was feeding a state that had fewer people,” she said. “All that needs to change, and it can change, if we get focused on how we adapt all of our modeling and operations to accommodate more climate extremes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1975995\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1975995\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50394_IMG_5815_Science_EzraRomero_SanJose-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50394_IMG_5815_Science_EzraRomero_SanJose-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50394_IMG_5815_Science_EzraRomero_SanJose-qut-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50394_IMG_5815_Science_EzraRomero_SanJose-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50394_IMG_5815_Science_EzraRomero_SanJose-qut-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50394_IMG_5815_Science_EzraRomero_SanJose-qut-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/07/RS50394_IMG_5815_Science_EzraRomero_SanJose-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adam Whyte, 18, spreads mulch around his front yard. The family lawn died in the last drought. \u003ccite>(Ezra David Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What Drought Means For Residents\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For residents in the San Jose region, these water woes translate to mandatory 15% water restrictions. People are cutting back mostly on irrigation, like watering lawns, gardens and parks. Even though people are letting their lawns go, water leaders say that can be avoided.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Your lawn is still going to be nice, it just takes a little bit more time to be judicious about it, reprogramming your irrigation control to the right duration,” said John Tang, vice president of regulatory affairs for \u003ca href=\"https://www.sjwater.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">San Jose Water. \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tang says people have learned to save water since the last drought in San Jose. Statewide, Californians use 16% less water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s certain homes around here that have really heeded the call for conservation,” he said. “People are ripping out lawns and putting in drought tolerant landscaping.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says the 15% water reduction is mandatory, but the city is focusing on education and not enforcement. During the last drought, reduction grew to 30%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t have any water cops driving around giving people tickets,” he said. “We see it as more of a cooperative partnership.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In San Jose, brown lawns and drought-tolerant yards are becoming commonplace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eighteen-year-old Adam Whyte’s family allowed their lawn to die during the last drought. “It was an eyesore compared to everybody else in the neighborhood who had all this perfectly nice grass,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, his family is mulching the yard with bark from a neighbor. The high school senior is spending part of his summer break with a shovel in hand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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},
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"id": "city-arts",
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"info": "A one-hour radio program to hear celebrated writers, artists and thinkers address contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Please note: tapes or transcripts are not available",
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"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
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"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
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}
},
"closealltabs": {
"id": "closealltabs",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
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"order": 1
},
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"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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"meta": {
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"source": "WNYC"
},
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
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},
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"id": "fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"hidden-brain": {
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"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
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"source": "NPR"
},
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"how-i-built-this": {
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"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
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"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"order": 15
},
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},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
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"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
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},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"meta": {
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"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"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>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
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"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
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"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
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"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/pbs-newshour",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
"rss": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/show"
}
},
"perspectives": {
"id": "perspectives",
"title": "Perspectives",
"tagline": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991",
"info": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Perspectives_Tile_Final.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/perspectives/",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 14
},
"link": "/perspectives",
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