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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/Neq_CwpkPvsGmMG7hVOy7A?domain=insideclimatenews.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">InsideClimate News\u003c/a> is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter \u003ca href=\"https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/pD-rCxklQwf1V61yTviMEq?domain=insideclimatenews.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Frustrated with the sight of plastic bags and styrofoam containers piling up in its harbor, the city of Charleston, South Carolina, rang in the new year with a promise to start enforcing a ban on single-use plastic containers and utensils.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s one of hundreds of similar bans that have been launched across the U.S. and \u003ca href=\"https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_19_2631\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Europe\u003c/a>, amid a growing backlash to an industry that is expanding despite increasing evidence of the harm its products can do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">In just the past year, researchers have shown that tiny particles of plastic are pervasive in the environment, even high in the mountains and inside human bodies. Dead whales have washed up with dozens of pounds of plastic waste in their stomachs. And a new awareness of the role the plastics industry plays in climate change is emerging.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“If it’s in our marshes, it’s in our oysters, it’s in our fish and it’s in our dolphins,” said Caroline Bradner, the Land, Water & Wildlife Project Manager for the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League. “And if there is plastic in them, there is plastic in us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">The scientific studies and images of plastic waste have been shifting how the public sees plastics, and that has gotten the industry’s attention at the highest levels. The industry has been simultaneously fighting to prevent local plastics bans and trying to promote itself as a solution, while its production keeps growing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, one giant plastics plant is under construction, and a second awaits a decision on financing in an Appalachian region that federal officials \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2018/12/f58/Nov%202018%20DOE%20Ethane%20Hub%20Report.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">have said\u003c/a> could support even more manufacturing—an effort that the Trump administration may assist with loan guarantees this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">On the Gulf Coast, seven large petrochemical facilities have been approved since 2015. Environmentalists are fighting them, with the latest lawsuit filed last week over the federal permits for what would be one of the world’s largest plastics plants, planned near a wetlands area along the Mississippi River.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">There is “an incredible disconnect” between public concerns about what plastics pollution is doing to the environment and all of the industry funding and tax dollars being invested in new plastics manufacturing, said Judith Enck, a former official with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency who in 2019 founded the Beyond Plastics campaign, a nonpartisan initiative that seeks to end plastic pollution. \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1956118 alignright\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Plastics-Demand-Chart-529px.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"529\" height=\"764\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Plastics-Demand-Chart-529px.png 529w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Plastics-Demand-Chart-529px-160x231.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 529px) 100vw, 529px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Industry officials contend that they are just trying to meet consumer demand, and they say they are looking for ways to improve recycling and reduce waste.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We fundamentally think plastics don’t belong in the environment,” said Keith Christman, managing director of plastics markets for the American Chemistry Council, a chemical industry lobby group with members in the alliance. But, he added, plastics are essential. “You may be able to do without a plastic bag, but most products there really isn’t a substitute for or an ability to go without it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘A Climate Crisis Hiding in Plain Sight’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">From scientific research papers to reports by environmental groups, 2019 delivered a relentless stream of evidence about environmental and health concerns related to plastics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I must say it’s been pretty uncomfortable … as we have watched images of plastic strewn over beaches and pictures of sea animals with ingested plastic,” Patty Long, the interim chief executive officer of the Plastics Industry Association, lamented at the Global Plastics Summit last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We see it over and over and over again,” she \u003cb>\u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/06072019/plastic-waste-ocean-global-summit-industry-solutions-recycling-climate-change\">told\u003c/a>\u003c/b> the industry gathering, co-hosted by the Plastics Industry Association and IHS Markit, which closely tracks the industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">For example:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul style=\"font-weight: 400\">\n\u003cli>Plastic particles were found in the stomachs of the deepest known marine animals, nearly seven miles below the surface of the sea.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The wind\u003ca href=\"https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-47947235\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> deposited\u003c/a> as much microplastic per square meter in a secluded area high in the Pyrenees Mountains, along the French and Spanish border, as researchers would expect in the city of Paris.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The average American now ingests more than 70,000 particles of microplastics per year, according to a\u003ca href=\"https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.9b01517\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> study\u003c/a> in the American Chemical Society journal Environmental Science & Technology.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The carcass of a dead sperm whale\u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/04/dead-pregnant-whale-plastic-italy/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> washed ashore\u003c/a> in Italy with 49 pounds of plastic in its stomach; and a beached young Cuvier’s beaked whale died in the Philippines, with a necropsy\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/03/18/704471596/stomach-of-dead-whale-contained-nothing-but-plastic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> revealing\u003c/a> 88 pounds of plastic including plastic bags from grocery stores.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Center for International Environmental Law also\u003ca href=\"https://www.ciel.org/reports/plastic-health-the-hidden-costs-of-a-plastic-planet-may-2019/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> published\u003c/a> a report in May that found greenhouse gas emissions from the plastics lifecycle—from natural gas extraction to plastics production and disposal—could reach 850 million metric tons in 2019, about the same as 189 new 500-megawatt coal-fired power plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">The total is projected to rise to 1.34 billion metric tons per year by 2030, equivalent to the emissions from nearly 300 coal plants of that size.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">The group, working with the Environmental Integrity Project, FracTracker Alliance and others, concluded that the plastics’ and petrochemical industries’ plans could make it impossible to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming, the most challenging benchmark established under the 2015 Paris climate agreement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Plastics have been a climate crisis hiding in plain sight,” said Carroll Muffett, president and chief executive officer of the law center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Christman, with the chemical industry lobby group, argued that the law center should have compared the carbon emissions from plastics when they are used as substitutes to materials like glass or steel. Greenhouse gas emissions are spared when cars are made lighter and more fuel-efficient with plastic parts, he said, and when plastic wrapping preserves food to avoid spoilage and disposal in methane-producing landfills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“With all of these issues, yes, we have to avoid regrettable substitution,” Muffett responded. But the “simple argument that all the possible substitutes are going to be worse than plastics” is wrong, he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Plastics Could Grow 3.5 to 4 Percent Annually Through 2035\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">For years, the public relied on recycling to justify its plastics use, but now that, too, is in crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">In 2018, China’s decided to stop accepting most plastic materials for recycling, and last May, 187 countries added plastics to an international treaty that controls the movement of hazardous waste around the globe, requiring exporters to obtain government permission before shipping lower quality plastic wastes to their countries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s not all that’s preventing effective recycling. The economics of recycling “are still upside down,” largely because of a glut of the fossil fuels used to make plastic, said Nina Bellucci Butler, the chief executive officer of More Recycling, a research and consulting company that works with the plastics industry on recycling,\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We are just awash in natural gas and oil,” she said. “The only thing we can do is make an incredible amount of plastics.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">The plastics industry has tried to show that it is responding to waste concerns. It \u003ca href=\"https://endplasticwaste.org/latest/the-alliance-launches-today/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">announced\u003c/a> a $1.5 billion Alliance to End Plastic Waste with the goal of improving plastic waste management in Asia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">But it is also moving ahead with new plastics manufacturing plants, as the oil and gas industry eyes plastics as a growing part of its future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">The data firm IHS Markit has forecast that plastics production will grow on average 3.5 to 4 percent per year through at least 2035.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">In western Pennsylvania outside Pittsburgh, hundreds of workers \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/25022019/plastics-hub-appalachian-fracking-ethane-cracker-climate-change-health-ohio-river\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">are building\u003c/a> a massive Shell Polymers plant to turn ethane—a product of a decade-old natural gas fracking boom there—into the basic building blocks of plastic products. Analysts have \u003ca href=\"https://ihsmarkit.com/research-analysis/petrochemical-cluster-a-bright-future-for-the-tristate-region.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">said\u003c/a> the region could support as many as five of these plants, which “crack” ethane molecules to make ethylene and polyethylene resin pellets. \u003ca href=\"http://pttgcbelmontcountyoh.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">One \u003c/a>has already obtained environmental permits in Belmont County, Ohio, and is awaiting a financing decision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">In 2020, the Trump administration could decide whether to provide $1.9 billion in loan guarantees for the development of \u003ca href=\"https://aongrc.wvu.edu/reports\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">underground storage\u003c/a> for ethane it\u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.gov/articles/secretary-perry-announces-appalachian-ethane-storage-hub-report\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> says\u003c/a> would help establish a whole new plastics manufacturing hub in Appalachia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/sites/default/files/organizational_sign_on_letter_opposing_dept._of_energy_backing_petro_hub-2.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Environmental groups\u003c/a> and some Democrats in Congress are fighting the loan guarantees, which would go to a West Virginia business, Appalachia Development Group, that has proposed developing the storage in mined salt or limestone caverns underground.\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1956119 aligncenter\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/natural-gas-to-plastics-manufacturing-1058px.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"924\" height=\"693\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/natural-gas-to-plastics-manufacturing-1058px.png 924w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/natural-gas-to-plastics-manufacturing-1058px-160x120.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/natural-gas-to-plastics-manufacturing-1058px-800x600.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/natural-gas-to-plastics-manufacturing-1058px-768x576.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 924px) 100vw, 924px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Near the Gulf Coast, environmentalists are also fighting new or expanding petrochemical and plastics manufacturing plants. The Times-Picayune and New Orleans Advocate\u003cb>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nola.com/news/environment/article_70830ffe-0a1c-11ea-b387-b768e1c2ecc8.html\"> reported\u003c/a>\u003c/b> in late November that seven large petrochemical facilities and expansions had been approved in that area since 2015, and five more were awaiting permits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of them stands out for its cost and size: the $9.6 billion Formosa plastics and petrochemical complex, proposed on 2,400 acres in St. James Parish. In early January, it was granted air quality permits, and the Center for Biological Diversity is now \u003ca href=\"https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/lawsuit-challenges-trump-administrations-fast-tracking-of-louisiana-plastics-project-2020-01-15/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">suing\u003c/a>, arguing that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers failed to disclose environmental damage and public health risks of the plastic facility under the \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/09012020/trump-nepa-environmental-review-changes-climate-change-infrastructure-pipelines\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">National Environmental Policy Act\u003c/a>. More lawsuits are expected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Congress Eyes Competing Approaches to Plastics Regulation\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">At the state level, lawmakers introduced at least 95 bills in 2019 related to plastic bags, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Most, including those in \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/28/nyregion/plastic-bag-ban-.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New York\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/maine-bans-single-use-plastic-grocery-bags-by-earth-day-2020\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Maine\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/06/vermont-adopts-most-comprehensive-single-use-plastics-ban/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Vermont\u003c/a>, sought to ban or place a fee on plastic bags. However, some went in the opposite direction, attempting to prevent local governments from making their own decisions on how to manage plastic waste.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oklahoma, Tennessee and North Dakota all blocked their cities from passing local bag rules in 2019. South Carolina lawmakers have been trying to pass a similar law, \u003ca href=\"https://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article226176810.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">promoted by lobbyists\u003c/a> for the industry. A “ban on bans” bill, \u003ca href=\"https://www.scstatehouse.gov/billsearch.php?billnumbers=394&session=123&summary=B\">S.394\u003c/a>, will pick up this month where it left off last year, and could come to a vote before the full South Carolina Senate, said Bradner, of the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Whether a divided Congress in a heated election year can pass meaningful legislation remains an open question. But some federal lawmakers are trying, with competing approaches focused either on government funding or manufacturer responsibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">The industry backs bills like Save Our Seas 2.0 and the\u003ca href=\"https://cardenas.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/c-rdenas-bucshon-introduce-recover-act\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> RECOVER Act\u003c/a>, which aim to improve waste management and recycling. Neither would slow the production of plastics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.) and Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) are floating another proposal that would require plastics producers to establish a national container deposit program, collect fees on non-reusable plastic bags, increase the amount of recycled plastic used in new products and establish a moratorium on new plastics manufacturing plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The financial burden of cleaning up pollution should not be solely on the taxpayers,” Lowenthal said at a Congressional hearing last fall. “It’s imperative the the companies that manufacture and sell these products take ownership of their environmental impacts.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Environmentalists cite “an incredible disconnect” between government support for plastics manufacturing and evidence of the industry’s pollution and climate impact.",
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"title": "Business is Booming, But Public Anger Toward Plastics Grows With Environmental Harms | KQED",
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"headline": "Business is Booming, But Public Anger Toward Plastics Grows With Environmental Harms",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/Neq_CwpkPvsGmMG7hVOy7A?domain=insideclimatenews.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">InsideClimate News\u003c/a> is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter \u003ca href=\"https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/pD-rCxklQwf1V61yTviMEq?domain=insideclimatenews.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Frustrated with the sight of plastic bags and styrofoam containers piling up in its harbor, the city of Charleston, South Carolina, rang in the new year with a promise to start enforcing a ban on single-use plastic containers and utensils.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s one of hundreds of similar bans that have been launched across the U.S. and \u003ca href=\"https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_19_2631\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Europe\u003c/a>, amid a growing backlash to an industry that is expanding despite increasing evidence of the harm its products can do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">In just the past year, researchers have shown that tiny particles of plastic are pervasive in the environment, even high in the mountains and inside human bodies. Dead whales have washed up with dozens of pounds of plastic waste in their stomachs. And a new awareness of the role the plastics industry plays in climate change is emerging.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“If it’s in our marshes, it’s in our oysters, it’s in our fish and it’s in our dolphins,” said Caroline Bradner, the Land, Water & Wildlife Project Manager for the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League. “And if there is plastic in them, there is plastic in us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">The scientific studies and images of plastic waste have been shifting how the public sees plastics, and that has gotten the industry’s attention at the highest levels. The industry has been simultaneously fighting to prevent local plastics bans and trying to promote itself as a solution, while its production keeps growing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, one giant plastics plant is under construction, and a second awaits a decision on financing in an Appalachian region that federal officials \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2018/12/f58/Nov%202018%20DOE%20Ethane%20Hub%20Report.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">have said\u003c/a> could support even more manufacturing—an effort that the Trump administration may assist with loan guarantees this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">On the Gulf Coast, seven large petrochemical facilities have been approved since 2015. Environmentalists are fighting them, with the latest lawsuit filed last week over the federal permits for what would be one of the world’s largest plastics plants, planned near a wetlands area along the Mississippi River.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">There is “an incredible disconnect” between public concerns about what plastics pollution is doing to the environment and all of the industry funding and tax dollars being invested in new plastics manufacturing, said Judith Enck, a former official with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency who in 2019 founded the Beyond Plastics campaign, a nonpartisan initiative that seeks to end plastic pollution. \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1956118 alignright\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Plastics-Demand-Chart-529px.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"529\" height=\"764\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Plastics-Demand-Chart-529px.png 529w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Plastics-Demand-Chart-529px-160x231.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 529px) 100vw, 529px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Industry officials contend that they are just trying to meet consumer demand, and they say they are looking for ways to improve recycling and reduce waste.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We fundamentally think plastics don’t belong in the environment,” said Keith Christman, managing director of plastics markets for the American Chemistry Council, a chemical industry lobby group with members in the alliance. But, he added, plastics are essential. “You may be able to do without a plastic bag, but most products there really isn’t a substitute for or an ability to go without it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘A Climate Crisis Hiding in Plain Sight’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">From scientific research papers to reports by environmental groups, 2019 delivered a relentless stream of evidence about environmental and health concerns related to plastics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I must say it’s been pretty uncomfortable … as we have watched images of plastic strewn over beaches and pictures of sea animals with ingested plastic,” Patty Long, the interim chief executive officer of the Plastics Industry Association, lamented at the Global Plastics Summit last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We see it over and over and over again,” she \u003cb>\u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/06072019/plastic-waste-ocean-global-summit-industry-solutions-recycling-climate-change\">told\u003c/a>\u003c/b> the industry gathering, co-hosted by the Plastics Industry Association and IHS Markit, which closely tracks the industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">For example:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul style=\"font-weight: 400\">\n\u003cli>Plastic particles were found in the stomachs of the deepest known marine animals, nearly seven miles below the surface of the sea.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The wind\u003ca href=\"https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-47947235\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> deposited\u003c/a> as much microplastic per square meter in a secluded area high in the Pyrenees Mountains, along the French and Spanish border, as researchers would expect in the city of Paris.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The average American now ingests more than 70,000 particles of microplastics per year, according to a\u003ca href=\"https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.9b01517\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> study\u003c/a> in the American Chemical Society journal Environmental Science & Technology.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The carcass of a dead sperm whale\u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/04/dead-pregnant-whale-plastic-italy/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> washed ashore\u003c/a> in Italy with 49 pounds of plastic in its stomach; and a beached young Cuvier’s beaked whale died in the Philippines, with a necropsy\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/03/18/704471596/stomach-of-dead-whale-contained-nothing-but-plastic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> revealing\u003c/a> 88 pounds of plastic including plastic bags from grocery stores.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Center for International Environmental Law also\u003ca href=\"https://www.ciel.org/reports/plastic-health-the-hidden-costs-of-a-plastic-planet-may-2019/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> published\u003c/a> a report in May that found greenhouse gas emissions from the plastics lifecycle—from natural gas extraction to plastics production and disposal—could reach 850 million metric tons in 2019, about the same as 189 new 500-megawatt coal-fired power plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">The total is projected to rise to 1.34 billion metric tons per year by 2030, equivalent to the emissions from nearly 300 coal plants of that size.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">The group, working with the Environmental Integrity Project, FracTracker Alliance and others, concluded that the plastics’ and petrochemical industries’ plans could make it impossible to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming, the most challenging benchmark established under the 2015 Paris climate agreement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Plastics have been a climate crisis hiding in plain sight,” said Carroll Muffett, president and chief executive officer of the law center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Christman, with the chemical industry lobby group, argued that the law center should have compared the carbon emissions from plastics when they are used as substitutes to materials like glass or steel. Greenhouse gas emissions are spared when cars are made lighter and more fuel-efficient with plastic parts, he said, and when plastic wrapping preserves food to avoid spoilage and disposal in methane-producing landfills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“With all of these issues, yes, we have to avoid regrettable substitution,” Muffett responded. But the “simple argument that all the possible substitutes are going to be worse than plastics” is wrong, he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Plastics Could Grow 3.5 to 4 Percent Annually Through 2035\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">For years, the public relied on recycling to justify its plastics use, but now that, too, is in crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">In 2018, China’s decided to stop accepting most plastic materials for recycling, and last May, 187 countries added plastics to an international treaty that controls the movement of hazardous waste around the globe, requiring exporters to obtain government permission before shipping lower quality plastic wastes to their countries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s not all that’s preventing effective recycling. The economics of recycling “are still upside down,” largely because of a glut of the fossil fuels used to make plastic, said Nina Bellucci Butler, the chief executive officer of More Recycling, a research and consulting company that works with the plastics industry on recycling,\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We are just awash in natural gas and oil,” she said. “The only thing we can do is make an incredible amount of plastics.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">The plastics industry has tried to show that it is responding to waste concerns. It \u003ca href=\"https://endplasticwaste.org/latest/the-alliance-launches-today/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">announced\u003c/a> a $1.5 billion Alliance to End Plastic Waste with the goal of improving plastic waste management in Asia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">But it is also moving ahead with new plastics manufacturing plants, as the oil and gas industry eyes plastics as a growing part of its future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">The data firm IHS Markit has forecast that plastics production will grow on average 3.5 to 4 percent per year through at least 2035.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">In western Pennsylvania outside Pittsburgh, hundreds of workers \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/25022019/plastics-hub-appalachian-fracking-ethane-cracker-climate-change-health-ohio-river\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">are building\u003c/a> a massive Shell Polymers plant to turn ethane—a product of a decade-old natural gas fracking boom there—into the basic building blocks of plastic products. Analysts have \u003ca href=\"https://ihsmarkit.com/research-analysis/petrochemical-cluster-a-bright-future-for-the-tristate-region.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">said\u003c/a> the region could support as many as five of these plants, which “crack” ethane molecules to make ethylene and polyethylene resin pellets. \u003ca href=\"http://pttgcbelmontcountyoh.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">One \u003c/a>has already obtained environmental permits in Belmont County, Ohio, and is awaiting a financing decision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">In 2020, the Trump administration could decide whether to provide $1.9 billion in loan guarantees for the development of \u003ca href=\"https://aongrc.wvu.edu/reports\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">underground storage\u003c/a> for ethane it\u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.gov/articles/secretary-perry-announces-appalachian-ethane-storage-hub-report\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> says\u003c/a> would help establish a whole new plastics manufacturing hub in Appalachia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/sites/default/files/organizational_sign_on_letter_opposing_dept._of_energy_backing_petro_hub-2.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Environmental groups\u003c/a> and some Democrats in Congress are fighting the loan guarantees, which would go to a West Virginia business, Appalachia Development Group, that has proposed developing the storage in mined salt or limestone caverns underground.\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1956119 aligncenter\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/natural-gas-to-plastics-manufacturing-1058px.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"924\" height=\"693\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/natural-gas-to-plastics-manufacturing-1058px.png 924w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/natural-gas-to-plastics-manufacturing-1058px-160x120.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/natural-gas-to-plastics-manufacturing-1058px-800x600.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/natural-gas-to-plastics-manufacturing-1058px-768x576.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 924px) 100vw, 924px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Near the Gulf Coast, environmentalists are also fighting new or expanding petrochemical and plastics manufacturing plants. The Times-Picayune and New Orleans Advocate\u003cb>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nola.com/news/environment/article_70830ffe-0a1c-11ea-b387-b768e1c2ecc8.html\"> reported\u003c/a>\u003c/b> in late November that seven large petrochemical facilities and expansions had been approved in that area since 2015, and five more were awaiting permits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of them stands out for its cost and size: the $9.6 billion Formosa plastics and petrochemical complex, proposed on 2,400 acres in St. James Parish. In early January, it was granted air quality permits, and the Center for Biological Diversity is now \u003ca href=\"https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/lawsuit-challenges-trump-administrations-fast-tracking-of-louisiana-plastics-project-2020-01-15/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">suing\u003c/a>, arguing that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers failed to disclose environmental damage and public health risks of the plastic facility under the \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/09012020/trump-nepa-environmental-review-changes-climate-change-infrastructure-pipelines\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">National Environmental Policy Act\u003c/a>. More lawsuits are expected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Congress Eyes Competing Approaches to Plastics Regulation\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">At the state level, lawmakers introduced at least 95 bills in 2019 related to plastic bags, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Most, including those in \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/28/nyregion/plastic-bag-ban-.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New York\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/maine-bans-single-use-plastic-grocery-bags-by-earth-day-2020\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Maine\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/06/vermont-adopts-most-comprehensive-single-use-plastics-ban/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Vermont\u003c/a>, sought to ban or place a fee on plastic bags. However, some went in the opposite direction, attempting to prevent local governments from making their own decisions on how to manage plastic waste.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oklahoma, Tennessee and North Dakota all blocked their cities from passing local bag rules in 2019. South Carolina lawmakers have been trying to pass a similar law, \u003ca href=\"https://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article226176810.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">promoted by lobbyists\u003c/a> for the industry. A “ban on bans” bill, \u003ca href=\"https://www.scstatehouse.gov/billsearch.php?billnumbers=394&session=123&summary=B\">S.394\u003c/a>, will pick up this month where it left off last year, and could come to a vote before the full South Carolina Senate, said Bradner, of the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Whether a divided Congress in a heated election year can pass meaningful legislation remains an open question. But some federal lawmakers are trying, with competing approaches focused either on government funding or manufacturer responsibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">The industry backs bills like Save Our Seas 2.0 and the\u003ca href=\"https://cardenas.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/c-rdenas-bucshon-introduce-recover-act\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> RECOVER Act\u003c/a>, which aim to improve waste management and recycling. Neither would slow the production of plastics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.) and Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) are floating another proposal that would require plastics producers to establish a national container deposit program, collect fees on non-reusable plastic bags, increase the amount of recycled plastic used in new products and establish a moratorium on new plastics manufacturing plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The financial burden of cleaning up pollution should not be solely on the taxpayers,” Lowenthal said at a Congressional hearing last fall. “It’s imperative the the companies that manufacture and sell these products take ownership of their environmental impacts.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Much of California’s water supply is a hidden asset: Deep below the surface, rocks, gravel and sand store water like a sponge, in an underground zone called an aquifer. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote] Managers for 21 ‘critically overdrafted’ basins have a Jan. 31 deadline to submit groundwater management plans. [/pullquote]\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In dry years, this groundwater has been tapped to save farms, keep grass green and provide drinking water to millions of Californians. But over time, people have taken more water out than nature has put back in. Estimates vary, but according to the U.S. Geological Survey, California pumped 41 trillion gallons of water fom the ground in about 100 years, through 2013. In some parts of the Central Valley, that means land has been dropping \u003ca href=\"https://www.usgs.gov/centers/ca-water-ls/science/land-subsidence-san-joaquin-valley?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">around a foot a year\u003c/a>. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The landmark \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/Programs/Groundwater-Management/SGMA-Groundwater-Management\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sustainable Groundwater Management Act\u003c/a>, or SGMA, requires some of the state’s thirstiest areas form local “Groundwater Sustainability Agencies” and submit long-term plans by Jan. 31 for keeping aquifers healthy. Together, those plans will add up to a big reveal, as g\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">roundwater managers finally disclose how badly they believe their aquifers are overdrawn, and a collective picture emerges. It’s a major shift and arguably the most important new California water law in 50 years. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here are some key things to know about the groundwater situation in California and how the law will impact the state. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Until six years ago, California did not routinely regulate or monitor groundwater. \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The California Constitution decrees that water use has to be reasonable and beneficial, but the state has placed few limits on how water can be pumped from the ground. A 1914 law empowering the state water board to manage the resource omitted groundwater. You can blame the lack of regulation partly on 18th-century Spanish colonists who brought with them the idea that a landowner is entitled to all of the water below the surface, without any obligation to share it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the beginning of the 20th century, water was still plentiful in California, and the idea of unfettered access to groundwater made sense in a state lush with wetlands. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So for the last century, landowners continued to think of groundwater as pretty much a birthright. It’s become an essential component of California’s water portfolio: S\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">tate officials say 30 million residents rely on groundwater for at least some portion of their drinking supply, and i\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">n the driest years, people keep basically sticking a straw into the earth to slake their thirst. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003cbr>\n\u003cb>Water at the surface is connected to the water hidden below. \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The water from California’s rivers and streams, along with rainwater, \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">seeps into the ground, where it remains among the rocks, gravel and sand. Between these surface and sub-surface supplies lies the water table, which is what hydrologists call the top of the area that has been saturated underground. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Using too much groundwater affects not only surface water supplies but also entire ecosystems. Pumping from the earth deep enough to suck water out can lower the groundwater table and dry out surface soils. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rivers and streams feed more than 500 aquifers around California. Less than a quarter of these account for the overwhelming majority of groundwater pumping. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>In these basins, this landmark law already has begun to transform the Central Valley. \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For decades, farmers fought the regulation and monitoring of groundwater tooth and nail. Now that it’s here, SGMA has already begun to change the region’s economy and landscape, as some farmers have sold or fallowed land in antipation of the coming changes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Public Policy Institute of California \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/publication/water-and-the-future-of-the-san-joaquin-valley/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">predicts\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that agricultural interests may have to let 750,000 acres of land go fallow, mostly in parts of the San Joaquin Valley where the most severe overpumping has occurred.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Farmers may also have to cycle current crops out for those requiring less water. For example, almonds are water-intensive but have been profitable in recent years; those margins would change if water becomes much more expensive than it is now. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Some local water managers have a lot of work to show by the end of the month. \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are 21 “critically overdrafted” basins for which officials must submit groundwater management plans by Jan. 31. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In each area where people have habitually pumped more than has come back in, local water managers have to figure out how much they’ve taken from underground, and how water at the surface replenishes those stores. Each region has to propose ways to monitor groundwater over multiple intervals: day-to-day, short-term, seasonal, and yearslong. Basically, they’re creating monitoring systems, in some cases from scratch, to help determine whether conditions are changing. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The groundwater plans are built around models for how to share water in a way that’s sustainable by 2040. Each one can be a little different, but local managers and the state have to check up on every single one and meet interim deadlines every five years. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/Programs/Groundwater-Management/SGMA-Groundwater-Management\">Department of Water Resources\u003c/a> can accept the plans as is or ask for tweaks. DWR can also refer the plans to the state water board for intervention, meaning that local officials may have to try again if the state judges a plan unlikely to succeed. In extreme cases, the state may have to step in to settle disputes over local rights.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>This isn’t just a Valley problem.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Balancing aquifers like bank accounts will cost money and effort in the Bay Area and other parts of the state. Two years from now, managers for dozens more groundwater basins with state-designated risk ratings of high or medium must submit their own plans to the State Water Resources Control Board. They include water managers in Sonoma, Napa, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though these plans will take years to come into focus, plenty of political decisions remain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">State requirements for sustainable regional groundwater management haven’t taken away anyone’s rights; the rules have changed how localities must meet their water needs from now on. Even the plans submitted by the locally formed groundwater agencies that will meet this year’s deadline haven’t absolutely nailed down who gets to use what in the future. The coming decisions and politics about water may be tense, but the alternative is that one day, wells could run dry.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In dry years, this groundwater has been tapped to save farms, keep grass green and provide drinking water to millions of Californians. But over time, people have taken more water out than nature has put back in. Estimates vary, but according to the U.S. Geological Survey, California pumped 41 trillion gallons of water fom the ground in about 100 years, through 2013. In some parts of the Central Valley, that means land has been dropping \u003ca href=\"https://www.usgs.gov/centers/ca-water-ls/science/land-subsidence-san-joaquin-valley?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">around a foot a year\u003c/a>. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The landmark \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/Programs/Groundwater-Management/SGMA-Groundwater-Management\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sustainable Groundwater Management Act\u003c/a>, or SGMA, requires some of the state’s thirstiest areas form local “Groundwater Sustainability Agencies” and submit long-term plans by Jan. 31 for keeping aquifers healthy. Together, those plans will add up to a big reveal, as g\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">roundwater managers finally disclose how badly they believe their aquifers are overdrawn, and a collective picture emerges. It’s a major shift and arguably the most important new California water law in 50 years. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here are some key things to know about the groundwater situation in California and how the law will impact the state. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Until six years ago, California did not routinely regulate or monitor groundwater. \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The California Constitution decrees that water use has to be reasonable and beneficial, but the state has placed few limits on how water can be pumped from the ground. A 1914 law empowering the state water board to manage the resource omitted groundwater. You can blame the lack of regulation partly on 18th-century Spanish colonists who brought with them the idea that a landowner is entitled to all of the water below the surface, without any obligation to share it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the beginning of the 20th century, water was still plentiful in California, and the idea of unfettered access to groundwater made sense in a state lush with wetlands. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So for the last century, landowners continued to think of groundwater as pretty much a birthright. It’s become an essential component of California’s water portfolio: S\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">tate officials say 30 million residents rely on groundwater for at least some portion of their drinking supply, and i\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">n the driest years, people keep basically sticking a straw into the earth to slake their thirst. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cbr>\n\u003cb>Water at the surface is connected to the water hidden below. \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The water from California’s rivers and streams, along with rainwater, \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">seeps into the ground, where it remains among the rocks, gravel and sand. Between these surface and sub-surface supplies lies the water table, which is what hydrologists call the top of the area that has been saturated underground. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Using too much groundwater affects not only surface water supplies but also entire ecosystems. Pumping from the earth deep enough to suck water out can lower the groundwater table and dry out surface soils. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rivers and streams feed more than 500 aquifers around California. Less than a quarter of these account for the overwhelming majority of groundwater pumping. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>In these basins, this landmark law already has begun to transform the Central Valley. \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For decades, farmers fought the regulation and monitoring of groundwater tooth and nail. Now that it’s here, SGMA has already begun to change the region’s economy and landscape, as some farmers have sold or fallowed land in antipation of the coming changes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Public Policy Institute of California \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/publication/water-and-the-future-of-the-san-joaquin-valley/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">predicts\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that agricultural interests may have to let 750,000 acres of land go fallow, mostly in parts of the San Joaquin Valley where the most severe overpumping has occurred.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Farmers may also have to cycle current crops out for those requiring less water. For example, almonds are water-intensive but have been profitable in recent years; those margins would change if water becomes much more expensive than it is now. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Some local water managers have a lot of work to show by the end of the month. \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are 21 “critically overdrafted” basins for which officials must submit groundwater management plans by Jan. 31. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In each area where people have habitually pumped more than has come back in, local water managers have to figure out how much they’ve taken from underground, and how water at the surface replenishes those stores. Each region has to propose ways to monitor groundwater over multiple intervals: day-to-day, short-term, seasonal, and yearslong. Basically, they’re creating monitoring systems, in some cases from scratch, to help determine whether conditions are changing. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The groundwater plans are built around models for how to share water in a way that’s sustainable by 2040. Each one can be a little different, but local managers and the state have to check up on every single one and meet interim deadlines every five years. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/Programs/Groundwater-Management/SGMA-Groundwater-Management\">Department of Water Resources\u003c/a> can accept the plans as is or ask for tweaks. DWR can also refer the plans to the state water board for intervention, meaning that local officials may have to try again if the state judges a plan unlikely to succeed. In extreme cases, the state may have to step in to settle disputes over local rights.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>This isn’t just a Valley problem.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Balancing aquifers like bank accounts will cost money and effort in the Bay Area and other parts of the state. Two years from now, managers for dozens more groundwater basins with state-designated risk ratings of high or medium must submit their own plans to the State Water Resources Control Board. They include water managers in Sonoma, Napa, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though these plans will take years to come into focus, plenty of political decisions remain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">State requirements for sustainable regional groundwater management haven’t taken away anyone’s rights; the rules have changed how localities must meet their water needs from now on. Even the plans submitted by the locally formed groundwater agencies that will meet this year’s deadline haven’t absolutely nailed down who gets to use what in the future. The coming decisions and politics about water may be tense, but the alternative is that one day, wells could run dry.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Thousands of Dead Birds, Washed Up on Pacific Coast, Linked to Ocean Heat Wave",
"headTitle": "Thousands of Dead Birds, Washed Up on Pacific Coast, Linked to Ocean Heat Wave | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>David Irons was driving past a beach in Whittier, Alaska, on New Year’s Day four years ago when something caught his eye. It was an endless line of white lumps near the water’s edge—piles of something that shouldn’t be there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They were dead sea birds, and the bodies were everywhere. “I just couldn’t believe it,” said Irons, a recently retired biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “We started counting them, and we just counted a section and we got to 1,500.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In all, he and his wife, son and a friend found 8,000 dead birds on a beach about a mile long. A dead zone of common murres—a species known for its resilience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For almost a year, people had been reporting finding dead common murres up and down the Pacific coastline, from California to Alaska. From the summer of 2015 through the spring of 2016, about 62,000 washed ashore, part of a mass species die-off that scientists are attributing to an extreme marine heat wave.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1955900\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 648px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1955900\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/common-murre-die-off-700_david-irons-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"648\" height=\"864\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/common-murre-die-off-700_david-irons-1.jpg 648w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/common-murre-die-off-700_david-irons-1-160x213.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 648px) 100vw, 648px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">David Irons found about 8,000 common murres dead on a beach in Whittier, Alaska, in 2016. The ordinarily highly adaptive and resilient birds had starved to death. \u003ccite>(David Irons)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0226087\">study\u003c/a> published Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE, a group of scientists from various state and federal agencies, universities and bird rescue organizations documented the die-off and concluded from the data that it was caused by a record-breaking ocean heat wave in 2014 through 2016 that triggered systemic changes throughout the ocean ecosystem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The authors estimate that 1 million common murres died during the period, an event they called “unprecedented and astounding.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The common murres weren’t the only species to experience mass die-offs during this time—\u003cu>\u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29052019/puffin-deaths-arctic-climate-change-alaska-wildlife-biodiversity\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">tufted puffins\u003c/a>\u003c/u>, Cassin’s auklets, sea lions and baleen whales died, too. But what the scientists document is by far the largest die-off, one they say was caused by disturbances rippling across the food web, a result in part of ocean warming from \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/topic/climate-change\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">climate change\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oceans are warming at a rapidly increasing pace, \u003cu>\u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/14012020/ocean-heat-2019-warmest-year-argo-hurricanes-corals-marine-animals-heatwaves\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a study\u003c/a>\u003c/u> published earlier this week showed, and last year registered the hottest ocean temperatures on record. As that heat builds up, it’s having devastating consequences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I heard the numbers of birds being killed in California and Oregon and Washington and many areas of Alaska, as that unfolded, it was biblical to me,” said John Piatt, a biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey who was the lead author of the new paper on the bird deaths and has been studying common murres for 40 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This bird doesn’t fail unless there aren’t enough high density patches of food to serve their high demand needs. And that’s rare,” Piatt said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Death Toll Grows\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So what happened?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As reports came in from up and down the Pacific coast, Piatt was perplexed. Common murres are known for their ability to adapt. “Murres are the ultimate predator—they’re extremely well adapted, they can dive to 200 meters, and they live on the Continental Shelf,” he said. “Anywhere along there is their domain. And they’re the fastest flying sea bird.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet murres were washing in with the tides—sometimes 10 birds at a time, sometimes 100.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Irons’ discovery on New Year’s Day, everything changed, said Julia Parrish, a biologist at the University of Washington who leads the Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team and was a co-author of the study. Federal agencies started to get involved and were able to fly along the coastline and send more people to conduct surveys.\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1955899 alignleft\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Common-Murre-Populations.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"529\" height=\"770\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Common-Murre-Populations.png 529w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Common-Murre-Populations-160x233.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 529px) 100vw, 529px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Surveys in the Gulf of Alaska conducted by the Interior Department turned up more than 20,000 dead murres, and the public reported 21,435 more to the department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scientists reached out to bird and rehabilitation centers from southern California to Alaska and found that, out of 66 that responded, 37 reported receiving injured or dead murres—a total of 3,365 birds. The body count ticked higher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Investigation\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first thing the scientists needed to know was whether these deaths indicated a danger for human health. Were the birds carrying a disease? A toxin?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carcasses were shipped to the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wisconsin. “They did all sorts of analyses for viral and bacterial diseases, toxins in the tissues,” Parrish said. “We’re trying to eliminate smoking guns. But all of those things—not found. No parasites, nothing we can hang our hat on. But there was lots of emaciation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like many of his peers, Piatt was aware that these deaths were happening at the same time that the ocean was experiencing a record high heat wave, exacerbated by a ridge of high pressure on the West Coast that scientists were calling “the Blob.” But still, he wondered, “What could account for a decline in the food supply from California to the Bering Sea all at the same time?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To get the answer, the scientists started ruling things out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first question: Could the fish that the murres eat have moved elsewhere in response to the warmer water? It’s well understood that fish respond in specific ways when the ocean temperature changes, sometimes moving north, south or deeper down. “But the thing is, murres can go anywhere in a matter of hours,” Piatt said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers also looked into whether overfishing could be the answer, but that didn’t hold water, either.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Next, they investigated whether the fish were surviving from egg to larvae. Some juvenile stock were failing, sure, but not enough to explain the large number of starving birds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Piatt kept looking into it, he said he got pushback from some in the field who wanted to know how, in the absence of a clear explanation, he could still believe it was a single event that caused the birds to starve to death. But Piatt said, “There has never been such a thing. You really think that it’s a coincidence that they’re dying down there and dying up here? It’s connected.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"media media-element-container media-image_centered_medium\">\u003cstrong>\u003cstrong>Finally, Some Answers\u003c/strong>\u003c/strong>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"media media-element-container media-image_centered_medium\">Piatt began researching how water temperature can change the food supply. He started looking from the bottom up: What were the food sources that the fish were eating? He found that as the water had warmed, phytoplankton and zooplankton, the smallest ocean organisms that provide the base of the food web, had changed.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"media media-element-container media-image_centered_medium\">\n\u003cp>“The older, fatter, nutritionally richer zooplankton were replaced by southerly or offshore species that weren’t as big and nutritionally rich,” Piatt said. “This was observed in the Gulf of Alaska and off California and in various studies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, Piatt dove into studies that found that when water gets hotter, fish like cod, flounder, pollock and hake respond by increasing their metabolism. “If you turn up the temperature by a couple degrees, they have to double their food intake,” Piatt said. “It’s a huge deal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It turns out that those fish feed on the same prey as the murres.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the murres have an Achilles heel: They have to eat more than half their body mass every day. Based on their normal diet in Alaska, that’s typically 60-120 fatty forage fish every day—double that, if only leaner prey is available. By comparison, cod of similar size to a murre would only need to eat about 0.4-1.5 percent of their body mass per day—just 1 to 3 fatty fish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The double-whammy caused by warming waters—less nutritionally rich food sources and more competition for the food available—is what Piatt and his co-authors hypothesize led to the common murres deaths.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If murres can’t fully meet their food demand every day, their body condition begins to decline quickly. “If they can’t find \u003cem>any\u003c/em> food for 3-5 days, they will die of starvation,” the authors write in the new study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What Caused the Marine Heat Wave\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The extreme heat in the ocean from 2014-2016 was a result of several factors. Piatt describes it like a step ladder:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>At the base is the ocean getting warmer due to global warming. Global warming contributed about 25 percent of the warming in the heat wave.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Next, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, a recurring pattern of ocean-atmosphere climate variability that leads to periods of warming in the mid-latitude Pacific—that contributed about 35 percent of the heat.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>As part of that, there was a strong El Niño from 2015-2016, which led to warming from California’s coast up to Alaska’s.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>“If you remove all those signals you’ll see about a quarter of the heat is still unaccounted for, said Piatt. “That’s the Blob.” The Blob developed when a ridge of high pressure formed over the land on the northwestern coast of North America and blocked airflow from the Pacific to the interior, trapping heat over the ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was the biggest marine heat wave so far on record,” said Thomas Frölicher, a climate scientist at the University of Bern in Switzerland who was not involved in the new study. “Usually, we are used to heat waves over land. They are much smaller in size, and they do not last as long. In the ocean, this heat wave lasted two or three years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the past 35 years, marine heat waves have doubled in frequency, Frölicher said. And as global temperatures continue to rise, they will become even more commonplace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we follow a high-greenhouse-gas-emissions scenario, these heat waves will become \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0383-9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">50 times more frequent\u003c/a> than preindustrial times” by 2100, Frölicher said. A low-emissions scenario, consistent with the \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/tags/paris-climate-agreement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paris climate agreement\u003c/a>, would still see 20 times more heat waves, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What that means is that in some regions, they will become permanent heat waves,” he said. The mass deaths of common murres suggests what that may look like. “This gives us some insight into the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "A new study unravels the mystery of what caused so many of these normally resilient seabirds to starve amid an ocean heat wave fueled in part by global warming.",
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"description": "A new study unravels the mystery of what caused so many of these normally resilient seabirds to starve amid an ocean heat wave fueled in part by global warming.",
"title": "Thousands of Dead Birds, Washed Up on Pacific Coast, Linked to Ocean Heat Wave | KQED",
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"headline": "Thousands of Dead Birds, Washed Up on Pacific Coast, Linked to Ocean Heat Wave",
"datePublished": "2020-01-17T13:04:21-08:00",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>David Irons was driving past a beach in Whittier, Alaska, on New Year’s Day four years ago when something caught his eye. It was an endless line of white lumps near the water’s edge—piles of something that shouldn’t be there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They were dead sea birds, and the bodies were everywhere. “I just couldn’t believe it,” said Irons, a recently retired biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “We started counting them, and we just counted a section and we got to 1,500.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In all, he and his wife, son and a friend found 8,000 dead birds on a beach about a mile long. A dead zone of common murres—a species known for its resilience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For almost a year, people had been reporting finding dead common murres up and down the Pacific coastline, from California to Alaska. From the summer of 2015 through the spring of 2016, about 62,000 washed ashore, part of a mass species die-off that scientists are attributing to an extreme marine heat wave.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1955900\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 648px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1955900\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/common-murre-die-off-700_david-irons-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"648\" height=\"864\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/common-murre-die-off-700_david-irons-1.jpg 648w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/common-murre-die-off-700_david-irons-1-160x213.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 648px) 100vw, 648px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">David Irons found about 8,000 common murres dead on a beach in Whittier, Alaska, in 2016. The ordinarily highly adaptive and resilient birds had starved to death. \u003ccite>(David Irons)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0226087\">study\u003c/a> published Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE, a group of scientists from various state and federal agencies, universities and bird rescue organizations documented the die-off and concluded from the data that it was caused by a record-breaking ocean heat wave in 2014 through 2016 that triggered systemic changes throughout the ocean ecosystem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The authors estimate that 1 million common murres died during the period, an event they called “unprecedented and astounding.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The common murres weren’t the only species to experience mass die-offs during this time—\u003cu>\u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29052019/puffin-deaths-arctic-climate-change-alaska-wildlife-biodiversity\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">tufted puffins\u003c/a>\u003c/u>, Cassin’s auklets, sea lions and baleen whales died, too. But what the scientists document is by far the largest die-off, one they say was caused by disturbances rippling across the food web, a result in part of ocean warming from \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/topic/climate-change\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">climate change\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oceans are warming at a rapidly increasing pace, \u003cu>\u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/14012020/ocean-heat-2019-warmest-year-argo-hurricanes-corals-marine-animals-heatwaves\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a study\u003c/a>\u003c/u> published earlier this week showed, and last year registered the hottest ocean temperatures on record. As that heat builds up, it’s having devastating consequences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I heard the numbers of birds being killed in California and Oregon and Washington and many areas of Alaska, as that unfolded, it was biblical to me,” said John Piatt, a biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey who was the lead author of the new paper on the bird deaths and has been studying common murres for 40 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This bird doesn’t fail unless there aren’t enough high density patches of food to serve their high demand needs. And that’s rare,” Piatt said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Death Toll Grows\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So what happened?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As reports came in from up and down the Pacific coast, Piatt was perplexed. Common murres are known for their ability to adapt. “Murres are the ultimate predator—they’re extremely well adapted, they can dive to 200 meters, and they live on the Continental Shelf,” he said. “Anywhere along there is their domain. And they’re the fastest flying sea bird.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet murres were washing in with the tides—sometimes 10 birds at a time, sometimes 100.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Irons’ discovery on New Year’s Day, everything changed, said Julia Parrish, a biologist at the University of Washington who leads the Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team and was a co-author of the study. Federal agencies started to get involved and were able to fly along the coastline and send more people to conduct surveys.\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1955899 alignleft\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Common-Murre-Populations.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"529\" height=\"770\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Common-Murre-Populations.png 529w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Common-Murre-Populations-160x233.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 529px) 100vw, 529px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Surveys in the Gulf of Alaska conducted by the Interior Department turned up more than 20,000 dead murres, and the public reported 21,435 more to the department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scientists reached out to bird and rehabilitation centers from southern California to Alaska and found that, out of 66 that responded, 37 reported receiving injured or dead murres—a total of 3,365 birds. The body count ticked higher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Investigation\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first thing the scientists needed to know was whether these deaths indicated a danger for human health. Were the birds carrying a disease? A toxin?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carcasses were shipped to the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wisconsin. “They did all sorts of analyses for viral and bacterial diseases, toxins in the tissues,” Parrish said. “We’re trying to eliminate smoking guns. But all of those things—not found. No parasites, nothing we can hang our hat on. But there was lots of emaciation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like many of his peers, Piatt was aware that these deaths were happening at the same time that the ocean was experiencing a record high heat wave, exacerbated by a ridge of high pressure on the West Coast that scientists were calling “the Blob.” But still, he wondered, “What could account for a decline in the food supply from California to the Bering Sea all at the same time?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To get the answer, the scientists started ruling things out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first question: Could the fish that the murres eat have moved elsewhere in response to the warmer water? It’s well understood that fish respond in specific ways when the ocean temperature changes, sometimes moving north, south or deeper down. “But the thing is, murres can go anywhere in a matter of hours,” Piatt said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers also looked into whether overfishing could be the answer, but that didn’t hold water, either.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Next, they investigated whether the fish were surviving from egg to larvae. Some juvenile stock were failing, sure, but not enough to explain the large number of starving birds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Piatt kept looking into it, he said he got pushback from some in the field who wanted to know how, in the absence of a clear explanation, he could still believe it was a single event that caused the birds to starve to death. But Piatt said, “There has never been such a thing. You really think that it’s a coincidence that they’re dying down there and dying up here? It’s connected.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"media media-element-container media-image_centered_medium\">\u003cstrong>\u003cstrong>Finally, Some Answers\u003c/strong>\u003c/strong>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"media media-element-container media-image_centered_medium\">Piatt began researching how water temperature can change the food supply. He started looking from the bottom up: What were the food sources that the fish were eating? He found that as the water had warmed, phytoplankton and zooplankton, the smallest ocean organisms that provide the base of the food web, had changed.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"media media-element-container media-image_centered_medium\">\n\u003cp>“The older, fatter, nutritionally richer zooplankton were replaced by southerly or offshore species that weren’t as big and nutritionally rich,” Piatt said. “This was observed in the Gulf of Alaska and off California and in various studies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, Piatt dove into studies that found that when water gets hotter, fish like cod, flounder, pollock and hake respond by increasing their metabolism. “If you turn up the temperature by a couple degrees, they have to double their food intake,” Piatt said. “It’s a huge deal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It turns out that those fish feed on the same prey as the murres.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the murres have an Achilles heel: They have to eat more than half their body mass every day. Based on their normal diet in Alaska, that’s typically 60-120 fatty forage fish every day—double that, if only leaner prey is available. By comparison, cod of similar size to a murre would only need to eat about 0.4-1.5 percent of their body mass per day—just 1 to 3 fatty fish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The double-whammy caused by warming waters—less nutritionally rich food sources and more competition for the food available—is what Piatt and his co-authors hypothesize led to the common murres deaths.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If murres can’t fully meet their food demand every day, their body condition begins to decline quickly. “If they can’t find \u003cem>any\u003c/em> food for 3-5 days, they will die of starvation,” the authors write in the new study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What Caused the Marine Heat Wave\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The extreme heat in the ocean from 2014-2016 was a result of several factors. Piatt describes it like a step ladder:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>At the base is the ocean getting warmer due to global warming. Global warming contributed about 25 percent of the warming in the heat wave.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Next, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, a recurring pattern of ocean-atmosphere climate variability that leads to periods of warming in the mid-latitude Pacific—that contributed about 35 percent of the heat.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>As part of that, there was a strong El Niño from 2015-2016, which led to warming from California’s coast up to Alaska’s.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>“If you remove all those signals you’ll see about a quarter of the heat is still unaccounted for, said Piatt. “That’s the Blob.” The Blob developed when a ridge of high pressure formed over the land on the northwestern coast of North America and blocked airflow from the Pacific to the interior, trapping heat over the ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was the biggest marine heat wave so far on record,” said Thomas Frölicher, a climate scientist at the University of Bern in Switzerland who was not involved in the new study. “Usually, we are used to heat waves over land. They are much smaller in size, and they do not last as long. In the ocean, this heat wave lasted two or three years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the past 35 years, marine heat waves have doubled in frequency, Frölicher said. And as global temperatures continue to rise, they will become even more commonplace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we follow a high-greenhouse-gas-emissions scenario, these heat waves will become \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0383-9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">50 times more frequent\u003c/a> than preindustrial times” by 2100, Frölicher said. A low-emissions scenario, consistent with the \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/tags/paris-climate-agreement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paris climate agreement\u003c/a>, would still see 20 times more heat waves, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What that means is that in some regions, they will become permanent heat waves,” he said. The mass deaths of common murres suggests what that may look like. “This gives us some insight into the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>A federal appeals court on Friday dismissed a lawsuit by 21 young people who claimed the U.S. government’s climate policies and reliance on fossil fuels harms them, jeopardizes their future and violates their constitutional rights, potentially bringing an end to a long-running legal battle that activists saw as an important front in the war against environmental degradation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Oregon-based youth advocacy group Our Children’s Trust filed the lawsuit in 2015 in Eugene on behalf of the youngsters. It sought an injunction ordering the government to implement a plan to phase out fossil fuel emissions and draw down atmospheric carbon dioxide emission. The case had bounced around the federal courts for five years and multiple trial dates were canceled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2-1 vote for dismissal was a major blow for the climate activists, who have filed numerous similar cases in state and federal courts and currently have nine cases pending in state courts from Alaska to New Mexico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It wasn’t immediately clear if any further legal avenues were open to the plaintiffs and their attorneys. Our Children’s Trust and Earth Guardians did not immediately respond to telephone messages seeking comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Erin Barnhart, a spokeswoman for Children’s Trust, said in an email that the group would release a statement later Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Government attorneys repeatedly sought the case’s dismissal and succeeded in having the scope of the claims narrowed and some defendants dismissed during years of back-and-forth litigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Friday, the court wrote that the youngsters made a compelling case that action is needed and agreed that climate change is undeniable, but said the proper venue for addressing the nation’s emissions policies and fossil fuel use is the U.S. Congress or the electorate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, the justices wrote that ending the use of fossil fuels in the U.S. alone — which is what the plaintiffs sought — would not be enough to slow or stop climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Rather, the record shows that many of the emissions causing climate change happened decades ago or come from foreign and non-governmental sources,” the opinion read, adding that experts who testified in the case said such results would require a “fundamental transformation” of the world’s energy system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The youths, who were between the ages of 8 and 18 when the lawsuit was filed in 2015, tied specific incidents that had affected their lives to climate change and U.S. government policies. In one instance, a young woman said she was forced to leave her home on a Navajo reservation because of water scarcity, separating her from her relatives. Others mentioned physical ailments from pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These injuries are not simply ‘conjectural’ or ‘hypothetical;’ at least some of the plaintiffs have presented evidence that climate change is affecting them now in concrete ways and will continue to do so unless checked,” the majority wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sole dissenting justice, Josephine Stanton, wrote that “my colleagues throw up their hands.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No case can singlehandedly prevent the catastrophic effects of climate change predicted by the government and scientists. … and the mere fact that this suit cannot alone halt climate change does not mean that it presents no claim suitable for judicial resolution,” Stanton wrote in her dissent.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco wrote that although it recognizes the youngsters made a compelling case that climate action is needed, it 'reluctantly' concluded the courts were not the right branch of government for redress.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A federal appeals court on Friday dismissed a lawsuit by 21 young people who claimed the U.S. government’s climate policies and reliance on fossil fuels harms them, jeopardizes their future and violates their constitutional rights, potentially bringing an end to a long-running legal battle that activists saw as an important front in the war against environmental degradation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Oregon-based youth advocacy group Our Children’s Trust filed the lawsuit in 2015 in Eugene on behalf of the youngsters. It sought an injunction ordering the government to implement a plan to phase out fossil fuel emissions and draw down atmospheric carbon dioxide emission. The case had bounced around the federal courts for five years and multiple trial dates were canceled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2-1 vote for dismissal was a major blow for the climate activists, who have filed numerous similar cases in state and federal courts and currently have nine cases pending in state courts from Alaska to New Mexico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It wasn’t immediately clear if any further legal avenues were open to the plaintiffs and their attorneys. Our Children’s Trust and Earth Guardians did not immediately respond to telephone messages seeking comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Erin Barnhart, a spokeswoman for Children’s Trust, said in an email that the group would release a statement later Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Government attorneys repeatedly sought the case’s dismissal and succeeded in having the scope of the claims narrowed and some defendants dismissed during years of back-and-forth litigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Friday, the court wrote that the youngsters made a compelling case that action is needed and agreed that climate change is undeniable, but said the proper venue for addressing the nation’s emissions policies and fossil fuel use is the U.S. Congress or the electorate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, the justices wrote that ending the use of fossil fuels in the U.S. alone — which is what the plaintiffs sought — would not be enough to slow or stop climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Rather, the record shows that many of the emissions causing climate change happened decades ago or come from foreign and non-governmental sources,” the opinion read, adding that experts who testified in the case said such results would require a “fundamental transformation” of the world’s energy system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The youths, who were between the ages of 8 and 18 when the lawsuit was filed in 2015, tied specific incidents that had affected their lives to climate change and U.S. government policies. In one instance, a young woman said she was forced to leave her home on a Navajo reservation because of water scarcity, separating her from her relatives. Others mentioned physical ailments from pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These injuries are not simply ‘conjectural’ or ‘hypothetical;’ at least some of the plaintiffs have presented evidence that climate change is affecting them now in concrete ways and will continue to do so unless checked,” the majority wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sole dissenting justice, Josephine Stanton, wrote that “my colleagues throw up their hands.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No case can singlehandedly prevent the catastrophic effects of climate change predicted by the government and scientists. … and the mere fact that this suit cannot alone halt climate change does not mean that it presents no claim suitable for judicial resolution,” Stanton wrote in her dissent.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Democratic Candidates Go All In on Climate at Debate",
"headTitle": "Democratic Candidates Go All In on Climate at Debate | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Throughout last night’s Democratic presidential debate, there were signs of the strong progressive push on climate action that is animating the presidential race as it reaches a critical moment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Contenders for the nomination, in their final face-off before the Feb. 3 Iowa Caucuses, were eager to show their commitment to climate action as integral to policy across the board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sen. \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/24062019/bernie-sanders-climate-change-global-warming-election-2020-candidate-profile\">Bernie Sanders\u003c/a> (I-Vt.) cited climate as the main reason he opposed President Donald Trump’s free trade deal with Mexico. Sen. \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/25062019/elizabeth-warren-climate-change-global-warming-election-2020-candidate-profile\">Elizabeth Warren\u003c/a> (D-Mass.) said climate had to be part of defense strategy. Former Vice President \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/24062019/joe-biden-climate-change-global-warming-election-2020-candidate-profile\">Joseph Biden\u003c/a> touted his role in heading up the largest U.S. investment ever in renewable energy as part of the 2009 economic recovery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At one point, one of the moderators, \u003cem>Des Moines Register\u003c/em> chief politics reporter Brianne Pfannenstiel, implored the candidates to stick to the subject of international trade. “We’re going to get to climate change,” she promised.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The candidates’ repeated return to the subject of climate change marked a dramatic turnaround from previous election cycles, when it rarely surfaced at candidate forums and routinely ranked far down on the list of voters’ concerns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leading the push to propel climate to the top of the agenda has been the youth-led activist group Sunrise Movement, which champions the Green New Deal and \u003ca href=\"https://medium.com/sunrisemvmt/sunrise-movement-endorses-bernie-sanders-for-president-b6bdb68ba408\">endorsed\u003c/a> Sanders last week—a fact he made sure to mention. The climate action group 350.org also launched a drive aimed at getting former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg to strengthen his climate platform: “We don’t have time for middle-of-the-pack climate plans,” 350.org \u003ca href=\"https://act.350.org/sign/buttigieg-we-need-real-climate-leader/\">said\u003c/a> in its online petition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The primary season climate offensive raises questions that will be pivotal to the effort to defeat Trump and end the \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/19122019/trump-climate-policy-record-rollback-fossil-energy-history-candidate-profile\">drastic setbacks\u003c/a> to global climate action under his administration. Will ardent young climate activists stay engaged if a moderate Democrat, like Biden, wins the nomination? If the party chooses a progressive like Sanders, who advocates an end to fracking, will he be able to win over enough moderate voters to defeat Trump—especially in swing states like Pennsylvania, which have come to rely heavily on natural gas production?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As important as those questions might be, the candidates are sweeping them aside for now. With polls showing that Iowa’s \u003ca href=\"http://icm-tracking.meltwater.com/link.php?DynEngagement=true&H=btYXC68syxmDVppbhVzFoYHdeMNV9070xvOlf%2FNdDQ0wXj6aidRhm2BDE5PnWsZF1T5ip8ynJpUVAxDr4kwep7fGLE%2FDPebYigVEQInFz48rO4fb4JUsfajOHUsTafKmG3QEqiDOJ69xYHAYQh%2BRyw%3D%3D&G=0&R=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.desmoinesregister.com%2Fstory%2Fnews%2Felections%2Fpresidential%2Fcaucus%2F2020%2F01%2F13%2Fiowa-caucus-2020-what-do-iowans-care-about-health-care-climate-change-education%2F4423488002%2F&I=20200115041604.00000c05afae%40mail6-114-ussnn1&X=MHwxMDQ2NzU4OjVlMWU5MWNjZWZkOWI2MzhhN2ZjYWNlNDs%3D&S=9a3RU2rYNCVShgvcUtXCyN_G-pGXPhebupGXSiZd2ZU\">likely Democratic caucus participants \u003c/a>consider climate change on par with health care as a top voting issue, the candidates see little to lose by staking out the strongest possible action plans on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All of the candidates are positioning themselves as climate hawks,” said Edward Maibach, a professor at George Mason University’s Center for Climate Change Communication. “They want to be seen as real leaders eager to do what’s necessary to address the climate crisis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voters’ Climate Change Views Rapidly Evolving\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maibach, a principal investigator of an opinion survey on climate conducted in partnership with the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, said the candidates appear to be taking their cue from the potential voters they are hearing from. The Yale-GMU project, which will be unveiling its latest political survey next week, has been tracking a pronounced shift in sentiment favoring strong climate action that goes beyond the liberal wing of the party.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With the exception of conservative Republicans, Americans’ views of climate change have evolved rapidly over the past five years,” Maibach said. “They are increasingly coming to understand that climate change is a present-day problem, not just a future problem, and they are becoming more worried about it as a result. Moderate and conservative Democrats are the group whose views have changed the most.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jeremy Symons, a public affairs consultant specializing in climate change and environmental issues, agrees with Maibach’s assessment. “One thing’s clear—the Democratic nominee will benefit enormously by leaning in full-throttle on climate change, because it is one of the rare issues that can mobilize turnout of the base and resonate with undecided voters,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Tuesday’s debate, the moderates sought to make clear that they were in synch with the most progressive candidates on climate. Buttigieg, for example, didn’t take the bait when he was prodded by businessman Tom Steyer over why, as the youngest candidate, he didn’t have a more progressive plan on climate. His plan, he maintained, was as strong as any other candidate’s. “This issue is personal for me,” Buttigieg said. “It’s why we’re going to tackle climate from day one.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sen. \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/24062019/amy-klobuchar-climate-change-global-warming-election-2020-candidate-profile\">Amy Klobuchar\u003c/a> (D-Minn.), asked why she did not support a ban on fracking, skipped over providing an explanation of why she sees natural gas as a transition fuel. Instead she stressed her 100 percent rating from the League of Conservation Voters and the fact that, like the other candidates, she has a goal of net zero carbon emissions by midcentury. “Nearly every one of us has a plan that is very similar,” she said. Warren and Sanders are also rated 100 percent by the League of Conservation Voters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Klobuchar will have a chance to raise her climate profile by participating in\u003ca href=\"https://www.thewrap.com/weather-channel-announces-second-climate-forum-with-presidential-candidates/\"> a climate forum\u003c/a> sponsored by The Weather Channel two days before the Iowa Caucuses. The only other candidates participating are Steyer and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, both of whom have made climate leadership central to their campaigns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bloomberg, a billionaire who is funding his own campaign and therefore cannot participate in the debates under Democratic National Committee rules, this week \u003ca href=\"https://www.mikebloomberg.com/2020/policies/clean-buildings\">unveiled a plan\u003c/a> to require all new buildings to have net-zero carbon emissions by 2025. The plan, which emphasizes a transition to renewable energy instead of natural gas, marks \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/23112019/michael-bloomberg-president-climate-change-activists-concerns-green-new-deal-wealth-tax\">an evolution\u003c/a> in Bloomberg’s own thinking on climate. Although he previously supported natural gas as a transition fuel, it “isn’t as clean as we thought,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sunrise Movement Goes All in for Sanders Early\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many environmental activists who expect to go all-out in an effort to defeat Trump have put off choosing a candidate among the Democrats this early in the race.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sunrise Movement, on the other hand, decided to turn its get-out-the-vote effort in Iowa and New Hampshire into a field program directly supporting Sanders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We believe a Bernie Sanders presidency would provide the best political terrain in which to engage in and ultimately win that struggle for the world we deserve,” said Sunrise Executive Director Varshini Prakash.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sanders, who is advocating a $16.3 trillion, 10-year mobilization to enact the \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/02012020/green-new-deal-future-2020-election-climate-change-sanders-ocasio-cortez\">Green New Deal\u003c/a>, a massive shift in federal government spending to create jobs and hasten a transition to clean energy, has pledged nearly 10 times the federal investment in climate action that Biden has promised. The Green New Deal has been attacked relentlessly by fossil fuel allies, and even supporters of climate action acknowledge the steep hurdles it would face on Capitol Hill, where a proposal for a much smaller, $33 billion investment in clean energy \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/20122019/congress-2020-budget-clean-energy-coal-miner-pension-black-lung-blm\">died at the end of the year\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But these numbers, in themselves, signal how far the political ground on climate has shifted—Biden’s call for a $1.7 trillion federal investment in tackling climate change marks nearly 30 times \u003ca href=\"https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/election/campaigns/article234890482.html\">what Hillary Clinton promised \u003c/a>when she sought the Democratic presidential nomination four years ago. Although he didn’t mention the Green New Deal by name during the debate, Biden has sought to frame his climate platform with the epic sweep its advocates are seeking. “We’re the only country in the world that’s ever taken great crisis and turned it into great opportunity,” Biden said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Symons argues that who emerges as the Democratic nominee is not as important as the continued engagement of climate activists in the general election and beyond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The differences between the candidates’ plans are real,” he said, “but they pale in comparison to the two big issues that will really decide what happens on climate change—first of all, whether we defeat Trump, and secondly, whether the winner will make climate change the No. 1 priority for spending political capital early in their new presidency.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sunrise Movement leaders sought to show they had their eyes on that bigger picture, even while they focus on electing Sanders in the short term.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If Senator Sanders does not win the nomination, the stakes of the climate crisis also demand that we can’t sit this election out,” said Sunrise’s political director, Evan Weber. “No matter what, we will be steadfast in advocating for the defeat of President Trump and his fossil fuel cronies at the ballot box.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Throughout last night’s Democratic presidential debate, there were signs of the strong progressive push on climate action that is animating the presidential race as it reaches a critical moment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Contenders for the nomination, in their final face-off before the Feb. 3 Iowa Caucuses, were eager to show their commitment to climate action as integral to policy across the board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sen. \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/24062019/bernie-sanders-climate-change-global-warming-election-2020-candidate-profile\">Bernie Sanders\u003c/a> (I-Vt.) cited climate as the main reason he opposed President Donald Trump’s free trade deal with Mexico. Sen. \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/25062019/elizabeth-warren-climate-change-global-warming-election-2020-candidate-profile\">Elizabeth Warren\u003c/a> (D-Mass.) said climate had to be part of defense strategy. Former Vice President \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/24062019/joe-biden-climate-change-global-warming-election-2020-candidate-profile\">Joseph Biden\u003c/a> touted his role in heading up the largest U.S. investment ever in renewable energy as part of the 2009 economic recovery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At one point, one of the moderators, \u003cem>Des Moines Register\u003c/em> chief politics reporter Brianne Pfannenstiel, implored the candidates to stick to the subject of international trade. “We’re going to get to climate change,” she promised.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The candidates’ repeated return to the subject of climate change marked a dramatic turnaround from previous election cycles, when it rarely surfaced at candidate forums and routinely ranked far down on the list of voters’ concerns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leading the push to propel climate to the top of the agenda has been the youth-led activist group Sunrise Movement, which champions the Green New Deal and \u003ca href=\"https://medium.com/sunrisemvmt/sunrise-movement-endorses-bernie-sanders-for-president-b6bdb68ba408\">endorsed\u003c/a> Sanders last week—a fact he made sure to mention. The climate action group 350.org also launched a drive aimed at getting former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg to strengthen his climate platform: “We don’t have time for middle-of-the-pack climate plans,” 350.org \u003ca href=\"https://act.350.org/sign/buttigieg-we-need-real-climate-leader/\">said\u003c/a> in its online petition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The primary season climate offensive raises questions that will be pivotal to the effort to defeat Trump and end the \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/19122019/trump-climate-policy-record-rollback-fossil-energy-history-candidate-profile\">drastic setbacks\u003c/a> to global climate action under his administration. Will ardent young climate activists stay engaged if a moderate Democrat, like Biden, wins the nomination? If the party chooses a progressive like Sanders, who advocates an end to fracking, will he be able to win over enough moderate voters to defeat Trump—especially in swing states like Pennsylvania, which have come to rely heavily on natural gas production?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As important as those questions might be, the candidates are sweeping them aside for now. With polls showing that Iowa’s \u003ca href=\"http://icm-tracking.meltwater.com/link.php?DynEngagement=true&H=btYXC68syxmDVppbhVzFoYHdeMNV9070xvOlf%2FNdDQ0wXj6aidRhm2BDE5PnWsZF1T5ip8ynJpUVAxDr4kwep7fGLE%2FDPebYigVEQInFz48rO4fb4JUsfajOHUsTafKmG3QEqiDOJ69xYHAYQh%2BRyw%3D%3D&G=0&R=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.desmoinesregister.com%2Fstory%2Fnews%2Felections%2Fpresidential%2Fcaucus%2F2020%2F01%2F13%2Fiowa-caucus-2020-what-do-iowans-care-about-health-care-climate-change-education%2F4423488002%2F&I=20200115041604.00000c05afae%40mail6-114-ussnn1&X=MHwxMDQ2NzU4OjVlMWU5MWNjZWZkOWI2MzhhN2ZjYWNlNDs%3D&S=9a3RU2rYNCVShgvcUtXCyN_G-pGXPhebupGXSiZd2ZU\">likely Democratic caucus participants \u003c/a>consider climate change on par with health care as a top voting issue, the candidates see little to lose by staking out the strongest possible action plans on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All of the candidates are positioning themselves as climate hawks,” said Edward Maibach, a professor at George Mason University’s Center for Climate Change Communication. “They want to be seen as real leaders eager to do what’s necessary to address the climate crisis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voters’ Climate Change Views Rapidly Evolving\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maibach, a principal investigator of an opinion survey on climate conducted in partnership with the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, said the candidates appear to be taking their cue from the potential voters they are hearing from. The Yale-GMU project, which will be unveiling its latest political survey next week, has been tracking a pronounced shift in sentiment favoring strong climate action that goes beyond the liberal wing of the party.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With the exception of conservative Republicans, Americans’ views of climate change have evolved rapidly over the past five years,” Maibach said. “They are increasingly coming to understand that climate change is a present-day problem, not just a future problem, and they are becoming more worried about it as a result. Moderate and conservative Democrats are the group whose views have changed the most.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jeremy Symons, a public affairs consultant specializing in climate change and environmental issues, agrees with Maibach’s assessment. “One thing’s clear—the Democratic nominee will benefit enormously by leaning in full-throttle on climate change, because it is one of the rare issues that can mobilize turnout of the base and resonate with undecided voters,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Tuesday’s debate, the moderates sought to make clear that they were in synch with the most progressive candidates on climate. Buttigieg, for example, didn’t take the bait when he was prodded by businessman Tom Steyer over why, as the youngest candidate, he didn’t have a more progressive plan on climate. His plan, he maintained, was as strong as any other candidate’s. “This issue is personal for me,” Buttigieg said. “It’s why we’re going to tackle climate from day one.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sen. \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/24062019/amy-klobuchar-climate-change-global-warming-election-2020-candidate-profile\">Amy Klobuchar\u003c/a> (D-Minn.), asked why she did not support a ban on fracking, skipped over providing an explanation of why she sees natural gas as a transition fuel. Instead she stressed her 100 percent rating from the League of Conservation Voters and the fact that, like the other candidates, she has a goal of net zero carbon emissions by midcentury. “Nearly every one of us has a plan that is very similar,” she said. Warren and Sanders are also rated 100 percent by the League of Conservation Voters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Klobuchar will have a chance to raise her climate profile by participating in\u003ca href=\"https://www.thewrap.com/weather-channel-announces-second-climate-forum-with-presidential-candidates/\"> a climate forum\u003c/a> sponsored by The Weather Channel two days before the Iowa Caucuses. The only other candidates participating are Steyer and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, both of whom have made climate leadership central to their campaigns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bloomberg, a billionaire who is funding his own campaign and therefore cannot participate in the debates under Democratic National Committee rules, this week \u003ca href=\"https://www.mikebloomberg.com/2020/policies/clean-buildings\">unveiled a plan\u003c/a> to require all new buildings to have net-zero carbon emissions by 2025. The plan, which emphasizes a transition to renewable energy instead of natural gas, marks \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/23112019/michael-bloomberg-president-climate-change-activists-concerns-green-new-deal-wealth-tax\">an evolution\u003c/a> in Bloomberg’s own thinking on climate. Although he previously supported natural gas as a transition fuel, it “isn’t as clean as we thought,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sunrise Movement Goes All in for Sanders Early\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many environmental activists who expect to go all-out in an effort to defeat Trump have put off choosing a candidate among the Democrats this early in the race.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sunrise Movement, on the other hand, decided to turn its get-out-the-vote effort in Iowa and New Hampshire into a field program directly supporting Sanders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We believe a Bernie Sanders presidency would provide the best political terrain in which to engage in and ultimately win that struggle for the world we deserve,” said Sunrise Executive Director Varshini Prakash.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sanders, who is advocating a $16.3 trillion, 10-year mobilization to enact the \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/02012020/green-new-deal-future-2020-election-climate-change-sanders-ocasio-cortez\">Green New Deal\u003c/a>, a massive shift in federal government spending to create jobs and hasten a transition to clean energy, has pledged nearly 10 times the federal investment in climate action that Biden has promised. The Green New Deal has been attacked relentlessly by fossil fuel allies, and even supporters of climate action acknowledge the steep hurdles it would face on Capitol Hill, where a proposal for a much smaller, $33 billion investment in clean energy \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/20122019/congress-2020-budget-clean-energy-coal-miner-pension-black-lung-blm\">died at the end of the year\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But these numbers, in themselves, signal how far the political ground on climate has shifted—Biden’s call for a $1.7 trillion federal investment in tackling climate change marks nearly 30 times \u003ca href=\"https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/election/campaigns/article234890482.html\">what Hillary Clinton promised \u003c/a>when she sought the Democratic presidential nomination four years ago. Although he didn’t mention the Green New Deal by name during the debate, Biden has sought to frame his climate platform with the epic sweep its advocates are seeking. “We’re the only country in the world that’s ever taken great crisis and turned it into great opportunity,” Biden said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Symons argues that who emerges as the Democratic nominee is not as important as the continued engagement of climate activists in the general election and beyond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The differences between the candidates’ plans are real,” he said, “but they pale in comparison to the two big issues that will really decide what happens on climate change—first of all, whether we defeat Trump, and secondly, whether the winner will make climate change the No. 1 priority for spending political capital early in their new presidency.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sunrise Movement leaders sought to show they had their eyes on that bigger picture, even while they focus on electing Sanders in the short term.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If Senator Sanders does not win the nomination, the stakes of the climate crisis also demand that we can’t sit this election out,” said Sunrise’s political director, Evan Weber. “No matter what, we will be steadfast in advocating for the defeat of President Trump and his fossil fuel cronies at the ballot box.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "2019 Was the 2nd-Hottest Year on Record",
"headTitle": "2019 Was the 2nd-Hottest Year on Record | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Last year was the second hottest on record globally, according to the latest climate data collected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/index.html\">latest confirmation\u003c/a> that the Earth is steadily getting hotter — the planet has already warmed about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (or almost 1 degree Celsius) compared with in the mid-20th century — and that robust greenhouse gas emissions are causing global warming to continue unabated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fact is that the planet is warming, and every year, we add one extra data point to this graph,” says \u003ca href=\"https://www.giss.nasa.gov/staff/gschmidt/\">Gavin Schmidt\u003c/a>, the director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Ranking years based on their average temperature might grab headlines, he notes, but “the main thing here is not really the ranking, but is the consistency of the long-term trends that we’re seeing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/20202019EOYGlobalTemps_Top10_en_title_lg.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1955843\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/20202019EOYGlobalTemps_Top10_en_title_lg.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/20202019EOYGlobalTemps_Top10_en_title_lg.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/20202019EOYGlobalTemps_Top10_en_title_lg-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/20202019EOYGlobalTemps_Top10_en_title_lg-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/20202019EOYGlobalTemps_Top10_en_title_lg-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/20202019EOYGlobalTemps_Top10_en_title_lg-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/20202019EOYGlobalTemps_Top10_en_title_lg-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That trend \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/briefings/20200115.pdf\">goes back decades\u003c/a>, with each decade warmer than the one before it. And that will likely continue in the 2020s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would say, notwithstanding some sort of major, major geophysical event, it would be almost certain that the [coming] decade will be warmer than the previous,” says Deke Arndt, the chief of climate monitoring for NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That means the planet is on track to blow past the temperature targets set by the Paris Agreement, which is meant to help countries reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the effects of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2015 agreement set a target of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) compared with preindustrial levels. A \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/10/08/655360909/grim-forecast-from-u-n-on-global-climate-change\">later report\u003c/a> by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) would be catastrophic for millions of people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Schmidt of NASA says data about the past can help humans understand the path that societies are currently on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The warming up until now since the 1970s has been quite close to linear,” he explains, so “you’d imagine we’d cross 1.5 [degrees Celsius] in around 2035. But of course that depends on what we do with emissions, and we’re not able to tell you looking at the past how society will react.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2019 data also confirm that different regions of Earth are being affected by global climate change in different ways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/20202019EOYGlobalTemps_Map_en_title_lg.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1955844\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/20202019EOYGlobalTemps_Map_en_title_lg.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/20202019EOYGlobalTemps_Map_en_title_lg.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/20202019EOYGlobalTemps_Map_en_title_lg-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/20202019EOYGlobalTemps_Map_en_title_lg-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/20202019EOYGlobalTemps_Map_en_title_lg-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/20202019EOYGlobalTemps_Map_en_title_lg-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/20202019EOYGlobalTemps_Map_en_title_lg-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Arctic is warming three times faster than the rest of the planet, and shrinking sea ice is contributing to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/11/10/777172788/studying-the-ripple-effects-of-shrinking-arctic-sea-ice\">vicious cycle\u003c/a>: As the ice retreats, the newly exposed water helps make the region warmer, and as the region gets warmer, the sea ice retreats more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the continental United States, warmer average temperatures have been affecting weather patterns. Overnight temperatures are rising more rapidly than daytime temperatures, which can \u003ca href=\"https://ag.purdue.edu/indianaclimate/agriculture-report/\">reduce yields for farmers\u003c/a> and be dangerous for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1932692/climate-change-dishes-up-dangerous-heat-even-in-the-bay-area\">public health\u003c/a> because it exacerbates existing illnesses and doesn’t give bodies a chance to cool down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rain patterns have also changed in much of the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are definitely seeing trends in the kind of the instances of big rain,” Arndt says. “We’re seeing the largest events getting larger,” he explains, adding that in many places, a larger percentage of the annual rainfall is coming down in a smaller number of storms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='forum_2010101875394' \u003ci>label=\u003c/i>'Forum: Hottest Decade Ever' target=_blank\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>That means more flood risk in many parts of the United States. Last year, for example, big rainfall events drove \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/05/31/728498303/it-s-never-done-this-arkansas-river-keeps-flooding-testing-levees-and-patience\">record-breaking floods\u003c/a> along the Mississippi River and its tributaries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That has consequences for how we manage water,” Arndt says. Stormwater systems are being tested by large amounts of water all at once, as are reservoirs. “When you get more of your rain in fewer larger doses, you have to manage things differently,” he says, because it’s more difficult to keep a consistent supply of water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the Pacific Northwest has been dealing with marine heat waves that are affecting fisheries and the crab industry. A hotter \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/08/19/750778010/how-much-hotter-are-the-oceans-the-answer-begins-with-a-bucket\">ocean surface\u003c/a> can also help drive more dangerous hurricanes in other parts of the world. In 2019, portions of the western Indian and \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/10/14/770031007/death-toll-climbs-after-typhoon-hits-japan\">Pacific oceans\u003c/a> were the hottest ever recorded, helping to spawn \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/04/08/710990335/in-need-of-blankets-pain-killers-pill-refills-life-after-cyclone-idai\">powerful cyclones\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2020 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=2019+Was+The+2nd-Hottest+Year+On+Record%2C+According+To+NASA+And+NOAA&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Last year's data collected by NASA and NOAA is the latest confirmation that Earth is steadily getting hotter. The planet is now almost 1 degree Celsius warmer than it was in the mid-20th century.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Last year was the second hottest on record globally, according to the latest climate data collected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/index.html\">latest confirmation\u003c/a> that the Earth is steadily getting hotter — the planet has already warmed about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (or almost 1 degree Celsius) compared with in the mid-20th century — and that robust greenhouse gas emissions are causing global warming to continue unabated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fact is that the planet is warming, and every year, we add one extra data point to this graph,” says \u003ca href=\"https://www.giss.nasa.gov/staff/gschmidt/\">Gavin Schmidt\u003c/a>, the director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Ranking years based on their average temperature might grab headlines, he notes, but “the main thing here is not really the ranking, but is the consistency of the long-term trends that we’re seeing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/20202019EOYGlobalTemps_Top10_en_title_lg.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1955843\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/20202019EOYGlobalTemps_Top10_en_title_lg.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/20202019EOYGlobalTemps_Top10_en_title_lg.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/20202019EOYGlobalTemps_Top10_en_title_lg-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/20202019EOYGlobalTemps_Top10_en_title_lg-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/20202019EOYGlobalTemps_Top10_en_title_lg-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/20202019EOYGlobalTemps_Top10_en_title_lg-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/20202019EOYGlobalTemps_Top10_en_title_lg-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That trend \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/briefings/20200115.pdf\">goes back decades\u003c/a>, with each decade warmer than the one before it. And that will likely continue in the 2020s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would say, notwithstanding some sort of major, major geophysical event, it would be almost certain that the [coming] decade will be warmer than the previous,” says Deke Arndt, the chief of climate monitoring for NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That means the planet is on track to blow past the temperature targets set by the Paris Agreement, which is meant to help countries reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the effects of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2015 agreement set a target of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) compared with preindustrial levels. A \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/10/08/655360909/grim-forecast-from-u-n-on-global-climate-change\">later report\u003c/a> by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) would be catastrophic for millions of people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Schmidt of NASA says data about the past can help humans understand the path that societies are currently on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The warming up until now since the 1970s has been quite close to linear,” he explains, so “you’d imagine we’d cross 1.5 [degrees Celsius] in around 2035. But of course that depends on what we do with emissions, and we’re not able to tell you looking at the past how society will react.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2019 data also confirm that different regions of Earth are being affected by global climate change in different ways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/20202019EOYGlobalTemps_Map_en_title_lg.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1955844\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/20202019EOYGlobalTemps_Map_en_title_lg.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/20202019EOYGlobalTemps_Map_en_title_lg.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/20202019EOYGlobalTemps_Map_en_title_lg-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/20202019EOYGlobalTemps_Map_en_title_lg-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/20202019EOYGlobalTemps_Map_en_title_lg-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/20202019EOYGlobalTemps_Map_en_title_lg-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/20202019EOYGlobalTemps_Map_en_title_lg-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Arctic is warming three times faster than the rest of the planet, and shrinking sea ice is contributing to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/11/10/777172788/studying-the-ripple-effects-of-shrinking-arctic-sea-ice\">vicious cycle\u003c/a>: As the ice retreats, the newly exposed water helps make the region warmer, and as the region gets warmer, the sea ice retreats more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the continental United States, warmer average temperatures have been affecting weather patterns. Overnight temperatures are rising more rapidly than daytime temperatures, which can \u003ca href=\"https://ag.purdue.edu/indianaclimate/agriculture-report/\">reduce yields for farmers\u003c/a> and be dangerous for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1932692/climate-change-dishes-up-dangerous-heat-even-in-the-bay-area\">public health\u003c/a> because it exacerbates existing illnesses and doesn’t give bodies a chance to cool down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rain patterns have also changed in much of the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are definitely seeing trends in the kind of the instances of big rain,” Arndt says. “We’re seeing the largest events getting larger,” he explains, adding that in many places, a larger percentage of the annual rainfall is coming down in a smaller number of storms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>That means more flood risk in many parts of the United States. Last year, for example, big rainfall events drove \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/05/31/728498303/it-s-never-done-this-arkansas-river-keeps-flooding-testing-levees-and-patience\">record-breaking floods\u003c/a> along the Mississippi River and its tributaries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That has consequences for how we manage water,” Arndt says. Stormwater systems are being tested by large amounts of water all at once, as are reservoirs. “When you get more of your rain in fewer larger doses, you have to manage things differently,” he says, because it’s more difficult to keep a consistent supply of water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the Pacific Northwest has been dealing with marine heat waves that are affecting fisheries and the crab industry. A hotter \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/08/19/750778010/how-much-hotter-are-the-oceans-the-answer-begins-with-a-bucket\">ocean surface\u003c/a> can also help drive more dangerous hurricanes in other parts of the world. In 2019, portions of the western Indian and \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/10/14/770031007/death-toll-climbs-after-typhoon-hits-japan\">Pacific oceans\u003c/a> were the hottest ever recorded, helping to spawn \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/04/08/710990335/in-need-of-blankets-pain-killers-pill-refills-life-after-cyclone-idai\">powerful cyclones\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2020 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=2019+Was+The+2nd-Hottest+Year+On+Record%2C+According+To+NASA+And+NOAA&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Fleet Of Cars to Collect Block-by-Block Air Quality Data in Bay Area",
"headTitle": "Fleet Of Cars to Collect Block-by-Block Air Quality Data in Bay Area | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>A fleet of Toyota Priuses equipped with sensors to detect greenhouse gases, particulate matter and other pollutants is monitoring air quality across the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area Air Quality Management District announced this month that the hybrids will collect block-by-block data from all nine Bay Area counties, spanning more than 5,000 square miles of public roads. The district will use data collected through this year and early 2021 to create hyper-local air quality maps. Those will be available to the public on the BAAQMD’s website starting later this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1955799\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1955799\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Air-Quality-Photo-2-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Air-Quality-Photo-2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Air-Quality-Photo-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Air-Quality-Photo-2-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Air-Quality-Photo-2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Air-Quality-Photo-2-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Air-Quality-Photo-2-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s fleet of low-emissions cars will measure air quality with a unit of sensors stored in the back. \u003ccite>(Peter Arcuni/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The air district is partnering with technology company \u003ca href=\"https://aclima.io/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aclima\u003c/a> to outfit the mobile fleet with sensors that measure pollution in the form of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone and fine particulate matter, all detrimental to human health. Aclima will help analyze the data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Air quality district executive officer Jack Broadbent says recent wildfires, climate change and federal rollbacks of emission standards have created a need for more precise local air quality tracking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we need now, more than ever, are facts,” Broadbent said, adding that his agency is going to use “new technologies and approaches to build upon our air quality data to better inform our actions and protect Bay Area residents.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district has 30 stationary air monitoring stations spread across the region. Data from these stations feeds into the continually updating federal \u003ca href=\"https://airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=airnow.local_city&cityid=317\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">AirNow map\u003c/a>. But this data doesn’t reflect the differences in air quality across all Bay Area cities or neighborhoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote] The Air Quality District’s chief says the data will “help drive the air quality and climate efforts well into the future.”[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A study published in \u003cem>Environmental Science & Technology\u003c/em> in 2017 showed that pollution in West Oakland could \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1950648/californians-turn-to-low-cost-sensors-for-highly-local-air-quality-info\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">vary significantly from block to block\u003c/a>. The researchers mounted air sensors onto Google Street View cars. Air quality maps that use data from consumer air sensors, like \u003ca href=\"https://www.purpleair.com/map\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Purple Air\u003c/a>, have painted a similar picture in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1955800\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1955800\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Air-Quality-Photo-3-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Air-Quality-Photo-3-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Air-Quality-Photo-3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Air-Quality-Photo-3-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Air-Quality-Photo-3-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Air-Quality-Photo-3-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Air-Quality-Photo-3-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The air intake valve on one of the Air District’s new pollution monitoring cars. \u003ccite>(Peter Arcuni/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While the BAAQMD won’t post the new data in real time, it will be compiled over months and used to create a public map of air pollution and greenhouse levels on every block in the Bay Area. The map will be similar to the \u003ca href=\"https://insights.aclima.io/west-oakland\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">one\u003c/a> created for West Oakland, according to Aclima.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This new data will help us identify pollution hotspots in order to strengthen and target our actions to reduce emissions … partnering with local governments and communities to protect public health,” said Ranyee Chiang, the BAAQMD’s director of meterology and measurement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Broadbent says the project will give policymakers accurate data to “help drive the air quality and climate efforts well into the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In August the district dispatched the first vehicles to the Richmond-San Pablo area. The fleet has since expanded to San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. The rollout will be completed in the coming months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Representatives from BAAQMD and Aclima say the Bay Area fleet will eventually number “dozens” of cars that measure air quality 24 hours a day, seven days a week.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A fleet of Toyota Priuses equipped with sensors to detect greenhouse gases, particulate matter and other pollutants is monitoring air quality across the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area Air Quality Management District announced this month that the hybrids will collect block-by-block data from all nine Bay Area counties, spanning more than 5,000 square miles of public roads. The district will use data collected through this year and early 2021 to create hyper-local air quality maps. Those will be available to the public on the BAAQMD’s website starting later this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1955799\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1955799\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Air-Quality-Photo-2-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Air-Quality-Photo-2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Air-Quality-Photo-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Air-Quality-Photo-2-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Air-Quality-Photo-2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Air-Quality-Photo-2-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Air-Quality-Photo-2-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s fleet of low-emissions cars will measure air quality with a unit of sensors stored in the back. \u003ccite>(Peter Arcuni/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The air district is partnering with technology company \u003ca href=\"https://aclima.io/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aclima\u003c/a> to outfit the mobile fleet with sensors that measure pollution in the form of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone and fine particulate matter, all detrimental to human health. Aclima will help analyze the data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Air quality district executive officer Jack Broadbent says recent wildfires, climate change and federal rollbacks of emission standards have created a need for more precise local air quality tracking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we need now, more than ever, are facts,” Broadbent said, adding that his agency is going to use “new technologies and approaches to build upon our air quality data to better inform our actions and protect Bay Area residents.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A study published in \u003cem>Environmental Science & Technology\u003c/em> in 2017 showed that pollution in West Oakland could \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1950648/californians-turn-to-low-cost-sensors-for-highly-local-air-quality-info\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">vary significantly from block to block\u003c/a>. The researchers mounted air sensors onto Google Street View cars. Air quality maps that use data from consumer air sensors, like \u003ca href=\"https://www.purpleair.com/map\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Purple Air\u003c/a>, have painted a similar picture in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1955800\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1955800\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Air-Quality-Photo-3-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Air-Quality-Photo-3-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Air-Quality-Photo-3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Air-Quality-Photo-3-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Air-Quality-Photo-3-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Air-Quality-Photo-3-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Air-Quality-Photo-3-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The air intake valve on one of the Air District’s new pollution monitoring cars. \u003ccite>(Peter Arcuni/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While the BAAQMD won’t post the new data in real time, it will be compiled over months and used to create a public map of air pollution and greenhouse levels on every block in the Bay Area. The map will be similar to the \u003ca href=\"https://insights.aclima.io/west-oakland\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">one\u003c/a> created for West Oakland, according to Aclima.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This new data will help us identify pollution hotspots in order to strengthen and target our actions to reduce emissions … partnering with local governments and communities to protect public health,” said Ranyee Chiang, the BAAQMD’s director of meterology and measurement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Broadbent says the project will give policymakers accurate data to “help drive the air quality and climate efforts well into the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In August the district dispatched the first vehicles to the Richmond-San Pablo area. The fleet has since expanded to San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. The rollout will be completed in the coming months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Representatives from BAAQMD and Aclima say the Bay Area fleet will eventually number “dozens” of cars that measure air quality 24 hours a day, seven days a week.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Here's How Much Better Last Fire Season Was Than the Previous Two",
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"content": "\u003cp>It’s impossible to divorce the 2019 fire season in Northern California from the two that came immediately before. Those were nothing short of disastrous, so much so that many Californians entered last summer filled with dread of a third consecutive year of incinerated homes, mass evacuations and tragic loss of life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, with those recent calamities haunting the state, officials took some unprecedented steps to avert a devastating repeat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Did they work? Well, judging by the results tallied at the end of the year, \u003cem>something\u003c/em> went right. The number of acres burned was the lowest since 2011, and the wildfire-related death toll dropped to three, down from the dozens of fatalities in both 2017 and 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe id=\"datawrapper-chart-pb0w9\" style=\"width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;\" title=\"California Wildfire \" src=\"//datawrapper.dwcdn.net/pb0w9/1/\" height=\"244\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" aria-label=\"Table\">\u003c/iframe>\u003cscript type=\"text/javascript\">!function(){\"use strict\";window.addEventListener(\"message\",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[\"datawrapper-height\"])for(var e in a.data[\"datawrapper-height\"]){var t=document.getElementById(\"datawrapper-chart-\"+e)||document.querySelector(\"iframe[src*='\"+e+\"']\");t&&(t.style.height=a.data[\"datawrapper-height\"][e]+\"px\")}})}();\u003c/script>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most extreme preventive measure came from PG&E, the state’s largest utility, whose transmission line had \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11789259/state-probe-says-pge-missed-deadly-flaw-on-line-that-sparked-camp-fire\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sparked\u003c/a> the 2018 Camp Fire that killed 85 people and destroyed nearly 14,000 homes. Last fall the company implemented several large-scale power shutoffs affecting up to 2 million people during periods of high-risk for wildfire, and the outages deprived some residents of electricity for as long as a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Emergency procedures evolved as well. During the Kincade Fire, the state’s largest of the year, officials forced about 200,000 residents out of their homes in \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/10239056-181/battle-against-kincade-fire-takes\">reportedly\u003c/a> the biggest evacuation in Sonoma County history. The magnitude of the response was prompted by major \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11654027/my-world-was-burning-the-north-bay-fires-and-what-went-wrong\">problems\u003c/a> concerning \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11644154/north-bay-fires-what-took-authorities-so-long-to-warn-people\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">emergency procedures\u003c/a> during the devastating North Bay Fires of 2017.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We did not want to repeat that experience,” Sonoma County Supervisor Susan Gorin told KQED’s Lisa Pickoff-White in October. “So they evacuated large numbers of the population in Sonoma County early.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"California Acres Burned\" aria-label=\"Interactive line chart\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-1LWY8\" src=\"//datawrapper.dwcdn.net/1LWY8/1/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;\" height=\"500\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">\u003cb>PG&E’s Planned Outages: Did They Help?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The utility executed a series power outages when high winds coincided with other dangerous conditions. After PG&E carried out its first shutoff, from Oct. 9 to Oct. 12, the company said it found dozens of locations where downed trees or other equipment failures would have created conditions ripe for a wildfire. “It is possible that any one of these instances could have been a potential source of ignition had a PSPS (public safety power shutoff) not been initiated,” PG&E said in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.pge.com/en/about/newsroom/newsdetails/index.page?title=20191014_15_things_you_need_to_know_about_pges_oct_9-12_public_safety_power_shutoff\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">press release\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Susan Gorin, the Sonoma County supervisor, said the power shutoffs at the very least helped in an indirect way. When the Kincade Fire broke out, the county already had its emergency operations center up and running in response to the outage, “because we needed to work with the community,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s also worth noting that PG&E has acknowleded the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11782609/map-pge-transmission-lines-near-kincade-fire-ignition-point\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">malfunctioning\u003c/a> of one of its transmission lines near the origin of the Kincade Fire just seven minutes before the blaze ignited. Ironically, the line was located in an area subject to one of the company’s planned outages, but only on lower-voltage lines. (The official cause of the Kincade Fire is still under investigation.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whatever good may have come from the outages — which PG&E says will continue — \u003ca href=\"http://www.capradio.org/articles/2019/10/10/unacceptable-pge-faces-backlash-over-power-shutoff-as-newsom-increases-criticism/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">officials\u003c/a> hurled \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/18/business/energy-environment/pge-blackout-california.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">withering criticism\u003c/a> at the company for poor execution in keeping the public informed during the blackouts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">\u003cb>Fortuitous Weather\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Other factors most certainly contributed to a relatively subdued fire year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">From year to year, there are dramatic differences in weather and forest conditions. Last year, the wet winter helped to dampen potential fuel, as did a late-May rain that left vegetation with high levels of moisture throughout the summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p3\">“The moderate weather pattern this year was very conducive to the [low] totals that we have as far as acres burned,” said Scott McLean, a Cal Fire spokesman. “In 2017 and 2018 you saw hundred-degree weather that was consistent for weeks at a time\u003cb> \u003c/b>with winds. This year … started out with a good weather pattern. We stayed in that moderate weather pattern, but really no wind. Until you hit the fall, and then you started seeing fires because the wind picked up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p3\">California was also lucky, given the risk caused by wind storms repeatedly sweeping across Northern California’s parched chaparral in October and early November, before the region received any rain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Warming Climate, Intensifying Fires\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whatever the reasons for a less horrifying year — better policy, good weather, luck — it’s obviously too early to declare victory, especially with the acceleration of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We expect there to be big year-to-year swings in the area burned by fire, even though, in general, climate change is creating upward pressure on fire risk,” said Alex Hall, director of the Center for Climate Science at UCLA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Kincade Fire was driven by a series of unique wind events, and while there’s no evidence that climate change is causing stronger winds, Jim Randerson, a climate and ecology scientist at UC Irvine, says global warming could be contributing to a decrease in wind humidity in the fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“That decline in humidity increases the fire risk, even if the wind strength remains similar,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Stephanie Herring, a climate scientist with the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, says the research is increasingly clear that hotter, drier summer conditions play a big role in wildfires’ increasing intensity.\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“\u003cspan class=\"s2\">Fires are driven by an incredibly complex set of factors,” said Herring, the \u003c/span>editor of the \u003cspan class=\"s3\">\u003ci>Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society’s \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ametsoc.org/ams/index.cfm/publications/bulletin-of-the-american-meteorological-society-bams/explaining-extreme-events-from-a-climate-perspective/\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">report\u003c/span>\u003c/a> on attribution science, which calculates how much climate change contributes to specific natural disasters. \u003c/span>\u003cspan class=\"s2\">“There have been numerous papers now that showed climate change is increasing the risk of wildfires in the West, in particular.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which means wildfire is likely going to be an issue for the foreseeable future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>It’s impossible to divorce the 2019 fire season in Northern California from the two that came immediately before. Those were nothing short of disastrous, so much so that many Californians entered last summer filled with dread of a third consecutive year of incinerated homes, mass evacuations and tragic loss of life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, with those recent calamities haunting the state, officials took some unprecedented steps to avert a devastating repeat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Did they work? Well, judging by the results tallied at the end of the year, \u003cem>something\u003c/em> went right. The number of acres burned was the lowest since 2011, and the wildfire-related death toll dropped to three, down from the dozens of fatalities in both 2017 and 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe id=\"datawrapper-chart-pb0w9\" style=\"width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;\" title=\"California Wildfire \" src=\"//datawrapper.dwcdn.net/pb0w9/1/\" height=\"244\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" aria-label=\"Table\">\u003c/iframe>\u003cscript type=\"text/javascript\">!function(){\"use strict\";window.addEventListener(\"message\",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[\"datawrapper-height\"])for(var e in a.data[\"datawrapper-height\"]){var t=document.getElementById(\"datawrapper-chart-\"+e)||document.querySelector(\"iframe[src*='\"+e+\"']\");t&&(t.style.height=a.data[\"datawrapper-height\"][e]+\"px\")}})}();\u003c/script>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most extreme preventive measure came from PG&E, the state’s largest utility, whose transmission line had \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11789259/state-probe-says-pge-missed-deadly-flaw-on-line-that-sparked-camp-fire\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sparked\u003c/a> the 2018 Camp Fire that killed 85 people and destroyed nearly 14,000 homes. Last fall the company implemented several large-scale power shutoffs affecting up to 2 million people during periods of high-risk for wildfire, and the outages deprived some residents of electricity for as long as a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Emergency procedures evolved as well. During the Kincade Fire, the state’s largest of the year, officials forced about 200,000 residents out of their homes in \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/10239056-181/battle-against-kincade-fire-takes\">reportedly\u003c/a> the biggest evacuation in Sonoma County history. The magnitude of the response was prompted by major \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11654027/my-world-was-burning-the-north-bay-fires-and-what-went-wrong\">problems\u003c/a> concerning \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11644154/north-bay-fires-what-took-authorities-so-long-to-warn-people\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">emergency procedures\u003c/a> during the devastating North Bay Fires of 2017.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We did not want to repeat that experience,” Sonoma County Supervisor Susan Gorin told KQED’s Lisa Pickoff-White in October. “So they evacuated large numbers of the population in Sonoma County early.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"California Acres Burned\" aria-label=\"Interactive line chart\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-1LWY8\" src=\"//datawrapper.dwcdn.net/1LWY8/1/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;\" height=\"500\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">\u003cb>PG&E’s Planned Outages: Did They Help?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The utility executed a series power outages when high winds coincided with other dangerous conditions. After PG&E carried out its first shutoff, from Oct. 9 to Oct. 12, the company said it found dozens of locations where downed trees or other equipment failures would have created conditions ripe for a wildfire. “It is possible that any one of these instances could have been a potential source of ignition had a PSPS (public safety power shutoff) not been initiated,” PG&E said in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.pge.com/en/about/newsroom/newsdetails/index.page?title=20191014_15_things_you_need_to_know_about_pges_oct_9-12_public_safety_power_shutoff\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">press release\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Susan Gorin, the Sonoma County supervisor, said the power shutoffs at the very least helped in an indirect way. When the Kincade Fire broke out, the county already had its emergency operations center up and running in response to the outage, “because we needed to work with the community,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s also worth noting that PG&E has acknowleded the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11782609/map-pge-transmission-lines-near-kincade-fire-ignition-point\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">malfunctioning\u003c/a> of one of its transmission lines near the origin of the Kincade Fire just seven minutes before the blaze ignited. Ironically, the line was located in an area subject to one of the company’s planned outages, but only on lower-voltage lines. (The official cause of the Kincade Fire is still under investigation.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whatever good may have come from the outages — which PG&E says will continue — \u003ca href=\"http://www.capradio.org/articles/2019/10/10/unacceptable-pge-faces-backlash-over-power-shutoff-as-newsom-increases-criticism/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">officials\u003c/a> hurled \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/18/business/energy-environment/pge-blackout-california.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">withering criticism\u003c/a> at the company for poor execution in keeping the public informed during the blackouts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">\u003cb>Fortuitous Weather\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Other factors most certainly contributed to a relatively subdued fire year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">From year to year, there are dramatic differences in weather and forest conditions. Last year, the wet winter helped to dampen potential fuel, as did a late-May rain that left vegetation with high levels of moisture throughout the summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p3\">“The moderate weather pattern this year was very conducive to the [low] totals that we have as far as acres burned,” said Scott McLean, a Cal Fire spokesman. “In 2017 and 2018 you saw hundred-degree weather that was consistent for weeks at a time\u003cb> \u003c/b>with winds. This year … started out with a good weather pattern. We stayed in that moderate weather pattern, but really no wind. Until you hit the fall, and then you started seeing fires because the wind picked up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p3\">California was also lucky, given the risk caused by wind storms repeatedly sweeping across Northern California’s parched chaparral in October and early November, before the region received any rain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Warming Climate, Intensifying Fires\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whatever the reasons for a less horrifying year — better policy, good weather, luck — it’s obviously too early to declare victory, especially with the acceleration of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We expect there to be big year-to-year swings in the area burned by fire, even though, in general, climate change is creating upward pressure on fire risk,” said Alex Hall, director of the Center for Climate Science at UCLA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Kincade Fire was driven by a series of unique wind events, and while there’s no evidence that climate change is causing stronger winds, Jim Randerson, a climate and ecology scientist at UC Irvine, says global warming could be contributing to a decrease in wind humidity in the fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“That decline in humidity increases the fire risk, even if the wind strength remains similar,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Stephanie Herring, a climate scientist with the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, says the research is increasingly clear that hotter, drier summer conditions play a big role in wildfires’ increasing intensity.\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“\u003cspan class=\"s2\">Fires are driven by an incredibly complex set of factors,” said Herring, the \u003c/span>editor of the \u003cspan class=\"s3\">\u003ci>Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society’s \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ametsoc.org/ams/index.cfm/publications/bulletin-of-the-american-meteorological-society-bams/explaining-extreme-events-from-a-climate-perspective/\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">report\u003c/span>\u003c/a> on attribution science, which calculates how much climate change contributes to specific natural disasters. \u003c/span>\u003cspan class=\"s2\">“There have been numerous papers now that showed climate change is increasing the risk of wildfires in the West, in particular.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which means wildfire is likely going to be an issue for the foreseeable future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "King Tides: A Story of the Moon, Sun and Sea",
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"content": "\u003cp>A sunny walk along San Francisco’s Embarcadero is about as nice as it gets, with the waterside promenade framed by a stunning view of the Bay Bridge. Strolling day trippers can also visit much-loved city attractions such as the Exploratorium science museum and the Ferry Building, loaded with gourmet snacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='science_1954745']This weekend, however, all that charm is going to be flanked by a sobering reminder of climate change. The Embarcadero is also one of the premier spots in the region to glimpse the future as it relates to rising seas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The King Tides of today are the standard high tides of tomorrow,” said Lori Lambertson, an educator at the Exploratorium who will lead a \u003ca href=\"https://www.exploratorium.edu/visit/calendar/king-tide-walk-1-11-2020\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Saturday morning walk\u003c/a> between Piers 3 and 5, so that members of the public can see, photograph and learn about the phenomenon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>King tides receive their royal designation because they produce the highest, as well as the lowest, tides of the year. In the winter, they rise and fall along the Pacific coast when the sun and moon line up in their coziest proximity to Earth, exerting their greatest gravitational pull upon ocean waters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, tides fluctuate constantly. There are the bimonthly “spring tides,” which have nothing to do with the season; the name refers to water “springing forth” during the full and new moons, when tidal swings are greater than normal. The first spring tide occurs when the moon is “new” and invisible to earthlings, and it hangs directly between our planet and the sun, with both bodies gravitationally pulling on our waters. Then, during the full moon phase, it’s Earth that’s in the middle; the ocean’s waters are still pulled higher by gravity, but in different directions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three or four times a year, one of these spring tides coincides with perigee of the moon, when it has reached its closest point to the Earth in a 28-day orbit. This creates a “perigean spring tide,” with the difference from a normal spring tide generally measured in inches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1955626\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/perigeanspringtide-800x608.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"608\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/perigeanspringtide-800x608.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/perigeanspringtide-160x122.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/perigeanspringtide-768x584.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/perigeanspringtide.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Basically, all king tides are perigean spring tides, but all perigean spring tides are not necessarily king tides. (Do not let this distress you; just embrace the wonder and complexity of gravity and the ocean.) Along the Pacific coast, the winter perigean spring tides are more noticeable and more likely to contribute to flooding than summer tides, owing to winter weather patterns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While high and low tides are a product of scientific phenomena, the terminology we use to describe them is not. (The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration simply \u003ca href=\"https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/perigean-spring-tide.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">says\u003c/a>, “A King Tide is a non-scientific term people often use to describe exceptionally high tides.”) So what qualifies as a king tide depends on whom you ask. Thus, the frequency of king tides is described differently by different sources \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">—\u003c/span> anywhere between 1-4 times a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Area residents will be able to witness the first king tides of the year \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1954745/where-and-when-to-see-king-tides-in-the-bay-area-this-weekend\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">throughout this weekend\u003c/a>, with a second set occuring Feb. 8-10.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>A Glimpse of the Future\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The inspiration for the creation of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.coastal.ca.gov/kingtides/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">California King Tides Project\u003c/a> was a \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">perception that the public conversation around climate change was unhelpful and even counterproductive, says \u003c/span>Marina Psaros, the project’s co-founder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was about drowning polar bears and things that were happening far away,” said Psaros, who currently works for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission on clean energy. She thought many of the people talking about climate change seemed fixated on difficult and technical scientific questions that were incomprehensible to all but the experts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So we asked, ‘Is there any way to put people at the center of their own experience with this, instead of beating them over the head with science or with polar bears?'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project emphasizes king tides as a local preview of what’s in store as related to rising seas caused by climate change. As the Earth warms, water expands and occupies more space. Melting ice runs into the ocean and increases its volume. These two consequences of a warmer climate are so far estimated to have contributed equally to sea level rise, according to Lambertson. The temporary \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">—\u003c/span> for now \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">—\u003c/span> surge in sea level during king tides gives us a chance to observe the areas first on the list to be impacted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You don’t have to know all the science,” says Psaros. “You can just go out and see what’s at risk in your community, go out during a king tide and watch the water spill over the Embarcadero.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Trying to Adapt\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More sea level rise is certain, though exactly how fast it’s coming is unclear. The water may creep up slowly, or it may rise rapidly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San Francisco Bay has already gone up about 8 inches \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">—\u003c/span> a measurement taken at the Golden Gate Bridge \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">—\u003c/span> in the last 100 years, giving officials in low-lying areas an impetus to prepare for the coming encroachment of the sea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Marin County Flood Control District, for example, is looking at how to move levees back to give waterways like the lower Novato Creek a wider floodplain and more room to flow and transport sediment. The district is also interested in building up new tidal marshes, which will act like sponges and slow the rise and fall of water levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2018, voters in Foster City overwhelmingly \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1924576/measure-p-foster-citys-90-million-tax-to-defend-against-rising-sea\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">approved\u003c/a> a tax on themselves to pay for raising a levee. To protect the Embarcadero, San Francisco voters \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1933956/proposition-a-san-franciscans-want-a-new-seawall-and-vote-to-pay-for-it\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">passed\u003c/a> by more than 4 to 1 a bond measure to strengthen the crumbing sea wall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In terms of just how much higher the water is going to get, recent indications from climate studies have not been good.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every time the IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] has issued a new report, the higher boundary of where seas might rise … get(s) higher and higher,” said Psaros.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Amid these worries, she sees people who want to be able to do something.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And something they can do is actually help scientists and policymakers, by going out and getting the data that we need in order to make better decisions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Psaros says her favorite kind of data for participants to collect is sociological. She remembers in particular working with a continuation high school where the students wanted to do more than just collect pictures of the tides. She created a survey for them with questions about climate change so they could gather responses from the public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These kids were from everywhere and they were given this assignment to go talk to people in their community. So the results they brought back were … Tagalog and Vietnamese and Spanish and a bunch of languages and perspectives that governments want but often just can’t get,” Psaros said. “Newcomer communities are not [usually] showing up at the 7 p.m. community master plan meeting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "King tides get their royal designation because they produce the highest, as well as the lowest, tides of the year. They also give us a glimpse of what life with rising seas could look like on a local level.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A sunny walk along San Francisco’s Embarcadero is about as nice as it gets, with the waterside promenade framed by a stunning view of the Bay Bridge. Strolling day trippers can also visit much-loved city attractions such as the Exploratorium science museum and the Ferry Building, loaded with gourmet snacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>This weekend, however, all that charm is going to be flanked by a sobering reminder of climate change. The Embarcadero is also one of the premier spots in the region to glimpse the future as it relates to rising seas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The King Tides of today are the standard high tides of tomorrow,” said Lori Lambertson, an educator at the Exploratorium who will lead a \u003ca href=\"https://www.exploratorium.edu/visit/calendar/king-tide-walk-1-11-2020\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Saturday morning walk\u003c/a> between Piers 3 and 5, so that members of the public can see, photograph and learn about the phenomenon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>King tides receive their royal designation because they produce the highest, as well as the lowest, tides of the year. In the winter, they rise and fall along the Pacific coast when the sun and moon line up in their coziest proximity to Earth, exerting their greatest gravitational pull upon ocean waters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, tides fluctuate constantly. There are the bimonthly “spring tides,” which have nothing to do with the season; the name refers to water “springing forth” during the full and new moons, when tidal swings are greater than normal. The first spring tide occurs when the moon is “new” and invisible to earthlings, and it hangs directly between our planet and the sun, with both bodies gravitationally pulling on our waters. Then, during the full moon phase, it’s Earth that’s in the middle; the ocean’s waters are still pulled higher by gravity, but in different directions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three or four times a year, one of these spring tides coincides with perigee of the moon, when it has reached its closest point to the Earth in a 28-day orbit. This creates a “perigean spring tide,” with the difference from a normal spring tide generally measured in inches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1955626\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/perigeanspringtide-800x608.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"608\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/perigeanspringtide-800x608.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/perigeanspringtide-160x122.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/perigeanspringtide-768x584.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/perigeanspringtide.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Basically, all king tides are perigean spring tides, but all perigean spring tides are not necessarily king tides. (Do not let this distress you; just embrace the wonder and complexity of gravity and the ocean.) Along the Pacific coast, the winter perigean spring tides are more noticeable and more likely to contribute to flooding than summer tides, owing to winter weather patterns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While high and low tides are a product of scientific phenomena, the terminology we use to describe them is not. (The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration simply \u003ca href=\"https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/perigean-spring-tide.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">says\u003c/a>, “A King Tide is a non-scientific term people often use to describe exceptionally high tides.”) So what qualifies as a king tide depends on whom you ask. Thus, the frequency of king tides is described differently by different sources \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">—\u003c/span> anywhere between 1-4 times a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Area residents will be able to witness the first king tides of the year \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1954745/where-and-when-to-see-king-tides-in-the-bay-area-this-weekend\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">throughout this weekend\u003c/a>, with a second set occuring Feb. 8-10.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>A Glimpse of the Future\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The inspiration for the creation of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.coastal.ca.gov/kingtides/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">California King Tides Project\u003c/a> was a \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">perception that the public conversation around climate change was unhelpful and even counterproductive, says \u003c/span>Marina Psaros, the project’s co-founder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was about drowning polar bears and things that were happening far away,” said Psaros, who currently works for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission on clean energy. She thought many of the people talking about climate change seemed fixated on difficult and technical scientific questions that were incomprehensible to all but the experts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So we asked, ‘Is there any way to put people at the center of their own experience with this, instead of beating them over the head with science or with polar bears?'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project emphasizes king tides as a local preview of what’s in store as related to rising seas caused by climate change. As the Earth warms, water expands and occupies more space. Melting ice runs into the ocean and increases its volume. These two consequences of a warmer climate are so far estimated to have contributed equally to sea level rise, according to Lambertson. The temporary \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">—\u003c/span> for now \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">—\u003c/span> surge in sea level during king tides gives us a chance to observe the areas first on the list to be impacted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You don’t have to know all the science,” says Psaros. “You can just go out and see what’s at risk in your community, go out during a king tide and watch the water spill over the Embarcadero.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Trying to Adapt\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More sea level rise is certain, though exactly how fast it’s coming is unclear. The water may creep up slowly, or it may rise rapidly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San Francisco Bay has already gone up about 8 inches \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">—\u003c/span> a measurement taken at the Golden Gate Bridge \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">—\u003c/span> in the last 100 years, giving officials in low-lying areas an impetus to prepare for the coming encroachment of the sea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Marin County Flood Control District, for example, is looking at how to move levees back to give waterways like the lower Novato Creek a wider floodplain and more room to flow and transport sediment. The district is also interested in building up new tidal marshes, which will act like sponges and slow the rise and fall of water levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2018, voters in Foster City overwhelmingly \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1924576/measure-p-foster-citys-90-million-tax-to-defend-against-rising-sea\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">approved\u003c/a> a tax on themselves to pay for raising a levee. To protect the Embarcadero, San Francisco voters \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1933956/proposition-a-san-franciscans-want-a-new-seawall-and-vote-to-pay-for-it\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">passed\u003c/a> by more than 4 to 1 a bond measure to strengthen the crumbing sea wall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In terms of just how much higher the water is going to get, recent indications from climate studies have not been good.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every time the IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] has issued a new report, the higher boundary of where seas might rise … get(s) higher and higher,” said Psaros.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Amid these worries, she sees people who want to be able to do something.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And something they can do is actually help scientists and policymakers, by going out and getting the data that we need in order to make better decisions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Psaros says her favorite kind of data for participants to collect is sociological. She remembers in particular working with a continuation high school where the students wanted to do more than just collect pictures of the tides. She created a survey for them with questions about climate change so they could gather responses from the public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These kids were from everywhere and they were given this assignment to go talk to people in their community. So the results they brought back were … Tagalog and Vietnamese and Spanish and a bunch of languages and perspectives that governments want but often just can’t get,” Psaros said. “Newcomer communities are not [usually] showing up at the 7 p.m. community master plan meeting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "these-6-charts-explain-the-good-and-bad-story-of-u-s-carbon-emissions-right-now",
"title": "These 6 Charts Explain the Story of U.S. Carbon Emissions Right Now",
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"headTitle": "These 6 Charts Explain the Story of U.S. Carbon Emissions Right Now | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Greenhouse gas emissions in the United States dropped last year after a sharp increase in 2018, new data released Tuesday show. The drop resumed a long-term downward trend driven chiefly by a shift away from coal power generation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The story of the emissions decline has largely been one of \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/03122019/fossil-fuel-emissions-2019-natural-gas-bridge-oil-coal-climate-change\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">market forces\u003c/a>—rather than policies—that have made utilities close coal plants in favor of cheaper natural gas and renewable energy. But this shift to lower-carbon energy has been restricted to the electricity sector, and the nation’s emissions cuts are still not on track to meet the targets it agreed to under the \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/tags/paris-climate-agreement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paris climate accord\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In order to meet those goals, experts say, federal policies will likely need to target other sectors that collectively make up a majority of U.S. emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1954784\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/2020EmissionsReportChart1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"648\" height=\"367\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/2020EmissionsReportChart1.png 648w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/2020EmissionsReportChart1-160x91.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 648px) 100vw, 648px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Overall, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions fell about 2 percent in 2019, according to \u003ca href=\"https://rhg.com/research/preliminary-us-emissions-2019/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">preliminary estimates\u003c/a> by \u003ca href=\"https://rhg.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rhodium Group\u003c/a>, an economic analysis firm. The previous year, strong economic growth and other factors had pushed emissions up roughly 3 percent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2019 drop was driven by a nearly 10 percent fall in emissions from the power sector, the biggest decline in decades, according to Rhodium.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the story there is all about coal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1954785\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/2020EmissionsReportChart2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"648\" height=\"391\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/2020EmissionsReportChart2.png 648w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/2020EmissionsReportChart2-160x97.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 648px) 100vw, 648px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Coal generation in the U.S. fell by 18 percent last year, the largest annual decline on record, according to Rhodium. \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/03122019/fossil-fuel-emissions-2019-natural-gas-bridge-oil-coal-climate-change\">Another study\u003c/a>, published in December, found a smaller but still dramatic drop for coal generation last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Renewable power sources such as wind and solar have seen sharp increases in recent years as \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/content/chart-renewable-energy-costs-are-falling-0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">their costs of generation\u003c/a> have fallen below that of coal. But natural gas has replaced far more coal generation capacity than renewables.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1954786\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/2020EmissionsReportChart3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"648\" height=\"391\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/2020EmissionsReportChart3.png 648w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/2020EmissionsReportChart3-160x97.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 648px) 100vw, 648px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fracking boom sent natural gas prices plummeting, helping drive a rapid shift by electric utilities away from coal. But while burning gas is cleaner than burning coal, natural gas power generation still emits carbon dioxide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/03122019/fossil-fuel-emissions-2019-natural-gas-bridge-oil-coal-climate-change\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Read more about how the natural gas rush is driving a global rise in fossil fuel emissions\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Emissions from natural gas power generation increased by more than 40 million metric tons last year, compared to a drop of 190 million metric tons for coal, according to Rhodium. That does not include emissions during oil and gas \u003cem>production,\u003c/em> such as methane, a potent short-lived climate pollutant, which are counted separately (see below).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the good news on emissions cuts ends with the power sector.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1954787\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/2020EmissionsReportChart4.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"648\" height=\"376\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/2020EmissionsReportChart4.png 648w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/2020EmissionsReportChart4-160x93.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 648px) 100vw, 648px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Transportation is now the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S., and emissions were essentially flat in 2019, declining by 0.3 percent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That does represent a shift after several years of small increases, but emissions remain about where they were before the Great Recession started in 2007. Hannah Pitt, a senior analyst with Rhodium, said improved fuel efficiency is helping slow or end the rise in emissions, even as people fly and drive more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1954788\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/2020EmissionsReportGDP.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"648\" height=\"376\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/2020EmissionsReportGDP.png 648w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/2020EmissionsReportGDP-160x93.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 648px) 100vw, 648px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the change from 2018 to last year can be explained by the economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2018, U.S. gross domestic product, or GDP (the value of all final goods and services produced in the country), expanded by a relatively robust 2.9 percent. But the first three quarters of last year saw slower GDP growth of 2.3 percent, according to Rhodium. A slower economy tamped down growth in domestic air travel and also in shipping by trucks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet emissions from other sectors of the economy continued to rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1954790\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/2020EmissionsReportChart5.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"648\" height=\"391\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/2020EmissionsReportChart5.png 648w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/2020EmissionsReportChart5-160x97.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 648px) 100vw, 648px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Emissions from industry rose slightly last year and are now greater than those from coal-fired power plants. Emissions from buildings were up, too. And emissions from other sectors of the economy collectively grew by more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of the growth within the “other” category came from methane emitted by oil and gas production. The U.S. is now the world’s top oil and gas producer, and it is \u003ca href=\"https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/aeo/pdf/aeo2019.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">projected to continue\u003c/a> expanding output in coming years. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has started the process of pulling out of the Paris accord, and it has been working to \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29082019/methane-regulation-oil-gas-storage-pipelines-epa-rollback-trump-wheeler\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">roll back regulations\u003c/a> adopted by the Obama administration that limited methane emissions from new and existing oil and gas wells.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These other, \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/28062018/global-warming-pollution-industrial-sources-cement-steel-trade-solutions-technology-shipping\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">harder to tackle sectors\u003c/a> are an increasingly important piece of the story, and Pitt said federal policies will have to target them if the U.S. is to hit the targets it agreed to as part of the Paris climate agreement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In order to meet those, we would need to really be seeing some pretty sizable annual declines in emissions that we’re not seeing now,” she said. “And if we’re relying purely on the power sector market dynamics to get there, I don’t see that happening.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "New data is out on America’s greenhouse gas emissions.",
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"title": "These 6 Charts Explain the Story of U.S. Carbon Emissions Right Now | KQED",
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"headline": "These 6 Charts Explain the Story of U.S. Carbon Emissions Right Now",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Greenhouse gas emissions in the United States dropped last year after a sharp increase in 2018, new data released Tuesday show. The drop resumed a long-term downward trend driven chiefly by a shift away from coal power generation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The story of the emissions decline has largely been one of \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/03122019/fossil-fuel-emissions-2019-natural-gas-bridge-oil-coal-climate-change\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">market forces\u003c/a>—rather than policies—that have made utilities close coal plants in favor of cheaper natural gas and renewable energy. But this shift to lower-carbon energy has been restricted to the electricity sector, and the nation’s emissions cuts are still not on track to meet the targets it agreed to under the \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/tags/paris-climate-agreement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paris climate accord\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In order to meet those goals, experts say, federal policies will likely need to target other sectors that collectively make up a majority of U.S. emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1954784\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/2020EmissionsReportChart1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"648\" height=\"367\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/2020EmissionsReportChart1.png 648w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/2020EmissionsReportChart1-160x91.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 648px) 100vw, 648px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Overall, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions fell about 2 percent in 2019, according to \u003ca href=\"https://rhg.com/research/preliminary-us-emissions-2019/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">preliminary estimates\u003c/a> by \u003ca href=\"https://rhg.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rhodium Group\u003c/a>, an economic analysis firm. The previous year, strong economic growth and other factors had pushed emissions up roughly 3 percent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2019 drop was driven by a nearly 10 percent fall in emissions from the power sector, the biggest decline in decades, according to Rhodium.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the story there is all about coal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1954785\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/2020EmissionsReportChart2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"648\" height=\"391\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/2020EmissionsReportChart2.png 648w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/2020EmissionsReportChart2-160x97.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 648px) 100vw, 648px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Coal generation in the U.S. fell by 18 percent last year, the largest annual decline on record, according to Rhodium. \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/03122019/fossil-fuel-emissions-2019-natural-gas-bridge-oil-coal-climate-change\">Another study\u003c/a>, published in December, found a smaller but still dramatic drop for coal generation last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Renewable power sources such as wind and solar have seen sharp increases in recent years as \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/content/chart-renewable-energy-costs-are-falling-0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">their costs of generation\u003c/a> have fallen below that of coal. But natural gas has replaced far more coal generation capacity than renewables.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1954786\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/2020EmissionsReportChart3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"648\" height=\"391\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/2020EmissionsReportChart3.png 648w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/2020EmissionsReportChart3-160x97.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 648px) 100vw, 648px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fracking boom sent natural gas prices plummeting, helping drive a rapid shift by electric utilities away from coal. But while burning gas is cleaner than burning coal, natural gas power generation still emits carbon dioxide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/03122019/fossil-fuel-emissions-2019-natural-gas-bridge-oil-coal-climate-change\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Read more about how the natural gas rush is driving a global rise in fossil fuel emissions\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Emissions from natural gas power generation increased by more than 40 million metric tons last year, compared to a drop of 190 million metric tons for coal, according to Rhodium. That does not include emissions during oil and gas \u003cem>production,\u003c/em> such as methane, a potent short-lived climate pollutant, which are counted separately (see below).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the good news on emissions cuts ends with the power sector.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1954787\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/2020EmissionsReportChart4.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"648\" height=\"376\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/2020EmissionsReportChart4.png 648w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/2020EmissionsReportChart4-160x93.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 648px) 100vw, 648px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Transportation is now the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S., and emissions were essentially flat in 2019, declining by 0.3 percent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That does represent a shift after several years of small increases, but emissions remain about where they were before the Great Recession started in 2007. Hannah Pitt, a senior analyst with Rhodium, said improved fuel efficiency is helping slow or end the rise in emissions, even as people fly and drive more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1954788\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/2020EmissionsReportGDP.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"648\" height=\"376\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/2020EmissionsReportGDP.png 648w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/2020EmissionsReportGDP-160x93.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 648px) 100vw, 648px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the change from 2018 to last year can be explained by the economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2018, U.S. gross domestic product, or GDP (the value of all final goods and services produced in the country), expanded by a relatively robust 2.9 percent. But the first three quarters of last year saw slower GDP growth of 2.3 percent, according to Rhodium. A slower economy tamped down growth in domestic air travel and also in shipping by trucks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet emissions from other sectors of the economy continued to rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1954790\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/2020EmissionsReportChart5.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"648\" height=\"391\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/2020EmissionsReportChart5.png 648w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/2020EmissionsReportChart5-160x97.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 648px) 100vw, 648px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Emissions from industry rose slightly last year and are now greater than those from coal-fired power plants. Emissions from buildings were up, too. And emissions from other sectors of the economy collectively grew by more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of the growth within the “other” category came from methane emitted by oil and gas production. The U.S. is now the world’s top oil and gas producer, and it is \u003ca href=\"https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/aeo/pdf/aeo2019.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">projected to continue\u003c/a> expanding output in coming years. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has started the process of pulling out of the Paris accord, and it has been working to \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29082019/methane-regulation-oil-gas-storage-pipelines-epa-rollback-trump-wheeler\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">roll back regulations\u003c/a> adopted by the Obama administration that limited methane emissions from new and existing oil and gas wells.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These other, \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/28062018/global-warming-pollution-industrial-sources-cement-steel-trade-solutions-technology-shipping\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">harder to tackle sectors\u003c/a> are an increasingly important piece of the story, and Pitt said federal policies will have to target them if the U.S. is to hit the targets it agreed to as part of the Paris climate agreement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In order to meet those, we would need to really be seeing some pretty sizable annual declines in emissions that we’re not seeing now,” she said. “And if we’re relying purely on the power sector market dynamics to get there, I don’t see that happening.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "$4.2 Billion Climate Disaster Bond on California Lawmakers' Agenda",
"headTitle": "$4.2 Billion Climate Disaster Bond on California Lawmakers’ Agenda | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">In a state burdened by billions of dollars in wildfire damage, California lawmakers are hoping for an advance loan before the next climate-fueled catastrophe hits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">Lawmakers in the Democratic-dominated state Legislature return to work Monday for the second year of a two-year session. Their to-do list includes a $4.2 billion climate bond, an ambitious proposal to borrow money before they need it to prepare for the types of natural disasters that have plagued the state. The disasters are so destructive they forced the nation’s largest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric, to file for bankruptcy last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">The borrowing proposal is one of dozens of holdover bills from last year that are still alive in 2020 but must pass at least one legislative chamber by the end of January to have a chance at becoming law. The logjam is complicated by an accelerated election cycle that puts many lawmakers on primary election ballots in March instead of June, making it less likely for politically risky proposals to advance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">“We have kind of a perfect storm,” said veteran Democratic political consultant Andrew Acosta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">Catastrophic wildfires have destroyed thousands of homes, generating billions of dollars in insurance claims and costing taxpayers billions more in cleanup costs. The bulk of the borrowing proposal, detailed in similar efforts authored by Democrat Ben Allen in the Senate and Democrat Eduardo Garcia in the Assembly, would go toward reducing wildfire risk throughout the state. It also includes money to protect farmland from climate change, bolster the state’s scarce water sources and help coastal communities plan for sea level rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">The $4.2 billion price tag could grow as lawmakers discuss adding more projects for things like buying solar batteries and fuel cells to keep the lights on at nursing homes and other vulnerable sites when utility companies preemptively shut off electricity to prevent wildfires during windy conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">“We’ve been really good about investing in suppression — in other words, firefighters and helicopters,” said Democratic Sen. Henry Stern. “We haven’t done that good of a job in prevention.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">Passing the Legislature would be the just first step for the climate bond because California can’t borrow the funds unless voters approve it. Voters could be weary of more bonds because the state has borrowed so much money in recent years that officials are having trouble spending it all. Of the $150 billion in borrowing authorized by voters in recent years, more than $34 billion has yet to be spent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">“We cannot spend money until projects are ready,” state Treasurer Fiona Ma said. “Sometimes it takes 10-plus years to spend money that is authorized in a bond act.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">Plus, voters will be asked in March to borrow another $15 billion to build more public schools, increasing the chances of spending fatigue — especially as California’s economy continues to grow, producing record budget surpluses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">Supporters in the Legislature, including Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, recognize the potential peril of asking the public to add to the state’s debt. But they believe residents of climate-conscious California will embrace borrowing aimed at protecting the environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">“I think if members of the public know that this money is going to issues around climate change, they care about that,” Atkins said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">Some Republicans are skeptical, including Assemblyman James Gallagher, whose district includes the town of Paradise, which was mostly destroyed in the deadly 2018 Camp Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">Instead of borrowing more, Gallagher said the state should use some of the billions of dollars generated every year by its cap-and-trade system to reduce wildfire fuel by better managing forests. He also wants to temporarily block a state law that requires utilities to buy more expensive solar and wind power and upgrade their equipment to make it less likely to spark wildfires during windstorms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">Gallagher questioned whether borrowing is the best practice “considering the amount of debt we have right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">“There are existing dollars in government that I think we could just better target,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">Other proposals in legislative limbo include a controversial bill by Sen. Scott Wiener to boost housing density near public transportation by allowing apartment buildings in areas currently zoned for single-family homes. Atkins said Wiener is working on some amendments around “local flexibility” that she said might help the bill make it through the Senate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">If it does, it could find a receptive audience in the Assembly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">“I don’t like to comment on pending legislation, but I definitely think there is value in increasing housing density along certain corridors,” Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">Potentially overshadowing pending legislation is the fate of Pacific Gas & Electric Co., the nation’s largest electric utility, which filed for bankruptcy after facing up to $30 billion in potential damages from wildfires started by its equipment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has suggested a potential state takeover if the troubled utility cannot emerge from bankruptcy before the next wildfire season. But legislative leaders have balked at that idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">Atkins said she has concerns about doing anything that lets PG&E off the hook.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">“Then it just transfers the liability to the ratepayers and the taxpayers,” Atkins said. “Isn’t that what we are trying to avoid?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">Other topics generating interest include proposals addressing housing and homelessness, which Republican leaders in both houses say are key goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">“We’re looking at real solutions that are going to make a difference in Californians’ lives,” Republican Senate Leader Shannon Grove said.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "In a state burdened by billions of dollars in wildfire damage, California lawmakers are hoping for an advance loan before the next climate-fueled catastrophe hits.",
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"description": "In a state burdened by billions of dollars in wildfire damage, California lawmakers are hoping for an advance loan before the next climate-fueled catastrophe hits.",
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"headline": "$4.2 Billion Climate Disaster Bond on California Lawmakers' Agenda",
"datePublished": "2020-01-06T10:27:02-08:00",
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"nprByline": "Adam Beam \u003cbr />Associated Press\u003cbr>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">In a state burdened by billions of dollars in wildfire damage, California lawmakers are hoping for an advance loan before the next climate-fueled catastrophe hits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">Lawmakers in the Democratic-dominated state Legislature return to work Monday for the second year of a two-year session. Their to-do list includes a $4.2 billion climate bond, an ambitious proposal to borrow money before they need it to prepare for the types of natural disasters that have plagued the state. The disasters are so destructive they forced the nation’s largest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric, to file for bankruptcy last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">The borrowing proposal is one of dozens of holdover bills from last year that are still alive in 2020 but must pass at least one legislative chamber by the end of January to have a chance at becoming law. The logjam is complicated by an accelerated election cycle that puts many lawmakers on primary election ballots in March instead of June, making it less likely for politically risky proposals to advance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">“We have kind of a perfect storm,” said veteran Democratic political consultant Andrew Acosta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">Catastrophic wildfires have destroyed thousands of homes, generating billions of dollars in insurance claims and costing taxpayers billions more in cleanup costs. The bulk of the borrowing proposal, detailed in similar efforts authored by Democrat Ben Allen in the Senate and Democrat Eduardo Garcia in the Assembly, would go toward reducing wildfire risk throughout the state. It also includes money to protect farmland from climate change, bolster the state’s scarce water sources and help coastal communities plan for sea level rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">The $4.2 billion price tag could grow as lawmakers discuss adding more projects for things like buying solar batteries and fuel cells to keep the lights on at nursing homes and other vulnerable sites when utility companies preemptively shut off electricity to prevent wildfires during windy conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">“We’ve been really good about investing in suppression — in other words, firefighters and helicopters,” said Democratic Sen. Henry Stern. “We haven’t done that good of a job in prevention.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">Passing the Legislature would be the just first step for the climate bond because California can’t borrow the funds unless voters approve it. Voters could be weary of more bonds because the state has borrowed so much money in recent years that officials are having trouble spending it all. Of the $150 billion in borrowing authorized by voters in recent years, more than $34 billion has yet to be spent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">“We cannot spend money until projects are ready,” state Treasurer Fiona Ma said. “Sometimes it takes 10-plus years to spend money that is authorized in a bond act.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">Plus, voters will be asked in March to borrow another $15 billion to build more public schools, increasing the chances of spending fatigue — especially as California’s economy continues to grow, producing record budget surpluses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">Supporters in the Legislature, including Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, recognize the potential peril of asking the public to add to the state’s debt. But they believe residents of climate-conscious California will embrace borrowing aimed at protecting the environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">“I think if members of the public know that this money is going to issues around climate change, they care about that,” Atkins said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">Some Republicans are skeptical, including Assemblyman James Gallagher, whose district includes the town of Paradise, which was mostly destroyed in the deadly 2018 Camp Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">Instead of borrowing more, Gallagher said the state should use some of the billions of dollars generated every year by its cap-and-trade system to reduce wildfire fuel by better managing forests. He also wants to temporarily block a state law that requires utilities to buy more expensive solar and wind power and upgrade their equipment to make it less likely to spark wildfires during windstorms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">Gallagher questioned whether borrowing is the best practice “considering the amount of debt we have right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">“There are existing dollars in government that I think we could just better target,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">Other proposals in legislative limbo include a controversial bill by Sen. Scott Wiener to boost housing density near public transportation by allowing apartment buildings in areas currently zoned for single-family homes. Atkins said Wiener is working on some amendments around “local flexibility” that she said might help the bill make it through the Senate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">If it does, it could find a receptive audience in the Assembly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">“I don’t like to comment on pending legislation, but I definitely think there is value in increasing housing density along certain corridors,” Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">Potentially overshadowing pending legislation is the fate of Pacific Gas & Electric Co., the nation’s largest electric utility, which filed for bankruptcy after facing up to $30 billion in potential damages from wildfires started by its equipment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has suggested a potential state takeover if the troubled utility cannot emerge from bankruptcy before the next wildfire season. But legislative leaders have balked at that idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">Atkins said she has concerns about doing anything that lets PG&E off the hook.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">“Then it just transfers the liability to the ratepayers and the taxpayers,” Atkins said. “Isn’t that what we are trying to avoid?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">Other topics generating interest include proposals addressing housing and homelessness, which Republican leaders in both houses say are key goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-47 Component-p-0-2-40\">“We’re looking at real solutions that are going to make a difference in Californians’ lives,” Republican Senate Leader Shannon Grove said.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "the-big-science-and-environment-stories-of-the-decade",
"title": "The Big Science and Environment Stories of the Decade",
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"content": "\u003cp>The 2010s saw breakthroughs in medical science and spectacular discoveries in space and physics. For Californians, it was also the decade that climate change arrived in our front yards in the form of serial cataclysmic fire seasons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the decade, scientists refined the regimen of HIV/AIDS medication, made life-saving advances in the treatment of cancer, and invented an entirely new gene-editing technology, with the hope of one day curing diseases before they begin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA’s New Horizons probe captured the first close-up \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-horizons-best-close-up-of-plutos-surface\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">images\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-horizons-best-close-up-of-plutos-surface\">of\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-horizons-best-close-up-of-plutos-surface\">Pluto\u003c/a>, and the world caught its first \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101870482/first-photos-of-a-black-hole-captured-by-event-horizon-telescope-project\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">glimpse\u003c/a>, albeit a bit blurry, of a black hole. Our understanding of exoplanets exploded: the Kepler Space Telescope and the TESS satellite found thousands of new planets outside our solar system, and researchers began to comprehend what those worlds might actually look like.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the decade closes, the KQED Science team has created a sort of mixtape of the major trends, significant moments and noteworthy discoveries, with an eye toward California and the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Do you want the good news or the bad news first? Well, let’s get it out of the way …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Wildfires Create Havoc\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1952558\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1952558 size-complete_open_graph\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40592_GettyImages-1178415177-qut-1200x800.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40592_GettyImages-1178415177-qut-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40592_GettyImages-1178415177-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40592_GettyImages-1178415177-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40592_GettyImages-1178415177-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40592_GettyImages-1178415177-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40592_GettyImages-1178415177-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A crew of inmate firefighters make their way to firefighting operations to battle the Kincade Fire in Healdsburg, California on October 26, 2019.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The changing climate is leading to longer dry periods in California, which is at least three degrees warmer since the beginning of the industrial era, the Environmental Protection Agency \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-09/documents/climate-change-ca.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reported\u003c/a> in 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Climate change, combined with a century of suppressing wildfires and denser populations in areas perilously close to fire-prone wilderness, have created the worst fire seasons on record. Since 2012, four of the five \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/media/5510/top20_acres.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">biggest\u003c/a> California wildfires have \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1934533/the-new-abnormal-climate-effects-on-the-fire-season-are-just-beginning;%20https:/www.kqed.org/science/1950703/climate-change-is-driving-californias-wildfires-the-kincade-fire-not-so-much)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">burned\u003c/a> over 1.2 million acres.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Late on Oct. 8, 2017, hot, dry winds downed power lines, carrying sparks and flaming embers long distances to ignite multiple fires. The Tubbs Fire and other North Bay blazes scorched large areas of Sonoma and Napa counties, claiming 44 lives and destroying over 8,000 buildings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The following summer, during the Carr Fire, a “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1928143/reddings-firenado-was-not-your-garden-variety-fire-whirl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">fire tornado\u003c/a>” exploded into the outskirts of Redding, devastating everything in its path. The blaze killed eight people and destroyed 1,000 homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the worst was yet to come. In November, the Camp Fire nearly wiped out the town of Paradise and surrounding communities. It was the deadliest wildfire in California history, killing 86 people, destroying almost 14,000 homes, and costing more money than any natural disaster in the world that year. Across wide swaths of the state, smoke from the fire rendered the air unhealthy to breathe, inundating the Bay Area for almost two weeks so that the region registered its worst air quality on record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1952579\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1952579 size-complete_open_graph\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40593_GettyImages-1129061413-qut-1200x774.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40593_GettyImages-1129061413-qut-1200x774.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40593_GettyImages-1129061413-qut-160x103.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40593_GettyImages-1129061413-qut-800x516.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40593_GettyImages-1129061413-qut-768x495.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40593_GettyImages-1129061413-qut-1020x658.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40593_GettyImages-1129061413-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An aerial view of homes destroyed by the Camp Fire on February 11, 2019 in Paradise, California. \u003ccite>(Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As far as global warming goes, the outlook is not good, whether it relates to fires or to other natural disasters. The 2010s included the hottest year (2017) and the hottest month (July 2019) on record, and the 10 years that make up the decade will almost certainly set a new temperature mark as well, according to the U.N., based on millions of global measurements taken over the last 170 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This summer, our series \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/tag/livingwithwildfire\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Living With Wildfire: California Reimagined\u003c/a> asked some big questions about how the state can, in our warming world, learn to survive more frequent and ferocious conflagrations. Are some fire-prone areas now too dangerous to accommodate new housing? How can towns prepare for mass evacuations? And neighborhoods make themselves fire-resistant? Are Californians willing to suffer the inconvenience and financial cost to protect the state from extreme wildfires? Perhaps, but it will mean big changes in how we think and live. — \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/DanielleVenton\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Danielle Venton\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rise of Renewables\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Californians began to experience climate change in the form of hotter days and more destructive fires, state policies to mitigate global warming began to pay dividends. California’s investor-owned utilities shattered \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/rps/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">renewable energy\u003c/a> targets mandated by the state, and California \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/942b5a251fac413a84fc4eb93a67c46c/California-meets-greenhouse-gas-reduction-goal-years-early\">reduced\u003c/a> its overall emissions of greenhouse gases below the 1990 level, two years ahead of schedule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These climate policies, in a state with the world’s fifth largest economy, helped spur a rapid decline in the cost of renewable energy around the U.S. This past decade, the cost of wind energy fell by 57%, utility-scale solar power by 86%, and battery energy storage by 76%. In 2019, for the first time, power generation in the U.S. from renewable energy \u003ca href=\"https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=39992\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">surpassed\u003c/a> power produced from coal. \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1952593 alignright\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/2019Batteries_Cost_CMN-768x564-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"564\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/2019Batteries_Cost_CMN-768x564-1.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/2019Batteries_Cost_CMN-768x564-1-160x118.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those are big successes, but California has a lot of work to do over the next 10 years if the state is going to meet its 2045 goal of net-zero emissions, also called carbon neutrality. California is \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1948712/your-suv-is-really-messing-with-the-states-climate-plans\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">way behind \u003c/a>in meeting this ambitious objective, in part because emissions from the transportation sector are soaring, due to Californians driving more miles in larger, gas-guzzling trucks and of SUVs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state is trying to reverse this trend by incentivizing fuel-efficient cars and setting a \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/zev/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">target\u003c/a> of 5 million electric vehicles traversing California roads by 2030. But meeting that goal is going to be tough, with sales of EVs currently standing at only a \u003ca href=\"https://www.veloz.org/sales-dashboard/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">fraction of that total.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, frustrated by the lack of progress in the fight against climate change, young people took to the streets the last couple of years. The Sunrise Movement, Youth vs. Apocalypse and other Bay Area advocacy groups participated in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1947584/live-blog-bay-area-climate-strike\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">global climate strikes \u003c/a>protesting the failure of government, finance, industry and other institutions to address climate change.– \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/StarkKev\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kevin Stark\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Medical Advances\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decade saw major advances in the treatment of HIV and cancer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the last 10 years, scientists have perfected antiretroviral drugs, taken daily in a single pill by people who are HIV-positive. These drugs allow HIV patients to live relatively free of sickness, a far cry from the first decade of the epidemic, when the diagnosis was tantamount to a death sentence. No longer highly toxic, antiretrovirals now work so well they can lower a patient’s viral load to undetectable levels, making it untransmittable from one person to another. Another daily pill, called \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfaf.org/resource-library/prep/?utm_source=GoogleAds&utm_medium=CPC&utm_campaign=GoogleAds_UEqualsU_PrEP&gclid=CjwKCAiAluLvBRASEiwAAbX3GcnQ19OOhwWeCw4YFui4HMm-wM45wQzXB0fgh9a1hPAxzgkFYKnxRBoCsswQAvD_BwE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">PrEP,\u003c/a> can be used as a prophylactic against HIV exposure by people who are still free of the virus. Such major strides in treatment and prevention are why scientists are optimistic HIV will be eradicated altogether within the next decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For some types of cancer, a treatment called immunotherapy drastically improved survival and cure rates. For example, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/futureofyou/444527/advanced-skin-cancer-was-once-a-death-sentence-immunotherapy-is-changing-that\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">stage 4 melanoma \u003c/a>, which doesn’t respond to radiation or chemotherapy, used to mean \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/futureofyou/444527/advanced-skin-cancer-was-once-a-death-sentence-immunotherapy-is-changing-that\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">certain death\u003c/a>, with patients surviving less than a year on average. But over the last decade, instead of burning or poisoning cancer cells to stop the disease, new medicines have unleashed the body’s natural defenses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Normally the immune system recognizes disease-causing organisms. But cancer cells go undetected as harmful. New drugs, as well as \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/futureofyou/439584/new-gene-therapy-gives-teen-a-second-chance-after-cancer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">genetic engineering\u003c/a> techniques, make them visible and ripe for attack. Think of it like affixing a flag with the message “kill me” on cells that previously operated with impunity. Pancreatic, breast and prostate cancer, among other types, do not currently respond to immunotherapy, but scientists foresee a day when the treatment could be the primary weapon against an array of cancers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/DESKTOP_CRISPR_171115-1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1952602 size-complete_open_graph\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/DESKTOP_CRISPR_171115-1-1200x797.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"425\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/DESKTOP_CRISPR_171115-1-1200x797.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/DESKTOP_CRISPR_171115-1-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/DESKTOP_CRISPR_171115-1-800x531.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/DESKTOP_CRISPR_171115-1-768x510.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/DESKTOP_CRISPR_171115-1-1020x677.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/DESKTOP_CRISPR_171115-1.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There may also be a day when doctors can eliminate genetic diseases altogether. A tool called \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/futureofyou/370/a-crispr-solution-to-bubble-boy-disease\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">CRISPR \u003c/a>acts as a molecular scalpel that can make precise changes to genetic mutations giving rise to disease. Scientists hope to one day cure genetic conditions like blindness or sickle cell anemia before they even start. Though tinkering with our DNA raises all kinds of ethical questions about “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1934916/chinese-scientist-says-hes-first-to-create-genetically-modified-babies-using-crispr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">playing God\u003c/a>.”– \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/lesleywmcclurg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lesley McClurg\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Predictions Fulfilled\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decade saw some spectacular discoveries in space and physics, some of which had been predicted for decades. Theoretical foresight frequently falls short or remains unproven, but once in a while, it’s right on the money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two discoveries in particular should be remembered as a vindication of the human ability to understand and model the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2012, two teams at CERN, often referred to as the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, announced they had independently detected the Higgs boson. This is a particle associated with an energy field, called the Higgs field, that was theorized in the 1960s and ’70s as a solution to the question: How does matter obtain mass?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The answer: Through the action of an elementary particle, such as an electron or a quark, interacting with the Higgs field. The more the particle interacts, the more massive it is. And the boson? That’s the particle that the Higgs field emits. The detection of the Higgs boson proved that the Higgs field is real, and it was the final piece of the puzzle for the Standard Model, a set of equations describing how three of the four fundamental forces work. Now, only gravity remains unexplained.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decade also saw the discovery of gravitational waves, predicted by none other than Albert Einstein in 1916. Einstein thought the acceleration of objects with enough mass would create ripples in the fabric of spacetime. And he thought right. About 100 years later, dual detectors that make up the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO, registered those ripples in the form of the aftershock created by two black holes colliding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Traveling far above Earth-bound detection instruments like LIGO, spacecraft originating on Earth reached interstellar space for the first time. These are the Voyager probes, each carrying a copy of the \u003ca href=\"https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-record/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Golden Record\u003c/a>, which holds images, music and greetings from Earth. — \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/DanielleVenton\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Danielle Venton\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The 2010s saw breakthroughs in medical science and spectacular discoveries in space and physics. For Californians, it was also the decade that climate change arrived in our front yards in the form of serial cataclysmic fire seasons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the decade, scientists refined the regimen of HIV/AIDS medication, made life-saving advances in the treatment of cancer, and invented an entirely new gene-editing technology, with the hope of one day curing diseases before they begin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA’s New Horizons probe captured the first close-up \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-horizons-best-close-up-of-plutos-surface\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">images\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-horizons-best-close-up-of-plutos-surface\">of\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-horizons-best-close-up-of-plutos-surface\">Pluto\u003c/a>, and the world caught its first \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101870482/first-photos-of-a-black-hole-captured-by-event-horizon-telescope-project\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">glimpse\u003c/a>, albeit a bit blurry, of a black hole. Our understanding of exoplanets exploded: the Kepler Space Telescope and the TESS satellite found thousands of new planets outside our solar system, and researchers began to comprehend what those worlds might actually look like.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the decade closes, the KQED Science team has created a sort of mixtape of the major trends, significant moments and noteworthy discoveries, with an eye toward California and the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Do you want the good news or the bad news first? Well, let’s get it out of the way …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Wildfires Create Havoc\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1952558\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1952558 size-complete_open_graph\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40592_GettyImages-1178415177-qut-1200x800.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40592_GettyImages-1178415177-qut-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40592_GettyImages-1178415177-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40592_GettyImages-1178415177-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40592_GettyImages-1178415177-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40592_GettyImages-1178415177-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40592_GettyImages-1178415177-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A crew of inmate firefighters make their way to firefighting operations to battle the Kincade Fire in Healdsburg, California on October 26, 2019.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The changing climate is leading to longer dry periods in California, which is at least three degrees warmer since the beginning of the industrial era, the Environmental Protection Agency \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-09/documents/climate-change-ca.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reported\u003c/a> in 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Climate change, combined with a century of suppressing wildfires and denser populations in areas perilously close to fire-prone wilderness, have created the worst fire seasons on record. Since 2012, four of the five \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/media/5510/top20_acres.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">biggest\u003c/a> California wildfires have \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1934533/the-new-abnormal-climate-effects-on-the-fire-season-are-just-beginning;%20https:/www.kqed.org/science/1950703/climate-change-is-driving-californias-wildfires-the-kincade-fire-not-so-much)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">burned\u003c/a> over 1.2 million acres.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Late on Oct. 8, 2017, hot, dry winds downed power lines, carrying sparks and flaming embers long distances to ignite multiple fires. The Tubbs Fire and other North Bay blazes scorched large areas of Sonoma and Napa counties, claiming 44 lives and destroying over 8,000 buildings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The following summer, during the Carr Fire, a “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1928143/reddings-firenado-was-not-your-garden-variety-fire-whirl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">fire tornado\u003c/a>” exploded into the outskirts of Redding, devastating everything in its path. The blaze killed eight people and destroyed 1,000 homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the worst was yet to come. In November, the Camp Fire nearly wiped out the town of Paradise and surrounding communities. It was the deadliest wildfire in California history, killing 86 people, destroying almost 14,000 homes, and costing more money than any natural disaster in the world that year. Across wide swaths of the state, smoke from the fire rendered the air unhealthy to breathe, inundating the Bay Area for almost two weeks so that the region registered its worst air quality on record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1952579\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1952579 size-complete_open_graph\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40593_GettyImages-1129061413-qut-1200x774.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40593_GettyImages-1129061413-qut-1200x774.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40593_GettyImages-1129061413-qut-160x103.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40593_GettyImages-1129061413-qut-800x516.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40593_GettyImages-1129061413-qut-768x495.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40593_GettyImages-1129061413-qut-1020x658.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/RS40593_GettyImages-1129061413-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An aerial view of homes destroyed by the Camp Fire on February 11, 2019 in Paradise, California. \u003ccite>(Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As far as global warming goes, the outlook is not good, whether it relates to fires or to other natural disasters. The 2010s included the hottest year (2017) and the hottest month (July 2019) on record, and the 10 years that make up the decade will almost certainly set a new temperature mark as well, according to the U.N., based on millions of global measurements taken over the last 170 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This summer, our series \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/tag/livingwithwildfire\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Living With Wildfire: California Reimagined\u003c/a> asked some big questions about how the state can, in our warming world, learn to survive more frequent and ferocious conflagrations. Are some fire-prone areas now too dangerous to accommodate new housing? How can towns prepare for mass evacuations? And neighborhoods make themselves fire-resistant? Are Californians willing to suffer the inconvenience and financial cost to protect the state from extreme wildfires? Perhaps, but it will mean big changes in how we think and live. — \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/DanielleVenton\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Danielle Venton\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rise of Renewables\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Californians began to experience climate change in the form of hotter days and more destructive fires, state policies to mitigate global warming began to pay dividends. California’s investor-owned utilities shattered \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/rps/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">renewable energy\u003c/a> targets mandated by the state, and California \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/942b5a251fac413a84fc4eb93a67c46c/California-meets-greenhouse-gas-reduction-goal-years-early\">reduced\u003c/a> its overall emissions of greenhouse gases below the 1990 level, two years ahead of schedule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These climate policies, in a state with the world’s fifth largest economy, helped spur a rapid decline in the cost of renewable energy around the U.S. This past decade, the cost of wind energy fell by 57%, utility-scale solar power by 86%, and battery energy storage by 76%. In 2019, for the first time, power generation in the U.S. from renewable energy \u003ca href=\"https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=39992\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">surpassed\u003c/a> power produced from coal. \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1952593 alignright\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/2019Batteries_Cost_CMN-768x564-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"564\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/2019Batteries_Cost_CMN-768x564-1.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/2019Batteries_Cost_CMN-768x564-1-160x118.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those are big successes, but California has a lot of work to do over the next 10 years if the state is going to meet its 2045 goal of net-zero emissions, also called carbon neutrality. California is \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1948712/your-suv-is-really-messing-with-the-states-climate-plans\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">way behind \u003c/a>in meeting this ambitious objective, in part because emissions from the transportation sector are soaring, due to Californians driving more miles in larger, gas-guzzling trucks and of SUVs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state is trying to reverse this trend by incentivizing fuel-efficient cars and setting a \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/zev/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">target\u003c/a> of 5 million electric vehicles traversing California roads by 2030. But meeting that goal is going to be tough, with sales of EVs currently standing at only a \u003ca href=\"https://www.veloz.org/sales-dashboard/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">fraction of that total.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, frustrated by the lack of progress in the fight against climate change, young people took to the streets the last couple of years. The Sunrise Movement, Youth vs. Apocalypse and other Bay Area advocacy groups participated in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1947584/live-blog-bay-area-climate-strike\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">global climate strikes \u003c/a>protesting the failure of government, finance, industry and other institutions to address climate change.– \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/StarkKev\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kevin Stark\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Medical Advances\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decade saw major advances in the treatment of HIV and cancer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the last 10 years, scientists have perfected antiretroviral drugs, taken daily in a single pill by people who are HIV-positive. These drugs allow HIV patients to live relatively free of sickness, a far cry from the first decade of the epidemic, when the diagnosis was tantamount to a death sentence. No longer highly toxic, antiretrovirals now work so well they can lower a patient’s viral load to undetectable levels, making it untransmittable from one person to another. Another daily pill, called \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfaf.org/resource-library/prep/?utm_source=GoogleAds&utm_medium=CPC&utm_campaign=GoogleAds_UEqualsU_PrEP&gclid=CjwKCAiAluLvBRASEiwAAbX3GcnQ19OOhwWeCw4YFui4HMm-wM45wQzXB0fgh9a1hPAxzgkFYKnxRBoCsswQAvD_BwE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">PrEP,\u003c/a> can be used as a prophylactic against HIV exposure by people who are still free of the virus. Such major strides in treatment and prevention are why scientists are optimistic HIV will be eradicated altogether within the next decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For some types of cancer, a treatment called immunotherapy drastically improved survival and cure rates. For example, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/futureofyou/444527/advanced-skin-cancer-was-once-a-death-sentence-immunotherapy-is-changing-that\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">stage 4 melanoma \u003c/a>, which doesn’t respond to radiation or chemotherapy, used to mean \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/futureofyou/444527/advanced-skin-cancer-was-once-a-death-sentence-immunotherapy-is-changing-that\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">certain death\u003c/a>, with patients surviving less than a year on average. But over the last decade, instead of burning or poisoning cancer cells to stop the disease, new medicines have unleashed the body’s natural defenses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Normally the immune system recognizes disease-causing organisms. But cancer cells go undetected as harmful. New drugs, as well as \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/futureofyou/439584/new-gene-therapy-gives-teen-a-second-chance-after-cancer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">genetic engineering\u003c/a> techniques, make them visible and ripe for attack. Think of it like affixing a flag with the message “kill me” on cells that previously operated with impunity. Pancreatic, breast and prostate cancer, among other types, do not currently respond to immunotherapy, but scientists foresee a day when the treatment could be the primary weapon against an array of cancers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/DESKTOP_CRISPR_171115-1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1952602 size-complete_open_graph\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/DESKTOP_CRISPR_171115-1-1200x797.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"425\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/DESKTOP_CRISPR_171115-1-1200x797.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/DESKTOP_CRISPR_171115-1-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/DESKTOP_CRISPR_171115-1-800x531.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/DESKTOP_CRISPR_171115-1-768x510.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/DESKTOP_CRISPR_171115-1-1020x677.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/12/DESKTOP_CRISPR_171115-1.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There may also be a day when doctors can eliminate genetic diseases altogether. A tool called \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/futureofyou/370/a-crispr-solution-to-bubble-boy-disease\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">CRISPR \u003c/a>acts as a molecular scalpel that can make precise changes to genetic mutations giving rise to disease. Scientists hope to one day cure genetic conditions like blindness or sickle cell anemia before they even start. Though tinkering with our DNA raises all kinds of ethical questions about “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1934916/chinese-scientist-says-hes-first-to-create-genetically-modified-babies-using-crispr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">playing God\u003c/a>.”– \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/lesleywmcclurg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lesley McClurg\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Predictions Fulfilled\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decade saw some spectacular discoveries in space and physics, some of which had been predicted for decades. Theoretical foresight frequently falls short or remains unproven, but once in a while, it’s right on the money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two discoveries in particular should be remembered as a vindication of the human ability to understand and model the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2012, two teams at CERN, often referred to as the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, announced they had independently detected the Higgs boson. This is a particle associated with an energy field, called the Higgs field, that was theorized in the 1960s and ’70s as a solution to the question: How does matter obtain mass?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The answer: Through the action of an elementary particle, such as an electron or a quark, interacting with the Higgs field. The more the particle interacts, the more massive it is. And the boson? That’s the particle that the Higgs field emits. The detection of the Higgs boson proved that the Higgs field is real, and it was the final piece of the puzzle for the Standard Model, a set of equations describing how three of the four fundamental forces work. Now, only gravity remains unexplained.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decade also saw the discovery of gravitational waves, predicted by none other than Albert Einstein in 1916. Einstein thought the acceleration of objects with enough mass would create ripples in the fabric of spacetime. And he thought right. About 100 years later, dual detectors that make up the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO, registered those ripples in the form of the aftershock created by two black holes colliding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Traveling far above Earth-bound detection instruments like LIGO, spacecraft originating on Earth reached interstellar space for the first time. These are the Voyager probes, each carrying a copy of the \u003ca href=\"https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-record/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Golden Record\u003c/a>, which holds images, music and greetings from Earth. — \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/DanielleVenton\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Danielle Venton\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"info": "KQED’s new podcast, Bay Curious, gets to the bottom of the mysteries — both profound and peculiar — that give the Bay Area its unique identity. And we’ll do it with your help! You ask the questions. You decide what Bay Curious investigates. And you join us on the journey to find the answers.",
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"order": 8
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},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
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"order": 1
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"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"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"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"order": 9
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"hidden-brain": {
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"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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"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
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"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"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. ",
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"order": 18
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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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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"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": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
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},
"masters-of-scale": {
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"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
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"source": "WaitWhat"
},
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"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"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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