IoES in the News
Blog
KLCS/UCLA show Sustaining US wins two Golden Mike awards
Program wins for Best Individual Writing and Best Environmental Reporting
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Philip Rundel’s New Book Release: “California Desert Plants”
UCLA Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Professor Emeritus Philip Rundel’s new book explores traits and strategies that allow plants to survive in some of the world’s harshest environments: California deserts. “More…
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Daniel Swain in CBS News: Weather’s unwanted guest: Nasty La Nina keeps popping up
Meteorologists said the West’s megadrought won’t go away until La Nina does. “It’s much less likely that the Southwest will see at least even a partial recovery from the megadrought…
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Magali Delmas writes for Barron’s: ESG Disclosure Rules May Be a Long Time Coming. Companies Don’t Need to Wait
Investors, legislators, and the general public remain in the dark about the sources of carbon-equivalent emissions that are heating up the planet without greater transparency standards like those proposed by…
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What powers UCLA? CCSC’s Dr. Eric Fournier talks to the Daily Bruin’s Prime magazine
UCLA cogeneration plant. “You’re basically operating a large jet engine that has been strapped to the ground,” explained Eric Fournier, research director at the California Center for Sustainable Communities within the UCLA Institute of the Environment & Sustainability. An impressive number and diversity of pipes – a description also courtesy of Fournier – line the inside of the facility, as do support structures for seismic stability.
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Daniel Swain in The New York Times: Has California’s Fire Season Begun?
Daniel Swain, a UCLA climate scientist, said while California’s coastal areas may not face extreme heat this summer, places like the Central Valley foothills & Sierra Nevada may experience record…
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William Boyd writes for Legal Planet: A “Hunger Catastrophe” in the Making
The world could be facing the worst food crisis since the Second World War. Rising food prices, the global food structure, and food being too expensive for people to buy…
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Dr. Pincetl comments to LA Times: Southern California ‘cannot afford green lawns’ as drought forces unprecedented water cuts
“Lawns do well with about 30 inches of rain a year. Do we get 30 inches of rain a year? I don’t think so,” Pincetl said. Los Angeles receives about half that amount in a typical year. “So if you want to have water to drink, water to do all the stuff you do inside, bathe your children, do your laundry, using water on a lawn just seems foolish,” Pincetl said.
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Park Williams in The Los Angeles Times: With water running out, California faces grim summer of dangerous heat, extreme drough
While Southern California prepares for severe drought restrictions, the summer forecasts predict a summer marked by record-breaking temperatures, harsh landscapes, and above-average risk for large wildfires, particularly in the northern…
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Dr. Pincetl in The New Yorker: Can Sustainable Suburbs Save Southern California?
One downside to the understandable focus on greenhouse-gas mitigation is that more place-specific environmental considerations, including the destruction of traditional landscapes, can get lost. “I think this approach to carbon-dioxide mitigation is a new regime of trying to justify the same kind of development,” Stephanie Pincetl, a professor at U.C.L.A. whose research focusses on land use and the environment, told me. “It’s very clever and extremely insidious because it doesn’t change anything: it doesn’t address structural racism, it doesn’t address affordability, it doesn’t address the climate, it doesn’t address resource impacts, it doesn’t address anything except on paper.”
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Blaire Van Valkenburgh and Bradley Shaffer elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Eleven UCLA faculty members were elected today to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation’s most prestigious honorary societies including Bradley Shaffer, Distinguished professor of ecology…
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Alex Hall on CBS News: “Eight years left to turn the ship”: Scientists share how climate change could change daily life
“We’re in a very different place now from where we were even just a couple decades ago,” said atmospheric physicist Alex Hall, director of the UCLA Center of Climate Science.
Awards
Bradley Shaffer elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Bradley Shaffer, the director of the UCLA La Kretz Center for California Conservation Science, was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
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Stephanie Pincetl in The Los Angeles Times: Southern California ‘cannot afford green lawns’ as drought forces unprecedented water cuts
New Southern California drought rules limit outdoor watering to once a week in some areas. “So if you want to have water to drink, water to do all the stuff…
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Sean Hecht in The Los Angeles Times: State accuses Exxon Mobil of deceiving public, perpetuating ‘myth’ of plastics recycling
The California Attorney General’s office has sent a subpoena to Exxon Mobil Corp., seeking information about the company’s “historic and ongoing efforts” to reduce public awareness of plastic’s harmful effects.…
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Park Williams on NPR: The Southwest’s spring wildfire season has started earlier than normal
Much of the West is now experiencing the driest conditions in 1,200 years. Fires are igniting weeks earlier and lasting longer because the winter snow is melting sooner. That means…
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Edith de Guzman on NBC’s Today: Cities look to trees to combat heat islands, but growth is slow
Edith de Guzman, an IoES Ph.D. candidate and director of the Los Angeles Urban Cooling Collaborative, looks at Los Angeles county as a patient suffering from extreme heat. The prescription?…
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Edith de Guzman in WIRED: Extreme Heat Is a Disease for Cities. Treat It That Way
The “urban heat island effect” creates extra-hot temperatures that kill. But cities can prescribe powerful treatments, like green spaces and reflective roofs. It’s critical to know how heat actually feels…
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Dr. Pincetl on KCET: How L.A.’s Energy Transition Could Shake up the Southwest
The fuel isn’t the only thing that will change at the plant. “We know that the coal-fired power plant provides lots of jobs where it is for local residents,” says Stephanie Pincetl, director of the California Center for Sustainable Communities and professor-in-residence at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. “It also pollutes the air. It also uses water, all these issues. A transition to natural gas will continue to generate a fair amount of employment. When you move to renewables, to solar, it doesn’t have that kind of employment benefit. So part of the dilemma for the just transition is the jobs dilemma.”
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Magali Delmas & Stephanie Pincetl research finds products’ energy savings estimates are often inaccurate
Most California energy-efficiency incentive programs haven’t resulted in any energy savings, according to recent UCLA research, and many have actually increased energy use. What’s going on? Stephanie Pincetl, a co-author…
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Earth Day 2022: Director Marilyn Raphael discusses climate solutions
As we honor the planet we all rely on this Earth Day, Marilyn Raphael, a world-renowned environmental leader, climate scientist, and head of UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability,…
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The Los Angeles Times — Jon Christensen weighs in on L.A. voters’ demands for climate action
Los Angeles voters are alarmed by deadly heatwaves, destructive wildfires, and dangerous air pollution — and they want politicians to take major steps to reduce the city’s reliance on fossil…
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Edith de Guzman research featured in The Daily Bruin: Study finds planting trees, employing reflective surfaces could save LA lives
It is important to take actions, such as those described in the study, at the local level, said Edith de Guzman, a co-author of the study and a doctoral student…
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UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability receives $1.5 million pledge from founding director
Richard Turco, the founding director of the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, and his wife, Linda Turco, have pledged $1.5 million to the institute to establish an endowment for the…
Blog
Winter Quarter Progress Presentation
February 4th, 2022 The Aquawaste team presents their Winter quarter presentation update. This presentation includes an introduction, objectives, preliminary methods, and timeline for the project.