IoES in the News
Headline
Ann Carlson in CalMatters: Newsom orders ban of new gas-powered cars by 2035
In a dramatic move to tackle climate change, Gov. Gavin Newsom today ordered state officials to ban new gasoline-powered cars within 15 years. Under the Clean Air Act, California must…
Awards
Professor Michael Stenstrom Recognized as Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors Fellow
Professor Michael K. Stenstrom, of the UCLA Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has recently been recognized as an Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP) Fellow. AEESP Fellows…
Headline
Daniel Swain in NBC News: As wildfires rage, climate experts warn: The future we were worried about is here
Wildfires in the U.S., Australia and Siberia have driven home how climate change is already threatening to destroy ecosystems in various parts of the world. Wildfires in the U.S., Australia…
Headline
Research Director of the California Center for Sustainable Communities Eric Fournier in UCLA Newsroom: What the wildfires tell us about the shortcomings of California’s electric grid
In addition to the vast destruction they have caused, the wildfires that have engulfed California in recent weeks have laid bare serious concerns about the state’s electric grid. In an…
Headline
Daniel Swain in The Washington Post: Trump’s plan for managing forests won’t save us in a more flammable world, experts say
On a single day last week, red-flag warnings on fire weather stretched along the entire West Coast from the U.S. border with Mexico to Canada. “It really is a shocking escalation,”…
Headline
Zifang Zhu in The New York Times: The Air We Breathe
The worst effects of the wildfires are the direct ones: the deaths, the loss of homes and the destruction of natural habitat. But the secondary pollution effects — from the…
Headline
Daniel Swain in The Atlantic: The Most Important Number for the West’s Hideous Fire Season
A little-noticed indicator was flashing red before any of the blazes began. The vapor-pressure deficit VPD indexes 2 measurements: the air temperature and the relative humidity. In California this year,…
Headline
Jon Christensen Christensen in KCET: Environmental Politics and the Work of Nevada Senator Harry Reid Highlighted in New 90-Minute Documentary from EARTH FOCUS
Anew documentary exploring environmental politics, which was researched, reported and produced by UCLA faculty and students in conjunction with the Southern California public media channel KCET, is slated to air…
Headline
Daniel Swain in The New York Times: Where the Wildfires Are Burning, and Other Answers You Need
Daniel Swain, a California climate expert, said recently that he was stunned by the sheer breadth and acreage of the blazes burning at the same time across a variety of…
Headline
Jon Christensen and “Earth Focus” on Link TV
Environmental Politics and the Work of Nevada Senator Harry Reid Highlighted in New 90-Minute Documentary from EARTH FOCUS “The New West and the Politics of the Environment” Premieres Sept. 29…
Headline
Yifang Zhu in The Philadelphia Inquirer: How climate change is fueling record-breaking California wildfires, heat and smog
In 2001, a team of international scientists projected that during the next 100 years, the planet’s inhabitants would witness higher maximum temperatures, more hot days and heat waves, an increase…
Headline
Glen MacDonald in ABC 7 Los Angeles: La Nina forms in the Pacific – here’s what that means for California’s rain and fire seasons
As wildfires rage up and down California, federal weather officials say the possibility of any relief in the form of rain is slight due to a La Nina weather system…
Headline
Suzanne Paulson in Newsweek: Air Pollution From California Wildfires in Some Regions ‘Unprecedented’
Air pollution from the California wildfires is spreading across the state, with hazardous levels being recorded in many regions. In several areas the Air Quality Index showed regions where pollution…
Headline
Daniel Swain in the New York Times: A Climate Reckoning in Fire Stricken California
If climate change was a somewhat abstract notion a year ago, today it is all too real for Californians fleeing wildfires and being smothered in a blanket of smoke, the…
Headline
Daniel Swain in KXAN NBC: ‘Smoke cyclone:’ Airborne ash from California fires creates disturbing satellite image
For the better part of a month, fires from across the western United States have filled the skies with smoke and ash, creating unhealthy air conditions for millions of Americans. …
Headline
Daniel Swain in Los Angeles Times — A sizzling summer: Hottest August on record in California
In the midst of the state’s most destructive wildfire season, California has garnered another dubious distinction: the hottest August on record in California, according to a report from UCLA climate scientist Daniel…
Headline
Pritzker Finalist Clara Pratte in Good News Network: Solar-Powered Panels Pull Water Out of the Air For Navajo Families Who Have None
What if there was a way of pulling vapor from the atmosphere and bringing it through faucets as clean, drinkable water. Harnessing the power of the sun, Zero Mass Water’s…
Headline
Yifang Zhu in The Bakersfield Californian — Los Angeles suffers worst smog in almost 30 years
Lung-damaging ozone pollution in Los Angeles reached its highest levels in a generation and set records in other parts of Southern California during the blistering Labor Day weekend heat wave,…
Headline
Los Angeles Urban Cooling Collaborative in Curbed: A 2006 Heat Wave Was a Warning from the Future. Why Didn’t L.A. Pay Attention?
The deadly impacts of climate change on a hot, hardscape city were clear 15 years ago. This summer, the Los Angeles Urban Cooling Collaborative released its own findings — during…
Headline
Daniel Swain in Inside Climate News: A Siege of 80 Large, Uncontained Wildfires Sweeps the Hot, Dry West
As fires spread into Washington, Oregon and Montana, the arrival of the Santa Ana winds means more conflagrations for California. “It’s not just the size of the fires, but the…
Headline
Daniel Swain in ProPublica: The Climate Crisis Is Happening Right Now. Just Look at California’s Weekend.
This was the weekend that climate change, in California, stopped being about the future. The weekend that the idea that COVID-19 was worse than climate change, or fascism was worse…
Headline
Daniel Swain in Washington Post: Thousands evacuated as ‘once in a generation’ fires burn through Oregon
The Oregon Department of Forestry estimated the Almeda Fire has burned 2,500 to 3,000 acres. As of late Tuesday, the fire was at zero percent containment, according to Jackson County Emergency…
Headline
Daniel Swain in The Weather Channel: California Sweltering in All-Time Record Heat and Wildfire Smoke Now Faces Santa Ana Wind Threat
California’s latest heat wave smashed some all-time records, contributing to another explosion of wildfires that already topped a state record a month before their typical peak time of year. The…
Headline
Daniel Swain in CalMatters: Strong winds force power shutoffs as fires burn record 2 million acres
Most Californians are waking up today to strong and dangerous winds — and some are waking up without power. PG&E began shutting off power for about 172,000 customers in 22 counties late…
Headline
Daniel Blumstein’s new book “The Nature of Fear: Survival Lessons from the Wild” — Q&A in Psychology Today
Psychology Today interviews Professor Daniel Blumstein about his groundbreaking new book. Delving into the evolutionary origins and ecological contexts of fear across species, The Nature of Fear considers what we can…
