IoES in the News
Blog
Meet the 2020 Pritzker Award Candidates #1-5
by Ashley Kruythoff The first five candidates for the 2020 Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award address issues including river pollution, inequity and coexistence with wildlife. From ensuring ecosystem restoration to…
Headline
Daniel Swain study mentioned in Santa Rosa Press Democrat: PG&E prepares for planned outages, but vows they will be smaller and shorter in 2020
PG&E executives claim shutting off the power is still an essential tool for preventing wildfires and Californians can expect to lose power during risky fire weather again. California’s warmest years…
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Jon Christensen in The New York Times: Sierra Club Says It Must Confront the Racism of John Muir
Muir, a monumental figure in American environmentalism and a Sierra Club founder, traded in “deeply harmful racist stereotypes,” the organization said. “The Muir ideal of the lone white man at…
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Jon Christensen shares opinion in SFist: Muir Woods Might Want To Look For a New Name As The Sierra Club Reckons With Its Founder’s Racism
The sheer number of things named after famed environmentalist John Muir in California makes for widespread implications if and when it comes time to remove his name from places of…
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Daniel Swain in San Francisco Chronicle: Bigger, badder storms coming in years ahead, and California is right in their path
California’s wild weather swings, from pounding rain to drought and from fires to floods, are widely expected to worsen as the climate warms. A new study shows just how severe…
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Daniel Swain in LA Times: As if the pandemic weren’t enough, 2020 might be the hottest year ever
U.S. government data shows that so far, 2020 is the second-hottest year on record globally, trailing only 2016. “Heat actually has a lot of morbidity and mortality that I think goes under-recognized,”…
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Congratulations to IoES Director Dr. Peter Kareiva on becoming CEO of Aquarium of the Pacific
We send our heartfelt congratulations to Dr. Peter Kareiva as he takes on his new role as president and CEO of the Aquarium of the Pacific. Dr. Kareiva will step…
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Sean Hecht in Cal Matters: Trump’s smog decision fails to protect Californians from unhealthy air, experts say
California scientists and air quality officials said today that the Trump administration’s decision to not strengthen health standards for a key ingredient of smog fails to protect public health, particularly…
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Daniel Swain in Smithsonian Magazine: How the U.S. Got Caught Under a ‘Heat Dome’
The high-pressure system is causing days on end of unusually hot weather across most of the continental U.S. More than three-quarters of the United States is in the midst of…
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Daniel Swain in WIRED: How a ‘Heat Dome’ Forms—and Why This One Is So Perilous
A massive, intense heat wave is settling over the continental US. The ravages of the COVID pandemic are going to make it all the more deadly. A heat dome “is…
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Paul Barber in UCLA Newsroom: Discovery opens up new path in study of marine evolution and biodiversity
Two UCLA studies of ocean mollusks shed light on how new species develop. “This is the first time that anyone has seen this, but no one has ever looked,” said…
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Daniel Swain in KQED: Why Does The Bay Area Have So Many Microclimates?
Microclimates may be more pronounced in other parts of the Bay Area, like Oakland and the South Bay, says Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with joint affiliations with UCLA, the…
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Paul Barber research featured in Phys.org: Discovery opens up new path in study of marine evolution and biodiversity
New UCLA research indicates that an evolutionary phenomenon never before observed among marine life could help explain why there is such immense biodiversity in the world’s coral reefs and the…
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Blaire Van Valkenburgh in The New York Times: How a Saber-Tooth Marsupial Blinded Us With Its Bite
With swordlike canines, the saber-tooth cat is widely thought to have waited in silence before lunging and dealing devastating wounds to the soft throats of the large animals that it…
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William Boyd in Salon: Two new climate lawsuits give Big Oil the tobacco treatment
Two new lawsuits from Minnesota and Washington, D.C. hint that climate lawsuits against Big Oil might be mounting a comeback. William Boyd, a law professor at the University of California,…
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UCLA Newsroom: Clean energy revolution may leave disadvantaged communities behind
Study finds affluent L.A. neighborhoods use more energy and reap greater benefits from government incentive programs. The energy system, as it exists today, places a larger burden of cost on…
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William Boyd in Grist: Two new climate lawsuits give Big Oil the tobacco treatment
Two new lawsuits from Minnesota and Washington, D.C., hint that climate lawsuits against Big Oil might be mounting a comeback. William Boyd, a law professor at the University of California,…
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Ann Carlson in Nation of Change: Fossil fuel companies and their supporters ask Supreme Court to intervene in climate lawsuits
California communities last month got an important procedural win in their efforts to get fossil fuel companies to pay for climate-related impacts. However, some of the companies facing those lawsuits appear to…
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UCLA partnerships with Africa are changing lives
The July 2020 issue of the UCLA Magazine features the many partnerships developing between UCLA and Africa. Highlighted efforts include those by Tom Smith and Kevin Njabo with UCLA’s Center…
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LA Times Boiling Point: California’s clean energy programs are mainly benefiting the rich, CCSC study finds
Led by Eric Fournier, research director at UCLA’s California Center for Sustainable Communities, the team analyzed energy use data for every ZIP Code in Los Angeles County, home to more…
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Daniel Swain on Weather Geeks Podcast: California Weather Phenomena
If you’re not from California, what is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of its weather? 72 and sunny? Listen to UCLA climate scientist, Daniel Swain on Weather Geeks‘…
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World World Zero features COVID-19 and climate change op-ed by Tom Smith
World War Zero, a coalition addressing climate change, has featured an op-ed by UCLA Professor Tom Smith, co-director of the Congo Basin Institute. “COVID-19 has shown the world the horrors…
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Ann Carlson in Bloomberg Law: Environmentalists Relieved as Critics Slam ‘Muddled’ SCOTUS Term
The court’s decision protecting LGBTQ worker rights in Bostock v. Clayton County could also feature in environmental litigation, legal scholars say. The majority’s interpretation, authored by Justice Neil Gorsuch, that the…
Awards
Three awarded by academic senate for diversity, equity and inclusion
Three individuals from the Center for Diverse Leadership in Science at UCLA have been honored with UCLA Academic Senate awards for diversity, equity and inclusion. One undergraduate, one graduate student…
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Yifang Zhu in Helling Shipping News: As oil prices crashed, tankers idled off California—spewing pollution for weeks
Giant ships lurked off the California coast for weeks in April and May, their bellies full of up to 20 million barrels of oil. This floating cache, enough to support…
