IoES in the News

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The Mendocino fire exploded and jumped up the ranks to number two largest fire in California history in just a few days. It formed from two fires, River and Ranch fires. UCLA's Daniel Swain said the destructive fires are due to both human made climate change and sprawling housing.

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“This is a part of the state that I think that overnight temperatures have played an enormous role. It’s sort of this middle elevation where you’re above the marine layer but you’re not high enough in the mountains to really cool down either. So you’re sort of in this zone where fires can burn, with the increase in temperatures, as we’ve seen, all day and all night,” said UCLA's Daniel Swain about Mendocino fire's exponential growth.

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Trump tweets that California's environmental policies are to blame for the inability to put out the wildfires across the state. “Honestly, the way the state manages its water, that really has no bearing on the explosive growth of the fires,” said Glen MacDonald, a geography professor at UCLA who studies wildfires. “It just has nothing to do with anything.”

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Trump tweeted, calling out Governor Jerry Brown and claiming California's environmental policies is preventing the state from extinguishing the multiple wildfires. UCLA's Glen MacDonald, UC Merced climate scientists, and Cal Fire reject the President's claims. "I have other things to do," Scott McLean, Cal Fire official said, "like deal with the fires."

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Trump claimed that California is diverting their water to the ocean rather than fighting fires. "I wouldn't say that that's true whatsoever," UCLA professor Glen MacDonald told Science AF on the phone. MacDonald added "that even if we had more water from the Sacramento or San Joaquin rivers to fight these wildfires, it wouldn't make any difference because a lack of water isn't the problem."

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Trump tweeted about the California wildfires – saying the state is allocating its waters to the ocean instead of putting out fires due to environmental law and needs to clear the trees. "I sort of had to suppress a chuckle when I read the President’s tweet,” says UCLA professor of geography and ecology, Glen MacDonald. He, Cal Fire, and UC Merced climate scientist explain why the President is wrong. 

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UCLA's Daniel Swain was featured KALW's Your Call episode. He goes into depth and answer callers' questions with Matihe Razazan and Kathie Dello on climate change, how climate change is driving wildfires and how wildfires are evolving to become more destructive.  

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California is experiencing record highs across the state, off the coast, and at night, and it's not going away. The sustained heat is providing fuel for the wildfires and making it difficult to fight. “We’re having peak fire season conditions in the off-peak time of year, and there’s no real indication that things are going to get better before the peak of the season in the fall,” UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain said.

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UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain describes the fire tornado and how it formed from Carr Fire in Redding, CA. He said that it is a very rare phenomenon and should not be a regular occurrence even with warmer and drier conditions.

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Carr Fire in Redding, CA became a fire tornado and devastated the area. UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain adds a scientist's perspective to the Carr Fire fire tornado. 

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The Carr Fire reached an all time high with a 143 mph fire tornado, but it is not expected to be a part of the new normal. UCLA's Daniel Swain said, “This won’t be the primary risk associated with wildfire, ever. But under the right atmospheric conditions, all else being equal, the increasing intensity of fires themselves will play a role in producing these localized fire weather conditions that can be quite extreme.”

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UCLA's Daniel Swain explains the fire tornado in Redding, CA. "It had the intensity of a regular old tornado but it had the formation mechanism of what you’d see on a large fire," he said. "It shared more characteristics with a traditional tornado than we’d expect to see." 

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Trevon Fuller, an ecologist at UCLA, linked deforestation in the Congo to the US market. Fuller followed the demand driving the deforestation and discovered that the wood is going to…

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The fire tornado that formed from the Carr Fire impressed many climate scholars and scientists including UCLA's Daniel Swain. It may the "strongest tornado in California history", further damaging more homes in Redding, CA.

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"UCLA law scholar Ann Carlson has explained in detail, this argument has already been explicitly rejected by two different federal courts, each of whom concluded that California’s greenhouse gas tailpipe standards are not pre-empted by EPCA because protecting public health by regulating greenhouse gas emissions is not the same thing as increasing energy efficiency by regulating fuel economy."

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Trump's administration looks to revoke California's authority to regulate tailpipe emissions. “There’s a great irony in Trump releasing this plan just as California is burning,” said Ann Carlson, UCLA environmental law professor. “We’re already seeing catastrophic forest fires as a result of climate change, and the administration’s answer is that everyone should drive a Hummer.”

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UCLA Luskin Center  for Innovation director, JR DeShazo, featured on KPBS Midday Edition and spoke about his impact alternative energy programs report. In his report, he uncovered in that Community Choice Aggregation groups are pushing CA utilities to move toward renewable energy to stay competitive.

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UCLA environmental law professor, Ann Carlson, joined Lauren Sommer on NPR's All Things Considered. Carlson speaks on the Trump administration trying to revoke California's authority to set its own tailpipe emission standards. The state has a strong case to keep its fuel-efficiency standards.

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Trump's biggest assault on the environment yet – UCLA environmental law professor, Ann Carlson, and co- executive director of the Emmett Institute, Cara Horowitz, wrote an op-ed addressing EPA's new proposal. The proposal looks to revoke California's authority to cut car tailpipe emissions regardless of CA being a leader in improving air quality.

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“The rise of CCAs (Community Choice Aggregators) has had both direct and indirect positive effects on overall renewable energy consumed in California, leading the state to meet its 2030 RPS targets approximately ten years in advance,” write Luskin Center director JR DeShazo. People in CCAs are using their purchasing power to push larger utilities to work toward increasing renewable energy.

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“Some fire scientists would roll their eyes at the term ‘fire tornado,'” says Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles. “But they aren’t rolling their eyes on this one.” Craig Clements, an associate professor at San José State University, went to investigate the site and "what was left was unlike anything he’d ever seen." 

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“What has been really unusual in the Western U.S. this summer has been the sustained heat,” said Alex Hall, UCLA climate scientist. “It really pulls water out of vegetation, and that sets up conditions for big fires,” – building up the largest fires and fire season in California history.

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By Sonia Aronson A faculty committee is in the process of selecting three finalists for this year’s Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award. In the meantime, here’s the next group of…

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Climate change is creating the perfect dry conditions that allow wildfires to ignite and thrive. “This fire vortex, this pretty terrifying tornado-like feature, and I don’t say that lightly… was made possible by the extreme heat produced by this fire,” said Daniel Swain about the Carr Fire. 

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The Carr fire has done uncommon movement – jumping, turning, and becoming fire tornadoes. Daniel Swain, UCLA climate scientist, talking about fire tornadoes, “Not sure I’ve ever seen anything quite…