LENS.cast
The new podcast from UCLA's Laboratory for Environmental Narrative Strategies shares stories of environmental justice and imagination in California and beyond.
Projects
LENS.cast Season 1: Environmental Justice in LA
Season 1 of LENS.cast features two episodes about environmental justice in Los Angeles. In episode 1, we explore the history and future of Los Angeles’s remarkable trees. California is more than…
Local adaptation to urban stressors in native plants
Restoration of coastal sage scrub communities is important for the conservation of native biodiversity in urban areas of Southern California. A key species of coastal sage scrub, California buckwheat (Eriogonum…
Local solutions to curb air pollution
Pritzker Award Affiliate: Chris Hagerbaumer, Executive Director of OpenAQ, an organization founded by Christa Hasenkopf, who was nominated for the award in 2019. Impact Fellow: Viraj Sawant (IoES doctoral student) Project…
Mitigating ocean acidification in Santa Monica Bay with marine vegetation
Our oceans experience severe negative impacts from human-induced global warming. Much of the carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels is absorbed by seawater. This leads to…
Mobilizing the Transformative Power of WHAM: Overcoming Obstacles to Integrated Infrastructure Investments in Los Angeles County
With support from voters, Los Angeles County is investing billions of dollars from Measures W, H, A, and M in clean, safe water, housing and homeless services, parks and open…
Monitoring of artificial reef restoration in Palos Verdes using eDNA
Awardee: Elijah Catalan, first year Ph.D. student at the Institute of Environment and Sustainability. Elijah's research intends to bring together genomic-based biodiversity monitoring, biogeochemistry, Indigenous tribal knowledge, and stewardship programs to understand the resilience of coastal and marine biodiversity to climate change and possibilities for adaptation on the West Coast.
Optimizing landscape connectivity to conserve endangered species threatened by disease
This project aims to determine optimal strategies for conserving endangered Yosemite Toads (Anaxyrus canorus). Populations of Yosemite toads (Anaxyrus canorus), endemic to the Sierra Nevada range in California, plummeted in…
Phasing out fossil fuel infrastructure in Los Angeles: Challenges for a Just Transition
In this project, Dr. Kelly Kay and Andrea Furnaro focus on the phase-out of longstanding fossil fuel infrastructure as part of the Los Angeles Green New Deal plan. While other…
Sage Hill – learning from the past, preparing for the future
Hidden between Hitch Suites and Sunset Boulevard on UCLA’s campus are four acres of land home to the highest diversity of native California flora and fauna species in west Los…
Sanitation tech to advance ocean and human health
Pritzker Award Affiliate: Amelia Wenger is a research fellow at the University of Queensland and was nominated for the Pritzker Genius Award in 2021. Impact Fellow: Regina Adigwe (IoES doctoral student)…
Scaling solutions to Wildfire, Biodiversity and Conservation
Pritzker Award Affiliate: Anousheh Ansari, CEO of XPRIZE and judge for the Pritzker Award. Impact Fellow: Emma Barnosky (IoES doctoral student) Project objectives: 1. Produce a whitepaper outlining a program strategy for…