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The Great Climate Migration

Laura Hinerfeld and her husband, Dale Geist, never thought they’d leave California. But after the Complex fires of 2017 killed 24 people, ravaged 7,000 structures and crept too close to their house in Sonoma, they talked about it for the first time.

Energy sector methane emissions 70% higher than reported: IEA

The global energy sector's methane emissions are massively underreported, the International Energy Agency said in a report, seeking more transparency and stronger policy action

Beach erosion, bluff collapse, flooding: What a foot of sea level rise could mean for San Diego

Climate change is warming oceans and melting glaciers, accelerating the rise of tides and coastal flooding at a frightening pace. A recent scientific report confirmed the United States will see another foot of sea level rise by 2050 — as much increase as the country experienced over the entire last century.

How COVID-19 and Climate Change Are Making Heat Deadlier

Scientists say 2020 is on track to be among the hottest years on record. They know this from a worldwide network of sensors and satellites that constantly monitor land and ocean temperatures.

Climate change report forecasts hard times for Kern County agriculture

A new report warns Kern County agriculture will face tough challenges in the decades ahead as climate change makes irrigation water scarcer and weather conditions more variable and intense.

Death Valley soars to 130 degrees, potentially Earth’s highest temperature since at least 1931

Typically, such blazing heat records fall during July, which is the Northern Hemisphere’s hottest month

Boiling Point: Why climate change matters more than ever during the coronavirus pandemic

Welcome to the first edition of Boiling Point, a newsletter about climate change, energy and the environment in California and the American West.

Climate change and Covid-19 increase pressure on potable water resources

Last summer was among the hottest on record in Europe, with record high temperatures that sent millions of people across the continent seeking shelter from the heat.

World Climate Change Makes Repeat 'Dust Bowl' Twice As Likely

Due to global warming, the United States is today more than twice as likely to endure a devastating "dust bowl" scenario than during the Great Depression, researchers said Monday.

Climate Change Is Making Hurricanes Stronger, Researchers Find

An analysis of satellite imagery from the past four decades suggests that global warming has increased the chances of storms reaching Category 3 or higher.

Climate change has doubled extreme fire weather days in California, study shows

While the world wrestles with the immediate impacts of the coronavirus crisis, the more gradual climate crisis continues to accelerate in the background.

How Climate Change Is Putting Doctors In The Hot Seat

A 4-year-old girl was rushed to the emergency room three times in one week for asthma attacks.

Sea-level rise could double extreme coastal flood events every five years

Extreme flooding events in some US coastal areas could double every five years if sea levels fueled by climate change continue to rise

Majority of young Americans say climate change affects their major life decisions

Seventy-five percent of Gen Zers and 77 percent of millennials said climate change has affected their major life decisions, according to new research.

California is a climate leader. But here’s why it needs to move even faster

California is aiming to slash planet-warming emissions faster than ever over the next decade — and critics say state officials aren’t acting with nearly enough urgency.

Greenland's melting ice raised global sea level by 2.2mm in two months

Analysis of satellite data reveals astounding loss of 600bn tons of ice last summer as Arctic experienced hottest year on record

Stanford researcher reveals influence of global warming on extreme weather events has been frequently underestimated

Analysis shows global warming is intensifying the occurrence of unprecedented hot spells and downpours faster than predicted by historical trends.

Greenland Ice Melt Raised Ocean Level 2.2 Millimeters In Two Months

In 2002, a satellite called GRACE — Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment — was launched.

Earth Day 2020 Will Survive The Coronavirus By Moving Online

A lot of things are closed or canceled due to the global coronavirus pandemic, but Earth Day is not one of them.

These are the 76 climate solutions we need to scale up right now to have a chance

Onshore wind power, utility-scale solar power, reduced food waste: These are just the first three of Project Drawdown’s plan to end the climate crisis with existing technologies.

Disaster Days: How megafires, guns and other 21st century crises are disrupting California schools

Disaster Days: How megafires, guns and other 21st century crises are disrupting California schoolssFrom climate-driven natural disasters to crumbling infrastructure and threats of mass shootings, modern dangers are sending California kids home from class in record numbers.

A California region’s response to global warming, floods and drought: Raise the dam

Folsom Dam sits at the edge of the foothills above the Sacramento Valley, offering California’s floodable state capital region critical protection.

Climate change will affect access to fresh water. How will we cope?

Local solutions will keep the precious resource flowing

World leaders urged to 'step back from precipice' of ecological ruin

As governments prepare to negotiate a Paris-style UN agreement on nature, 23 former foreign ministers have issued a call for urgent action

Boston harbor brings ashore a new enemy: Rising seas

Facing climate change, Boston must gird itself for an era of rising water — or be inundated

California Wildfire Reality: New Alert Systems and Forest Management Key as Climate Change Continues

We’re living in the new California reality of catastrophic wildfires and weeks of forced power outages.

What Rising Seas Mean for San Francisco

How the Bay Area is confronting climate change.

Huge ‘hot blob’ in Pacific Ocean killed nearly a million seabirds

A study released by the University of Washington found the birds, called common murres, probably died of starvation between the summer of 2015 and the spring of 2016.

UN human rights ruling could boost climate change asylum claims

The historic ruling marks the first decision by a UN human rights treaty body based on a complaint filed by an individual seeking protection from the effects of climate change.

Tony SF Restaurants Adopt Surcharge to Fight Climate Change

Diners at some of San Francisco most popular restaurants might notice a new line item on their bills this month, a one percent add-on that’s known as the Restore California surcharge

California Teachers Could Be Required To Teach About Climate Change

California schools may soon be required to teach about the causes and effects of climate change under a bill introduced on Monday.

How climate change influenced Australia's unprecedented fires

The climate factors contributing to Australia's bushfires are strikingly similar to those at play in California.

Climate change could affect pregnancies and newborns’ health, California study shows

A new study that rising temperatures brought on by climate change could be shortening pregnancies by as many as two weeks suggests worrisome implications for babies’ health and children’s later development.

California voters now rank climate change as their top priority

After years of scorching summers, storms of fire and ash, floods, and drought, Californians now rank climate change as their No. 1 political priority, according to a new poll of Democratic primary voters.

Dutch court rules people have a fundamental right to be protected from climate change

The highest court in the Netherlands ruled Friday that the nation's government must cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by the end of next year.

Study Shows How Pollution, Climate Change Could Make Us Dumber

If our society is being dumb for not taking more urgent action about human pollution and human pollution can make us dumber, will we get to a point to where we can’t even understand how stupid we are being?

Caltrans prepares for climate change impacts to California’s transportation system

Caltrans will conduct region-specific climate change vulnerability assessments for each of Caltrans’ 12 districts to help identify how climate change will impact California's transportation system.

Italian Law To Require Climate Change Education In Grade School

Starting next year Italian schools will be required by law to study climate change in every grade. The announcement came on the heels of historic flooding in Venice.

How Climate Change Could Shift California’s Santa Ana Winds, Fueling Fires

For centuries, humans have experienced the fierce, hot and dry winds that are fanning California’s recent spate of wildfires.

Photos from space reveal what climate change looks like, from melting Arctic ice to rampant California fires

The more greenhouse gases we emit, the more the planet warms, and the more we experience extreme and often deadly weather events.

5 things to know about fighting climate change by planting trees

The idea seemed so catchy, simple and can-do. There’s room to plant enough trees, albeit many, many, many trees, to counter a big chunk of the planet-warming carbon spewed by human activities.

California Is Spending $2.4 Million to Build the World’s Largest Permanent Installation of Climate Change-Themed Art

California’s clean-air agency has commissioned the world’s largest permanent public installation of climate changed-themed art.

Satellites are key to monitoring ocean carbon

Satellites now play a key role in monitoring carbon levels in the oceans, but we are only just beginning to understand their full potential.

As the lab-grown meat industry grows, scientists debate if it could exacerbate climate change

Companies across the world are moving quickly to bring to the market hamburgers and other meat products that are grown from animal cells in a lab.

California’s Wildfires Are the Doom of Our Own Making

At this very moment, we have the dubious honor of living through an event whose impact will span generations: climate change. Never before has our kind faced such omnipresent peril, from supercharged storms to rising seas to drought to crop failure to biodiversity crises.

Climate change is coming for your Cabernet

Harvest season has just begun in California's Napa Valley. But the $160 billion wine industry could dry up if something isn't done to combat a changing climate.

Stressed about climate change? Eight tips for managing eco-anxiety

If the prospect of climate change makes you stressed, anxious or depressed, you aren’t alone. With reports of some children becoming terrified by climate change and the protest group Extinction Rebellion holding “grief-tending workshops”, there is an increasing awareness of so-called eco-anxiety.

The World’s Oceans Are in Danger, Major Climate Change Report Warns

Climate change is heating the oceans and altering their chemistry so dramatically that it is threatening seafood supplies, fueling cyclones and floods and posing profound risks to the hundreds of millions of people living along the coasts, according to a sweeping United Nations report issued Wednesday.

Regenerative Agriculture Could Help Stop Climate Change -- Can Tech Help Us Get There?

Climate change dominates the headlines and our news feeds and infiltrates our daily conversations. It’s a problem that weighs heavily on our society, but a promising solution could be lying right beneath our feet — in the soil.

Immediate Climate Action Is Needed to Avoid “Grim” Future, Scientists Warn

A leading group of international climate scientists is warning that “large-scale strategies” are needed immediately to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and avert “catastrophic circumstances” that threaten every part of the world.

Climate change is coming for your wine. What the world's wineries are doing to save grapes

The estate house grounds at Spottswoode Winery look like a postcard from a 19th-century dream. A sprawling Victorian mansion commands a view of lush gardens, a shimmering swimming pool and 45 acres of grape-filled vines that soon will be harvested.

Climate Anxiety Groups Are the New Self-Care

There were dance parties, DJ sets, drum classes and tutu-making workshops. Still, despite the buoyant mood it wasn’t just another festival tailor-made for glossy Instagram photos. Instead, Catharsis on the Mall, which was inspired by Burning Man and took place on the National Mall in May, had a different aim— healing.

California sues Trump administration over auto emissions

California and 23 other states on Friday sued the Trump administration over its bid to restrict their authority to limit auto emissions, setting the stage for a bitter court battle over states' rights and climate change.

Climate Scientists Alarmed by Trump’s Move to Undercut Auto Emission Rules

In the fight against climate change, gas-guzzling cars are increasingly seen as the biggest enemy. Carbon dioxide from automobiles has surged in the U.S. at the same time that the emissions have declined from power plants. The transportation sector is now the nation’s single biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions -- beyond electrical generation from coal, leaking oil wells and burping cows.

Fire and hail push insurers to rethink climate change risks

By the time David Kaisel got back from selling his flour at a farmers' market, a wildfire in California's Capay Valley had burnt both his tractor and the shipping container where he kept some tools. His insurer is set to pay out a sixth of his losses.

Opinion: California’s Largest Landowner Can Achieve Environmental Justice

Every year, the state Lands Commission makes decisions that impact the lives of millions of Californians and over 150 indigenous nations. This little-known agency manages more than four million acres of the state’s public lands. From managing oil and gas leases along the coast, to overseeing development in the vicinity of the Tijuana River in the south, and Goose Lake in the north, the commission’s decisions have consequences that last for generations.

'It's hyped up': climate change skeptics in the path of Hurricane Florence

Scientists say global warming is behind severe storms but many who face them don’t think humans are the problem

Climate change influencing poisonous snake bites in California

Scientists recently put this belief to a test. A new study examined 20 years of documented bites in California correlating weather patterns and climate changes.

Hope Grows At The Once 'Magical' Site Of LA's South Central Farm

Los Angeles residents want to bring back a 14-acre community garden that once served more than 300 low-income families. The South Central Farmers Restoration Committee has filed a lawsuit to stop proposed development of the tract.

Helping Communities Benefit from California’s Climate Investments

California is investing a lot of money, from a variety of sources, in finding ways to slow climate change and improve the environment. The state legislature has also recognized that those investments need to benefit everyone in California.

California’s cap-and-trade air quality benefits go mostly out of state

During the first three years of California’s 5-year-old cap-and-trade program, the bulk of the greenhouse gas reductions occurred out of state, which means that state residents did not see the benefits of improved air quality from presumed reductions in harmful co-pollutants, such as particulate matter, according to a new study led by UC Berkeley and San Francisco State University researchers.

Youth in California’s Central Valley are reclaiming region's activist roots

Decades after civil rights icons Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta brought worldwide attention to the plight of farm workers in California’s Central Valley, a new generation of activists are making an impact in the region — with the focus now on the myriad issues facing young people and efforts to get them involved in civic affairs.

SoCal Gas agrees to $119.5-million settlement for Aliso Canyon methane leak — biggest in U.S. history

A $119.5-million settlement announced Wednesday of claims stemming from the Aliso Canyon gas leak marks the biggest action yet to deal with the health effects and climate damage of the largest release of methane in U.S. history.

The Green Jobs Revolution Needs to Include All of Us

few years ago, Adan Anguiano was in prison. Now he has a career installing solar panels in East Los Angeles.

Women, Climate Change and the rise of Eco-Feminism

Climate Justice acknowledges that climate change has a bigger impact on disadvantaged people, as well as economically disadvantaged countries in the Global South. Advocates for Climate Justice also highlight that climate change disproportionately affects those who contribute the least to it.

Green Upgrade: How California Is Pioneering ‘Energy Justice’

California has the world’s fourth largest greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program, which raises billions of dollars for the state. An innovative project is directing some of that revenue to bringing renewable power and energy efficiency to some of the state’s most disadvantaged communities.

WALNUT CREEK’S WATERS OF JUSTICE

The story of Walnut Creek isn’t just about a river coming back to life — it’s about a community reclaiming its voice.

Social Justice and the Atlantic Coast Pipeline

Opponents of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline have warned of possible harm to the environment and challenged Dominion’s right to take private property for this purpose.

Climate justice and economy: Demands at NYC’s Puerto Rican Day Parade

Under cloudy skies with an intermittent drizzle, hundreds of thousands of Puerto Rican people and their allies turned out for the annual Puerto Rican Day Parade. But this year was special: It celebrated the rich, proud tradition of the Puerto Rican people whose homeland has been devastated by hurricane Maria.

Climate Defenders Mobilizing for 3rd People’s Climate March

Call it the "People's Climate March, Part III." On Saturday, Sept. 8, thousands of people are expected to converge on the streets of San Francisco to demand that government leaders commit to ending all new fossil fuel projects and accelerating the move toward renewable energy

3 Ways Cities Can Protect Low-Income Residents From Climate Change

Climate impacts often fall disproportionately and unfairly on society’s most vulnerable, but cities are uniquely well-positioned to do something about these inequities by taking innovative climate action.

California Takes Steps to Expand Solar Opportunities For Low-Income and Environmental Justice Communities

Solar industry, renewable energy and environmental justice organizations and advocates applauded a decision today by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) that will increase opportunities for low-income households to go solar, lower their utility bills, and participate in the state's growing clean energy economy.

Healthy Soil is Ground Zero for Environmental Justice in Farm Communities

n California’s San Joaquin Valley—home to many of the nation’s largest fruit, nut, and vegetable operations—agricultural soils have been sterilized and depleted of natural fertility.

The Trump administration scrubs climate change info from websites. These two have survived.

Reports of climate science being scrubbed from U.S. government websites arrived early in President Donald Trump’s tenure. And the hits keep coming. From the Environmental Protection Agency, to the Energy Department, to the State Department and beyond, references to climate change, greenhouse gases and clean energy keep disappearing.

CBE ADVOCATES FOR A JUST TRANSITION FROM FOSSIL FUELS TO BUILDING A NEW HEALTHIER AND THRIVING ECONOMY

CBE has worked to build a healthy Richmond for over 20 years. Richmond is a working class community, predominantly people of color, and it’s been impacted by decades of environmental blight and economic divestment. Richmond is home to the 3,000 acre Chevron Oil refinery – the largest polluter in the area and the top greenhouse gas (GHG) emitter in the state.

The world's top 10 battles for environmental justice

The Environmental Justice Atlas is an international collaboration that tracks land and energy conflicts around the world. Researcher Julie Snorek from the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Spain reports.

San Francisco Is Suing Major Oil Companies to Protect its Citizens from Climate Change

“Climate change is accelerating the rate at which oceans are rising and our lower-lying shoreline areas are increasingly exposed to flood waters,” San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee stated in the city’s Sea Level Rise Action Plan, which was completed in March 2016.

California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment - Climate Justice Report

California is a global leader in using, investing in, and advancing research to set proactive climate change policy, and its Climate Change Assessments provide the scientific foundation for understanding climate-related vulnerability at the local scale and informing resilience actions. The Climate Change Assessments directly inform State policies, plans, programs, and guidance to promote effective and integrated action to safeguard California from climate change.

California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment - Climate Justice Report

California is a global leader in using, investing in, and advancing research to set proactive climate change policy, and its Climate Change Assessments provide the scientific foundation for understanding climate-related vulnerability at the local scale and informing resilience actions. The Climate Change Assessments directly inform State policies, plans, programs, and guidance to promote effective and integrated action to safeguard California from climate change.

Blacks, Latinos live with state’s dirtiest air

The Golden State is a world leader when it comes to clean-air policies and fighting climate change but we still suffer from the worst air quality in the nation and when it comes to who bears the greatest burden of our pollution there is a clear and disturbing color line.

Phillips 66 agrees to drop lawsuit over oil trains to Nipomo refinery

Phillips 66 has agreed to dismiss its lawsuit challenging San Luis Obispo County’s denial of its plan to build a rail spur to transport crude oil to its Nipomo refinery, environmental groups said Monday.

Judge strikes down Oakland's ban on shipping coal through port

A federal judge struck down the city of Oakland's ban prohibiting companies from transporting coal through a proposed export terminal that U.S. miners see as a key link to overseas markets.

Traces Of Opioids Found In Seattle-Area Mussels

Bay mussels in Washington's Puget Sound have tested positive for trace amounts of oxycodone, providing more evidence that the opioid prescription medication is truly ubiquitous.

California’s Real Climate Leaders: Frontline Communities

California’s climate leadership has a national and international spotlight, but it’s everyday residents on the frontlines who are the real heroes.

Examples of climate change impact

You don’t just feel the heat of global warming, you can see it in action all around. Some examples of where climate change’s effects have been measured.

The Ocean Is Getting More Acidic—What That Actually Means

Thanks to carbon emissions, the ocean is changing, and that is putting a whole host of marine organisms at risk. These scientists are on the front lines.

Sea-level Tools Released in Spanish

Climate Central has added Spanish language versions of their online tools Risk Finder, Risk Zone Map and Mapping Choices. These tools now provide detailed information in Spanish for U.S. coastal communities on populations, infrastructure, and property at risk from rising sea levels and coastal floods.

New Zealand 'marine heatwave' brings tropical fish from 3,000km away

Rare tropical fish from Australia have been spotted in New Zealand waters after a record-breaking hot summer and warm ocean temperatures lured the creatures across the Tasman sea.

Antarctic ice loss has tripled in a decade. If that continues, we are in serious trouble.

Antarctica’s ice sheet is melting at a rapidly increasing rate, now pouring more than 200 billion tons of ice into the ocean annually and raising sea levels a half-millimeter every year, a team of 80 scientists reported Wednesday.

Antarctic seals recruited to measure effects of climate change

A squad of seals living off the coast of West Antarctica has provided scientists with data that could help to improve estimates of future sea-level rise.

These young people want Pacoima to be beautiful. Here’s what they are doing about it

About 70 students and a handful of parents and other adults gathered at Vaughn Next Century Learning Center on Saturday morning for the area’s first Youth Environmental Conference. In workshops, students presented information on climate change, growing produce at home, bike use and “food deserts,” areas where grocery choices are relatively scarce.

Climate change: How do we know?

The Earth's climate has changed throughout history. Just in the last 650,000 years there have been seven cycles of glacial advance and retreat, with the abrupt end of the last ice age about 7,000 years ago marking the beginning of the modern climate era — and of human civilization. Most of these climate changes are attributed to very small variations in Earth’s orbit that change the amount of solar energy our planet receives.

Weeds will take over from kelp in high CO2 oceans

Weedy plants will thrive and displace long-lived, ecologically valuable kelp forests under forecast ocean acidification, new research shows. The researchers describe how kelp forests are displaced by weedy marine plants in high carbon dioxide conditions, equivalent to those predicted for the turn of the century.

Research finds dry rivers a 'major driver' of climate change

Dry rivers such as those that wind across Canterbury could be a significant contributor to global warming, researchers have discovered.sFor the first time scientists have analysed the amount of carbon dioxide that enters the atmosphere when plant material in dry riverbeds becomes wet when waters return.

National parks could face flooding from sea level rise, storm surge

The National Park Service has released its first-ever report on how the impact of sea level rise and flooding from storms could impact national parks around the country.sMore than a quarter of the property managed by the park system is on a coast, according to the report, and many face increasing threats from rising sea levels connected to global warming and increased threats of flooding from storms in the coming decades.

Global Fish Catch Could Plummet as Climate Change Takes Hold

Over the next two centuries, warming oceans could trap nutrients at the poles and starve out many of the world’s fisheries, according to a recent study.

‘Dead zone’ larger than Scotland found by underwater robots in Arabian sea

An underwater “dead zone” larger than the area of Scotland has been discovered by robots exploring the Arabian Sea.sScientists say the situation is “worse than feared” after finding almost no oxygen in the Gulf of Oman, the strait that connects the Arabian Sea to the Strait of Hormuz in the Middle East.

The Ocean Cleanup is about to send a giant plastic collector to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is growing at an alarming rate — and it’s already three times the size of France.

Dear leaders: You've failed your children on climate change

Read what a 16-year-old environmental activist has to say about climate change and its impact on the future of our children.

Global Fisheries Will Lose $10B A Year To Climate Change By 2050

Scientists at the University of British Columbia recently revealed that climate change will gut the global fishing industry by $10 billion per year within a few decades.

How a Solar Microgrid Is Helping an Indigenous California Tribe Achieve Community Resiliency

The Chemehuevi Tribe is using a solar #microgrid to provide clean and affordable energy to power its community center in the Mojave Desert. Solar power can benefit underserved communities in other remote locations. In fact, California is committing $44 million to additional mcrogrid projects in 2018.

With sea level rise, a major California ecosystem faces extinction if we don’t act

It is increasingly clear that climate change will touch every corner of California. For the state’s coastal marshes – a major ecosystem from San Diego to Humboldt counties – the toll may be complete annihilation.

Fleet of sailboat drones could monitor climate change’s effect on oceans

Sailboat drones powered by wind and sun have been collecting data in the Pacific Ocean about temperature and currents. Additionally, they collect information on wind and solar radiation. Among other findings, these data show how the ocean and air exchange gases such as carbon dioxide and oxygen which could help explain why the tropical Pacific emits carbon dioxide, rather than absorbing it like the rest of the ocean.

Scientists find surprising evidence of rapid changes in the Arctic

Scientists have found surprising evidence of rapid climate change in the Arctic: In the middle of the Arctic Ocean near the North Pole, they discovered that the levels of radium-228 have almost doubled over the last decade.

The best countries to escape the worst effects of climate change

While the US ranked among the top 10 countries most likely to survive climate change in 2015, it slipped to 12th place this year.

Climate Friendly Parks Program

Our national parks are especially susceptible to the effects of #ClimateChange. That’s why the National Park Service which has established the Climate Friendly Parks (CFP) Program. Learn how more than 120 National Parks plan to respond to Climate Change issues such as sea level rise in the Everglades and the shrinking range of the Joshua Tree.

Mass Die-Off of Farmed Salmon Linked to Climate Change

Scientists have attributed an algal bloom that killed off $800 million worth of salmon in Chile to rising ocean temperatures, and they say other aquaculture operations around the world are at risk.

Great Barrier Reef: rising temperatures turning green sea turtles female

Rising temperatures are turning almost all green sea turtles in a Great Barrier Reef population female, new research has found.

These are the countries where air pollution is the deadliest

These are the 10 countries with the highest mortality rates (per 100,000 people) associated with air pollution in 2016.

The most accurate climate change models predict the most alarming consequences, study finds

The climate change simulations that best capture current planetary conditions are also the ones that predict the most dire levels of human-driven warming.

Mysterious disease wastes South Florida's corals, and scientists are racing to find a cure

Called white plague, white blotch and other names, depending on the pattern of damaged or destroyed tissue, the disease has infected more than 20 South Florida coral species from the mid-Florida Keys through Palm Beach County.

When climate change becomes a credit problem

Climate change is now a credit issue for city and state governments vulnerable to extreme weather events and natural disasters made worse by global warming.

Island nations, with no time to lose, take climate response into their own hands

Small islands also are among the smallest contributors to climate change, producing less than 1 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Thousands of tiny baby Adélie penguin starve to death as changing weather forces parents to travel for food

Thousands of tiny baby penguins starved after changing weather forced their parents to trudge across Antarctica in search of food amid the changing climate.

What’s the most environmentally friendly Christmas tree you can get?

Real Christmas trees are probably better for the environment than fake trees, at least from the perspective of their carbon footprints.

In a warming California, a future of more fire

Increasing year-to-year variability in temperature and precipitation that will create greater contrast between drought years and wet years. Severe wildfire seasons like the one that has devastated California this fall may occur more frequently because of climate change.

US government report finds steady and persistent global warming

The world is changing and all the changes we observe are consistent with a warming world. It is hard to predict where we will be in five or ten decades.

Did climate change worsen the Southern California fires?

The answer isn’t as clear-cut as it was this summer, when drought- and heat-stoked fires raged across the Rockies and Pacific Northwest. Instead, a mix of forces are driving the fires in Southern California, and only some of them have a clear connection to global warming.

Why we are naively optimistic about climate change

Seventy takes us near the end of this century, when predictions from climate models describe terrifying scenarios. If the world as we know it would cease to be in 70 years, people should start to take notice now.

How the insurance industry can push us to prepare for climate change

Climate change risk is rising, and yet behavioral economics research argues that we are collectively underinvesting in protecting ourselves. Private insurance has a significant role to play.

How climate change canceled the grizzly salmon run

On an Alaskan island, one of nature’s greatest spectacles is shutting down, as brown bears abandon fish in favor of a surprising alternative.

Climate change could make flights longer and bumpier

Climate change could affect the maximum takeoff weight of planes, which may result in more weight restrictions and even flight cancellations.

5 years after Superstorm Sandy, the lessons haven't sunk in

Five years after Superstorm Sandy was supposed to have taught the U.S. a lesson about the dangers of living along the coast, disaster planning experts say there is no place in America truly prepared for climate change and the tempests it could bring.

A controversial California effort to fight climate change just got some good news

A controversial California climate program got a shot of good news this month when a study suggested it is successfully reducing the state’s greenhouse gas emissions and providing other environmental benefits on the side.

Climate change will likely trigger more deadly landslides in the alps

According to theory, a rise in temperatures can cause permafrost to thaw, destabilizing mountain slopes.

Turn to the volcanoes. They are our electric future.

Electric cars and smartphones of the future could be powered by supervolcanoes like Yellowstone after scientists discovered that ancient deposits within them contain huge reservoirs of lithium—a chemical element used to make lithium-ore batteries, supplies of which are increasingly dwindling.

Climate change will likely wreck their livelihoods – but they still don't buy the science

The small Louisiana town of Cameron could be the first in the US to be fully submerged by rising sea levels – and yet locals, 90% of whom voted for Trump, still aren’t convinced about climate change.

San Francisco, Oakland sue oil giants over climate change

The lawsuits argue that Exxon, Chevron and the other companies knew the global warming risks their products were creating.

California to sue Trump administration over plan for U.S.-Mexico border wall

California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra plans to announce a lawsuit on behalf of the state that will challenge President Trump’s proposal to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border, a project Becerra has called “medieval.”

As climate changes, Southern States will suffer more than others

As the United States confronts global warming in the decades ahead, not all states will suffer equally. Maine may benefit from milder winters. Florida, by contrast, could face major losses.

Nature a powerful force to fight climate change

Global warming is already here. A growing number of leaders see that in order to address it, we need not only more renewable energy and cleaner transport. We must also harness the power of nature.

Climate change in the U.S. could help the rich and hurt the poor

The U.S. economy probably would lose about 0.7 percent of its GDP for each 1 degree Fahrenheit increase in global temperatures. But that financial pain won’t play out evenly.

Irma and Harvey should kill any doubt that climate change is real

Harvey and Irma are sad reminders that policy matters. At a time when damage from climate change is escalating, we need sensible policy in Washington to protect the citizens of this country, both by reducing future climate change and preparing for its consequences.

This is how climate change will shift the world’s cities

As cities get hotter, weather patterns may shift and make extreme heat even more common. That will in turn threaten public health and the economy.

Hurricane Harvey and the inevitable question of climate change

Climate change may not have “caused” Hurricane Harvey, but it seems likely that warming temperatures — the consequence of man-made greenhouse gases trapping heat in the atmosphere — exacerbated the storm conditions.

The 10 ways we can fix climate change

A team of writers and researchers led by American environmentalist Paul Hawken has just published Drawdown, a comprehensive plan to scale back the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. The book offers hope that real solutions within reach.

Summary of EMC Research’s California voters of color poll

How do voters of color perceive climate change in California? They see it as a major threat to the future generations and an issue we must address before it’s too late.

Summary of EMC Research’s California voters of color poll

How do voters of color perceive climate change in California? They see it as a major threat to the future generations and an issue we must address before it’s too late.

How affordable housing can help on climate change

Climate change policy is about saving the planet through making better choices. We will always come up short if we fail to include solutions for the people we wish to save.

The ocean has issues: 7 biggest problems facing our seas, and how to fix them

While it's true the oceans can provide us with some amazing eco-solutions like alternative energy, they are undergoing some serious stress factors. Here are the seven biggest problems, plus some light at the end of the tunnel.

How climate change will transform the way we live

Climate change is tied to government policies, but it’s also the combination of so many of us using things we don’t need. We can’t afford to not think this is a problem.

Extreme weather conditions and climate change account for 40% of global wheat production variability

A new approach for identifying the impacts of climate change and extreme weather on the variability of wheat production has been proposed. The study analyzed the effect of heat and water anomalies on crop losses over a 30-year period.

Why it’s important to save our seas’ pristine places

Yet the ocean is still home to treasure troves of biodiversity, and evidence is mounting that protecting such significant local areas builds resilience to climate change—and can even help regenerate what has been lost.

California’s ‘new’ environmentalism: Toxic air, tainted water driving climate-change debate

“We’ve done a lot for this global environment, but we’ve done very little for the needs of these communities,” said Garcia, a Mexican-American who heads the Assembly Natural Resources Committee.

The effects of climate change will force millions to migrate. Here’s what this means for human security

In 2015, the U.N. Refugee Agency counted 65.3 million people around the world as “forcibly displaced,” including about 40 million within their home countries. Wars, ethnic conflicts, economic stresses, famines and disasters are among the reasons people leave their homes.

Climate change clues revealed by ice sheet collapse

The rapid decline of ancient ice sheets could help scientists predict the impact of modern-day climate and sea-level change, according to research by the universities of Stirling in Scotland and Tromsø in Norway.

California’s landmark climate-change program would also fight air pollution under proposal

Air pollution — not just climate-warming greenhouse gases — would be melded into the complex cap-and-trade program under Assembly Bill 378, by Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia. Garcia heads the Assembly’s Committee on Natural Resources, which passed the proposal.

Ocean might swallow California sooner than you think

Last month the U.S. Geological Survey estimated that without intervention, as much as 67 percent of Southern California’s beaches could be lost to rising seas by the end of the century.

What a year with a single tree reveals about climate change

Recorded year after year, studies brought home a global reality: The seasons are not what they used to be. On average, spring is earlier. Fall is later. And winter is getting squeezed on both ends.

Climate change is making algal blooms worse

A new study has unpicked how warming ocean temperatures have already driven an intensification of blooms around North America — the first time this link has been established at an ocean scale.

Storm damage to top $14 million for Bay Area parks — and we’re not done yet

Bay Area parks and open spaces suffered more than $14 million damage from winter storms, and the toll is expected to rise much higher as record-setting rain lingers into spring.

As climate warms, the oceans are becoming more toxic, new research shows

Researchers at Stony Brook University, in New York, analyzed the effects of rising ocean temperatures on two of the most toxic types of algae and found growths are becoming more widespread and profiling through the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans.

Great Barrier Reef 'cooking and dying' as seas heat up, warn scientists

More than two-thirds of the coral in Australia's Great Barrier Reef is experiencing "shocking" amounts of bleaching, new aerial surveys have revealed. The Australian government says climate change is mainly to blame.

The trees that make Southern California shady and green are dying fast

One type of beetle could kill as many as 27 million trees in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, including parts of the desert. Trees that shade, cool and feed people from Ventura County to the Mexican border are dying so fast that within a few years it’s possible the region will look, feel, sound and smell much less pleasant than it does now.

Can we fight climate change with trees and grass?

Earth's greenery comes with natural carbon-capturing abilities, but now several studies are investigating how to tweak those tendencies to have a maximum impact on carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.

Researchers show connection between extreme weather and climate change

Stanford researchers have found that global warming from human emissions has made extreme hot weather events more likely across over 80 percent of the areas of the globe for which observations are possible.

In the battle over California climate policies, green projects are now in the hot seat

Lawmakers are debating how to continue the state’s fight against climate change; the system is being targeted by some environmentalists who would rather force industry to directly reduce its emissions.

6 climate tipping points: How worried should we be?

Environmentalists anticipate six "tipping events" that may occur in the future due to the acceleration of climate change.

How Americans think about climate change, in six maps

New data released by the Yale Program on Climate Communication provides a deeper look at public opinion on global warming.

Climate change is making us sick, top U.S. doctors say

A report by top American doctors predicts that climate change will ultimately lead to the deterioration of human health in various aspects.

Study: 'Urgent' action against global warming needed to save coral reefs

The researchers documented the extent of the damage the reef off the coast of Australia, and found that only 8.9 percent of more than 1,000 reefs escaped with no bleaching along a stretch more than 2,300 kilometers long.

The U.S. Geological Survey hails an early spring — and ties it to climate change

The arrival of an early spring in the United States is a major indicator of the sweeping changes caused by climate change. Researchers have identified the risks and disadvantages of this current phenomenon.

California’s oil is an opportunity to combat climate change

As the country's third-largest oil producing state, California must reduce its oil refinery emissions by 20 percent by 2030.

California won't meet its climate change goals without a lot more housing density in its cities

If California is going to meet its sustainability goal by 2030, then the state must first solve its housing density problem.

Climate change adds stress to California dams

Older dams may not be designed to deal with the severe weather patterns California has experienced because of global warming.

Sea levels may rise by more than 8 feet by the year 2100 due to climate change

A new report shows that under extreme future climate change, global sea levels could rise by more than eight feet by the end of the century — one of the highest estimates yet to be presented in a federal report.

Why we should be worried about California’s coast

California State Treasurer John Chiang speaks on the need to protect the environment from offshore drilling especially in California.

Food scarcity caused by climate change could cause 500,000 deaths by 2050, study suggests

A new study shows climate-related impacts on agriculture could lead to an overall global decline in food availability leading to many deaths.

California's coastal system facing collapse

Reports show an economical impact linked to the collapse of local wildlife found in Bay Area coastal ecosystems.

How climate change is leading to an ‘ecological recession’

Study shows animals are struggling trying to adapt to climate change by moving to cooler areas but still are unable to survive.

How climate change transformed the Earth in 2016

A stark overview of the many ways how climate change has made a global impact.