“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 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 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.
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 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.
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.
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.
One new exercise trend can make you feel like a kid again. Multigenerational fitness parks are cropping up across the United States. These parks typically include a large child-focused structure with places to climb, slide, swing, hang, and jump.
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.
Lead contamination in our schools is more pervasive than previously thought, according to water testing data from 20 states published in a national interactive map by Environment America and U.S. PIRG.
UN Environment has partnered with internationally acclaimed cartoonist, Jim Toomey – of Sherman’s Lagoon fame – in the production of entertaining two-minute videos intended to raise awareness of the importance of oceans and the coastal environment.
Sea-level rise threatens thousands of homes in California by 2035, especially in cities near San Francisco and Los Angeles, according to an analysis released today.
Droughts have been making headlines across the world in recent years, from the California water crisis to Cape Town’s severe water shortage, and research suggests 25 percent of the globe could eventually be left in permanent drought due to climate change. But what if you could simply pull water from the air?
Regardless of your socioeconomic standing, whether you live in Haddonfield, Winslow, or Camden City, your community’s resources are going to have an outsize impact on how you grow up.
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.
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.
Wildfires can contaminate nearby streams and watersheds through mobilization of sediments, nutrients and dissolved organic matter, straining the capabilities of downstream municipal treatment facilities, a new report co-authored by CU Boulder researchers shows.
While some of us spend time outdoors, many people, including children could benefit from spending more time in “nature”. There is growing support from research conducted around the world that seeing and being in a natural environment or even in a green urban area has profound positive health benefits for us. The United States Forest Service published a report summarizing research which shows the positive mental and physical health benefits of green space and nature.
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.
An invisible layer of scum on the sea surface can reduce carbon dioxide exchange between the atmosphere and the oceans by up to 50%, scientists have discovered.
As public parks go, the new Waylyn Park at 2678 Olympia Street is standard-issue: a small green space, a basketball court and a playground in a bed of wood chips.
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.
From the icy splendour of the Arctic to the inky depths of the Mariana ocean trench, plastic waste is threatening our seas, killing our wildlife and polluting our food chain. The facts are undeniable: each year more than 8 million tonnes of plastic enter our oceans. According to one estimate, 99 per cent of seabirds will have ingested plastic by the middle of this century.
DYK: A plastic cup can take 50 - 80 years to decompose. An estimated 13 billion plastic bottles are disposed of each year. Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1 million sea creatures every year. Recycling plastic saves twice as much energy than burning it in an incinerator.
Bottled water beats out soda as the best-selling U.S. beverage, but that popularity spotlights the environmental costs of so many plastic bottles being used once and then tossed aside.
Cristobal Chavez has every reason to believe that for 11 years, he and his family were drinking water containing four times the legal limit of nitrate, a possible carcinogen. He moved to his current residence – a 20-acre ranch in rural Tulare County, a few miles outside the town of Porterville, California, – in 2003. In 2014, he had his well tested, and a lab analysis revealed that the water was essentially undrinkable.
Engineer and adventurer Richard Jenkins has made oceangoing robots that could revolutionize fishing, drilling, and environmental science. His aim: a thousand of them.
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.
The Environmental Justice Working Group released a series of recommendations to support more fair and inclusive management of California’s public lands and waters. The recommendations call on the California State Lands Commission to honor the relationship of Indigenous Peoples to state lands, help accelerate a just transition to clean energy, and help reduce the impact transportation and commercial activities have on low-income communities and people of color.
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.
Bronx park officials, combating massive amounts of used syringe litter, say that everyone deserves safe and clean parks. To that end, the city is installing disposable boxes for used needles in hopes of cleaning up the problem.
All people should have access to clean, safe drinking water. A big obstacle in the U.S. is the infrastructure that carries the water. DYK: The U.S. received a “D” grade for its drinking water infrastructure based on the 2017 Infrastructure Report Card.
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.
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.
A study by the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health gives us a stunning look at the amount of plastic pollution found in beer brewed with our Lake Michigan water.
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.
Half a million lead water pipes would have to be replaced in Michigan under the new drinking water rules scheduled to take effect in June. The project is expected to cost $2.5 billion.
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.
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.
Despite its famed canopy, abundance of natural greenery, and celebrated public spaces such as Piedmont and Grant parks, Atlanta has consistently ranked middle-of-the-pack among major cities when it comes to overall park hierarchy.
After testing more than 250 bottles of water from nine countries including China, USA, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Lebanon, Mexico, Thailand, and Germany, researchers from State University of New York found tiny pieces of plastic in the water in 93 out of every 100 of the bottles. Effects on human health are unknown at this time.
After the March for Science and Earth Day, comes the March for the Ocean on June 9, to continue the fight to stop offshore oil drilling, end plastic pollution and protect our coastlines. On World Oceans Day weekend (June 9), thousands are expected to come to DC to participate in a flotilla on the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers, a march past the White House, and a rally, along with simultaneous events across the US and around the world.
As the amount of single-use plastic in the world's oceans continues to grow, National Geographic is announcing a new, global commitment to tackle this pressing problem. On Wednesday, the media giant launched Planet or Plastic?, a multiyear initiative aimed at raising awareness of this challenge and reducing the amount of single-use plastic that enters the world's oceans.
The global use of antibiotics is growing, driven by a number of developing countries that face more antibiotic-resistant infections. University of Oxford’s Abhilasha Karkey explains the link between antibiotic use and having access to clean water.
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.
As the health benefits of nature are becoming more widely recognized, it’s important to identify gaps in access to parks and green spaces. The American Society of Landscape Architects has highlighted disparities in Los Angeles, noting that 3.8 million residents of the city are too far from “a park to use one easily, conveniently, or frequently.”
The irony of our “blue planet” is that most water on Earth is unusable to humanity. Fresh water — which is essential for life and needed for agriculture, industry, and society — makes up less than 3 percent of the total water on Earth; and only 0.03 percent is easily accessible in lakes, rivers, and swamps. As the human population continues to grow, it puts an even greater strain on the amount of fresh water available per person.
All over the planet, countries are increasingly working to conserve the wealth and beauty of their natural resources. While some say setting aside nature reserves inhibits economic development, others vehemently contend that doing so is of great import, not only to wildlife and biodiversity, but to the future of the human race as well. Below, we take a look at those countries with the highest relative proportions of their respective land areas being set aside as terrestrial, protected, nature reserves.
While it's not the responsibility of plants to clean up the mess we humans seem to make of the planet, it is certainly kind of them to show us how it's done. The latest plant to offer an assist in environmental clean-up looks to be Warnstofia fluitans, otherwise known as floating hook moss.
The Metropolitan Mayors Caucus announced today that 90 Chicago-area communities of Chicagoland's 275 cities, towns and villages that comprise the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus have signed the Greenest Region Compact (GRC).
A new report from the Environmental Working Group reveals that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is failing to enforce a key farm bill provision, with dire consequences for drinking water in the Midwest.
World Water Day, on 22 March every year, is about focusing attention on the importance of water. This year’s theme, ‘Nature for Water’, explores nature-based solutions (NBS) to the water challenges we face in the 21st century.
Scientists say that right whales, already an endangered species, could become extinct in 25 years. There are only 450 of these whales swimming in the world’s oceans, and this past year there were no new calves born.
Some 3 in 10 people worldwide, or 2.1 billion, lack access to safe, readily available water at home, and 6 in 10, or 4.5 billion, lack safely managed sanitation, according to a new report by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF.
U.S. National Heritage Areas allow visitors to celebrate our nation’s diverse heritage. There are 49 NHAs in the U.S. that serve as sites where history, culture and nature combine.
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.
In the past few years, scientists have found microplastics in our soil, tap water, bottled water, beer and even in the air we breathe. And there's growing concern about the potential health risks they pose to humans.
Cotton buds, plastic drinking straws and other single-use plastics could be banned from sale in England next year in the next phase of the campaign to try to halt the pollution of the world’s rivers and oceans.
During a recent necropsy, investigators discovered nearly 65 lbs. (29 kilograms) of plastic trash crammed into the dead whale's stomach and intestines, including dozens of plastic bags, chunks of mangled rope and glass.
Population growth has seen skylines creep ever higher and entire cities rise from ocean depths. The latest “ocean city” is the Chinese-developed Forest City project. By 2045, four artificial islands in Malaysia will cover 14sq kilometres of ocean (an area larger than 10,000 Olympic swimming pools), and support 700,000 residents.
Plastic pollution is invading the deepest parts of the ocean, causing damage to the ecosystem that can last thousands of years. The discovery of a plastic bag 36,000 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean in the Mariana Trench is of global concern.
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.
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.
A study reveals highest microplastic pollution levels ever recorded in a river in Manchester, UK and shows that billions of particles flooded into the sea from rivers in the area in just one year.
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.
More than 40 volunteers planted about 70 drought resistant plants as part of an ongoing project by the Glendale Parks and Open Space Foundation and the Glendale community services and parks department to improve a neglected park trail near the Brand Library. (Courtesy of Marc Stirdivant)