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.
Tulare Lake is gone (although it makes a partial reappearance during very wet years like this one), but what the California Department of Water Resources now dubs the Tulare Lake Hydrologic Region is the most productive agricultural region in the state -- making it, by extension, the most productive agricultural region in the U.S. and probably the world.
The degree of pollution of rivers resulting from human activities is assessed using different biotic indices. The latter reflect the ecological status of a river based on the quantity and diversity of organisms selected as bioindicators, due to their ecological preferences and tolerance to pollution.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Millions of homes across the state are connected to water sources contaminated with a cancer-causing chemical called 1,2,3-Trichloropropane (TCP) and until recently, few Californians knew about it, let alone had any way to fight it.
A UK company has created a biodegradable alternative to plastic bottles which is currently crowdfunding on crowdcube. The product is a blob of water that's made from a seaweed extract, which is actually cheaper than plastic to manufacture.
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.
Plastic production has skyrocketed since it’s popularization as a consumer material in the 1950’s. A 2015 Worldwatch Institute report noted that the relatively modest launching point of 1.7 million tons of plastic generated in 1950 has ballooned into 300 million tons in 2015.
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.
A significant amount of the limited freshwater resources in the world are contaminated by pollutants from industry, farming, energy generation, and other human activities.
A study published recently shows a major ocean current is carrying trillions of bits of plastic from the North Atlantic to the Greenland and Barents seas, and leaving them there — in surface waters, in sea ice and possibly on the ocean floor.
Walking between busy urban environments and green spaces triggers changes in levels of excitement, engagement and frustration in the brain, a study of older people has found.
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.
A new poll finds Americans are more concerned about their drinking water than they are about any other environmental issue. Drinking-water scares like the lead contamination crisis in Flint, Michigan, appear to have had a lingering impact on Americans’ concerns with their drinking-water supplies.
As Los Angeles continues to receive more rainfall, many are advocating for the construction of storm water capture projects to maintain the region's water supply.
A study conducted by the US Geological Survey and California State University Fullerton revealed that past earthquakes have caused parts of the state’s coastline to sink.
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.
This article helps Californians identify their source(s) of drinking water, learn more about how drinking water is treated, and learn how to help prevent pollution of our groundwater and surface water supplies.
50% of the plastic we use is only used once.In the US, a study indicated that 93% of people 6 years of age or older tested positive for BPA (Bisphenol-A, a chemical containing plastics).
California is expected to set a strict state-level maximum contaminant level for a probable human carcinogen ― 28 years after the state’s Water Resources Control Board first detected the chemical in its drinking water system.
The oceans may be storing 13 percent more heat than previously estimated, according to a new study co-authored by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
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.
Plastic is a material made to last forever, yet 33 percent of all plastic - water bottles, bags and straws - are used just once and thrown away. Plastic cannot biodegrade; it breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces.
The best thing we can do to protect our waterways is try to keep as much plastic as possible out of the waste stream in the first place. There are many small ways you can have a big impact.
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.
According to new reports, water quality in Southern California beaches are improving, but L.A. county leads California in the number of beaches with poor water quality.
There is currently a dire plastic pollution problem. If nothing is done, researchers predict there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050.
If sediment in California's dams were cleared and recycled, the state could expand water storage capacity and provide sand for beaches and spawning beds for steelhead trout.
Oroville Dam not only faces a spillage crisis, but a seismic one as well. Scientists say the filling of the reservoir could produce a damaging earthquake in a generation.
PCBs — chemicals that have been banned since 1979 — have been found to have far-reaching effects. Recently, researchers have discovered traces of the chemical in the depths of the Pacific Ocean.
Because of the powerful El Nino that hit the Pacific Ocean a year ago, scientists say that beaches lining coasts between Mexico and Canada will eat away at seaside cliffs and low-lying coastal towns.
Latinos Marinos meet with legislative staff in Sacramento as part of Ocean Day 2017.The 12th annual Ocean Day 2017 drew over 100 representatives from some of California's leading coastal advocacy organizations.
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.
A walkthrough on how fish sold in markets have human-made debris inside them and how there are indirect environmental consequences to our everyday lives.
