Today is World Ocean’s Day, a chance to celebrate ongoing actions towards ocean protection. One such endeavor on the U.S. west coast is also an opportunity to uplift Indigenous leadership via the proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary in central California.
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.
California aims to sharply limit the spiraling scourge of microplastics in the ocean, while urging more study of this threat to fish, marine mammals and potentially to humans, under a plan a state panel approved Wednesday.
Officials are preparing for yet another critical water year in California as the state – along with most of the American west – remains mired in drought.
Snug along the Albany border on Kains Avenue is a verdant new Berkeley open space where monarchs fly among the yellow oxalis flowers common throughout the neighborhood.
James Fawcett of the USC Sea Grant program at USC Dornsife explains how the line of ships floating off the coast waiting to offload goods is making a mark on the local environment.
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
Norwalk Council continues to take input on the plan to build a transit-oriented eco-community on the former 32-acre California Youth Authority property at 13200 Bloomfield Avenue.
On the dusty outskirts of Bakersfield, Rosa Perez and her family are living without a basic housing amenity — clean water. Though they pay the water bill each month, what comes out of the taps is laced with a chemical that California admits could make the family of four more likely to develop cancer. Perez, 43, would rather spend some of her meager farmworker income on bottled water than see that come to pass.
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.
California dumps more than 12,000 tons of plastic into landfills every day — enough to fill 219 Olympic-size swimming pools, according to CalRecycle, the state's recycling and waste management agency.
When Lucas Zucker talks about sea level rise in California, his first thoughts aren’t about waves crashing onto fancy homes in Orange County, nor the state’s most iconic beaches shrinking year after year.
The world’s coastlines are turning to concrete, at a huge cost to wildlife and the climate. But new technologies may offer a way to shore up coasts while benefiting biodiversity.
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.
The coronavirus pandemic was a respite for nature everywhere. The air was cleaner, trekking trails were pristine, the summit of Mt Everest was deserted, and worldwide carbon emission dipped by -26%.
Global school closures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic affect up to 1.6 billion children and present an unprecedented risk to their education and wellbeing.
The chemical bisphenol A, or BPA, which is ubiquitous in plastic bottles, can linings and receipts, has been linked to numerous health issues because it disrupts hormone function.
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.
This year’s Atlantic hurricane season got off to an early start in May, but even though there was a brief reprieve from tropical storms — thanks to a plume of Saharan dust earlier this month – we are once again seeing an increase in storm activity.
San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer announced Tuesday that gyms and places of worship would be able to use San Diego’s parks to conduct operations outside beginning Monday morning.
The safer at home orders have made the outdoors essential spaces for Californians to get fresh air, exercise and take a mental respite from the new normal under COVID-19.
Despite the growth of biodegradable materials and bans on single use plastics, a recent study finds that there could be 600 million tons of plastic in the oceans by 2040, which is equivalent to the weight of over three million blue whales.
More than 10 times as much plastic has been found in the Atlantic ocean than previously estimated to be there, showing the the world’s plastic problem is likely to be much greater than realised.
Eight million metric tons of plastic waste enter the oceans every year. This equates to one garbage truck’s worth of plastic being dumped into our oceans every minute.
As the world celebrates #OceanWeek, the news@HispanicAccesssreport “Nuestro Océano y la Costa: Latino Connections to the Ocean and Coast” finds that Latinos could become one of the leading voices in its protection.
Like millions around the world right now, at UPSTREAM we’ve been talking a lot about racial justice in America. We’ve been holding in our hearts the countless Black Americans who’ve effectively been treated as disposable in our society and justice system.
President Donald Trump has been an eager fighter in California’s water wars. As a presidential candidate, he vowed to bring more water to San Joaquin Valley farmers during a rally in Fresno.
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.
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.
The vibrancy with which the planet has rebounded to the global lockdowns (covering half the world’s population), has revealed how resilient wildlife is, and how quickly nature can recover if given a break.
The impact of plastic on the many species that call the ocean home is a huge unknown, but scientists are starting to piece together the kinds of risks this pollution poses to the marine ecosystem.
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.
While the world wrestles with the immediate impacts of the coronavirus crisis, the more gradual climate crisis continues to accelerate in the background.
As Californians shelter at home amid the COVID-19 outbreak, an estimated 1 million of them lack access to clean drinking water, largely in rural parts of the state.
For city residents, equitable access to local green space is more than a coronavirus-era amenity. It’s critical for physical, emotional, and mental health.
The coronavirus lockdown is giving the world’s oceans much-needed breathing space, let’s hope we don’t go back to bad habits when it ends, writes the Ocean Conservation Trust.
Wastewater-based epidemiology might be an effective way to track the disease in a particular population since the deadly novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 was found in the feces of those who tested positive.
Growing fruit and vegetables in just 10 per cent of a city's gardens and other urban green spaces could provide 15 per cent of the local population with their 'five a day', according to new research.
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.
Sanitizing is on everyone's mind these days because of the coronavirus pandemic, but don't flush those disinfecting wipes and paper towels down the toilet.
California State Parks announced today the temporary closure of all campgrounds in the state park system to support state and local efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus).
