Climate Change

“The two go together in an overall plan, and that overall plan is for the University to support students, faculty and staff to be purchasing better hybrid or electric vehicles,” said Harold Glasser, Executive Director of the Office of Sustainability. Read the story

What will cost $7 billion; will snake across the country from Alberta to the Gulf Coast, carrying 700,000 barrels a day of Canadian crude oil; and seems (at least from the animated assertions of Congressional Republicans and the American Petroleum Institute) a perfect solution for the flagging U.S. economy? Answer: TransCanada’s Keystone oil sands pipeline expansion project. Imagine a river of dirty oil running right through the country’s mid-section. Read the entire piece

When you talk to climate scientists about winners and losers, a few words come up over and over again: could, might, maybe. According to University of Arizona environmental economist Derek Lemoine, local climate-change patterns are difficult to predict because uncertainties in the global model “are compounded when considering smaller scales.” Read the full story

Amber Pairis, Climate Change Adviser of the State of California Department of Fish and Game, said the release of the public draft of the NFWPCAS is a major milestone for natural resources adaptation and clearly illustrates how state, federal, and tribal entities are working together to create a collective vision for how they respond.

Despite this year’s unusually warm and dry January, winter in the Bay Area is often cold and wet, and that means higher heating bills. “Many Oakland homeowners are thinking about heating bills again, and how drafty their homes are,” said the City of Oakland’s sustainability coordinator Garrett Fitzgerald. “This is a great time to go ahead and make those improvements that will make their homes more comfortable and more affordable.”

“A major question is before us,” says Margaret Torn, head of the climate and carbon sciences program at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. “How does our new molecular understanding tell us about how soil will respond to climate change?” Read full story

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) released a report this week on the costs of California’s progress in generating more electricity from renewable power and there was good news. Prices of new contract bids submitted to utilities last year were about 30 percent lower than in 2009, according to the report, signaling a more competitive future for the renewable power industry in California.

Nearly two decades after coming to the Hopkins Marine Station as an undergraduate in earth systems, Raphael D. Sagarin was again hunched over a tide pool identifying its briny inhabitants. His mentor, emeritus lecturer Chuck Baxter, stood on a nearby outcropping and called out helpful advice. It was a drippy coastal morning, with fog heavy enough to dampen paper and a raucous crowd of gulls hooting from the roof of the nearby lab. The shallow pools initially appeared abandoned at low tide, but a closer look revealed dozens of tiny creatures going about their underwater business.