climate change

Don’t kick climate change down the road

Mankind has only 12 years left to make unprecedented cuts in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions if we want to stave off unimaginably catastrophic effects of runaway global warming. This is the warning detailed in October’s report from the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the recognized global climate authority which represents the investigations of hundreds of climate scientists and 195 participating nations. A…


Climate change and wildfires, is there a link?

Once again, the summer of 2018 in the Northern Hemisphere has brought us an epidemic of major wildfires. These burn forests, houses and other structures, displace thousands of people and animals, and cause major disruptions in people’s lives. The huge burden of simply firefighting has become a year-round task costing billions of dollars, let alone the cost of the destruction. The smoke veil can extend…


Plastic ocean pollution and climate change

Although burning fossil fuels is the primary cause of global warming, fossil fuels could also be driving climate change via a completely different mechanism involving ocean plastic debris and tiny, bioluminescent fish living hundreds of meters beneath the ocean’s surface. Lanternfish (aka myctophids) are only a few inches long typically but so ubiquitous that they account for over half the ocean’s total fish-mass. They are…


Coastal protection on the edge: The challenge of preserving California’s legacy

By Gary Griggs, University of California, Santa Cruz and Charles Lester, University of California, Santa Cruz For 50 years California has used laws and policies to manage development alongs its 1,100-mile coastline and preserve public access to the shore. Climate change will make that task harder. The California coast is an edge. It’s the place where 1,100 miles of shoreline meets the largest ocean on…


Trump’s views on science have Dems California dreamin’

Story by George Cahlink, E&E News Reporter. Reprinted from E&E Daily with permission from E&E News. Copyright 2017. E&E provides essential news for energy and environment professionals at www.eenews.net. For the original story click here [https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060064423/] Issa shifts Vista, Calif. — Rep. Darrell Issa, who won the narrowest re-election of any incumbent last year, is taking a different tact. As the nine-term Republican faces what’s expected to be…


Collective action will solve climate crisis

I fancy myself an environmentalist.  I recycle, backyard compost, have rooftop solar, rarely use AC or heat, drive a hybrid, don’t have a lawn and eat vegetarian. Yet the truth is I am as responsible for climate change as the next guy. Here’s why. Doing those things makes me feel good about myself, but they don’t move the world measurably closer to solving the climate…


Oh-oh heat wave…We give in already

(Editor’s Note: The Great Heat Wave chilled out on Sunday just in time for a day supposedly honoring labor, yet consisting of no work. Temps dipped below 100 degrees everywhere in San Diego County,  big change from the day before when 20 local places broke the 100 degrees barrier. What happened? Tropical Storm Lidia sucked in a high pressure system bringing with it desert air….


Post-Paris Climate Accord: What’s next?

The City of Escondido should do what 46 other local jurisdictions across the country have done, pass a resolution telling Congress to step up and lead the rest of the world in addressing the crisis of global climate change — Sarah Mosko Although President Donald Trump has withdrawn the U.S. from the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, this is no time for the 70 percent of…


Brown re-affirms state climate commitment

California Gov. Jerry Brown Thursday excoriated President Donald Trump for his decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement. “Donald Trump has absolutely chosen the wrong course,” Brown said. “He’s wrong on the facts. America’s economy is boosted by following the Paris Agreement. He’s wrong on the science. Totally wrong. California will resist this misguided and insane course of action. Trump is AWOL but California is…


Hunter denies, Issa waffles on climate

Within moments of Donald Trump’s inauguration, the White House web page on climate change was purged. On March 28, Trump ordered the dismantling of President Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which was designed to cut greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. Many members of Congress, as well, continue to be climate change skeptics or deniers. The Stopping EPA Overreach Act (H.R.637) introduced in January, with 121…