Climate Change

How did California define itself in 2016? As the state girding itself to mastermind the progressive resistance against a looming Trump administration? The state struggling to take the global lead in a daunting quest to halt global climate change? The state saddled with unfunded liabilities to pay off generous public employee pensions, and riddled with […]

RYER ISLAND—The report’s findings were unequivocal: Given the current pace of water diversions, the San Francisco Bay and the Delta network of rivers and marshes are ecological goners, with many of its native fish species now experiencing a “sixth extinction,” environmental science’s most-dire definition of ecosystem collapse. Once a vast, soaked marsh and channel fed […]

California’s high country is a delight in summer, a cool respite from the heat of the state’s lower elevations. That’s especially true in the Sierra Nevada, where a corridor of shade transports vacationers from Fresno to Yosemite National Park under a dense canopy of cedar trees, firs and pines. But after five years of drought and insect infestation, […]

In California’s Democrat-dominated statehouse, big business usually plays defense. Liberal groups—like labor unions and environmentalists—typically push for new bills, while corporate interests work to kill them. Legislators feel that push and pull. A similar dynamic is now at play on California’s ballot, where major industries are spending big bucks to defeat policies backed by progressives. […]

The sound of applause has scarcely died down in the Capitol after last week’s vote to significantly expand California’s requirements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Proponents who steered the groundbreaking legislation are still basking in the afterglow of an effort that—after seeming on the brink of defeat—deftly mustered unexpected support and reaffirmed the state’s international […]

INVERNESS — Until recently, strolling through a California forest meant walking in dappled light along a path strewn with leaves or pine needles. But across the state, once-towering pines have collapsed, their desiccated limbs sprawled across forest floors. Toppled oak and tanoak trees, their trunks bleeding, decomposing from the inside out, litter the ground. Choked […]

Gov. Jerry Brown has taken the national stage to tout California’s fight against global warming, telling cheering throngs at the Democratic National Convention that the state has “the toughest climate laws in the country.” Yet inside the state Capitol, the fate of the policy’s centerpiece—legislation to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions—is in peril. One ominous […]

Tens of millions of trees in California have been dying — withering from drought, bored into by insects or attacked by an organism that has been around for a decade but that scientists are only now understanding. West Marin County recently provided a close-up look at the problem for a group of post-graduate students from UC Davis, who examined a […]

Drought and disease are ravaging one of California’s most precious resources – its trees. Water-starved pines have been infested with beetles, which have killed up to 40 million of the towering trees. And as many as 10 million oaks have succumbed to disease in a death spiral that is past the point of eradicating, according to research from scientists […]

The basics of cap and trade What is cap and trade? How do the auctions work? What projects are the auction proceeds paying for? How much has California lowered its emissions? What’s next? Assemblyman Brian Jones leaned in to the microphone with a tight smile. It was May, and legislators were debating whether to request […]