Environment
The scary new climate report means fossil fuel use needs to start falling, fast
There’s a giant gap between what many companies have pledged and what’s actually needed.
Exploding California wildfires rekindle debate: Snuff out blazes in wilderness areas or let them burn?
A U.S. Forest Service directive to put out fires in remote, roadless California forests has angered foresters and firefighters, who say doing so will put lives at risk and fuel worse fires in the future.
Ways to save water during the drought — and whether it’s worth doing at all
Gov. Gavin Newsom is asking Californians to cut personal water usage by 15% some six years after Gov. Jerry Brown asked for a 25% reduction. Here are tips for how to do that — and facts about what difference they can make.
As Dixie fire nears half a million acres, containment is still weeks away
More than 16,000 structures are still threatened by the fire, which authorities don’t expect to have under control until the end of August. The Dixie fire is one of 11 major fires burning across the state, according to Cal Fire.
‘Not uncommon’ but little understood: Red tides have returned to Santa Cruz beaches — what to know?
Better known to scientists as harmful algal blooms, red tides can cause irritation of the eyes, ears or nose for those with certain conditions in those areas but are generally not harmful. And they do sometimes come with bioluminescence — waves glowing at night.
‘We knew there was no saving it’: Gold Rush-era town gone, leaving broken hearts, broken dreams
Greenville, a Gold Rush town dating to the 19th century, rebuilt after an 1881 fire. Now it has been destroyed by the Dixie fire, California’s largest this year.
Amid worsening drought, Lake Oroville’s record-low water level forces shutdown of hydroelectric power plant
California water officials have shut down of a major hydroelectric powerplant at Lake Oroville in Northern California, citing the lowest-ever recorded water level.
Firefighters face unprecedented conditions as they try to save towns from Dixie fire
Officials say a perfect storm of conditions — the heat, the dry fuels, the drought, the wind, the slope — has driven the Dixie fire’s rapid spread. “There were places where we couldn’t even get a hose because we couldn’t get an engine anywhere near where the fire was,” one said, “so it was all hand tools and that kind of stuff.”
Fierce winds threatening to make things worse on surging Dixie fire
Personnel attacking the Dixie fire — including firefighters from Santa Cruz County departments — were bracing for strong winds expected to arrive Wednesday afternoon that could make difficult conditions worse. The fire stood at 274,139 acres and 35% containment.