For folks living in Santa Cruz County, the closest cattle and dairy farms are as much as two hours away. Still, the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced on those farms, and thousands of others across the country, contribute to climate change, which itself contributes to a higher frequency of environmental disasters across the planet, and likely in Santa Cruz County. Hillary Ojeda interviews journalist and UCSC science communication lecturer Peter Aldhous about how state and federal rules fall short when it comes to tracking methane emissions from California’s largest cattle and dairy farms.
Climate
Posted inLatest News
Hurricane Hilary brings high risk of flooding for SoCal coast, deserts, mountains
Hurricane Hilary, gaining ferocity on its march toward Southern California, had strengthened to a Category 4 storm as of Friday morning and is expected to make landfall in Baja California on Friday night. The storm is forecast to track inland and, as of early Friday, have little impact on Santa Cruz County.
Posted inLatest News
116 degrees at night: Death Valley’s extreme heat goes off the charts from climate change
Death Valley, one of the most extreme places on the planet, is already seeing the impact of climate change, with summers even hotter than usual.
Posted inEnvironment
Ocean temperatures are off the charts, and El Niño is only partly to blame
Unprecedented warming in the North Atlantic has startled some researchers. While global warming is the underlying cause, a variety of other factors are at play.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
The rude awakening of a woke Watsonville climate activist
Alex Yasbek thought he was doing everything he could to prevent climate change. He went vegan, rode his bike to work, “was into solar before it was legal.” But, then, four years ago, he started working as an environmental program manager for the City of Watsonville and he realized two things: his own privilege and how the systems we have created make it too hard to make environmentally friendly choices, particularly for front-line communities, like those in Watsonville. And the pace of change is too slow to match the impact. “Real climate action is going to require entirely new systems and ways of living,” he writes. From food to banking to fossil fuels, he says it’s time for a radical rethink.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Climate injustice is happening in Pajaro: It’s our moral obligation to fix the system
Climate change is here and it’s our moral obligation to act, says Sarah Newkirk, executive director of the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County. We need to adapt faster to climate change, speed up federal responses, including funding and — most critically — help people affected, she says. That means assisting the people of Pajaro who have lost homes and also future income, since many are farmworkers and fields are now too flooded to work.
Posted inLatest News
Wild storm hits California: The Fujiwhara effect, a bomb cyclone, even a landspout, tornado warnings
As Tuesday’s storm approached Santa Cruz County and the Bay Area, the system developed two “eyes,” or areas of low pressure, that danced around each other and intensified dangerous winds.
Posted inLatest News
It’s the end of an era as Seacliff pier demolition commences
This week, Granite Construction began to demolish the pier at Seacliff State Beach, which has connected the shore to the SS Palo Alto for nearly 100 years. While many are sad to see the structure go, California State Parks staff is taking the opportunity to teach the public about the effects of climate change on the Rio Del Mar coastline.
Posted inBusiness & Technology
Welcome to ‘Earth Island’: How two Santa Cruz artists aim to fight climate change with a video game
Can a video game save the planet? Eric Thiermann and Ethan Summers might not claim that lofty ambition, but the Santa Cruz entrepreneurs are hoping to harness the popularity of video games to find solutions to climate change. Their vision is Earth Island, a simulation game in which players can learn about real-world efforts to mitigate climate change and apply those tools to a wide variety of environments and ecosystems.
Posted inLatest News
Rare weather conditions fueling California’s ‘major and unusual storm’
The system is being driven by an area of low pressure off the coast of California that is slowly moving south from Canada.