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Earth Week Cleanup in San Diego County

/in , , /by /San Diego Community News Group

After its postponement and production of a smaller cleanup in 2020 due to COVID-19, I Love A Clean San Diego County returns its Creek to Bay Cleanup to its traditional annual date during Earth Week on Saturday, April 24.

This year’s environmental event will operate under the decentralized, socially-distanced model introduced last year where volunteers clean up close to their homes. Organizers aim to double the event’s litter removal impact by issuing a 30,000-pound, one-day challenge to all participants. This is an opportunity for all county residents to safely volunteer and cleanup streets, parks, canyons and beaches within their own neighborhoods. Free online volunteer registration opened on April 1 at CreektoBay.org.

 

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Western U.S. May Be Entering its Most Severe Drought in Modern History

/in , , /by /CBS Newsby Jeff Berardelli

Extreme drought across the Western U.S. has become as reliable as a summer afternoon thunderstorm in Florida. And news headlines about drought in the West can seem a bit like a broken record, with some scientists saying the region is on the precipice of permanent drought. That’s because in 2000, the Western U.S. entered the beginning of what scientists call a megadrought — the second worst in 1,200 years — triggered by a combination of a natural dry cycle and human-caused climate change.

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Opinion: How to Save Beaches and Coastlines from Climate Change Disasters

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Times by Michael W. Beck

The frequency of natural disasters has soared in recent decades. Total damage topped $210 billion worldwide in 2020. With climate change, the costs attributed to coastal storms will increase dramatically.

At the same time, coastal habitats such as wetlands and reefs are being lost rapidly. Some 20% of the world’s mangroves were lost over the last four decades. More than half of the Great Barrier Reef was degraded by bleaching in 2020 alone. In California, we have lost more than 90% of our coastal marshes.

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Cadiz Faces New Suit Over Water Pipeline

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Business Journalby Howard Fine

Another legal challenge has been launched against a project by downtown-based water infrastructure company Cadiz Inc. to pump and transport water from its desert aquifer to connect with existing water conveyance systems. This latest lawsuit was filed March 23 against the Bureau of Land Management by the Center for Biological Diversity, Earthjustice and the Sierra Club.

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High Clouds, Cooler Weather Predicted for San Diego County

/in , , /by /KPBS-FM/TVby City News Service

Marginally cooler weather was predicted Sunday for San Diego County, with an expansive shield of high clouds, the National Weather Service said.

The marine layer should be sufficient to generate some sprinkles across the coastal basin Monday night into early Tuesday, and possibly again Tuesday night, with minimal accumulations expected, the NWS said.

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In the West, Signs in the Snow Warn That a 20-Year Drought Will Persist and Intensify

/in , , /by /Inside Climate Newsby Bob Berwyn and Judy Fahys

Lack of monsoon rainfall last summer and spotty snowfall this winter combined to worsen the Western drought dramatically in the past year, and spring snowmelt won’t bring much relief. Critical April 1 measurements of snow accumulations from mountain ranges across the region show that most streams and rivers will once again flow well below average levels this year, stressing ecosystems and farms and depleting key reservoirs that are already at dangerously low levels.

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Drought Hitting Home in California, Arizona

/in , , /by /Western FarmPressby Todd Fitchette

As drought deepens in the West and the water used by farms and people alike dwindles, farmers in Arizona and California are bracing for cutbacks in the two major federal systems that supply irrigation and drinking water to millions of people.

Water storage is shrinking with no snowpack to replenish reservoirs managed by the Bureau of Reclamation in California and Arizona. Shasta Lake in northern California is about half full while lakes Mead and Powell, the two giant reservoirs designed to contain more than 50-million-acre feet of water behind Hoover and Glen Canyon dams, respectively, are precariously low with under 20-million-acre feet of total storage combined.

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California Spends $12.8M More on the Salton Sea, Finally Appoints Analyst to Study Seawater Importation

/in , , /by /Palm Springs Desert Sunby Mark Olalde

California remains far behind its targets for addressing exposed playa around the Salton Sea, according to data released in the 2021 Salton Sea Management Program annual report. But state officials expressed optimism in a public workshop that they are finally beginning to catch up to those goals.

The state was supposed to implement dust suppression projects or build wetlands habitat across 3,500 acres of exposed playa by the end of 2020 to tamp down dust that’s imbued with a century’s worth of salts, pesticides and other agricultural runoff. Only 755 acres around the mouth of the New River had been completed in that timeframe, although 2020 represented the first year that any state-led dust mitigation projects was finished at the lake.

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La Niña is Fading But California, Gulf Coast Still Face Risks

/in , , /by /Bloomberg Greenby Brian K Sullivan

La Niña, the cooling of the equatorial Pacific that shifts weather patterns the world over, is fading away. But California may still be prone to dryness, and the U.S. Gulf Coast faces the risk of another busy hurricane season. Water temperatures in the Pacific Ocean will likely return to normal in the next few months, the U.S. Climate Prediction Center said in a report Thursday.

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Drought Conditions Worsen in California After Prolonged Warm, Dry Weather

/in , , /by /Ventura County Starby Cheri Carlson

Ventura County has moved into severe drought conditions as it wraps up what is typically the rainiest months of the year.

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