You are now in Home Headline Media Coverage San Diego County category.

Report: SD County Faces Dramatic Spike In Heat Without Climate-Change Action

/in , , /by /KPBS

Absent significant global action to address climate change, San Diego County — and other regions across the country — will see dramatic spikes in annual extreme-heat days by the end of the century, according to a report released Tuesday by a scientific advocacy group.

The report by the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit group that has long pushed for worldwide efforts to combat climate change, offers detailed predictions of anticipated temperature increases in areas across the United States under various scenarios, including varying degrees of political action by international leaders

Full Story

Cabazon, Twenty-Nine Palms Tribes Create Air Quality Monitoring Station In Indio

/in , , /by /Desert Sunby Risa Johnson

The Cabazon and Twenty-Nine Palms tribes have joined together to create an air-quality monitoring station in Indio to keep residents better informed about their health. Air quality is a concern in the Coachella Valley, where high levels of smog from Los Angeles hovers and toxic dust rises from the nearby Salton Sea as the water recedes.

For the tribes, that (the Salton Sea) was the driving factor to start looking at developing an air-quality monitoring program,” said Shawn Muir, environmental coordinator for the Twenty-Nine Palms Tribal EPA.

The Salton Sea is about 20 minutes by car from Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians tribal land.

Full Story

Earth Just Had Its Hottest June On Record, On Track For Warmest July

/in , , /by /The Washington Post by Jason Samenow and Andrew Freedman

Boosted by a historic heat wave in Europe and unusually warm conditions across the Arctic and Eurasia, the average temperature of the planet soared to its highest level ever recorded in June.

According to data released Monday by NASA, the global average temperature was 1.7 degrees Fahrenheit (0.93 Celsius) above the June norm (based on a 1951-to-1980 baseline), easily breaking the previous June record of 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit (0.82 Celsius), set in 2016, above the average.

The month was punctuated by a severe heat wave that struck Western Europe in particular during the last week, with numerous all-time-hottest-temperature records falling in countries with centuries-old data sets.

Full Story

New Technology Could Help Salmon Swim Over Hydroelectric Dams

/in , , /by /Komo News by Abby Acone

A Seattle company called Whooshh Innovations has developed a creative way for fish to swim over hydroelectric dams. This product creates a pressure difference around the salmon, sucking the fish up a long tube and releasing it at the top of the dam.

“We do introduce a little bit of water to keep them moist and keep their gills moist and all those kinds of things for the few seconds it takes them to get through the system,” said Mike Dearan, Whooshh’s chief engineer.

Full Story

IID Votes To Lower Conserved Water Payments To Farmers

/in , , /by /The Desert Reviewby Betty Miller Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

After nearly two hours of contentious debate, the Imperial Irrigation District board voted unanimously July 9 on a hybrid plan to lower payments made to farmers for their on-farm conservation program.

The purpose for conserving water was not necessarily the drought conditions of the past two decades, but the 2003 QSA in which the San Diego County Water Authority received transferred water from the Valley via Metropolitan Water District (MWD), first through fallowing then as growers geared up, to conserved on-farm water.

 

Full Story

‘Greywater’ Could Help Solve Colorado’s Water Problems. Why Aren’t We All Using It?

/in , , /by /CPR News by Michael Sakas

Your shower, sink and laundry machine account for more than half of indoor water use. Since the wastewater that circles the drain doesn’t come from the toilet, it’s safe to reuse on things like your garden.Those hip to reuse call it greywater. To state and local governments, it’s graywater. However you spell it, it’s an idea that everyone agrees will save water — but not everyone agrees on how it should be done.

Colorado was the last Western state to legalize greywater usage in 2013. Officials say that by 2050, our water supply could fall short for over one million people. Climate change makes the future of Colorado water even more uncertain.

Full Story

OPINION: California Refuses To Enlist Clean, Cheap Hydropower In Fight Against Climate Change. It Makes No Sense

/in , , /by /CALmatters (Sacramento)by Adam Gray

Is the cleanest, greenest electricity in the world green enough for California? For years, the people of the Northern San Joaquin Valley have been trying to get hydropower recognized for what it is: the original source of clean electricity. Our efforts have been stymied by people who feel entitled to decide what is, or isn’t, green enough. That’s why I have begun the process of modifying our state Constitution to recognize safe, abundant, carbon-free hydropower as a reliable source of renewable energy in our fight against climate change. I have authored Assembly Constitutional Amendment 17 to place this question before California’s voters.

Full Story

SDRVC Climate Change, San Diego, and You

/in , , /by /San Dieguto River Valley Conservatory Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

What are the likely effects of global climate change (GCC) around the world, across the United States, and within the San Diego region? Is where you live in any danger? Is there evidence that GCC is already affecting the San Diego region? What steps should we be taking? Professor Emeritus Phil Pryde first started teaching about greenhouse gas effects at SDSU in the 1980’s and has followed the topic ever since. This will be an illustrated, objective look at what we know and don’t know about global climate change and its possible effects locally.

Full Story

Ties Between The Delta And Groundwater Sustainability In California

/in , , /by /California Water Blogby Jay Lund

Groundwater overdraft is a major problem globally and has been a persistent and growing problem in California for decades. This overdraft is predominantly driven by the economic value of water for agricultural production and cities. Spurred by the recent drought, California passed legislation requiring the elimination of groundwater overdraft by 2040. To explore potential water supply effects of ending long-term groundwater overdraft in California’s Central Valley, we compared several water policies with historical and warmer–drier climates, employing a statewide hydroeconomic optimization model, CALVIN, in our new paper.

Full Story

How 1,500 Nuclear-Powered Water Desalination Plants Could Save The World From Desertification

/in , , /by /Forbesby James Conca

About 20% of the world’s population has no access to safe drinking water, and this number will increase as the population continues to grow and global freshwater sources continue to decline. The worst-affected areas are the arid and semiarid regions of Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. UNESCO has reported that the freshwater shortfall worldwide will rise to 500 trillion gallons/yr by 2025. They expect water wars to break out in the near-future. The World Economic Forum says that shortage of fresh water may be the primary global threat in the next decade.

Full Story