Tag Archive for: Climate Change

Opinion: California Has a Chance for a Green Future After the Coronavirus. Don’t Waste it

/in , , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Chronicle Editorial Board

Bears are taking over Yosemite meadows, and coyotes are wandering city streets. Hilltop sunsets never looked more pure and bright. Around the world, smog-glazed skies are giving way to blue vistas and fresh air. A deadly pandemic is slowing human activity and boosting wildlife in startling ways.

With oil selling at near giveaway prices and airlines virtually grounded, there are fewer emissions pouring out. More widely, tailpipes from millions of cars and trucks are idled by stay-at-home orders. NASA space shots show far less pollution in familiar population and industrial centers across the country.

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As a Dying Salton Sea Spews Harmful Dust, Imperial Valley Water Wars Heat Up Again

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Sammy Roth

The people of California’s Imperial Valley can be as unforgiving as the region’s harsh desert climate. It’s been 16 years since Bruce Kuhn cast the fateful vote to transfer tens of billions of gallons of Colorado River water from the valley’s sprawling farms to thirsty coastal cities, reshaping water politics in California and across the West.

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This Year is on Track to be Earth’s Warmest on Record, Beating 2016, NOAA says

/in , , /by /The Washington Postby Andrew Freedman

There is a 75 percent chance 2020 will set a record for the warmest year since instrument records began in 1880, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is projecting, beating out 2016 for the distinction.

This is somewhat unexpected, since there is no declared El Niño event in the tropical Pacific Ocean, which tends to provide a natural boost to global temperatures that are already elevated due to the human-caused buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

The NOAA projection, made late last week, is based on statistical modeling now that the first quarter of 2020 is off to a near-record warm start, coming in as the second-warmest January through March period since instrument records began in 1880.

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Changes in Snowmelt Threaten Farmers in Western U.S.

/in , , /by /Colorado State Universityby Mary Guiden

For decades, scientists have thought that changes in snowmelt due to climate change could negatively impact agriculture. Now, a new study reveals the risks to agriculture around the world from changes in snowmelt, finding that farmers in parts of the western United States who rely on snowmelt to help irrigate crops will be among the hardest hit in the world by climate change.

In a study published April 20 in Nature Climate Change, an interdisciplinary team of researchers analyzed monthly irrigation water demand with snowmelt runoff across global basins from 1985 to 2015. The goal was to determine where irrigated agriculture has depended on snowmelt runoff in the past and how that might change with a warming climate.

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Study: Snowpack Will Become a Less Reliable Predictor of Drought in Western U.S.

/in , , /by /Colorado Public Radioby Grace Hood

In the next 16-45 years, two-thirds of Western states may have to turn away from snowpack and find new tools to predict drought.

And by the late century, scientists estimate that area will grow to four-fifths of the western United States, according to a new paper in Nature Climate Change.

“When the temperature warms, the phase of the precipitation is likely to change from snow to rain. So less snowpack is something that’s pretty likely,” said lead author Ben Livneh, an assistant professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder.

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Changes in Snowmelt Threaten Farmers in Western U.S.

/in , , /by /Science Dailyby Jeff Grabmeier

Farmers in parts of the western United States who rely on snowmelt to help irrigate their crops will be among the hardest hit in the world by climate change, a new study reveals.

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Droughts Exposed California’s Thirst for Groundwater. Now, the State Hopes to Refill its Aquifers

/in , , /by /Science Magazine (American Association for the Advancement of Science) by Erik Stokstad

California’s Central Valley — one of the richest agricultural regions in the world — is sinking. During a recent intense drought, from 2012 to 2016, parts of the valley sank as much as 60 centimeters per year. “It isn’t like an earthquake; it doesn’t happen, boom,” says Claudia Faunt, a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. But it is evidence of a slow-motion disaster, the result of the region’s insatiable thirst for groundwater.

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Study: Warming Makes US West Megadrought Worst in Modern Age

/in , , /by /AP Newsby Seth Borenstein

A two-decade-long dry spell that has parched much of the western United States is turning into one of the deepest megadroughts in the region in more than 1,200 years, a new study found.

And about half of this historic drought can be blamed on man-made global warming, according to a study in Thursday’s journal Science.

Scientists looked at a nine-state area from Oregon and Wyoming down through California and New Mexico, plus a sliver of southwestern Montana and parts of northern Mexico. They used thousands of tree rings to compare a drought that started in 2000 and is still going — despite a wet 2019 — to four past megadroughts since the year 800.

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106,000 American Clean Energy Jobs Were Lost in March

/in , /by /pv magazineby Tim Sylvia

The dramatic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic have hit every sector of the U.S. economy hard, with renewable energy being no exception. Today, BW Research released an analysis of unemployment data that shows more than 106,000 clean energy workers lost their jobs in the month of March.

Those 106,000 job losses represent a 3% loss in employment across the clean energy industry. In 2019, the clean energy industry added more than 70,000 jobs for a 2.2% growth rate, one which outpaced the U.S. workforce as a whole. The renewable energy generation sector alone lost 16,500 jobs.

The analysis, coupled with forecasts from industry trade groups and companies, led BW Research to the conclusion that, if no actions are taken quickly to support the industry, up to 500,000 jobs could be lost — or almost 15% of the clean energy workforce.

Broken down by state, California experienced the largest number of layoffs, losing 19,900 jobs, which equates to more than 3.5% of its clean energy workforce.

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Wet Spring a Boon to Water Supply, Native Plants

/in , , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Robert Krier Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

In San Diego County and across California, it’s been an awesome April for precipitation.

The Sierra snow pack, although still much smaller than normal for this point in spring, has partially made up what had been a huge shortfall just a few weeks ago. And just about every place from the desert to the coast has benefited from a substantial soaking.

Last week’s record-breaking storm lifted San Diego County well above normal precipitation for the rainfall season. The city of San Diego has had its wettest spring in decades, and it has already recorded 3 more inches of rain since Oct. 1 than it normally gets in an entire year.

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