Tag Archive for: environment

After Snow in Malibu, US Braces for Series of Wintry Storms in Coming Days

Days after a weather system brought snow conditions along stretches of the nation from Malibu, California, eastward for 1,500 miles, a new series of storms could lead to a wintry mess for much of the nation.

A storm tracking from the southern Plains to the Northeast will bring areas of heavy snow and ice from Kansas into the Great Lakes region Monday into Wednesday, the National Weather Service warned. Snow totals exceeding one foot are possible across parts of Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Iowa.

2020 Ties 2016 as Hottest Year on Record, Even Without Warming Boost from El Niño

Global warming pushed temperatures into record territory in 2020, in effect tying 2016 as the hottest year on record, according to data released Thursday by U.S. science agencies.

Last year’s average global surface temperature was 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit above the late 19th century average, according to NASA. It was the fifth consecutive year of more than 2 degrees above that base line. Indeed, the seven hottest years in 140 years of record keeping are the last seven. In descending record order, they are 2020 and 2016, 2019, 2017, 2015, 2018 and 2014.

La Jolla Permit Reviewers Hear Safety and Environmental Concerns About La Jolla View Reservoir Project

About 30 people attended the Jan. 12 La Jolla Development Permit Review Committee meeting to discuss the planned replacement of the La Jolla View Reservoir, many with concerns about the project.

DPR did not vote during the online meeting but scheduled another hearing for Jan. 19 (after the La Jolla Light’s deadline). The project also is scheduled to be heard at the Feb. 4 La Jolla Community Planning Association’s online meeting.

LA Has Plan for Network of Waterways in the Land of Cars

Kneeling on its concrete bank, Silva reached down through the water of the Los Angeles River and pulled out the perfect thing: a handful of mud.

He makes freshwater aquariums, and the mud of the river makes for the perfect base. “It has worms, nemotodes, rocks, it’s all there.”

With long hair banded back, he put the precious mud into two Home Depot orange buckets.

Researchers Exploring How San Diego County Wetlands Can Be Part of Climate-Saving Strategies

Buried in San Diego County’s lagoons are centuries worth of carbon, cached in muddy stockpiles that scientists say could help combat climate change. Recently, scientists with the conservation organization Wildcoast and Scripps Institution of Oceanography started studying how much carbon coastal wetlands can capture, and how to restore these environments to boost that capacity.

Rainbow MWD Approves Change Order with Kennedy/Jenks

Tom Kennedy, general manager of Rainbow Municipal Water District, is not related to the principal with the Kennedy/Jenks consulting firm which has a contract with the district for the design of lift station projects. The contract had been for $1,434,485 and was scheduled to expire Dec. 31, but a 5-0 Rainbow board vote, Dec. 8, approved a change order increasing the contract to $1,674,108 while extending the contract until July 30, 2021.

California Falling Short on 2030 Recycled Wastewater Goals

California isn’t meeting its recycled water goals, and billions of gallons of treated wastewater are being discharged into the ocean or other water bodies each year, according to state regulators, who say drought conditions could cause future supply challenges.

California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta – a Short History of Big Changes

Deltas globally adjust with changes and fluctuations in external conditions, internal dynamics, and human management.  This is a short history of big changes to California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in the past and present, and its anticipated future.  This history is important for understanding how many of the Delta’s problems have developed, changed, and continue to change.

Water Authority and GSA To Settle On Sagging Friant-Kern Canal Resolution

The Friant Water Authority cleaned up some of the most important work in the last month of the year hashing out a legal settlement with farmers in southern Tulare County.

Represented by the Eastern Tule Groundwater Sustainability Agency farmers agreed to contribute at least $125 million to repair the significant subsidence-caused sag in the gravity-fed canal that has cut water deliveries by 60%.

Many Scientists Now Say Global Warming Could Stop Relatively Quickly After Emissions Go to Zero

Parts of the world economy may have been on pause during 2020, dampening greenhouse gas emissions for a while. But that didn’t slow the overall buildup of atmospheric carbon dioxide, which reached its highest level in millions of years.

If anything, research during the year showed global warming is accelerating. Symptoms of the fever include off-the-charts heat waves on land and in the oceans, and a hyperactive and destructive Atlantic hurricane season.