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Poll: Californians are more worried about climate change because drought
Posted by Grist: None Given on July 30th, 2015
Grist: A new poll shows Californians are increasingly freaked out about climate change. The poll also shows that Californians think the state`s historic drought is related to climate change. Pollsters didn`t ask specifically if the drought is spurring climate change concerns, but the implication seems obvious.
As a Californian I can say the drought at least makes me feel, on a gut level, that something big is shifting. When I am not darting from shadow to shrinking shadow, or squeezing a few drops of...
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Climate change is a security threat. Make it a foreign policy priority
Posted by Grist: None Given on July 11th, 2015
Grist: In March of this year, researchers at U.C. Santa Barbara and Columbia published a paper linking climate change and extreme drought to the Syrian Civil War. It wasn’t the first time that scientists and economists had connected the dots between climate and violent conflict. It wasn’t even the first time that scientists had connected the dots between climate and conflict in Syria. “For Syria,” wrote the authors, “a country marked by poor governance and unsustainable agricultural and environmental policies,...
Drought forces cuts to some of California’s oldest water rights
Posted by Grist: None Given on June 13th, 2015
Grist: California water regulators Friday took a step that they haven`t taken since 1977: They cut water allocations to 114 senior water-rights holders in the state.
In fact, this action will probably have more impact than the 1977 cuts, because the state has a greater legal and practical power to demand restrictions.
The State Water Board issued a notice saying: "The State Water Board has been monitoring diversion records and flow conditions within the Sacramento-San Joaquin River watershed and Delta....
Think we can end California’s drought by eating differently? Think again
Posted by Grist: None Given on June 8th, 2015
Grist: There`s so much confusion about California`s drought, and a lot of my colleagues in the media, I`m sorry to say, have been amplifying that confusion. The proliferation of stories showing how much water various food products use implies that people should be eating water-thrifty foods - but that would do precisely nothing to fix the problem. The real solutions are within reach (I`ll get to those), but they will require the hard work of politics to achieve, rather than simplistic, consumer-focused...
3 things Rick Perry knows global warming: It’s a hoax, not a scientist and … we forget the third
Posted by Grist: None Given on June 4th, 2015
Grist: Rick Perry became the zillionth Republican seeking his party`s 2016 nomination when he announced his second presidential run in Dallas Thursday morning. The former Texas governor joined a crowded field of GOP contenders, and he has at least one thing in common with most of his competitors who aren`t named George Pataki: He rejects the science behind climate change.
During his 2012 presidential campaign, Perry regularly questioned climate science, saying that it hadn`t been settled. "There are...
California Senate candidate: “We’re all going die”
Posted by Grist: None Given on May 29th, 2015
Grist: Have you ever wished there was more talk of climate change in national politics? Have you ever sat through a dull, paint-by-numbers political debate and secretly wished for an over-the-top, maybe even kind of loopy person to show up and take the whole conversation off-script?
If so, then prepare to get excited about the very strange U.S. Senate campaign of California`s Mike Beitiks.
Barbara Boxer`s decision to step down from her Senate seat in 2016 has brought a host of potential contenders...
It’s official: California farmers volunteer to give up water
Posted by Grist: None Given on May 22nd, 2015
Grist: California`s drought has touched everyone in the state. First the government eliminated irrigation water deliveries through much of the public canal system. Then the governor told cities and industry to cut back water use by 25 percent. Now the state is taking a step it hasn`t resorted to since 1977: It`s claiming water from people with old riparian water rights. These are people who have been drawing water from rivers since the Gold Rush era, and who are generally immune to cuts. But in the most...
Oil spill returns to its ancestral waters near Santa Barbara
Posted by Grist: None Given on May 21st, 2015
Grist: Early on Tuesday, an 11-mile-long underground pipe owned by a company with the very patriotic name of Plains All American Pipeline spilled about 105,000 gallons of crude onto the coastline of northern Santa Barbara County, just a few miles north of the town of Santa Barbara.
When cleanup began, and the spill was thought to be closer to 21,000 gallons, Coast Guard described it to the LA Times, as “medium” in size. Maybe they`re just jaded. In general, the U.S. sees about 100 "significant" oil spills...
Mike Huckabee can’t make up his mind about ethanol
Posted by Grist: None Given on May 20th, 2015
Grist: On the campaign trail, GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee has been a vocal supporter of the ethanol industry. The former Arkansas governor has repeatedly spoken out in defense of the Renewable Fuel Standard -- the federal policy that requires energy companies to blend billions of gallons of biofuels into the nation`s gasoline and diesel supply. That makes political sense in Iowa, where corn is big business. Ethanol made from corn constitutes the vast majority of domestic biofuel consumption....
Obama: Climate change poses “immediate risk” to national security
Posted by Grist: None Given on May 20th, 2015
Grist: President Barack Obama had a strong message for graduates of the Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut on Wednesday, and all the rest of us too: Global warming is a major security threat.
During a commencement address at the academy, he linked changes in the climate to volatility and violence in the Middle East, and warned that global warming to undermine military readiness. He said military forces must adapt and prepare for the kinds of changes we`re already starting to see, but "such preparation...