Discussing the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act
Professor Michael Hanemann of ARE discusses S.1733, the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, on KPFA's "Letters to Washington."
(Scroll in to the 45-minute mark to hear the segment).
November 3, 2009
October 26, 2009
Can business be the solution and not the problem?
Sally Jewell, President and CEO of REI, delivers the Fall 2009 Horace M. Albright Lecture in Conservation.
Given October 1, 2009, at the University of California, Berkeley.
October 8, 2009
Are you choosing products that are safe and environmentally-friendly?
What is the lifecycle of your sunscreen? How about the environmental impact of buying a laptop? Professor Dara O'Rourke discusses how he came up with the idea for The Good Guide, a consumer reference that helps people make informed decisions about products based on safety and environmental concerns.
Algae Power
Professor Kris Niyogi discusses algae's natural capacity to produce energy and its potential use in carbon-neutral biofuels.
June 29, 2009
Non-hominid CSI? Identifying species using tracking tunnels, footprints and computers
ESPM postdoc James Russell and his colleague Reinhard Klette discuss the use of pattern recognition technology to identify the geographical distributions of species, by using tracking cards and tunnels. Their research, just published in the journal Ecology, represents a cheap and non-labour intensive way of assessing the spatial patterns of species in their environments.
June 5, 2009
The Climate Gap (with Podcast)
| Hear the podcast from NPR's Living On Earth. |
"Climate change does not affect everyone equally in the United States," says Rachel Morello-Frosch, Associate Professor of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, and of Public Health at UC Berkeley and lead author of a new report on climate change. The report, The Climate Gap looks at the unequal harm climate change will have in the United States on people of color and the poor. Droughts, heat waves, poor air quality, floods, higher prices for basic necessities, and other challenges of climate change will have a disproportional impact on people of color and the poor.
The report also explores ways in which efforts to solve climate change and to close the “climate gap” can be combined. The report suggests many changes that should be made in government polices, including that government agencies at all levels should increase public participation in regulatory decisions at all levels to help counter imbalances in political power. That greenhouse gas emission reductions should be focused on neighborhoods that have the dirtiest air and on pollutants that may jeopardize public health and that green jobs and worker transition could be targeted to people of color and the poor.
To read more about Rachel Morello-Frosch's research on the “climate gap,” you can find recent articles in The Scientific American, The Huffington Post, and Scientific American Earth, or read the article in full The Climate Gap.
May 26, 2009
California Report: Sudden Oak Death
Over the past decade, scientists have been battling an epidemic that has killed more than one million oak trees in the state. If it remains unchecked, the disease could change the face of California's landscape. The good news is that researchers have found a way to inoculate individual trees against it. But time is running out before Sudden Oak Death decimates California's forests.
May 5, 2009
UC Berkeley Forum: “Swine Flu 2009: Are we Facing a Pandemic?”
Monday evening panel of UC Berkeley professors led a forum discussing the H1N1 virus, more commonly referred to as swine flu. The panelists included professors Arthur Reingold, an expert on infectious disease transmission, surveillance and prevention; Russell Vance, an expert on pathogenesis and immunology; Wayne Getz, an expert on the ecology and epidemiology of wildlife and human diseases; and Amy Herr, an expert on the potential role in a pandemic of “lab-on-a-chip” diagnostic tools.
The forum, titled “Swine Flu 2009: Are We Facing a Pandemic?” was hosted by the Alliance for Global Health, a campus-wide initiative that aims to merge global health research from across various departments and disciplines. Discussion focuses on the impacts of the virus as well as the epidemiology and biology of the H1N1 virus, the response of the human immune system to infection, and the development of new diagnostic tools used to detect pathogens in the field.
April 30, 2009
Connecting Communities through Conservation
The 2009 Horace Albright Lecture in Conservation
Greg Moore, Executive Director of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, discusses a pioneering model of community engagement and volunteerism in the stewardship of our Bay Area national parks and its implications for global conservation.
April 21, 2009
ELP Alumna wins Goldman Environmental Prize
Working to reduce the impact of Bangladesh’s exploitative and environmentally-devastating ship breaking industry, leading environmental attorney Syeda Rizwana Hasan spearheaded a legal battle resulting in increased government regulation and heightened public awareness about the dangers of ship breaking.
Hasan is a 2003 alumna of CNR's renowned Beahrs Environmental Leadership Program, which provides mid-career professionals and policymakers from around the globe with an opportunity to interact with UC Berkeley faculty engaged in up-to-date research and policy analysis on sustainable environmental management.
Bangladesh is one of only a few countries in the world with a thriving ship breaking industry. Decommissioned ships from around the world are sent to Bangladesh and dismantled by hand on the beaches by unskilled workers who are often paid less than one dollar per day....
Continue reading "ELP Alumna wins Goldman Environmental Prize" »
April 15, 2009
From Toxic Goop to Worm Poop
It looks like Thomas Azwell -- a graduate student whose work crosses disciplanary boundaries from Society and Environment, where he is pursuing his Ph.D., to microbial biology, where he works closely with plant biologist Norman Terry -- might be on to something with his army of worms.
Azwell has developed a promising approach to safe disposal of oil spill waste (see 2:00 mark in video.)
From the California Acadamy of Sciences' Science in Action series:
http://www.calacademy.org/science/sia/2009/04/bio-inspiration-hair-mats/
April 2, 2009
Berkeley's Extraordinary Microscopes
March 2, 2009
Prof. John Harte: Understanding the Global Environmental Crisis
Professor John Harte discusses what environmental science teaches us about the potentially catastrophic consequences of a failure to address the current environmental crisis. His intellectual odyssey from physics to environmental studies offers important insight into how scientists have come to understand the relationship between humanity and nature and the necessary conditions for providing a balance that insures the well being of future generations. The conversation concludes with a discussion of how the present moment can be seized to meet the challenge of global warming.
January 28, 2009
Video: Honey Bee Pollination Crisis - Professor Claire Kremen at the Commonwealth Club
Monoculture farming leaves us highly dependent on honey bees, whose pollination affects 75 percent of fruits and vegetables and 30 percent of all food production. However, managed hives are being wiped out by colony collapse disorder at an alarming rate.
Professor Claire Kremen discusses how wild bees can boost the effectiveness of managed hives and play a critical role in pollinating the crops that keep California's economy humming.
Watch the video below or download the podcast.
January 13, 2009
Mice without key enzyme eat without becoming obese
Researchers CNR have identified a new enzyme that plays a far more important role than expected in controlling the breakdown of fat. In a new study in the journal Nature Medicine, researchers report that mice that have had this enzyme disabled remained lean despite eating a high-fat diet and losing a hormone that suppresses appetite.
"We have discovered a new enzyme within fat cells that is a key regulator of fat metabolism and body weight, making it a promising target in the search for a treatment for human obesity," said Hei Sook Sul, professor of nutritional sciences and toxicology and principal investigator of the research.
Sul's research team includes the three co-lead authors of the paper, all from UC Berkeley's Department of Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology: Kathy Jaworski, former post-doctoral researcher; Maryam Ahmadian, graduate student; and Robin Duncan, post-doctoral fellow.
Continue reading " Mice without key enzyme eat without becoming obese" »
October 17, 2008
On Biofuels: CNR Professors from the Energy Bioscience Institute
Above, Chris Somerville, professor of plant and microbial biology and director of the Energy Biosciences Institute, discusses the future of cellulosic biofuels.
In addition, ABC 7 News recently featured Somerville and David Zilberman, professor of agricultural and resource economics, in an excellent piece on Responsibly creating new plant biofuels (video).
Todd Dawson on the Blue Oak Ranch Reserve
Managed by UC Berkeley, the the Blue Oak Ranch Reserve is home to mature, gnarled blue oaks, valley oaks and two species of live oak, not to mention endangered California tiger salamanders, Foothill yellow-legged frogs, native trout and river otters. It is the newest of 36 California reserves overseen by the 10-campus UC system's Natural Reserve System for research and education.
The reserve's faculty director is Todd Dawson, professor of environmental science, policy and management, and of integrative biology.
July 25, 2008
Get Research Experience at CNR
Learning at CNR takes you out of the classroom and puts you in the lab and the field - where you don't just read about science - you create it.
May 27, 2008
Addressing Global Hunger & Poverty through Agricultural Development
Dr. Rajiv Shah, director of Agricultural Development at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, delivers an overview of the Foundation’s programs that addressing global poverty and hunger, and a panel of experts from the College of Natural Resources responds by discussing the challenges and opportunities to improving the lives of smallholder farmers and their families through philanthropy, technology, and policy. With questions from the audience.
April 22, 2008
The Tiger Effect
Want to play golf like Tiger Woods? The trick may be to play against him. A study conducted by Agriculture and Natural Resources Ph.D. candidate Jennifer Brown has shown that golfers may actually play better when pitted against a superstar like Woods. Brown analyzed over twenty thousand golf matches and factored in weather and course conditions to determine that golfers played an average of one stroke better when facing off against Woods.
February 15, 2008
After the Wave
After the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman tsunami, hundred of thousands of survivors struggled to put their lives back together. "After The Wave" looks into the lives of villagers in Phang Nga province in Thailand, almost three years after the tsunami. The documentary also focuses on the efforts of a grassroots non-profit organization led by CNR alumnus Bodhi Garrett, which has helped the local population move forward in practical ways to rebuild their local communities.
January 17, 2008
"Buy local" applies to forests, too
by Dean Keith Gilless
Frozen pipes never concern San Francisco residents, but Minnesotans insulate the pipes around their homes every winter. The West Nile virus scares many Californians but doesn't alarm Scandinavians at all. Where you are in the world goes a long way toward determining the things you worry about.
Some Californians shy away from using wood for fear of contributing to the deforestation so frequently associated with global warming. But relying on imported goods means burning fossil fuels to bring those goods to market, which increases greenhouse gas emissions. The arguments to promote "locally grown" are no more or less valid when considering one's consumption of lumber and other forest products.
January 15, 2008
The Power of Green Algae
Professor Tasios Melis is unlocking the chemical power of green algae to create clean hydrogen fuel that eliminates air-polluting fossil fuels in its production. Check out "Power of Green," a segment from Fueling America, the latest episode of USDA CSREES video magazine.
December 6, 2007
$5.2 million grant from Moore Foundation funds ambitious project to barcode an entire ecosystem
In the middle of the South Pacific, about 12 miles west of Tahiti, is a tropical island that soon will emerge as a model ecosystem, thanks to the efforts of a U.S.-French research team led by University of California, Berkeley, biologists.
Video: Cataloging an ecosystem |
Moorea, home of the UC Berkeley Richard B. Gump South Pacific Research Station and France's Centre de Recherches Insulaires et Observatoire de l'Environnement (CRIOBE), will be the site of an ambitious project to create a comprehensive inventory of all non-microbial life on the island. Supported by a new $5.2 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Moorea Biocode Project over the next three years will send researchers climbing up jagged peaks, trekking through lush forests and diving down to coral reefs to sample the French Polynesian island's animal and plant life.
October 17, 2007
CNR Student Receives Environmental Leadership Award
By Yasmin Anwar, UC Berkeley Media Relations
A UC Berkeley student is among six young North American environmental leaders to win a 2007 Brower Youth Award for her work in boosting funding for environmental sustainability on the UC Berkeley campus.
Rachel Barge, 21, a junior majoring in conservation and resource studies and minoring in forestry, has been honored for spearheading such campus projects as The Green Initiative Fund (TGIF), which finances clean energy and transportation, water conservation and improved recycling and composting programs.
Continue reading "CNR Student Receives Environmental Leadership Award" »
September 25, 2007
Global environmental ambassadors discuss the impact of Berkeley's unique leadership program
The Beahrs Environmental Leadership Program (http://nature.berkeley.edu/beahrselp/) offers a unique learning opportunity for environmental professionals from around the world to gain expertise, enhance skills and broaden perspectives on environmental and natural resource management and leadership.
Three recent participants in CNR's Beahrs Environmental Leadership Program recently sat down to discuss the environmental challenges they face in their home countries, and the impact they hope their Berkeley summer session will have on their work.
Video:
Established in August 2000 with seed funding from UC Berkeley alumni Carolyn and Richard Beahrs, the ELP offers an annual 3-week summer certificate course in Sustainable Environmental Management at UC Berkeley, and coordinates an active and growing Alumni Network. The ELP also supports post-training collaborative projects with alumni through its Small Grants Initiative.
Three recent participants in CNR's Beahrs Environmental Leadership Program recently sat down to discuss the environmental challenges they face in their home countries, and the impact they hope their Berkeley summer session will have on their work.
Video:
Alifah Sri Lastari, Indonesia |
Tahir Rasheed, Pakistan |
Emmanuel Wirsiy, Cameroon |
Established in August 2000 with seed funding from UC Berkeley alumni Carolyn and Richard Beahrs, the ELP offers an annual 3-week summer certificate course in Sustainable Environmental Management at UC Berkeley, and coordinates an active and growing Alumni Network. The ELP also supports post-training collaborative projects with alumni through its Small Grants Initiative.
September 19, 2007
Video: ELP participants discuss environmental problems and solutions (Part III)
Emmanuel Wirsiy of Camerooon was a participant in the 2007 Beahrs Environmental Leadership Program. In this video, he discusses his work with as an energy consultant working on solutions to hydropower, as well as how the UC Berkeley Program made him a better leader. Click here for videos featuring other ELP participants.
The Beahrs Environmental Leadership Program offers a unique learning opportunity for mid-career environmental professionals and decision-makers to gain expertise, enhance skills and broaden perspectives on environmental and natural resource management and leadership. Established in August 2000 with seed funding from UC Berkeley alumni Carolyn and Richard Beahrs, the ELP offers an annual 3-week summer certificate course in Sustainable Environmental Management at UC Berkeley, and coordinates an active and growing Alumni Network. The ELP also supports post-training collaborative projects with alumni through its Small Grants Initiative.
September 11, 2007
Video: ELP participants discuss environmental problems and solutions (Part II)
Tahir Rasheed was a participant in the 2007 Beahrs Environmental Leadership Program. In this video, he discusses his work with the Sustainable Use Specialist Group-Central Asia, in his native country of Pakistan, as well as what he has learned at the UC Berkeley Program. Click here for videos featuring other ELP participants.
The Beahrs Environmental Leadership Program offers a unique learning opportunity for mid-career environmental professionals and decision-makers to gain expertise, enhance skills and broaden perspectives on environmental and natural resource management and leadership. Established in August 2000 with seed funding from UC Berkeley alumni Carolyn and Richard Beahrs, the ELP offers an annual 3-week summer certificate course in Sustainable Environmental Management at UC Berkeley, and coordinates an active and growing Alumni Network. The ELP also supports post-training collaborative projects with alumni through its Small Grants Initiative.
August 31, 2007
Video: ELP participants discuss environmental problems and solutions (Part I)
Alifah Sri Lastari, a participant in the 2007 Beahrs Environmental Program, discusses her work on projects to provide clean water to Indonesian villages and to reduce that country's illegal logging activity, as well as how the UC Berkeley summer program has influenced her skills and ideas. Click here for videos featuring other ELP participants.
The Beahrs Environmental Leadership Program offers a unique learning opportunity for mid-career environmental professionals and decision-makers to gain expertise, enhance skills and broaden perspectives on environmental and natural resource management and leadership. Established in August 2000 with seed funding from UC Berkeley alumni Carolyn and Richard Beahrs, the ELP offers an annual 3-week summer certificate course in Sustainable Environmental Management at UC Berkeley, and coordinates an active and growing Alumni Network. The ELP also supports post-training collaborative projects with alumni through its Small Grants Initiative.
July 16, 2007
VIDEO: Claire Kremen and Gordon Frankie on Better Bees
California farmers depend on bees to pollinate the state's multi-million dollar fruit and nut crops, but last season thousands of bee colonies disappeared around the country.
The KQED science program Quest recently featured CNR ecologist Claire Kremen, and her research on bee pollination. In addition, an online-only special features the urban bees of entomologist Gordon Frankie.
Better Bees: Super Bee and Wild Bee
April 26, 2007
Video: Sudden Oak Death expert on KQED Quest
Devastating over 1 million oak trees across Northern California in the past 10 years, Sudden Oak Death is a killer with no cure. But biologists including CNR's Matteo Garbelotto are looking to the trees' genetics for a solution.
February 7, 2007
Biologists shed light on health of marbled murrelet population in early 1900s
 |
To better understand why an endangered seabird's numbers plummeted over the past century, researchers at CNR turned to museums for help.
By studying marbled murrelet specimens collected around the early 1900s, biologists now have reconstructed the seabird's rates of reproduction and survival before its dramatic decline, providing for the first time a baseline measure of health by which contemporary populations can be compared.
Continue reading "Biologists shed light on health of marbled murrelet population in early 1900s" »
January 26, 2007
Call for entries: Create an inspiring climate-change video
Enter the Treehugger.com "Convenient Truths" contest to create an inspiring video about ending climate change!
The contest offers great prizes valued close to $30,000, and the inside scoop is that there have been very few entries so far, so the odds are in your favor!
The contest is endorsed by former Vice President Al Gore, who called it "a great way to spread the word and bring the issue into our daily lives."
Entries should be 1- to 2-minute original videos on everyday solutions to climate change. Winners will be selected based on how inspiring, pragmatic and compelling they are.
Don't wait -- the deadline to enter is February 28th!
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January 24, 2007
Six Nobel Laureates on climate crisis: "There is no time"
A campus colloquium on "Energy Self-Sufficiency in the 21st Century" recently took the global climate crisis as the starting point for a freewheeling discussion among some of the world's top thinkers. Issues covered included the urgent need to make conservation a national way of life, getting the U.S. public to accept nuclear reactors, and persuading the U.S. government to serve as a world leader in developing clean, renewable energy sources.
Watch the event
(2-hour webcast)
December 14, 2006
Video: Pest Affecting Honeybees, Food Supply
November 30, 2006
Tours begin of eco-friendly "green apartment"
Four Cal students living in a new "Green Apartment" demonstrate sustainable living. The apartment is the latest addition to an expanding effort by the Green Room Committee to educate the campus community about recycling, water and energy conservation and about purchasing decisions.
The apartment in the Channing-Bowditch student housing complex is the latest addition to an expanding UC Berkeley effort by the Green Room Committee to educate the campus community about recycling, water and energy conservation and about purchasing decisions.
"We wanted to give the room a holistic concept, connecting the dots between the things students learn in the classroom and the choices they make in their everyday lives, said Desirae Early, a junior majoring in environmental economics and policy, a Green Campus Program coordinator and a Green Room Committee member.
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"We wanted to give the room a holistic concept, connecting the dots between the things students learn in the classroom and the choices they make in their everyday lives, said Desirae Early, a junior majoring in environmental economics and policy, a Green Campus Program coordinator and a Green Room Committee member.
Continue reading "Tours begin of eco-friendly "green apartment"" »
October 9, 2006
Biochemical Moving Pictures: Homecoming Podcast
On Homecoming weekend, Professor Marc Hellerstein presented major themes of his current research in nutritional sciences, including working with complex systems, promising research in ALS (Lou Gherig's Disease), and harnessing the health benefits of caloric restriction and exercise.
Continue reading "Biochemical Moving Pictures: Homecoming Podcast" »
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- ESPM Colloquium, thru Dec 7
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Most Recent Items
- Discussing the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act
- Can business be the solution and not the problem?
- Are you choosing products that are safe and environmentally-friendly?
- Algae Power
- Non-hominid CSI? Identifying species using tracking tunnels, footprints and computers