College of Natural Resources, UC Berkeley

Pollution

June 5, 2009

The Climate Gap (with Podcast)

Morello-Frosch.jpg

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 27, 2009

Uncovering the complex relationship between the forest and the atmosphere

This month, Nature profiles atmospheric chemist Allen Goldstein, (link - Nature subscription required | PDF - open access) who specializes in interpreting the scents of the forest. Goldstein has built his career on finding and characterizing some of the more elusive airborne chemicals in nature. For 10 years at the Blodgett Forest Research Station his team has described more than a dozen plant-released compounds that no one had previously measured or, in some cases, even known existed in the atmosphere.

The article expands upon themes we covered in the Fall 2007 issue of Breakthroughs magazine.

Goldstein also made a bit of a stir recently when his team found that the southeastern U.S. seems to be getting cooler while the rest of the globe is warming. The researchers used satellite and ground sensor data to track air pollution, and found that cooling induced by atmospheric haze has outpaced the warming due to rising carbon dioxide levels in that region.

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/

January 2, 2009

Household Exposure To Toxic Chemicals Lurks Unrecognized

Although Americans are becoming increasingly aware of toxic chemical exposure from everyday household products like bisphenol A in some baby bottles and lead in some toys, women do not readily connect typical household products with personal chemical exposure and related adverse health effects, according to research from the December issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior. Rachel Morello-Frosch, an epidemiologist and environmental health scientist within ESPM and the School of Public Health, is a co-author of the study.

“People more readily equate pollution with large-scale contamination and environmental disasters, yet the products and activities that form the backdrop to our everyday lives — electronics, cleaners, beauty products, food packaging — are a significant source of daily personal chemical exposure that accumulates over time,” said Brown University sociologist Rebecca Gasior Altman, lead author of the study.

Altman, Morello-Frosch, and the team examined how women interpreted and reacted to information about chemical contamination in their homes and bodies. After reviewing their personal chemical exposure data, most women were surprised and puzzled at the number of contaminants detected. They initially had difficulty relating the chemical results for their homes, located in rural and suburban communities, with their images of environmental problems, which they associated with toxic contamination originating outside the home from military or industrial activities, accidents or dumping.

Continue reading "Household Exposure To Toxic Chemicals Lurks Unrecognized" »

July 10, 2008

Genes could solve pollution mysteries

Researchers have for the first time identified environmental pollutants by looking at the genes of a small, freshwater crustacean. This new gene-based technique could lead to better and faster lab tests for pinpointing pollutants in contaminated ecosystems.

In a study published online on July 10 in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, scientists measured changes in gene expression in the genome of Daphnia magna, the tiny transparent water flea commonly used for lab studies, to track down poisons in two polluted rivers in California. This is the first time gene expression has been used to identify an environmental pollutant - in this case, copper from nearby mines.

Continue reading "Genes could solve pollution mysteries" »

March 10, 2008

New analysis shows alarming increase in expected growth of China's carbon dioxide emissions

The growth in China's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is far outpacing previous estimates, making the goal of stabilizing atmospheric greenhouse gases even more difficult, according to a new analysis by economists at the University of California, Berkeley, and UC San Diego.

Listen to the NPR story on "All Things Considered"

Previous estimates, including those used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, say the region that includes China will see a 2.5 to 5 percent annual increase in CO2 emissions, the largest contributor to atmospheric greenhouse gases, between 2004 and 2010. The new UC analysis puts that annual growth rate for China to at least 11 percent for the same time period.

Continue reading "New analysis shows alarming increase in expected growth of China's carbon dioxide emissions" »

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.

August 1, 2007

China's Chance to Lead

This op-ed, by Assistant Professor Max Auffhammer and UCSD economist Richard Carson, originally appeared in the Washington Post on August 2, 2007.

China is about to emerge as the world's leading emitter of greenhouse gases, a position the United States has held since 1890. Now is the time for China to take the lead in finding a way to reduce global emissions, which the United States has thus far failed to do. It should start by imposing a sizable tax on the carbon content of its fossil fuel consumption and by heading an effort among other major trading countries to do the same.

Continue reading "China's Chance to Lead" »

March 14, 2007

Mine Runoff Continues To Provide Clues To Microbial Diversification

Pink slime at the surface of water trickling through an old mine in California is proving to be a treasure for researchers in their quest to learn more about how bacterial communities exist in nature.

Microorganisms thriving in toxic conditions were recovered from a natural biofilm growing at the Richmond Mine in Iron Mountain, California."
A letter published in Nature shows that it is possible to follow what microorganisms are doing in their natural environment by identifying the range of proteins that they produce. The technique, utilized in a microbial community thriving in battery acid-like streams underground at Richmond Mine near Redding, Calif., combines recently developed ways to sequence microbial genes with methods to identify the range of proteins from specific microbial members.

Continue reading "Mine Runoff Continues To Provide Clues To Microbial Diversification" »

February 22, 2007

Auffhammer's "Brown Cloud" study named "Paper of the Year" by PNAS

The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) has awarded the Cozzarelli Prize to ARE assistant professor Max Auffhammer and his co-authors for their 2006 paper showing that reductions of human-generated india.jpgair pollution could create unexpected agricultural benefits in one of the world's poorest regions.

Auffhammer, along with co-authors from UC San Diego, analyzed historical data on Indian rice harvests and found that harvests would have been 20 to 25 percent higher during some years in the 1990s if certain negative climate impacts had not occurred.

Just six papers, out of the 3,300 research articles published in PNAS in 2006, were chosen for the Cozzarelli prize.

The award, originally named the "Paper of the Year Prize," recognizes recently published PNAS articles of scientific excellence and originality. The lab motto of Nick Cozzarelli, the late Editor-in-Chief, was "Blast ahead," as he encouraged researchers to push the envelope of discovery. In his honor, this year the award was renamed the Cozzarelli Prize.

Integrated model shows that atmospheric brown clouds and greenhouse gases have reduced rice harvests in India by Maximilian Auffhammer, V. Ramanathan, and Jeffrey R. Vincent.

January 19, 2007

Relying on Berkeley research, California establishes groundbreaking carbon standard for fuels

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has issued an executive order calling for California to establish the world's first carbon standard for transportation fuels. (Read about it in the Governor's op-ed here.)

Relying on research by David Roland-Holst, adjunct professor in ARE, the governor writes:

The University of California estimates our greenhouse gas emissions goals will increase our gross state product by $60 billion and create more than 20,000 new jobs. The time is now for America to transition to a clean-energy economy.... I am very pleased to be able to announce that California is leading the way.

More information on Roland-Holst's study is at http://calclimate.berkeley.edu/.

January 2, 2007

Shotgun sequencing finds nanoorganisms

The smallest form of life known to science could fit into the period at the end of this sentence.

For 11 years, Jill Banfield has collected and studied the microbes that slime the floors of mines and convert iron to acid, a common source of stream pollution around the world.

Imagine her surprise, then, when research scientist Brett Baker discovered three new microbes living amidst the bacteria she thought she knew well. All three were so small - the size of large viruses - as to be virtually invisible under a microscope, and belonged to a totally new phylum of Archaea, microorganisms that have been around for billions of years.

Continue reading "Shotgun sequencing finds nanoorganisms" »

December 20, 2006

New study shows promise of genomics in monitoring environmental toxicology

A new study led by researchers from the Department of Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology identifies specific gene expression changes in a species of water flea in response to contaminants, lending new support for the role of toxicogenomics in environmental monitoring.

The study, published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, focused on the water flea Daphnia magna, considered the lab rat of ecotoxicology because of its sensitivity to contaminants in its environment. The organism is commonly used by regulators to monitor freshwater toxicity, but the tests used typically look at levels of toxicity that will kill the water flea within 24 hours of exposure.

Continue reading "New study shows promise of genomics in monitoring environmental toxicology" »

December 5, 2006

Reducing pollution could increase rice harvests in India

Reductions of human-generated air pollution could create unexpected agricultural benefits in one of the world's poorest regions, according to new research by Maximilian Auffhammer, assistant professor of agricultural resources and economics, and his collaborators.

Continue reading "Reducing pollution could increase rice harvests in India" »

August 14, 2006

Sickened Iraq Vets Cite Depleted Uranium

An Associated Press news story that appeared today in over 100 sources nationwide quotes ESPM doctoral student Dan Fahey on the health effects of depleted uranium ammunition on U.S. veterans.

Continue reading "Sickened Iraq Vets Cite Depleted Uranium" »