ERG professor Dan Kammen is quoted in this KQED article on the EPA's recent questions to the Valero Energy Corporation regarding power issues at its Benicia oil refinery, including requests for detailed information about outages that have led to flaring events at the refinery and inspection records for the facility's process units. Kammen noted the EPA’s demand for information from one of the nation’s largest oil companies in connection with a local emergency should be the kind of on-the-ground work the agency does, no matter who’s in the White House.
Nature | August 23, 2017
ERG professor Dan Kammen is featured in this Nature news article on his recent resignation from the US Science Envoy post. In his resignation letter, Kammen criticized the Trump administration’s “destructive” policies on energy and the environment, which he said have affected his work as a science envoy. Andrew Rosenberg, who heads the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists in Cambridge, Massachusetts, says that Kammen’s letter illustrates the moral and ethical quandaries that Trump's policies have created for scientists who serve the US government.
Nature | August 22, 2017
ERG professor Dan Kammen is highlighted in this Nature article on a new initative for a California climate-research institute, backed by CA's flagship universities. The institute would fund basic- and applied-research projects designed to help the state to grapple with the realities of global warming. “The goal is to develop the research we need, and then put climate solutions into practice,” says Kammen, noting that Governor Brown and other state leaders recognize that their work will have global impact.
KQED | August 22, 2017
ESPM grad student Ignacio Escalante is featured in this KQED Science Deep Look on daddy longlegs arachnids. Escalante, who will be presenting his research at East Bay Nerd Nite in September, studies autonomy (the voluntary release of a body part) in daddy longlegs and how it affects their long term survival.
Carbon Brief | August 18, 2017
ERG grad student Zeke Hausfather authored this Carbon Brief article on the sun's effect on climate change. Since 1970 global temperatures have shot up by almost 0.7 C, while the amount of solar energy reaching the Earth has actually declined. Similarly, the upper atmosphere is cooling while the lower atmosphere warms, a clear fingerprint of warming from greenhouse gases rather than the sun., evidence suggesting we can rule out a major solar influence on recent warming
Fresno Bee | August 18, 2017
ERG professor Dan Kammen is featured in this Fresno Bee article on the eclipse's impact on California's solar grid. The eclipse highlights the need for energy storage technology to balance the fluctuations in supply that come with renewable energy, noted Kammen. “It’s building us toward a point where we can run the economy off renewable energy and store the excess in a diverse range of batteries."
Greentech Media | August 15, 2017
ERG professor Dan Kammen is featured in this Greentech Media article on nuclear power projects, especially in regards to South Carolina's recently abandoned plans for the VC Summer Nuclear Station. Kammen notes that there must be fundamental shifts in innovative technology or affordability for the nuclear power market to recover, pointing to technologies like molten-salt and pebble-bed reactors as possibly opportunities for the industry.
New York Times | August 15, 2017
ERG grad student Zeke Hausfather is highlighted in this NY Times article on the Trump administration's positions on climate science, which conflict with established mainstream science, data and peer-reviewed studies and reports. A review of 38 past computer models of climate predictions by Hausfather found that on average they had accurately predicted the levels of warming later observed.
Sonoma Index-Tribune | August 15, 2017
ERG Professor of the Graduate School John Harte is featured in this Sonoma Index-Tribune article on his climate change research in the Rocky Mountains, which has been running for 27 years. What the experiment has shown is that the warmer plots of meadow are losing their wildflowers and turning into sagebrush, after years of being only four degrees warmer than their neighboring control plots. The soil is getting drier, and even losing carbon that is absorbed into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, the “greenhouse gas.” Even the unheated parts of his study area are showing signs of a warming climate – drier soil, carbon release, and the slow decline in wildflower habitat.