Category: Fight or Flight
Feathered Flames
Among the more well-known causes of wildfire — lightning, volcanic activity, neglected cigarettes, gender reveal parties gone awry — there remains a less notorious culprit: electrocuted birds.
Valley Cities Beat Back the Heat
In the capital region and Silicon Valley, two cities have been experimenting with cooler roofs, walls and leafy canopies. Turns out cooling measures in one spot help those downwind.
Mapping Those Most At Risk
With NOAA’s recent update to their Billion Dollar Disaster Map, urban planners and citizens can see for themselves how disaster risk and vulnerability vary at the much finer “census tract” scale.
All Stories
Roaming Sacramento During the Hottest Week Ever
My sister and I joke that any temperature above 75 is too hot to leave the house. But I decided to venture outside during the heat wave after Labor Day to see how the people of Sacramento were faring.
Feathered Flames
Among the more well-known causes of wildfire — lightning, volcanic activity, neglected cigarettes, gender reveal parties gone awry — there remains a less notorious culprit: electrocuted birds.
Valley Cities Beat Back the Heat
In the capital region and Silicon Valley, two cities have been experimenting with cooler roofs, walls and leafy canopies. Turns out cooling measures in one spot help those downwind.
Mapping Those Most At Risk
With NOAA’s recent update to their Billion Dollar Disaster Map, urban planners and citizens can see for themselves how disaster risk and vulnerability vary at the much finer “census tract” scale.
Muggy Days, Sleepless Nights
Climate modeling has shown that the extreme heat events in the state’s future will be accompanied by more humidity, making it hard for coastal residents, unaccustomed to heat, to chill.
Putting out Fires is Just the Beginning
The lingering effects of wildfires on ecosystems and communities are varied, but one of least understood is the effect on water quality. Conversations around post-wildfire water quality management are producing new insights for monitoring programs across the state.
30 East Bay Partners Gel on Adaptation Path
On an overcast June afternoon at Bay Farm Island’s Veterans Court, Danielle Mieler explains that if it weren’t for low tide, water might be at her feet.
Chasing the Fireline
In California, climate change has has left a collection of wildfire hazard zone maps, published 15 years ago, out of date.
Overhauling Insurance for the New Normal
In the era of global warming, an invisible force, as primal as atmospheric chemistry, is coming to bear on human pocketbooks. Even if you don’t believe in climate change, insurance companies do.
Tears for Trees
I’ve watched an army of white trucks topped with cranes and chippers remove the oaks, redwoods, bays and manzanitas from around the power lines on our mountain in Napa. PG&E is felling a million trees per year and spending over a billion to do it.
Coast Leaders Talk Graceful Withdrawal
In two brief audio interviews, KneeDeep Times asks the Coastal Conservancy’s Amy Hutzel and the Coastal Commission’s Mary Matella for their perspective on planned withdrawal from sea level rise and the crumbling coast.
Pricing Climate Risk
To get the basics of pricing the risks of climate change, you could do worse than to talk to Dag Lohmann. He knows just how much creeping climate change is changing insurance arithmetic.